The Scientific Guide to Ideal Content Length
If you’re a seasoned content marketer you’ve probably played around with content length more than a few times in your career. One day you create a Tweet that hits the max of 140 characters, the next day your tweet barely reaches 60 characters. A blog post you write on Monday may extend beyond 2,500 words and your post on Thursday may be less than 500. So what is the optimal length for your marketing and social content?
It seems that no matter what industry your business caters to, each target audience enjoys consuming content of a different length—to make it even more complicated, every content marketing professional has their own idea of the ideal content length. With so many voices crying to be heard, how can you decide what the actual perfect length is for each piece of content your business produces?
If you’ve ever stressed out about content length in the past (almost all content marketers have), there is no need to fear any longer. We’ve scoured the internet in search of articles and blog posts that break down the ideal length for every piece of content your business has created or will create in the future. This list includes: blog posts, FB posts, Twitter posts, Google + posts, and so on. Sit back, grab a bag of chips and enjoy discovering the inside secret to content length.
The Ideal Tweet Length
A post from the Buffer App blog suggests that Tweets with less than 100 characters get 17% more engagement than Tweets that are more than 100 characters. Additional research collected by Buddy Media also shows that tweets between 70 and 100 characters are generally the most successful.
Various research firms collected data a few years ago that analyzed the top 100 brands on Twitter, and the results showed that tweets between 70 and 100 characters received more favorites, replies and were retweeted more than other tweets.
The Ideal Facebook Post Length
If you’re trying to find success on Facebook, you better stick to posts under 40 characters. Several high profile marketers and research firms have tested this number in the market and it works out nearly every time.
The famous marketing blogger, Jeff Bullas, conducted an in-depth study on popular retail brands and found that companies that published Facebook posts over 40 characters saw a tremendous decline in audience engagement.
If you feel like you can’t get your posts down below 40 characters, at least keep them below 80 characters if you want to keep your audience tuned in. Studies have shown that posts with 80 characters or less see a 66% higher engagement rate than those that don’t.
The Ideal Google+ Headline Length
The secret to attracting visitors to click on your Google+ post is to keep your headline to one succinct line. The magic number for a Google+ headline just happens to be 60 characters. If you go over 60 characters your visitors may lose interest.
If you feel like you are absolutely incapable of creating a headline that short, make sure your first sentence is impeccable, and then include a “read more” link to draw in more visitors. In an ideal world you’ll be able to make the headline 60 characters or less.
Preferred News Headline Length
The recommended length for a news headline (or press release), is 6 words. Can you believe that? 6 words is almost nothing, in fact there are very few news media outlets or social publishing sites that can get away with a 6-word headline. If you’re grouped into that bunch, what do you do?
Kissmetrics and other content experts say that if the headline won’t fit into a tweet (140 characters), it needs to be cut down significantly. There are very successful headlines on the web that are longer than 20 or 30 words, but in most cases 6 words is the sweet spot. Try creating a press release that has less than 6 words—you might find it challenging.
Ideal Length of a Blog Post
A lot of marketers have discussed the ideal length of a blog post in recent years. Some feel every blog you post needs to be well over 2,000 words, and others believe creating shorter posts (500 words or less), and catering to the ever shortening attention span of web users is the better way to go. Funny enough, the research we found favors a happy medium between the two extremes.
Many companies, including Medium, evaluate the success of a particular blog post by analyzing the average time spent on the page. Most of the posts featured on Medium take a short amount of time to read (3 minutes or less), but there are a number of posts that pass that mark. When they took a deep dive into their website analytics, they found that posts that consisted of approximately 1,600 words and read in 7 minutes were the most successful. Of course, you can substitute rich media (images, videos, info-graphics) for more text-heavy content, but if a reader can finish a post in around 7 minutes, you’re in the gravy.
The good news is blog posts that are longer than 1,500-2,000 words typically appease Google and other popular search engines as well. Serp IQ examined this very closely in a study they conducted on the top 10 search results for blog posts and the word count of each. They found that blog posts longer than 2,300 words aligns with top 5 rankings. So if you want to improve your visibility in organic search, try pumping out more long form content.
Ideal Email Subject Line Length
Most marketing professionals don’t believe the length of an email subject line is connected to how many opens or conversions you get from email marketing, but other data organized by Mailer Mailer suggests that the optimal email subject line consists of 28-39 characters. The second most appealing email headline consists of 16-27 characters. This obviously shows that those who read your emails are more likely to look at your message if the subject headline is on the short side.
If you decide to ignore Mailer Mailer’s suggested email subject line length you don’t need to fret too much. However, if you’re creating email subject lines that are over 50-55 characters you need to make an adjustment.
Ideal Presentation Length
Too many consultants, guest speakers and executive managers get carried away at speaking engagements and end up rambling on for far too long. The most powerful messages ever delivered are on the short side. Take this one for example, or this one. Each of these presentations is around or below 18 minutes, which researchers have found is the perfect time duration for a presentation.
If you want to keep an audience engaged for your entire presentation you absolutely need to keep it under 18 minutes. Even the best speakers in the world, including Bill Gates and Bono are known for keeping their presentations under 15 minutes. But how did experts decide that the 18-minute presentation is most effective?
Scientists have been studying human response for years and part of that research covers analysis of the human attention span. Researches have found that most people can only focus on a presentation for 10 to 18 minutes before they begin daydreaming or experiencing extreme fatigue. The loss of energy that occurs as the brain processes incoming information is enough to lure even the most focused individual to sleep. So if you want to get your message across loud and clear, be quick about it!
Conclusion
If you want to increase your conversion rate, keep your Tweets under 100 characters, Facebook posts under 40 characters, Google + headlines under 60 characters, news headline to 6 words, blog post at 1,600 words, email subject line between 28-39 characters, and presentation to 18 minutes. Wow, that is a lot of content! Now that you know the secret to ideal content length, go and create a ton of content that captures leads and increases your revenue!
