Listicles

You know listicles. These calculated, Buzzfeed-inspired clickbait—emperors of the article pantheon—are a company's way of spotlighting an issue and providing your audience a definitive solution. If your customers have a specific pain point that your product or service solves, you can create an entire list of tips and solutions in response.

They were circulated into existence by you, us, and everyone who just had to read The Top 5 Sexiest Things Jake Gyllenhaal Ever Did… Or maybe that was just us.

Anyways...

Beyond their virality, listicles play a significant role in a copywriter’s arsenal. Their usage goes well above writing about the 21 Greatest Cat Names. In fact, for businesses in technical, niche, or jargon-heavy markets, listicles are one of your best bets to harness your SEO strategy and reach the coveted first page of Google search results. 

The simplicity of a list format makes this form of writing perfect for blog posts on your website. This is just one of several ways to increase your audience, providing a platform that allows readers to easily share your story or post with those close to them. Basically, it's an all-around perfect content marketing strategy that can positively impact your customers' experience with your brand.

The top 3 reasons why you should be using listicles in your digital marketing strategy include:

• [#1] They inherently make content digestible – Part of a copywriter’s job is to make a company or an industry appealing. It doesn’t matter whether you’re discussing the benefits of a cat-based probiotic or niche FinTech to be utilized by VC firms. If the content isn’t digestible, your Readers are going to ‘x’ out of the page faster than you can say, “Do cats need probiotics?” A list is meant to be inherently simple to understand; thus, simple to digest.

• [#2] Google Answer Boxes heavily favor listicles – Because listicles are written to be a definitive answer to a question, it’s incredibly easy for Google’s algorithm to index the page for specific queries. Try it out. Start by Googling “How to…” and see how often a listicle appears in the Answer Boxes (or in the top three search results).

• [#3] Caters to different readerships – A well-done listicle can be read and understood by skimming through the page and reading the headers with numbers next to them. It creates a positive experience for the reader and provides them with useful ideas or information. They also contain pertinent information explaining each point for someone who wants to learn more. Different reader mentalities going in, but the same outcome.

You love ‘em; you hate ‘em; regardless, listicles are here to stay. They feed into the human tendency to constantly rank order the things in our lives. They are step-by-step instructions, they are a business’ recipe for success, and in the end, they are a copywriter’s bread and butter.

At Copycat, we're here to tell your story for you, regardless of shape and form. We have a group of content creators ready to become experts on your brand. So, come up with a topic, offer thoughtful tips, and we'll have a writer at Copycat do the rest!