Warning! This is a listicle about listicles. Wait, what?
At its most basic, a listicle is simply an article, broken up into a list. But it’s so much more than that.
I LOVE listicles! I love writing them. I love reading them. I love writing them for my clients.
Here are 10-Tips for Writing a Listicle, including why listicles are an excellent blog format for your business:
1. Listicles are easy to consume:
Everyone is busy; we get it. Unless your prospect is taking time to do some serious research, you’re probably going to catch them while they’re perusing your site on their mobile device.
2. Listicles are scannable:
For the skimmers out there (probably all of us), listicles, like bulleted items, are easy to scan to get the gist of the thing. And sometimes, we want to go deeper to read more or click on something inside the copy. But the beautiful thing is we don’t have to. We can take 5 minutes and know just what the point is.
3. Add More Detail for a Robust Listicle:
Make your list scannable, but also add value by including practical information, resources, or links. Your audience may consume this now or never, but Google loves when you provide value. Plus, useful SEO-optimized content that matches what people are searching for will help your chances of ranking higher if that’s your goal.
4. Use your Expertise When Writing a Listicle:
Always, no matter what you’re writing or what format it takes, use your blog to demonstrate your knowledge and authority on a subject. A listicle might take zero research if it’s a topic you know, like the back of your hand. Test this theory: Do a brain dump on a topic you feel comfy with and see how much you can write. That might be the start of your listicle right there.
5. Collaborate for Exposure and Backlinks:
Your listicle could be a curated collection of things that provide value for your audience. If you mention another business, reach out to them and ask if they would share or link to your blog. It’s good for them and good for you.
6. Share your Listicle on Social Media:
The beauty of a listicle is that each item in the list can be repurposed on social media. For example, a listicle with 10-20 items (optimal) can be turned into 10-20 mini blogs or posts on IG or FB. I recently wrote a blog on product descriptions and later created graphics to go with each item in my list and shared them on social media. I can use these again and again.
7. Listicles are Easy to Write:
Instead of feeling overwhelmed by a 500-1000 word blog post, you can think of a listicle as writing 10-20 captions or paragraphs. Does this feel less daunting? I think so!
8. Listicles are Great for Teaching a Process:
Listicles are a great way to teach your audience how to do something like make Kale chips (something I’m actually doing) or change the oil in your Can-Am Spyder (something I’m not doing). But you get the idea. Think of something you do that feels routine to you, and then imagine you’re teaching a classroom full of students how to do it. Just write it like that. There’s your listicle.
9. Listicles are Ideal for showing behind the scenes:
Maybe you want to share a behind-the-scenes look inside your workshop or studio, not necessarily for teaching, but because people love to see how stuff is made. I wrote a recent blog post for Kristen Mara Jewelry on this exact thing. She was launching a new jewelry collection, and the listicle showed her process. We then used this content to build excitement and anticipation for her latest collection while also repurposing the listicle content for social media. Boom!
10. Listicles are Mobile friendly:
Listicles are perfectly bite-sized nuggets for consumption on our mobile devices. Did you know that 3-lines of copy in a word doc adds up to 6-lines of copy on your phone? That feels and looks like a lot of copy, and for busy people (all of us), they might just scroll on by. Most people consume content on their phones, so take the extra step to see how your blog post looks on mobile.
Are you feeling inspired to try your hand at writing a listicle blog? I’m willing to bet it goes easier than a regular blog post, and you might even surprise yourself with how much content you can create that’s already in your head!
Give it a try, and let me know how it goes!
Need help? I’m here for you. Contact me today to schedule a 30-minute brainstorming session!
