Quality vs. Quantity: What Matters in Digital Content Marketing?
It’s the debate that has plagued the marketing industry for years. Not because it’s difficult to pick a side, but because technology is constantly changing, and opinions change with it. And so the debate continues.
I’ll give you my opinion up front, in case that's the only reason why you clicked on this blog.
At the end of the day, quality is more important than quantity. But you can’t have a successful digital marketing campaign without utilizing the positive aspects of both.
I know, my answer isn’t super satisfying. And if that’s the kind of response you were looking for, unfortunately you’re going to be hard pressed to find it. The marketing industry is pretty unanimous on this decision, and for good reason.
Why isn’t this content creation debate a quick “this or that” fix? Let me break it down for you.
Why does quality content creation matter?
First, let’s get something straight. Quality does not always equal length. It's true the length of content directly corresponds to engagement. We’ll get deeper into that in a minute. But you can create quality content without writing a 10,000-word blog post.
From the beginning of content creation, there’s been a myth that people don’t read long content on the internet.
Let me quickly switch over to my Mythbusters voice and say "this myth is busted!"
It’s simply not true. What is true? People have short attention spans. According to Microsoft, the average person’s attention online lasts a mere 8 seconds [1]. In 2000, it was a whopping 12 seconds.
I know what you’re thinking. If people are only going to read my blog post, social media post, or newsletter for 8 seconds, why am I spending so much time creating content?
Here’s our saving grace, content creators. People do engage with content longer than that 8-second attention span. In fact, they do it often. Despite our short attention spans, we are willing to read long content if it's tailored to us. If it addresses our needs and fears and solves our problems. If it is not only engaging, but personalized.
This is why it’s so important to know your audience. If you are creating content for a general audience, no one is going to stick around to read your long-form content. But if you’re addressing a specific type of person with a specific problem by giving them personalized advice and a specific solution? You’re not only going to keep their attention. You’re going to leave them craving more!
To create quality content that appeals to all members of your target group, you need to write and format each of your long-form pieces of content for three readers: the skimmer, the digger, and Google.
The skimmer is the most common reader. They’re the person who clicks on and article based on the title. They scroll through your content and pick out the headings, bullets, and bold text. That’s why it’s important to prioritize the most important points and make them stand out from the rest of the text. Long-form content is better to use for skimmers because it provides them with more information [2]. This means you have a little bit more time to convince them that you know what you’re talking about.
The digger is going to go through your entire piece with a fine-toothed comb. They will read every sentence and analyze it, so you better make sure you don’t include any fluff. Each sentence should be clear and purposeful. Get right to the point, but go into enough detail that you provide quality information.
And last but not least, we have Google. Google is the most important reader to appeal to. Without Google, your other readers wouldn’t even be able to find you. Writing for Google is where your SEO comes in. I go into more detail about how SEO works in this blog post and in my free guide. Check those out if you’re curious to learn more!
Quality doesn’t only refer to accurate information (and plenty of it). It means personalized information in the form of genuine conversation [3]. Even online, you can engage with your audience in a genuine and personalized way.
This might mean answering DMs on your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. It could be as simple as asking for a response to your newsletters or posting a poll.
However you choose to create conversation-starters with your audience, make sure you do it often. It not only shows them you’re a real person, but it helps build trust.
Another benefit of high quality content creation is free advertising. This comes from social shares and Google search results.
If you’re writing about something relevant, people will search for it. If your content is robust and reliable, Google will push it to the top of the results page. And if your content is reliable, people will be more likely to share it with their friends.
Both of these methods of advertising cost nothing except the creation of quality content that serves your audience.
I’ve given you plenty of reasons why quality is important. But what about the potential downsides?
Why shouldn’t you only focus on quality content?
When you're first starting out, it's a little more important to focus on quantity. If you’re trying to grow your audience, it’s important to set a good foundation.
You need to create and push out content consistently and make sure that it’s enjoyable for your reader. It's beneficial to create content more often while you’re getting your website, social media profile, or blog off the ground. Once you're established, you can gradually decrease your frequency.
That doesn’t mean you should sacrifice the quality of your content. Especially in the beginning, you’re working to build trust and community. Your audience will only grow if you provide them with truthful, helpful information. So make sure that even though you’re posting more frequently, the quality of that content is high.
If time is a large factor, it is more beneficial to create quality content than lots of content. Ideally, we'd all have the time to crank out tons of content each week. But that's not how it works. If you only have the time to create one piece a week, that's okay. Just be sure to give it your all. It's better to have one stellar piece than 10 crappy ones.
Why does quantity matter in digital content marketing?
We’ve all heard the phrase “consistency is key.” It's definitely true for digital content marketing. If you’re going to have people to market your products or services to, you need to have a consistent message and presence online. You need to hang out where your clients hang out.
Here’s the tricky thing about quantity: there’s no hard and fast rule for how many times you should post on any platform at any time. In fact, each platform has an entirely different process and recommended posting frequency.
You’re not going to post to your blog or send an email the same amount of times you’re going to create an Instagram story or a Pinterest pin. This is because these platforms function differently, and because the format of the content is very different. Generally, people aren’t going to Pinterest to find robust content. They’re looking for inspiration or quick tips.
Does this mean you can’t (or you shouldn’t) create pins promoting your blog posts, podcasts, and youtube videos? Of course not. But you’re not going to put the entire blog post into the description of that pin.
Do some research to determine what platforms perform best in your field. Then create a custom content calendar that takes into account these trends and your schedule. Remember: quality is more important than quantity overall, so create a schedule that is obtainable for you. You can always work up to creating more content, but you need to start with a solid, quality foundation.
A lot of content creators look to post schedulers like Tailwind to automate the posting process. I have a love-hate relationship with these platforms. Let me explain.
With a post scheduler, you can easily ensure you're posting consistently. But it’s harder to connect with your audience if you’re scheduling posts too far in advance [4]. I do use Tailwind, which has saved me tons of time, but I only schedule my posts one week in advance. That way, if something changes or I find I want to address a different topic in a post, I can change it. It also allows me to check my posts for consistent branding. I can filter out those ideas that might have sounded great a week or two ago, but don't actually fit.
It’s also important to spend 5-10 min per day interacting with other people and posts on social media. If you’re only interacting with people on your posts, you won’t grow your community or build trust.
There is no magic number you can reach to get the highest ROI. Ultimately quality is more important, but that doesn’t mean you can write one 10,000-word blog post every six months and expect great levels of engagement. Quantity is still important, especially on social media.
How can focusing only on quantity hurt your digital content marketing?
Lots of content might bring you more page views and likes, but it creates fewer clients. If you have a lot of low-quality content, your audience is going to look elsewhere for information.
It's super important to hook your audience right away, on every piece of content. The average person views an offer 7 times before they decide to buy it [5]. If you don't create consistent content, your audience won't buy.
Creating too much content can actually be a turn-off for consumers - they may feel like you're pestering them [6]. And if the content isn’t high quality, they’re even more likely to leave your website, profile page, or channel for good.
Finding A Happy Medium
You can focus on both quality and quantity by creating a robust, diverse content calendar. Each piece of content you create will continue to work for you after it’s been published. The question is – how well? This depends on the quality of your posts, not the quantity.
Hubspot recently completed a 6-month study of their own blog. They found that “92% of leads and 75% of traffic in a given month [came] from posts published prior to that month” [7].
Your first thought when hearing this might be “it’s obvious that quantity is more important than quality.” More content = more results. And it’s true, if you have 100 blog posts, at least some of them are going to get leads. But the throwing-spaghetti-at-the-wall method isn’t the most efficient option here. And it will probably make you want to pull your hair out. Who wants to write 100 blog posts?
Think about it this way. If you write one robust, authoritative blog post a month for a year, you’ll have 12 posts. That’s 12 high-quality pieces of content that can generate new leads for the rest of the time that their information is relevant. This is why you want your blog topics to be specific enough that they grab the right audience’s attention but general enough that they last. Plus, you can re-promote those blog posts every few months after they’re first launched and reinvigorate those leads.
Wouldn’t you rather create content that is robust enough to create leads for months, even years to come? Writing 100 blog posts might get you some traction, but if they’re not great quality, that traction is going to sputter out over time.
If you don’t have time to create a brand new blog post, update an old one! You can determine which blog posts would most benefit from an update in a few ways.
Look at blogs that contain time-dependent information. Maybe you wrote a blog about fall trends that you can update each year. Or a post outlining your creative process that you can update to include your newest offer or service.
You can also revamp blogs that don’t perform well in their first month. Hubspot found that if a post performed well in its first month, it would perform well in later months. Most of their blog posts followed this trend, though the first month of engagement is much higher than months 2-6.
Updating an existing post ensures it's most relevant to your current audience. It also gives you the opportunity to re-share your post on other platforms, which can bring more traffic to your site.
The quantity of blog posts differs according to industry. For wedding professionals, I typically recommend posting 2-4 times a month, if you can. There are many reasons for this.
First, It helps boost your SEO by giving your website more robust content. The more posts you have, the easier it will be for people to find you.
Second, it gives your audience plenty of resources that show them you are the go-to person in your field. If you hype up one blog post but have nothing else on your website to back up your expertise, you’re going to look like an amateur.
Third – one robust blog post gives you countless opportunities for content creation on other platforms.
Think of it as an umbrella: your most in-depth piece of content is your pillar content. This is usually a long-form piece of content like a blog post, youtube video, or podcast. The rest of your content should feed off your pillar content, with all information leading back to that piece.
This is beneficial because it gives your audience multiple opportunities to interact with your pillar piece (which, remember, has your CTA!). It also makes content creation easier, because you have a topic that you can use to create the rest of your content.
Let’s see this concept in action, shall we? This blog post is all about quality vs. quantity. So let’s say that’s my theme for the week. I could create multiple posts and stories for Instagram and Facebook, as well as pins for Pinterest. I could create a YouTube video that accompanies my blog post, or vice versa. I can talk about my weekly topic in my newsletter.
With each pillar piece, you have the opportunity to make 10+ smaller pieces of content [8]. That's why having high-quality content is important.
A Note About Word Count
I want to pause for a second to talk about word count. I’m sure you’ve heard someone give their two cents about it at some point. Some people say there are very specific word counts you should meet to get the best results. This is partially true.
Backlinko found that the average word count on Google’s results page is 1890 words [9]. You want to make sure your web-based content is within that range. Neil Patel’s blog states that the majority of content creators are writing content that is 3,000-10,000 words [9].
This can seem intimidating, but don’t worry. As a wedding professional, you aren’t competing against every other content creator in the world. You're just competing against other wedding professionals. That automatically rules out hundreds of thousands of content creators.
Average word count also differs by industry. Neil Patel found that the marketing industry averages 2500-3000 words per piece of content [9]. It is unclear what category the wedding industry falls into, but I would suggest sticking within this average to get the best results. It’s a nice middle ground and ensures Google will recognize you.
The reality is, you just have to create better quality content than your competitors. It can be hard to judge this by comparing the content itself, but Google doesn’t lie. As a general rule of thumb, anyone who shows up on Google’s search results above you is performing better. Take a look at their content and see if there are any methods, including word count, that you can mimic (but do better, of course).
Regardless of how you're performing in relation to your competitors, you should never write a piece of content just to hit a desired word count. Word count is only important when paired with quality, not quantity. If your content isn’t high quality, it doesn’t matter what your word count is – it won’t do well.
Your Audience Matters Most for Content Creation
More important than the quality vs. quantity debate is listening to your audience. What do they like to read? How often do they expect new content? Pay close attention to the engagement your content receives. You can also ask your audience outright in a social media poll, an invitation to comment, or in your newsletters. People like the opportunity to give their two cents, especially when it benefits them. Listen to your readers and they will reward you by letting you know exactly what they want you to produce.
Over here, we’re all about high-quality. Is there something in the copywriting/digital content marketing realm that’d you’d like to learn more about? Send me a DM on Instagram! I’d love to hear from you.
Looking for done-for-you services? I can help you reach that coveted mix of quality and quantity in your content marketing strategy. Head to my homepage where you can learn about how I create quality, high-conversion copy for wedding professionals. See you there!