Listicles, also known as list posts, are becoming more and more popular in the Content Marketing space. These types of blog posts are relatively easy to write up and allow businesses to engage with multiple third-parties. Let’s learn more.
What are Listicles?
Listicles are essentially resources that present the reader with lists of influencers, vendors, events, or technologies that are most relevant to their use cases. These list posts allow businesses to focus on their relevant target audience and make them come back for more. The quality of the listicle is determined by the amount of research you put into it. More on this later.
Besides the obvious inbound marketing and SEO benefits, B2B businesses can now leverage listicles to make a deeper impact on social media. For example, let’s assume you have published a listicle about the “Top 20 Twitter Influencers to Follow in 2023”. All 20 experts can them be mentioned and contacted to possibly generate joint webinar or interview opportunities.
Here are some listicles you can easily create today.
- Influencer Vendors – This is probably the most common and effective way to make an impact with list posts. Just shortlist the biggest industry experts you would like to engage with.
- Vendor Listicles – These list posts should ideally include your competition, be relatively vendor-neutral, and contain crucial details like pros, cons, main features, and pricing.
- Event Listicles – With the B2B space recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, events and conferences are coming back with a bang. You should have a listicle on these.
- Technology Listicles – If you don’t want to mention your competition, you can also cover various technological aspects like top cyber threats, top regulatory laws, and more.
Listicles: Top 5 Best Practices
With more than 4 million blog posts being published on a daily basis, randomly publishing a few listicles won’t get you far today. You have to adopt a proven and tested approach with your list posts, while smoothly integrating them into your editorial calendar. Here are 5 key best practices you need to embrace if you want to grow your audience and create more leads.
1. Zero Fluff
The whole purpose of creating listicles is saving the reader valuable time. Try to create value and integrate important information in your list posts. Don’t go overboard with the shenanagans.
2. Timing is Everything
Listicles are most effective in Q1, when businesses teams are waking up from their winter slumber and things are starting to heat up fast. Publish all event listicles before March.
3. Leverage Social Media
Tag all event organizers, influencers, and product vendors that you have included in your listicles. Also, this isn’t a one-off action. Mention them separately once every few weeks.
4. Don’t Overdo Listicles
Some businesses publish these on a weekly basis, while neglecting other crucial topics like thought leadership, SEO, and founder interviews. No more than once a month in Q1 and Q2 only!
5. Consistency is Key
Overdoing list posts is a bad idea, but so is not doing them on an annual basis. For example, if you are doing a “Top 10 Events” post in January, do it every year around the same time.
Related: Top B2B Marketing Influencers to Follow on Twitter
All in all, listicles are a great way to make your blog more resourceful, show up in more searches, grow your audience, elevate brand credibility, and make an impact on social media. Not sure how to get started? Contact us now.