If you aren’t using episodic content for your website or blog, you may be missing out. Episodic marketing is a superior tool for generating traffic and increasing brand awareness.
Defining Episodic Content and Why It Works
If you’ve ever been on a Netflix binge, watching episode after episode of Grey’s Anatomy or The Walking Dead because you simply cannot take your eyes off of the screen until you know all of the answers, you already know how addicting episodic content can be. Those cliffhangers at the end keep people waiting with bated breath for the next episode.
That’s the way episodic content used online for websites and blogs. Simply put, episodic content is content published by marketers and site owners as a series of multiple posts that build on each other.
Broken into small chapters or episodes, this content takes the form of a story that slowly unravels for the readers and follows a specific plot. These sections usually start with an introduction and end by leaving the reader wanting to know more.
Types of Episodic Content
Episodic content is not always delivered in written form, as content marketers get the best results with a variety of episodic articles and blog posts. Whether you use text, images or video and audio, anything you publish in multiple stages can be considered episodic content.
Coca-Cola’s “Crossroads” campaign is a great example of episodic content. It tailored its message to a specific target audience, developed characters that the audience engaged with and left them wanting more. Nominated for a Webby award, “The Beauty Inside” series sponsored by Intel and Toshiba delivered six episodes across multiple channels, which contributed to its success.
Why You Should Use Episodic Content
It’s important for your brand to connect with your target audience again and again, as it takes six to seven touch points on average with your readers before they become your buyers and advocates.
Episodic content is designed to bring your audience back to your brand and every time they return, you are becoming more credible.
Content marketing experts episodic content to continue to trend. If they are correct in their assessments, it’s time to hone your storytelling skills or search for a writer who can fit the bill. Below are some of the most appealing advantages of episodic content.
- Return Audience – If your episodic content is interesting to to your readers, they will return for more. Do a great job of storytelling and they’ll follow your entire series.
- Build Subscriber List – A growing subscriber list automatically occurs with good episodic content. Readers who want to know more and do not want to miss the next episode will subscribe.
- Credibility – Episodic content enhances the credibility of your brand as people become more and more familiar with you and what you are about. This builds trust and value with your target audience.
- Powerful SEO – Episodic content will remain relevant to your brand and to your target audience for a very long time. The linking process of episodic content and return user patterns gets the attention of Google and other search engines, helping your site’s ranking.
Follow the Leaders
You can clearly see by watching the big brands that episodic content is an important part of successful content marketing campaigns.
Be sure to reach out to one of our professional content writers if you’d like episodic website content created.