Marketing Channels

Micro Content: What It Is and What Businesses Aren’t Doing

CopyPress

June 24, 2022 (Updated: March 8, 2023)

The internet is filled with content that’s constantly flashing past people’s eyes. If your post, article, or blog doesn’t stand out or catch a fleeting trend, it’ll be lost in the ever-growing ocean of search engine content. That’s why creating compelling micro content is important for your marketing strategy. In this article, we discuss:

• What Is Micro Content?
• Types of Micro Content
• How To Get Your Content in a Rich Snippet
• The Benefit of Micro Content
• Tips for Using Micro Content in Your Marketing Strategy

What Is Micro Content?

Image via Pexels by Christina Morillo

Micro content is content that people can read, watch, or consume in a short amount of time. That amount of time is most often just a few, fleeting seconds. That means micro content needs to immediately relay the message or information you want to convey to your audience. There are a lot of examples of micro content on the internet because it’s one of the most popular and used forms out there. But the most common is the type of content you’d find scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

This includes memes, images, posts, as well as short videos that someone might see. In fact, the new and popular social media app, TikTok, exclusively uses micro content videos to attract and engage with its audience. But that’s not the only way you can use micro content for your business or brand.

Types of Micro Content

Here are different types of micro content and how a business might use them in its marketing campaign:

Social Media Posts

As mentioned, social media is a huge place for micro content, specifically with written posts. Social sites, like Twitter and Facebook, allow users to create text posts that entertain or inform their followers. Businesses can use this form of micro content to quickly attract people to their social profile, gain new followers, or even direct people to their website.

Memes

Memes are humorous images, videos, or pieces of text that people share with one another. In fact, you can’t really scroll too far on the internet today without running into them. Because memes follow internet trends and fads, they’re constantly changing and evolving. That means, if businesses want to use them to engage with their audience, they need to understand what’s currently popular and hop on a meme trend quickly before it disappears.

Though memes are a great way to attract younger audiences to your brand, it’s also good to make sure they fit with your brand’s tone and style. For example, if your tone is generally more serious or informational, sharing memes on your social media account might not present that exact tone to your followers.

Videos and GIFs

Videos and GIFs are a great way to capture your audience’s attention, especially on a social media platform. As people scroll through the endless posts and content, moving images can grab their attention. This allows them to stop and see what your post is about, and hopefully, direct them even further with a well-placed call to action.

Images or Illustrations

Just like videos, images and illustrations are great forms of micro content. They not only make your content eye-catching, but they also help to relay information in a more entertaining or engaging way. By adding text or captions to an image or illustration, businesses can inform their audience about upcoming sales and tips for solving industry problems. These little snippets of information help to generate more followers and build trust with your audience.

Infographics

Infographics are a lot like images or illustrations, but they include hard facts, graphs, statistics, and other helpful information to inform and educate your audience. In a way, infographics are more like long-form content made up of micro-content images. This allows readers to still consume some of the information on the infographic before scrolling away. But the goal is for the infographic to pique their interest enough to get them to stay and read more.

Lists

Marketers can use lists in micro and long-form content, and they’re helpful in both cases. They not only allow businesses to convey a lot of information quickly, but lists can also improve the content’s readability and engagement level. That’s because, in blog posts and articles, people can quickly scan lists to see if the content interests them enough to read further. And on social media, using lists for your posts can help convey a lot of information in a short amount of time.

Google Rich Snippets

When it comes to micro content, most people think about social media, but that’s not the only place you can find it. Google rich snippets are some of the most important and effective pieces of micro content on the internet, and not everyone focuses on it. Rich snippets are additional information that search engines display to searchers. One of the most common examples for this is the “People also ask” section. This section displays frequently asked questions about the search term and a drop-down menu that displays a micro-content answer.

The best part about these micro-content answers is that Google creates them from high-ranking content. It simply takes the information from the webpage’s code and uses it to display an answer to the question in the search results, along with a link to the page. That means, if Google chooses your content for a rich snippet, it can help drive traffic to your site. That’s because people then see your site as an authority on the subject and feel more inclined to click.

How To Get Your Content in a Rich Snippet

Here is a list of steps to help you get your content in the rich snippet on Google and other search engines:

1. Check the Rich Snippets for Your Content

The first thing to know about rich snippets is that they work better for some content over others. For instance, some list articles or blogs might not really need rich snippets in the search results. There might not be a lot of additional questions or rich snippet opportunities regarding “tips for staying focused on your work.” The most common types of rich snippets include:

• Articles
• Products
• “How-to” sections
• Reviews
• Software
• Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

However, if you’re hoping to target rich snippets for your written content, it’s almost always going to fall into the article, FAQ, or how-to categories.

2. Include Rich Snippets in Your Content

When you’re writing a definitive blog or article, where you discuss or define a subject, it’s helpful to include popular questions or search topics for your headings. For example, if you’re writing a blog about “return on investment”, it’s good to include headings like “What Is Return on Investment?” and “How To Calculate Return on Investment”. These help Google immediately identify if your article has something to offer on these search terms, so it can display them in the rich snippet sections.

The next step is to provide an answer for the heading in the first sentence. This is important for two reasons:

1. It ensures the entire answer appears in the rich snippet
2. It improves the satisfaction of your readers

Google only displays a limited amount of text from your article in a rich snippet. If you start a section with a build-up to the answer, people might not see it. If you answer it right away, it’s sure to be included in the snippet and entice people to read more. It’s also helpful for readers who scan your blog or article. When you answer the question right away, they see your content as informational and straight-to-point. It doesn’t waste their time and gives them exactly what they’re looking for.

3. Add Structured Data

In order for Google to display your rich snippet, you need to include structured data on your webpage. The best way to do that is to add schema markup to your webpage’s source code. But if you’re not a coder or web designer, don’t panic. It’s a simple process and you can use a schema markup generator to help you. Using a schema markup generator, you can create micro content for different types of rich snippets, such as FAQ, How-to sections, products, and more.

Just fill in the information and the generator produces the code for your webpage. For example, if you’re creating a schema markup for an FAQ, simply use your desired heading as the question and the first sentence or two for the answer. Then the tool will provide you with the code you need. Like this:

The answer is what will display on Google’s search results, and it’s important to make sure nothing gets cut off. That’s why it’s helpful to make sure your rich snippet text is between 40 to 50 words or 300 characters.

Read more: Everything You Need To Know About Structured Data

4. Test Rich Snippet

Once you’ve generated the schema markup code, add it to a section of your webpage’s HMTL. That means you need to wait until you actually post the blog or article to your site before adding the structured data. After it’s added, you can test to see if it works by using Google’s Rich Snippet Tester. This tool will scan the URL of a webpage you enter and determine what structured data it detects and if the webpage is eligible for rich snippets.

Keep in mind that rich snippets are not guaranteed. Google decides whether to use your content for rich snippets depending on a lot of factors. The biggest factor is often the ranking and reception of your content. If people don’t find your content useful or informative, they’ll immediately navigate away from your page. Google sees that and uses that knowledge when deciding whether to use your content for a rich snippet.

That’s why quality, SEO friendly content is incredibly important for your marketing campaign. Ensuring your content is compelling and readable helps it rank higher on search engines. That not only boosts its organic traffic, but it also encourages Google and other search engines to feature it in the search results. At CopyPress, we have a team of over 2,000 writers, editors, and quality assurance specialists who know how to develop compelling written content for every industry, no matter the niche. Schedule a strategy call with us today to start developing expert content that increases your traffic and conversion rates.

The Benefit of Micro Content

There’s really one major benefit to micro-content, and that’s grabbing the attention of your audience. Creating easily consumable, engaging content helps to snag your audience as they scroll through social media or browse the internet. You can then use well-placed calls to action to entice them to your website. This not only boosts your site’s traffic, but it can also help you generate a larger following and audience base. From there, the benefits only continue to increase.

Having a larger audience base means better brand awareness. It can also improve your business’s conversion rate as well as your authority in the industry or field. Basically, micro content is often the first domino to fall that leads to a successful content marketing campaign.

Tips for Using Micro Content in Your Marketing Strategy

Here is a list of steps to help you start using micro content in your marketing strategy:

1. Understand Your Audience

Your audience is the most important factor in any marketing strategy. That’s because if you don’t know what your audience wants to see, you won’t know what content will grab their attention. Start by conducting competitor research. What micro content are your competitors using? How much engagement is it generating? Are they featured in the rich snippet? What information do they include in their rich snippet response?

Understanding how your competitors target the same audience can help you learn the best strategies to use for your marketing campaign. It can also help you find gaps in their content marketing strategy. For example, if your competitors don’t feature in a lot of rich snippets, that doesn’t mean they aren’t effective. It might just mean your competitors haven’t explored that option yet, creating a less-competitive market for your business and brand.

Related: How To Find and Build a Relationship with Your Target Audience

2. Create Engaging Social Media Posts

Micro content for social media posts is a great way to generate followers, improve brand awareness, and develop your audience base. One of the best strategies for creating engaging social media posts is to use images or videos to attract your audience’s attention and then keep their attention with compelling written content. That might include exciting industry updates, information on an upcoming sale, or recent company news.

Whatever you decide to use for your social media posts, it’s helpful to make sure you keep your word count minimal. After all, this is a how-to for micro content. Though social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn don’t have strict word or character limits, the longer the post, the more likely you’ll lose your reader’s attention.

Sites like Facebook also cut off the posts around 250 characters, asking your followers to click on it if they want to read more. Most will opt-out of that request and keep scrolling. In fact, the optimal social media post should be around 40 to 50 characters long. These shorter posts tend to get the most engagement.

3. Use Effective Calls to Action

Calls to action (CTA) are great ways to direct your audience to your website. They also help to tell your audience exactly how they can interact with your company or brand further. For content marketing campaigns, CTAs often direct people to additional content on your site, such as a blog post or eBook. They can also encourage people to sign up for an email newsletter, follow you on social media, or even make a purchase.

Basically, calls to action are one of the most important parts to any micro content strategy. If someone likes your content, you need to tell or show them how they can find more of it.

Read more: Calls To Action: What They Are and Why You Need Them

4. Use Micro Content Practices for Email Campaigns

Some businesses consider email subject lines and preview text as micro content. Though the strict definition is a little fuzzy because email subject lines aren’t standalone content, it’s still good to use micro content practices in your email campaigns. Using enticing language in your email subject lines and preview text can compel people to click on your email and read more. Understanding that you only have a few seconds to capture your reader’s attention and stand out from the dozens of other emails in their inbox can help you write engaging, effective subject lines.

Want more content marketing tips and a great example of compelling subject lines? CopyPress offers a newsletter that delivers expert content marketing knowledge straight to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter today to start improving your content marketing skills.

“CopyPress gives us the ability to work with more dealership groups. We are able to provide unique and fresh content for an ever growing customer base. We know that when we need an influx of content to keep our clients ahead of the game in the automotive landscape, CopyPress can handle these requests with ease.”

Kevin Doory

Director of SEO at Auto Revo

However you use micro content in your marketing strategy, it’s important to understand how it fits into your overall campaign. Grabbing your audience’s attention is often just step one. How does your step two look? It’s important to have effective conversion points in your micro content, as well as on the landing pages you send your audience to. After that, it’s important to show your audience you know what you’re talking about with a solid foundation of written content.

When you work with CopyPress, we provide you with your own client success manager who oversees your content campaign. We make sure that we deliver quality, compelling content that fits your brand’s tone and style every time. Schedule a strategy call with us today to see how we can boost your content creation and scale its production to meet your needs.

CopyPress

June 24, 2022 (Updated: March 8, 2023)