Practical & Useful – Content Template # 3 “Listicles”

The listicle is a list, fleshed out with added information. So list plus article. It's also specific in quantity of items covered, typically short & sweet and easy to consume.

However in our case we don't want to create the "junk food" type of listicle that's so often used online as clickbait.

You've seen them before - "15 Celebrities' High School Photos - You'll Never Recognize Them! or "7 Reasons Why You Can't Trust Siamese Cats" or "Stop Eating These 4 Foods Guaranteed To Ruin Your Health". You get the idea...

This format is another way to change up your content, while at the same time giving your audience usable information they can apply in their life.

You can create listicles from any topic

For example:

• Life experience: 7 Ways I Became More Productive Working From Home
• Research or use: 6 Must-Have Inexpensive Video Creation Tools
• Area of expertise: 5 Most Common Newbie Marketer Mistakes
• Hobbies: 3 High Quality DIY Guitar Kit Vendors You May Have Overlooked
• Lifestyle: 10 Most Innovative Tiny Home Plans For First Time Buyers

The format is simple and straightforward:

• Catchy title
• Intro
• List plus your commentary
• Conclusion

Don't worry about being repetitive. Your perspective brings new angles to the topic you're writing about even if you think it's been done a million times.

Your audience follows you because they like what you have to say and how you say it!

If you care to add more punch to your listicle, you can use stats and graphics to illustrate your points or even use a case study.

See last week's post detailing how to write a case study here: Have Clients Sell For You – Content Template #2 The Case Study

And in the end...

Even though this format is not as elaborate as other types of content, make sure that it really provides value to your readers.

And speaking of format, you can get even more bang for your buck by turning your listicle into a video.

Video is a great medium for this. You can paste your list into a simple PowerPoint presentation, narrate, add transitions & animations for a little spice, export to video. Boom - you're done!

Even quicker is using a tool like Vidnami where video clips are automatically added based on the text in your script. You can try out Vidnami here: Vidnami Free Trial

Either way, you'll have print and video for your website and social media accounts. More opportunity for more people to see your stuff!

 Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash