Simply writing long form content is not enough to create engaging and successful content. In this post, we show how visual elements can compliment your blog posts and improve your readers’ experience.
This is a must-see video for marketers, bloggers or designers who spend time and effort writing long-form content, and want to get more results.
You’ll learn how to:
✔︎ Create epic long form content (like leading brands do)
✔︎ Build visual and engaging long form content
✔︎ Avoid common writing mistakes
✔︎ and much more!
hi I’m Simon and as you know I’ll be
your Elementor for today now in this
video I’m going to show you the tricks
that will transform your long-form
content into a visually captivating
masterpiece
now you
the better part of a week researching a
subject drinking coffee gathering
background information in-depth insight
drinking more coffee interviewing
experts colleagues and friends keyword
research more coffee than sitting
through all that writing your first
draft running out of coffee
your second draft but brave is still
your trying T and you have created a
third draft and lo and behold it’s your
epic blog post four thousand words long
you uploads it to the site and you’ve
got to admit it’s hideous
it’s a drab and dreary wall of words a
daunting monstrous mass of font and in
all honesty even you wouldn’t read it
and that’s because there’s more to epic
blog posts than written concent alone
what’s missing in a word visuals visuals
aren’t merely for decoration they create
spacing elements that provide the
written matter with pace and rhythm
they also tweet the interest of the
reader and things like a cool graphic
can taunt them to move forward a great
long post must be well-designed
and you could argue that long-form is an
art form now if this seems overwhelming
don’t worry we’ve got you covered
because today we’re sharing the top
design tricks that our content team uses
to create the layouts with visual
content that make our articles look like
the kind that you would like to post so
here we are at square one I’ve opened a
new post I’m in the elements or editor
and the only thing I’ve done so far is
pasted my text using the text editor
widgets and the heading widgets making
sure of course that I have pasted it
cleanly with no formatting I’m going to
be using pre saved global widgets and
templates in this tutorial all from our
very own posts to give you an idea of
how we can use appealing visual elements
to break up this massive text into
digestible sections because right now a
reader will be looking at this and
thinking that it looks like too much
hard work or I really don’t have the
time and patience to sit through all
this now
first I’ll use a collage of images to
break up the top of my article I’ll add
it in a new section and find my collage
template
as you can see it’s already looking much
better breaking up that first paragraph
perhaps these are images that I will be
using individually later on in the
article
perhaps they are examples of what can be
done with a certain technique or tool
the goal here is to whet the appetite of
the reader we’re confirming that this
article is related to what they are
interested in possibly saying that by
the end of this article readers will
have the knowledge needed to create
similar images now I’ll use a block
quote to break up the next section of my
article now I don’t see them as text
because they have more decorative
aspects they can also be engaging if you
make them clickable I’ll select the
block quote global widget and drag it to
here now I will click unlink which is
very important because so long as this
global widget is linked any changes I
make for this post will be applied
wherever this widget appears across the
site all this space that we’re
generating translates into a fresh
streamlined feel that plays a major part
in the experience the last thing we want
the reader to feel is overwhelmed the
next block of text is fairly big so now
I’ll use an icon list to create a nice
field of space again I’m going to select
my icon list global widget and unlink
again now apart from creating a nice
breadth of space in the article lists
are also great when you want to
summarize your main points or list pros
and cons don’t forget that as human
beings we tend to enjoy lists because
they help us organize detailed
information so that we can remember it
better this is true for any lists by the
way numbered lists bullet lists even a
table of contents you might want to
consider turning one of your detail
heavy paragraphs into a list for example
I’ve taken the paragraph below and
already created this list so I can now
delete the paragraph and I’ve got a nice
coherent list right now I’m gonna bring
out the big guns and place a video as
with all these visual elements you can
place them anywhere some will always
place videos at the top of their power
others in the middle we feel that every
visual element should have a reason will
it draw interest will it keep the reader
engaged every post has its own
personality now as you can see this
video is running on a loop very similar
to an idea of embedding a gif image
which by the way is another great way to
break up chunks of written matter but
videos offer better quality and more
detailed than a gif this is a short
video and it’s self hosted now the
advantage of that as opposed to using
say YouTube videos for example is that
commercial video platforms will always
have that distinct look and UI they
don’t always loop nicely either this way
we have a nice organic looking feature
running smoothly on a seamless loop
speaking of organizing information
visualizing data with graphs and tables
is another great way to break up a
massive text and make the experience
just that more engaging this way readers
get a break from constantly reading left
to right now they can read top to bottom
we also enjoy that moment when we try to
decipher the structure of a graph like
solving a puzzle now this area here
looks far too dense and I’ll just break
that up by putting some of it in a
separate section now that I’ve created a
gap I’m going to bring up my table
segment template and there we are now we
can go on and on like this but I think
that you guys are literally getting the
picture here now let’s just remind
ourselves of what our content looked
like before and now for the big reveal
I mean what a difference of widget makes
but now that we’ve seen what we should
be doing let’s go over what we should
not be doing
text alignment and spacing what we want
to do is avoid the same kinds of things
that cause reading fatigue and eyestrain
don’t let the text run from one side of
the screen to the other especially as
most desktop screens are wide and it can
become extremely tiresome to stay
focused following a line running the
entire length of the screen don’t make
the spacing between the paragraphs and
headings too dense again
this causes readers to lose their place
and makes it very hard to follow and
focus the same goes for lengthy
sentences and lengthy paragraphs too
many links yes bank linking is good but
this is too much this looks like Swiss
cheese at this point too many keywords
spread too densely is also a major nono
Google BOTS are not programmed by idiots
they will know that when keywords are
too dense the writer has ulterior
motives – providing in-depth content at
this point Google is probably thinking
that this Swiss cheese also has a bad
case of the measles don’t create long
listy paragraphs again we want the
reader to get engaged not get frustrated
when they can’t solve this Gordian knot
of data depending on the content you may
want to create a table for something
like this or to write short paragraphs
this structure is going to frustrate
even the most avid reddit readers too
many images make it too difficult to
read and follow in a case like this it
would have been better
if there were no images at all there is
a rule of thumb that people are quoting
when you should be using a graphic image
or video every 80 to 100 words or so but
it’s just a rule of thumb use your gut
instinct as a designer to make it
Pleasant or use your gut instinct as a
content creator to write in a
captivating way so that your material is
clear and engaging on its own merits
speaking of writing make sure that you
keep your headlines clear make sure that
your headlines motivate interest in
curiosity but make them clear so that
even at a glance we know what
is you’re going to be speaking about in
the paragraph below so that this title
here Y tells me very little I mean it
hints towards something but let’s make
it a little more informative and
maintain some of that curiosity another
thing is don’t lose your structure as
human beings we like all things to have
a beginning a middle and an end and as
readers we are no different make sure
that you actually have an introduction
and introduce what it is your pieces
about make sure that the middle builds
upon itself further and further in a
linear fashion and then draw a
conclusion a summary perhaps even ask a
question to get the reader thinking
about what you wrote hours after they
finished reading we’ve just reviewed
different ways to use visuals to turn
big bland blocks of written content into
prolonged and engaging reading
experiences in doing so we hope we have
inspired you to use your ingenuity and
creative prowess to push the limitations
of the tools and widgets at your
disposal and turn your epic blog post
into the work of art it deserves to be
as always we’d appreciate any comments
and insight that you may have we want to
hear any criticism and obviously any
helpful tips that could help other users
after all our goal is to be the best at
helping others excel at their craft
thanks for watching
Cheers
