How Can You Make Content Snackable?

Sara (00:02)
the point of the stackable content is to provide value. And again, I'm sure a lot of people have heard this, but it's, I'm so serious about it. You need to provide value and

really in actuality that comes down for us to the form of helpful information, you know, that's really what it's going to boil down to. And it should be about the pain points of the consumer of the content, their problems, not your offerings, but what are they dealing

Benjamin Ard (00:57)
Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Sarah. Sarah, welcome to the show.

Sara (01:03)
Thanks for having me.

Benjamin Ard (01:04)
You bet. Sarah, I'm excited for this episode. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. But before we dive in, let's get to know you and your career. And then we always ask our guests, what do you love about content and marketing?

Sara (01:16)
Sure, great. I'm the Senior Director of Integrated Marketing at a B2B branding and marketing agency called Grafik. Our goal is to help our clients stand out above their peers and become category leaders. As an integrated marketer, my role is essentially to operationalize a unified brand message across all relevant channels for each client. And career-wise,

I came up in social media after an initial brief stint in PR. That's where I got my absolute start. And that is an important channel. I would like to put a plug that, you an important channel for any integrated plan. So please don't forget about PR because it is often separated from marketing. And, know, I think as others have mentioned on this show as well, social runs on content. So I guess you could say that my foundation

the time as a marketer is built on content marketing. And what I love about marketing in general is that it combines three things inherently interesting to me on a personal level, which are creativity, psychology, and I guess data or the ability to be analytical. So, you know, obviously what's better than a career that revolves around things that are inherently interesting to you. So.

What I love about content marketing specifically is simply that it's good, smart, strategic, effective marketing. You know, of course, went done well. And as a marketer, really any human being, it's just exciting. You get a bit of a rush when your work is effective. It's like a dopamine hit. So I love, I love seeing the content marketing work. It's exciting.

Benjamin Ard (02:54)
I love it. love it. Well, Sarah, today what we're going to talk about is snackable content. And I love this term. People sometimes say repurposing content or other terms. I love snackable because inherently I think it tells a better story of what repurposing content should look like. But just to kick things off, why? Why create snackable content? What's the whole point behind that?

Sara (03:17)
Sure, yeah. So I'd say two core reasons, there may be more, but two that come to mind for me are it's simply that it's the way people want to consume information, right? They're busy, they're overwhelmed. There's a lot of content out there. So you want to make it easy and seamless for them to engage with you, with your brand. And then there's just the kind of, I guess,

technical aspect of these social media channels in particular and their algorithms, they want people to stay on their channels. So why fight it? That's a signal to us marketers to create content native to that behavior. Let's create content that works with that concept of people staying on the platform. And let's just make more of that time with you, with your brand.

Benjamin Ard (04:07)
I love it. So when we're talking about snackable content, really, how do you break it down? Like, how do you break down the content into snackable pieces? What does that look like?

Sara (04:16)
Sure. So there you can start with just the goal of creating a net new snackable piece of content or and what I'm thinking about talking a little bit more about today is starting with a larger piece of content, just like assuming that you have, let's say a library of some blog posts or maybe some white papers or a research report, or maybe you plan to, your company plans to conduct some research and

put out a report. And then you're thinking, how can I make snackable content from that report? I would generally recommend this approach anyway. I think it's going to be helpful to just start planning these things out in advance and thinking, what is a topic? What's a subject that generally speaking, we should create content around? And then in that same exercise, think about what those pieces of

content are and sometimes it could be serial. It could be a series of blog posts, you know, not just one blog post and it will include things like PR. So it could be a blog post or research report, some PR outreach, an ad campaign, some, you know, a month of social organic social assets, know, infinite possibilities. So just planning that stuff out ahead of time rather than

necessarily being reactive or working backward.

Benjamin Ard (05:39)
All right, So

one thing I'm curious about when you're creating snackable content, you you said you're, starting from a bigger piece of content, like a research paper blog post. How does the idea or the strategy of creating snackable content even kind of adjust how you plan for creating some of the bigger pieces of content and some of those studies, how does it impact the overall strategy and planning?

Sara (06:02)
It's a great question. And so, you know, let's just take the research for an example, right? It can help you or help ensure that you're asking questions that could at least result in interesting results. Not to use the same word twice, but so, you know, obviously there's going to be some reason you're conducting a survey, let's say. But think about the potential results of the survey and

Is it going to make, are those results going to make a good story? And what could that potentially look like? How could that story So again, if it, you know, the social posts, what's, what's a statistic that honestly, however the survey ends up, however the data ends up being, what is an interesting little factoid or data point to share?

some questions that the results combined would make for a good blog post or an overall takeaway or aha or thought leadership perhaps for one of your executives. So yeah, just thinking about where the content is going to end up can also help inform how you gather that content and even what that content is. even thinking about if you're

Let's say you are looking for, need to create a blog post, right? What should it be about? There's a ton of different places you could look. You could look in your own search engine marketing data. You can look in your SEO data, so the more organic side of things. You can talk to your customers. You can use unsolicited customer feedback. I think I heard a past guest talk about even chat.

sometimes like customer chat inquiries and conversations. Love that. Brilliant. So you're really going to hear their pain points without even having to ask them sometimes, for better or worse. so a number of places you can look. Reddit, other niche forums, even social media commentary. You can kind of go through there and see what people care about and then craft content.

about those topics and that content again can be a blog post and or social etc.

Benjamin Ard (08:07)
I love it. So you've got this really good piece of content, you're creating snackable content from it. What's kind of the goal of that snackable content? Like what are you trying to accomplish? How does that tie into the overall piece? What are your thoughts in that space?

Sara (08:24)
Yeah, great. So I will say first, the goal is not the goal is not to directly sell your product or service. Put that to the side. Obviously we're all in business. We have things to sell it. But, um,

the point of the stackable content is to provide value. And again, I'm sure a lot of people have heard this, but it's, I'm so serious about it. You need to provide value and

really in actuality that comes down for us to the form of helpful information, you know, that's really what it's going to boil down to. And it should be about the pain points of the consumer of the content, their problems, not your offerings, but what are they dealing

And I guess just a quick reminder too, when it comes to even like just brand messaging, people don't really care what you

tell them about your brand. It's what you show them and not to be, you know, corny or whatever, it's how you, how you make them feel. know we've all heard that it's how you make them feel, but it's true because for instance, you can't just tell someone you're innovative and then, they're going to buy, you know, your service. You have to be innovative and show how you're innovative. If you're not innovative, I mean, you should really pick a different, a value proposition, but

You know, it's just, again, similarly, you have to think about it from their perspective. You're not going to buy something just because someone told you they're innovative. similarly with content, it needs to actually address what they're interested in and not just tell them about your product.

Benjamin Ard (09:53)
I love that. That's awesome. So when you look at it, you know, let's say again, I'm creating snackable content. I've got a really cool blog post, something like that. Maybe like, can you walk us through your process? Like how do you evaluate the content? How do you get the ideas? How do you execute? What does that process actually tactically look like?

Sara (09:55)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, of course. So let's say we're doing it for LinkedIn. Let's say we want to do a LinkedIn post, which would likely also translate to a good, you know, Facebook post, right, or similar channels. You can start with a format in mind. So you can kind of start off with, I want to create a static image or I want to do carousel of images, or I want to do a video.

But what I would actually recommend and what I normally do is I let the content speak to me and I go a little bit more off creative vibes for better or worse. And while I'm consuming, say, example is blog posts. While I'm reading the blog posts that I may or may not have written I'll see if I'm struck with a vision for how the information can be conveyed a little bit more visually and a little bit more of a kind of

breadcrumb approach again. it'll be very clear, this really needs to be told via video, or maybe it's no static image, a singular image would actually suffice in this case. And, and I will say, there are real life limitations here. For some people, even with where we are with AI, a video may not be achievable just by because of budget, because of skill, because of timing. So

just, know, that is an understanding that it doesn't always have to be a video. Cause I do feel like people often feel that way and it doesn't, it doesn't have to be a video. and, you know, if I, if I'm reading this, this blog post and I'm thinking, I'm realizing, okay, this can actually be broken down into four steps or even better. Sometimes the blog post is broken down into steps or very clear kind of sections, right?

better even that's, you know, you hit uh, jackpot there. these four steps, do they make sense as a carousel? Do they really, you know, are they a little bit more robust? Do they kind of each deserve their slide or their own, um, card or are they pretty succinct steps and they can be covered in one 1200 by 1200 pixel square or

in the case of LinkedIn, like a document, you know, a single PDF page or something like that, right? you have to use some of your own, the reasoning there and, and, kind of think, is this overwhelming in one go? and often, I guess, you know, it probably is. So just think, you don't want to overwhelm. So kind of use that as a guide. and you know,

Keep in mind also that snackable content doesn't need to have everything, right? I'm not trying to tell you everything from the blog post in this one social post. It's a snack, it's an appetizer, an appetizer if you will, right? We're teasing out the information. We love for people to actually not just share the content, that's kind of like the golden standard I feel on social.

we do, we, we would love people to click back to our website, right? I mean, that's, know, we want that, but, understand that they're not always going to, and usually they're not right. Statistically, most of them are not going to do that. So, we would like for them to get even more value once they do go to your site. If they do. all right. But right. What if, what if it's not that obvious, right? What if the blog post isn't.

broken down into four steps and it can't be broken down into four steps. Okay, what do you do? Find something substantive. Find just one thing. You can find a couple things if you want or you can really drag it out, right? You know that you can make them each their own individual asset or their own individual post. But find something of value, right? What is one of the core takeaways of the blog post?

Surely, right? Surely every post, every blog post has some sort of message they're trying to convey. So what is it? And let's turn that into the asset. Let's make that the focus. So from here, it's how do you visually present that information? And I will say this part gets subjective and challenging. It's easier said than done. And if you do need help, chat GPT, Claude.

a human friend, you know, they could brainstorm with you. You can think through, just pull on other life experiences. There's no right or wrong here. This is, this now really becomes a creative exercise of how can I visually present this information in a way that will capture attention very quickly, will convey the point very quickly. And again, ideally is shareable. know, you want your core audience member to see this.

and just be so compelled to share it because it makes them look smarter, more informed, or it's interesting or entertaining. mean, love some humor in B2B. We're all human, so put a little humor in there. so again, easier said than done, but that is really where I think a lot of the

time goes into is giving it some careful thought. And then you don't want to forget kind of the cherry on top, the CTA, call to action. could be to go visit the site. It could be for comments or engagement on the platform, right? So it depends on what makes sense for you and your goals, you know, your business goals. then for folks that do, if you do include a link and people do click through,

You also then have the opportunity to extend that journey. So let's say they click through to the blog post. The blog post itself should not be salesy. Again, you want to continue that theme of providing value. Don't be off putting. But you might have some subtle little breadcrumbs on that page, right? You might have related blog posts

that do talk about your products perhaps, or you do have recommended products, right? I mean, there's again, no right or wrong, a lot of different ways, but you can subtly weave in some stronger, a little bit more direct CTAs that get a little bit further down that funnel once people are on your website. But, you know, I would say the...

The thing to keep in mind with snackable content is you really do want it to be audience centric and not salesy.

Benjamin Ard (16:21)
I love that.

Sarah, this has been an absolute masterclass when it comes to snackable content. I love the strategy, the tactical advice.

the guide on how to get even ideas and like brainstorm a chat GPT and talk to friends and all of this advice. I love that you're talking about this isn't a sales pitch. This is kind of a teaser. This is something valuable. I love it. Sarah, if anyone wants to reach out and connect with you online, how and where can they find you?

Sara (16:49)
Sure, yeah. LinkedIn is great if you want to reach out to me personally. If you're interested in working with an agency, feel free, of course, to reach out to us on our website, grafik.com. And I think we'll have some links posted as well. But yeah, feel free to reach out to me directly. Happy to chat through your content needs or anything marketing, really.

Benjamin Ard (17:13)
I love it. And for anyone listening, we will have all those links in the show notes below. So take a look and connect with Sarah. Again, Sarah, thank you so much for the time and all the insights today. I really do appreciate it.

Sara (17:23)
Thank you so much.

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