Content marketing is not unlike other forms of content creation. In many instances the same principles of creating larger syndicated content programming apply. One of the earliest decisions you are faced with is when to use serial content and when to create episodic content.
First let’s define the two:
Serial Content: Independent stand alone pieces of content. Each piece of content, whether it is video, audio, visual or written tells a unique story or deal with individual subjects. The subjects may all refer to one set topic or range from topic to topic. Example: Trinity Web Media’s blog speaks about Web Design, WordPress Development and Digital Marketing with individual pieces to the puzzle.
Episodic Content: Think about one over-arching storyline. The story builds day after day or week by week continuing a story. There are instances, where we break our content marketing initiatives into parts to make it more manageable, but episodic content usually contains hooks and cliffhangers.
Serial vs. Episodic Content For Business
For most of the Trinity Web Media NJ Web Design clients we prefer serialized content. Using serial content allows us to touch more topics and help the defined audience. Working with small business marketing plans and other personas lends itself best to this content format.
From time to time, if we are dealing with very complex or technical issues we will break the content into bite-sized episodes. Some may argue that this is pieced together serial content, but for this discussion we will refer to it as episodic.
Many podcasts in the true-crime genre love the episode format to build tension and follow traditional storytelling phases.
Whichever you choose for your brand, make sure your audience is on-board. If you are in tune with your audience you will inherently know what form works best for your brand.
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