At Madison, we spend roughly half of our time producing short-form content on LinkedIn for clients. That’s not because we dislike long form. It’s because we know how attention actually works for most professional services firms.

But that doesn’t mean long-form doesn’t have its place. You’re reading one right now (Inception!)

In this article, we’ll discuss why we don’t start there, what its role is, and how to do it well.

Why Long Form Often Isn’t the Starting Point

For professional services firms, long-form content usually isn’t the primary awareness driver. The reasons are practical:

• It’s more time-intensive. Writing a great 2,000-word article takes significantly more effort than a quick LinkedIn post. The burden for quality matters (internally, if not in the minds of your prospective clients.)
• It assumes people are coming to your site. For many firms, the reality is that inbound website traffic is modest, especially early on. The people who are coming to your site already know you.
• SEO is a tough game. You’re often competing with large firms who dominate high-intent keywords. Without a high domain authority, you’re unlikely to rank for competitive search terms.
• Organic search takes time. Even if you find long-tail phrases, the payoff may take months.
• Conversion rates are modest. Only a fraction of readers will give you their email address, even with a good lead capture strategy. There are ways to overcome that, like creating content updates instead of generic newsletter calls to action. But practically speaking mean most visitors who visit via organic search are “one and done.”

That’s why, for most firms, the fastest path to visibility and connection starts with short form.

The Strength of Short Form

Short form works well for a few reasons:

• Lower barrier to creation. You can be candid, experiment, and move quickly.
• More personal. Stories, anecdotes, and commentary build rapport and trust.
• Algorithm-friendly. When people engage, platforms like LinkedIn show them more of your content, keeping you in their feed.
• Easy hand-raising. Prospects can respond directly via DMs when they’re ready to talk.

In short: short form is great for reach, connection, and staying top of mind.

So, What’s the Point of Long Form?

Once short form is in motion, long form starts to make more sense. But we think of long-form primarily as a nurturingtool. It’s not about replacing your short-form efforts; it’s about deepening relationships and providing a deeper resource library.

Here’s where long form shines:

• It reinforces credibility. Visitors see your site is alive and that you have well-developed thinking.
• It supports SEO in certain contexts. If you operate in a defined geography, local SEO can make long form more valuable.
• It provides depth. You have a place to send people who want a detailed perspective on a topic.
• It feeds your short form. A single long-form piece can be broken into multiple short-form posts (although we tend to do it in reverse, expanding on short-form into long-form.)
• It captures high-intent traffic. Long-tail keywords may not drive massive volume, but the intent is often stronger.
• It has a long shelf life. Unlike a LinkedIn post that fades in a few weeks, a strong article can drive value for years.
• It enables “parasite SEO.” Republishing on higher-authority sites can help you capture rankings you wouldn’t get on your own site.
• It fuels email and LinkedIn newsletters. A great article gives you something meaningful to send through your newsletter, and another touch point with your audience.

In this way, long form becomes the “deep library” your short form points to.

Long-Form Best Practices

If you’re going to invest the time into long-form content, make sure it earns its keep. A few guidelines:

• Start with a clear purpose. Know exactly what you want this piece to do. If it’s for SEO, the structure, keyword strategy, and length matter. If it’s for nurturing, depth and insight matter more.
• Lead with the takeaway. Busy readers decide in seconds whether to keep going. Make the “why it matters” clear in the first few sentences.
• Err on the side of length. This might change in the age of generative AI answers. But Google historically has tended to rank posts that were longer, most likely seeing it as a proxy for authority.
• Organize for skimming. Use subheadings, bullet lists, and 1-2 sentence paragraphs as a rule of thumb. Long form doesn’t mean walls of text. It means more substance, not less clarity.
• Make it actionable. Include frameworks, checklists, or examples readers can use immediately. Practical utility increases the chances they’ll share it.
• Use your voice. Even in long form, your personality should come through. Professional services buyers want to work with people, not faceless firms.
• Include proof. Back up your points with data, case studies, or third-party references. This builds authority and trust.
• Repurpose intentionally. Plan from the start how you’ll break the piece into multiple short-form posts, slides, or infographics. This extends the ROI of your effort.
• Refresh periodically. Evergreen doesn’t mean static. Revisit top-performing pieces annually to update examples, data, or calls-to-action. (Google uses site freshness as a ranking signal.)

Done well, long form becomes a high-leverage asset, something you can point to for years as a definitive answer on a topic you care about.

The Right Sequence

If you’re just starting, we recommend:

1. Build a short-form habit first. Publish consistently, learn what resonates, and build an engaged audience.
2. Identify topics worth deep dives. Use short-form performance as your filter.
3. Create long-form pieces as evergreen assets. These should be reference-worthy, linkable, and aligned to your most valuable conversations.

When you think of long form as a supporting player rather than the lead actor, you use it more strategically. And it’s far more likely to produce ROI.

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