Buzzfeed has mastered the art of content production and distribution. Why not steal from their playbook?

Everyone knows Buzzfeed. They went from a new media to content powerhouse in such a small number of years that we can only look at their brand and admire the work.

But Buzzfeed is not all about listcicles and cat photo galleries. There is a lot of data and insights behind what you read and share. A recent Gain article dove deep into the strategies Buzzfeed applies to its content and how it helps grow both the audience and the engagement.

Here are 5 lessons we can learn from analyzing Buzzfeed’s publications :

  1. Write with readability in mind. All of their articles are written so that they are easy to read: “BuzzFeed’s content is written at a 4th-grade reading level, while CNN content is written at a 7th-grade reading level.”
  2. Don’t just publish “stuff”, bring value. You would think that a lot of Buzzfeed content is all about entertainment, but no. A lot (a lot!) of it helps readers learn something: “As humans, we are most attracted to stories that play into our emotions and help us learn new information.”
  3. Find the perfect length. Buzzfeed articles vary greatly in length. Some are very short, and some are very long. They each have a purpose and an appropriate length: “Some topics are best consumed in short form, and some require more explanation.”
  4. Branded content instead of ads. This is what really has helped their business model these past few years. And they do it with brio: “It’s an intentional choice on BuzzFeed’s part to merge branded content with regular content and they pull it off well enough so that their readers don’t feel duped and the company sponsors feel like they’re getting their money’s worth.”
  5. Nostalgia is a good play. Buzzfeed noticed very early on that producing content about yesteryears is almost always a sure win: “Audiences love to feel nostalgic, and this desire for the past is instrumental in BuzzFeed’s content strategy.”

The Gain article goes much deeper into all 5 strategies, take some time to read all about them, or give us a call at Toast and we can discuss how these could be applied to your brand!