Striking the perfect balance between fast and slow content creation

Content creation is a constant juggle between speed and depth. Over one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second. TikTok has surpassed a billion subscribers. And around 70 million blog posts are published on WordPress every single month. In fact, there are 600,000,000 blog posts on the internet today, so don’t ever complain you don’t have anything to read.

The amount of content is overwhelming, to say the least. Especially if you’re a marketing professional or content creator. The pressure to blog, post, ideate, and engage both constantly and consistently can seem like a Sisyphean task. After all, you have to keep up with the pace that’s been set, right? The algorithm wants new content. We must feed the beast.

Except, if you’re under pressure to produce content quickly, all the time, the quality of that content will eventually suffer. Content chaos is not sustainable. And what’s the point in producing anything at all if it isn’t valuable to your audience?

This is a question that content creators are increasingly asking. At a time when the average blog bounce rate is over 80%, the vast majority of marketers have come to the conclusion that the quality of their posts is more important than quantity.

What is fast content?

Fast content is all about keeping up with the breakneck speed of the digital world. It’s designed to grab attention quickly and be easily digestible. Think of it like fast food – quick, convenient, and often not too deep. Examples include:

• Social media posts: Short updates or memes that are designed for instant engagement.
• News articles: Timely reports that cover the essentials but don’t dig too deep.
• Short-form videos: Quick clips on TikTok or Instagram that deliver a punch in seconds.

The upside? Fast content can engage your audience right now. But because it’s created in the moment, for the moment, it might not offer long-lasting value.

What is slow content?

Slow content, on the other hand, is like a gourmet meal. It’s carefully prepared, takes more time to create, and offers something substantial. This type of content focuses on depth and quality. It includes:

• In-depth blog posts: Articles that explore a topic thoroughly, often over 2,000 words.
• Long-form videos: Comprehensive guides or documentaries that require a bit more of your audience’s time.
• Research papers or whitepapers: Detailed reports offering thorough analysis and insights.

Slow content aims to provide lasting value, encouraging readers to engage more deeply and reflect on the material.

Slow down. Do less. Be better. 

Slow content is about purposefully slowing down, getting off the content hamster wheel, and creating detailed, thoughtful work that has genuine value—the kind that can actually distinguish your brand from other online creators instead of getting lost in the noise.

It’s the equivalent of an editorial long read, compared to a news story that was published on deadline to keep people informed of breaking events. Both have a purpose, sure. But one has the time to consider its approach, formulate a stance, and provide genuine food for thought.

The results speak for themselves; Research shows that bloggers who write articles upwards of 2,000 words—those more often being well researched and carefully planned—are far more likely to have strong results.

In many ways, slow content as a choice is a psychological reaction to the relentless pace of modern life. We’ve seen this in other areas too, like the trend of ‘slow living’ that took off after the pandemic (and is still going strong).

Both are examples of people recognizing that the pace we operate is simply not sustainable. And, ultimately, that it doesn’t serve us or our readers. Sure, regular, rapid-fire content that pleases algorithms might get us in front of our audience, and it might even initially engage them, but is that engagement meaningful? Are they really taking anything on board?

With slow content, creators are looking to replace constant interaction with quality interaction. Now let’s explore how it really works.

The science behind slowing down

When we talk about fast and slow content, we’re not just talking about how quickly things can be created and pushed out into the public. We’re also referring to the way a reader’s mind processes information.

Nobel-prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman—no doubt a familiar name for those of you interested in cognitive marketing—first came up with the concept of fast and slow thinking in 2011.

In his theory, Kahneman claims there are two ways of processing information. The first, ‘fast thinking,’ is a sort of knee-jerk reaction to the information presented in front of us. The second, ‘slow thinking,’ requires concentration and a certain amount of effort on behalf of the reader.

This slower way of thinking requires an audience to genuinely engage with the topic at hand. That is why content creators should ideally aim to stimulate it with longer pieces that can’t be immediately devoured and forgotten. But doing so requires, carefully thought-out, well-researched, and genuinely thought-provoking content. It requires letting ideas percolate. It requires slowing down.

So, slow is good, fast is bad? 

Woah there, not so fast.

As a content creator, you know that your audience is often busy. Not everyone has time in their day to pore over 2,000-word blog posts and eBooks. In fact, 43% of people admit to skimming blog posts when they read. That’s almost half of your readership that either doesn’t have the time or will to read your work in full, at least some of the time.

Sometimes quickly hammering your key points home, dropping the mic, and getting the hell out of Dodge can be an impactful way to sell important ideas.

That is to say, there are plenty of instances where fast content can be valuable, too. The truth is, the perfect mix to engage your audience is likely a combination of both fast and slow thinking. And here’s the good news, once you’ve created your slow content, it’s easy to speed it up with atomization.

For instance, that 2,000-word blog post people didn’t have time to read can become a short video, an infographic, or whatever else you can think of. And, because you put all that work into creating a thoughtful, well-researched piece to begin with, you know the quality of your fast content will be great too.

Fast content vs. slow content – which is best for me?

Here’s a scenario to get you thinking about whether you’re currently creating fast content or slow content.

Imagine that you’ve just published a thought leadership piece. You look at your content analytics and see that you’ve received 110 reads and 7 leads. Great news, you think. Now, informed by analytics, you have a decision to make. Do you:

a) Plan to create 5 pieces of content like this one every week. If it worked this time, it’s likely to work again, right?

Or;

b) Begin to research and plan your next piece of content, hoping to publish it next month. It will take time to brainstorm, research and write an in-depth piece for sure.

Both of these approaches are valid ways to build up a content strategy. The choice hinges on whether you value fast or slow content marketing more. Fast content allows you to have a constant stream of writing across your channels, but slow content is likely to be of a higher value to your readers. It’s a tricky decision to make.

Luckily, we have insights from experts in creating content from HSBC, B2B Marketing, and Mintel to give us their thoughts. But first, let’s start with content engagement psychology.

Thinking fast vs. thinking slow 

Nobel-prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman is becoming an important figure to those interested in cognitive marketing. As the co-founder of the nudge theory, Kahneman’s insights into user behavior and the brain are hugely influential on how marketers think about their audience. One of his most important theories is ‘thinking fast and slow’ – an underpinning theory for fast and slow content.

The theory states that there are two main ways the brain works:

“System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.

System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration.”

Put simply, system 1 is the fast way of thinking, and system 2 is the slow. If you want to see these two systems in action you can try a simple math problem, quoted in Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow:

A bat and ball cost £1.10. The bat costs one pound more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

Your first answer might be 10 pence, which is evidence of your fast-thinking system in action. Your slower method of thinking – system 2 – might then reconsider the math, and calculate that the ball is in fact 5 pence. This demonstrates how your fast thinking system is behind snap, easy judgments, and your slower system behind the more difficult, engaging calculations.

For content creators

So what does this mean for content creators? Baring these two systems in mind might help to plan your route through the oversaturated field of content out there. 

Ideally, you want to aim to stimulate your reader’s slower system of thinking, as this one requires more concentration and more engagement. Faster thinking might drive audiences to choose clickbait articles, but this might result in high bounce rates and low read times. The answer might be to appeal to both systems since both work together.

What the experts say 

Delayed Gratification is a magazine centered around the idea of slow content. Claiming to be ‘the last to break news’ since 2011, the website champions the idea that the content world deserves some slow, well-thought-out writing. “When you take a slower approach you may not get the same numbers but you get more engagement,” Rob Orchard, co-founder of Delayed Gratification says. “We wanted to do the opposite of break-neck speed news stories. To show readers what happens after the spotlight has moved on when the dust settles,” he explained.

Across the industry, however, response to fast and slow content is mixed:

• “Measuring content whilst it’s in-flight is still really important. We sent out an infographic and it was the perfect timing. After seeing the initial results, which were extremely positive. We decided to utilize social media to keep up the momentum of the post.” – Victoria Pawsey, El Advisory
• “The hardest working content we produce cannot be put online. Online content needs to pass the Granny test…but what is clear to Granny doesn’t necessarily work for our bankers…” – Aimee Peters, HSBC
• “It’s about trying to do higher quality – whether fast or slow. It’s not a flash in the pan. It’s a considered campaign.” – Joel Harrison, B2B Marketin
• “Wait, what? is an important strategic question for content marketing.” – Ann Handley, Wall Street Journal bestselling author

Finding the right mix of fast and slow content

Because we appreciate the value of both, Turtl’s programmers designed our content platform software with this mix in mind. Our users can deliver a balance of both to their audience, simultaneously.

With Turtl, users can create dynamic, visually pleasing content pieces that deliver all the important info at a glance, while also allowing audiences to expand details and click through for a deeper dive. We actually based it on the way leatherback turtles hunt for food.

If you would like to explore more about why slowing down and doing less can help teams do better work, faster, especially with a recession looming, read our Turtl Doc about saving money on content.

Click to read How to do more with less | Turtl Guide for marketers