Branding. Marketing. New Media.

Content MarketingTactics To GrowYour Brand

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Tools for Marketing Success

Content is one of the best tactics to help your brand gain exposure. But, a well-written white paper, case study, or blog post will not generate awareness and be successful unless people know about it and are engaging with it.

To ensure success, use a three-pronged approach to promote your content, gain online exposure, and grow brand presence and recognition.

Three approaches to generating brand awareness and engagement:

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1. Owned PromotionPromoting your own content is just as important at writing it. Because search engines now factor social signals into their search results, it is crucial to combine your content and social media marketing strategies to promote your own content while also sharing resources that make you an asset to your target audience.

All organic social promotion campaigns should include:1. Future Re-SharingSchedule posts with questions surrounding the content or quotes from the article later on in the week.

2. Proper Social Media OptimizationPosts should also include hashtags and account tags, when possible.For instance, if a writer is publishing an interview with Dan Rather, they should include his verified Twitter username in their tweet. Avoid hashtag abuse — only use them when it doesn’t clutter up the tweet or post. Too many in your tweet can make it look spammy (and obscure the link). The same goes for tagging on Facebook and Google+.

When it comes to content, these types of tiny social media optimization tactics can help increase your exposure.

2. Paid PromotionFor content that you want to be seen by a larger audience, paid promotion is a good strategy. Sponsored tweets and Facebook posts (as well as promoted content on LinkedIn) can be utilized with owned promotion to select outstanding content that will get the most response from your audience.

When it comes to choosing sponsored content, go for posts that will most likely elicit an emotional response from your target audience. Emotional response usually translates into likes, shares, and comments. A sponsored post announcing that Apple is releasing just 500 new tablets will get more engagement in social media than the opening of another Apple Store in Los Angeles.

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How to best utilize paid promotionSponsored Tweets, Facebook, and LinkedIn PostsTailor your content to each medium. For example: an article on the top 10 lotions for a spa would be better on Facebook than LinkedIn. Reddit and StumbleUpon also offer paid promotion.

1. Paid SyndicationOutbrain is a great content syndication service that suggests your posts to readers on top websites, including Fox News, based on the article they just read. You can set cost-per-click and campaign duration. Disqus is also rolling out paid syndication campaigns as part of their commenting plugin.

2. Paid Blogger CampaignsMany blogs take sponsors and will share links to your content via sponsored posts on their website. You can also work with organizations that manage the entire blogger campaign on behalf of companies.

By making paid promotion a regular part of your social media strategy, you will also be able to get a better grasp of what type of content has more engagement and has more exposure than your non-promoted content. By focusing on writing content that does well when promoted via a paid campaign, you are more likely to have better engagement (and more website traffic) organically.

3. Earned PromotionEarned promotion is third-party sentiment about your company and its products, such as the sharing of your latest blog post via Twitter or LinkedIn. These types of unsolicited mentions can be carried much further in convincing people, because it is coming from an external source that is vouching for your organization (without you explicitly asking them to do so in exchange for something).

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To get more external promotion, your content should:1. Provide value2. Be visually appealing, with attractive graphics (include charts) and an easy-to-read layout3. Be written for your target audience, not for the search engines4. Be as easy as possible to share via social sharing buttons

Your organization should also be tracking social media and Google Alerts for men-tions of your company and its employees, in order to share these mentions of your business. When you show your audience that others find you reputable enough toshare your content, you are reinforcing positive brand recognition.

Promoting earned media gives extra social signals and links to boost the value of the links, engagement, and traffic you get from the coverage. This can amplify the message, thus getting more shares and traffic from your network and beyond.

Combine All ThreeNo matter the industry or type of content you post (whether it be blogs, videos, podcasts, or e-books), you should be promoting it organically and through paid avenues. These efforts will help you get the exposure needed to start accruingregular earned promotion by others.

By boosting third-party mentions of your content you are completing a three-pronged approach that is guaranteed to maximize your exposure, thus increasing your content traffic and engagement.

Need help developing your content marketing strategy? Contact Lori 877-447-0134, x111.