How to Create Great, Shareable Content For Your Business
In today’s world, it’s fairly common to find marketing materials filled with boring ad copy, mundane graphics, and subpar information. Companies are obsessed with producing content, without much regard for what the content actually entails. Don’t go on Facebook and see what brands find passable for “content.” Creating great content (content marketing) takes time and may not be quite as cheap as curating content from other sites. However, original content can be great for your business, as content that is quite sharable and interesting can easily gain traction on social media. [quote]Creating good copy isn’t so much of a science as it is an art.[/quote] While at its core, the best advertising might be subjective, there are certain things marketers and copywriters can do to make their copy and content objectively better. So, how can your business craft interesting content, content that potentially may go viral? Here are some of our Florida marketing agency’s favorite tips for creating great, shareable content: Tell a Story! A story can be a great lead-in to a bigger and more valid point (think of the essays by Malcom Gladwell, for instance). A story can help create an emotional connection with the reader, and for many companies, a brand is only as good as its story. This isn’t necessarily limited to story in the literal sense… companies can tell brilliant stories using images and limited text, as this Oreo case study shows. Make It a List! Why are there so many lists making rounds on the internet these days? Well, the primary reason is that the list format makes things easy for readers to digest. Lists are tremendously sharable, so often times the most shared items are lists of content paired with compelling visuals. When thinking of what kinds of lists might benefit your brand, think of new takes on topics that have already been covered, or think about throwing a topical bent into a funny premise. Make It Pretty! People are more emotionally attached to images than they are to text alone. If you have a great story idea, finding a compelling photo or creating a great infographic to go along with it can be an easy way to make your content even more sharable. [quote] BIGEYE created some rockin’ content for an Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children donorship event. Check it out! [/quote] Make it Funny! Some of the most sharable content on the internet is humorous content. Humor is a great way to connect with audiences, and media companies such as College Humor, Funny Or Die, Cracked and Buzzfeed have found numerous ways to tap into a culture that shares content they think is funny or interesting. Humorous or uplifting content is typically more widely shared than negative or controversial, though I’m sure you can think of plenty of exceptions. For a great summary of what types of things people find sharable on Facebook, check out this awesome white paper from Marketo called Contagious Content. Then, contact our Florida marketing agency for tips on how you can put your new content strategy in action!
New year, New plan: Resolve to revamp your strategy in 2013
I’m not always one for resolutions, but this year sees more reasons for change. In 2012, we saw what a major role social media and digital strategy played in the presidential election – many people have gone on the record to say that one of the primary reasons for Romney’s defeat was the lack of an integrated digital campaign strategy. Regardless of whether that’s true, it speaks to the profound implications that an effective social media strategy might have on your business. So this year, I’ve decided to make it my personal resolution to help impress the importance of a digital strategy on our Orlando ad agency clients, as well as all of our friends in the advertising and marketing world. It can be difficult to keep up with all of the new trends and ideas. Two years ago, daily deals were the future of Internet marketing, while today, businesses like LivingSocial and Groupon are tanking. This is why we consider it essential for businesses of all sizes to reassess their digital strategy to help grow their businesses through marketing in 2013. Our Orlando marketing agency strives to provide our clients with successful digital marketing strategies on budgets of any size. Our first tip is to remember to invest in marketing, but know how to do so wisely. Generating a flashy marketing campaign won’t be worth the effort if the product can’t stand on its own. We encourage you to work with a strategist or consultant who truly understands the intricacies of successful digital media. Companies that have taken the plunge to invest a few dollars in professional marketing typically see high returns for the money spent. Next, companies should invest resources in learning how to leverage social media. As we’ve noted in the past, a college student might not be the best person to run your social media platform. Smaller companies can resolve to use social media to their advantage, encouraging people to Tweet at them for the opportunity to win new products or encouraging them to share information in order to receive discount promo codes. Finally, and most importantly, we urge you to resolve to continue to consider the end user. Sure, you want to sell products, but think of the ways that your company might alienate users when you constantly send emails, overselling them on products or services that they might otherwise love. While we’re not telling you to that marketing strategy is completely organic and reliant upon word-of-mouth, we do encourage you to carefully seed your strategy, and to allow it to take off from there. Carefully review customer data to find out what people love about your brand, and use that information to develop plans that speak directly to your customer. Above all, resolve to create a brand strategy that puts your customer first, thereby empowering you to extend your company’s resources to create the solid foundation for an invigorating digital strategy in the new year. Check out some of the digital marketing and engagement campaigns we’ve done for our clients. We’re pretty satisfied with our work, no bragging needed.
