Is your marketing content a “billboard in the desert”? That is to say, do you have content that, no matter how great it is, the right people aren’t seeing it? For many companies the challenge isn’t just creating great marketing content – it’s finding the right ways to drive traffic to their content. Luckily for companies who are investing in creating great marketing content, social media marketing can help.
Social media marketing and content marketing have a symbiotic relationship. A content marketing program gives companies a wealth of information to share on social media. In turn, social media marketing helps companies drive traffic to their online marketing content. So, just how do you leverage social media to get more value out of your marketing content?
PR content and social media
Let’s start by taking a look at your company’s PR assets – press releases, expert articles, TV interviews, etc. How can you repurpose your PR content to create compelling social media content? Let’s start with expert articles: 10 tips = 10 tweets. The answers from the Q&A article? Great email marketing fodder and perhaps a conversation starter for your LinkedIn Group. Now, as you work to repurpose your PR content into social media content, be sure you are adapting the content to suit the platform, audience and, of course, giving it a unique twist so people don’t become overwhelmed by an excessive amount of the same information.
Premium content and social media
How is your company driving people to download whitepapers, toolkits and e-books? While you likely have call-to-action buttons on your blog posts and sprinkled throughout your website, you have to consider that these measures are only exposing your content to people who actually visit your website. From LinkedIn to Twitter – not to mention Facebook, depending on the nature of your business and target audience(s) – social media is a powerful tool for driving traffic to your online marketing content. Commit to developing compelling teasers that will motivate people to click through from your social media updates to your landing pages and ultimately provide the information necessary to download your premium content. And, while we’re on the topic of landing pages…
Landing pages and social media
Depending on the purpose of your landing page and the action you want visitors to take, how you use social media to drive traffic will vary. While some consumer brands use landing pages as hubs for incentive marketing such as samples and discounts, many b2b companies use landing pages to drive premium content downloads, event/webinar registrations and product preview opportunities. When using social media to drive traffic to your landing pages, be sure to share often and play with different ways of teeing up your content. Sometimes, sharing a teaser tip for your whitepaper may work best, while promoting “limited seats available” or an opportunity to “be the first” may be more advantageous for marketing events.
Without social media as part of the marketing mix, it is challenging for companies to drive a high volume of quality traffic to their content marketing assets. When evaluating social media’s role in your overall marketing program, focus on the platforms that are best suited to both your target audiences and the nature of your content. With audience-centric content and the right content distribution channels, the ROI of your content marketing program can be limitless.
