It is often the simplest ideas that achieve the most outstanding results with content marketing. Experimenting with tweaking and optimising strategies for our clients day in, day out, we have found that certain seemingly simple techniques can significantly improve engagement with online content and, ultimately, increase leads and sales.
Here follows a round-up of four seemingly small approaches to achieving impressive results with content.
1. Post content multiple times
The beauty of excellent content lies in the way it can be marketed across channels and repeatedly on the same channels (the channels used will of course vary, according to your brand objectives and target audience). Once you’ve made the initial investment in creating high quality content, it follows that you’ll want to extract maximum value from it.
The first and most obvious benefit of sharing content more than once is the potential to drive more traffic. Experience tells us that repeated tweets often achieve roughly the same amount of click-throughs as the initial post. Reposting a link to a blog on Twitter, for instance, can drive more shares and retweets and actual visits to the blog itself. Sharing content repeatedly throughout the day will also ensure it hits people in different time zones and those with varying social media habits.
2. Tweak content for each audience
One of the risks of sharing content several times across social networks is that the brand voice becomes monotonous.
To avoid this, aim to reframe content each time it is posted. The repurposing dimension can be as simple as writing a bespoke post to accompany the content. On Facebook, a useful technique is to pull out a different image highlighting a certain juicy segment of the content. On Twitter, using the new expanded images feature, you can draw attention to the standout fact or quote for your Twitter audience. Develop a keen understanding of your audiences on individual channels to determine which pull-out will attract the most clicks.
3. Use images
Broadly speaking, anything that makes it easier for your audience to access and enjoy your content is a good thing. One of the most beneficial new features Twitter launched last year was inline images in tweets. The change means that users no longer need to click a link to see an attached image, the tweet itself simply expands. In the official Twitter app for iPhones and Android, images expand automatically as a preview that users simply tap to view in full.
Research conducted by Buffer found that sharing images on Twitter can seriously boost engagement. To summarise the findings, tweets with images received 18% more clicks than those without and an impressive 89% more favourites. Finally, tweets making use of images received 150% more retweets, suggesting increased engagement with the tweets themselves.
4. Test what content performs best
A hidden benefit of posting content to social networks several times is the opportunity offered to test what kind of content performs best.
For instance, when publishing a blog post to Twitter, experiment with using two alternative headlines. One of these might be a question-style headline (’Are you using content marketing to its full potential?’), while the other might be a ‘listicle’ title (‘The 7 ways to ensure content marketing fulfils its potential’).
Tweet both headlines and then run analytics to examine which elicits better engagement in the form of retweets, favourites, mentions and clicks. If the findings reveal a major discrepancy in engagement, you’ll want to consider changing the original post heading for future tweets and shares.
The purpose of all the tips listed here is to make your content work harder for you with minimal extra effort or resource; the best evergreen content remains relevant for some time after it is first published and should continue to attract traffic for months to come.
Photo: Highways Agency
