With so many different avenues to advertise online and so many potential customers to reach, marketers are often tempted to sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity. However, there are many ways to market your product without bombarding people with content. Next time you get the urge to make as much content as possible, remember these four tips to achieving quality content first.
You could hire these two to re-enact their famous bit, but it probably wouldn’t be as cute.
1. It’s okay to sit out on some conversations.
On the Internet it can be tempting to try to market to everyone and anyone. Wendy Clark, president of Strategic Marketing for Coca-Cola said during Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference earlier this month that “brands don’t need to be in every conversation.” Instead, it’s better to focus on quality content targeted towards people who actually want to buy your product.
Posting all over Facebook and Twitter interrupts enjoyment of those platforms and ends up frustrating customers. Real life example: sometimes I will tweet a joke or statement about my life that happens to mention a product. Then I will get brands tweeting back at me, seeing it as an opportunity to advertise their brand. I’m just trying to tell my friends something about yogurt, not interact with the Yoplait brand. (Seriously, Yoplait STILL follows me on twitter, even though I’m a Chobani girl at heart.)
Read the room. It’s great to use social media to advertise, but make sure you are doing so without seeming insincere or over-eager.
2. Want to reach a lot of people? Try crowdsourcing.
Crowdsourcing is an awesome way to generate exposure with seeming like you are spamming people. Unlike the previous example, crowdsourcing allows people to get involved with the marketing on their own volition. Encourage people to share their stories, post images, or join in on hashtags. This spreads awareness and can lead to viral sensations.
Crowdsourcing works. For example, Fortune magazine says that after Clinique’s crowdsourcing campaign called #faceforward, the company saw that intent to purchase Clinique products increased by 59%. This campaign was specifically targeted towards millennial women, frequent users of social media.
Crowdsourcing helps connect your brand to new clients using people’s own social networks.
3. Interact with real events in real time.
We often talk about how good content is “evergreen,” meaning it’s always relevant. While this is true, sometimes it can help to have topical content. Social networks like Twitter operate in real time. For example during award shows, many people are live-tweeting, which means there are going to be more people on Twitter during these events. If you take advantage of real-time moments, you can hit more people on Twitter at once.
After the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, brands jumped to create content related to this historic event. It was interesting to see how each brand showed their support, and provided exposure for these brands during a peak time people were searching for news about the event.
4. Embrace quality, not quantity.
There’s no denying that good, well-crafted content sticks in people’s minds. Unfortunately, this takes time and effort. But taking that extra step to create high quality content can really help.
Huffington Post creative producer Paul Gale knows all about quality over quantity. While many Internet comedians strive to make as many short and zany videos as possible (see: any Vine celebrity ever), many of Gale’s comedy videos are more like short films. With funny premises at the center, Gale puts effort into crafting meticulously put-together videos. His videos often have film crews of over a dozen members, and each production seems bigger (and better) than the last. Rather than making simple comedy sketches, Gale works to create fully-realized ideas and videos.
Take for example Gale’s popular Why Starbucks Spells Your Name Wrong” video, which currently has more than 10 million views on Youtube. This video went viral in a matter of hours, being shared on sites like Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Forbes, Esquire and more. Since then, he’s landed a job as a creative video producer for Huffington Post and a Youtube Partnership with AboveAverage. The secret to his viral success isn’t making as many videos as possible, it’s making sure that each video is high in laughs and quality.
While no one really knows the secret to going viral, we do know what helps. As you see, it takes more than just bombarding your clients with content to find success online.
Still baffled by how to manage your Twitter account without frustrating Millenials? Interested in launching a crowdsourcing campaign but can’t think of a hashtag? Media Shower is here to help. Try our free trial today!