Intelligent content promotion is vital to the growth of any online business, and marketing strategies must find innovative ways to set their brands apart. Sometimes looking at what other brands are doing to get consumers' attention can give you some great ideas for content promotion.
With that in mind, here are 12 powerful examples of content promotion that you can use to boost your digital marketing in 2022.
1. Use powerful images
Creating an impression using word-based content alone is becoming more and more difficult, and consumers today typically prefer high-impact visual content to words alone. According to research, 60% of CEOs prefer watching a video over reading a text online.
With video creation services, you can create engaging videos from photos, videos and music - and it's easy to create curated marketing videos for IG/FB stories too.
There are plenty of coupons for online video creation services too, so you can easily create custom 30 second HD quality videos to market your brand that won't cost much.
No matter what product or service you're promoting, a strong photo or video concept can make a big impression. Sometimes thinking outside the box is critical.
However, sometimes it is simple, especially in the event that the product is highly visible in terms of impact. Take pizza, for example. Few people would not look twice at the sight of a hot, fresh slice of pizza oozing with delicious melted cheese if they were hungry.
Pizza Hut amplifies the power of images in its social media posts and marketing campaigns, and draws attention to its content and promotions with compelling images.
2. Including guest blogging and valuable tips
Including guest blogs in your content can greatly increase your reach while providing an abundance of engaging and linkable content.
As long as your guest posts are unique, high quality, and vetted, they can be a great source for adding additional value to your audience, leading to conversions to your site.
Home Depot is a perfect example of this, with daily DIY experts providing interesting links, ideas, tips and tricks to add to the wealth of information that Home Depot has to offer.
Offering high value in the form of tips, hacks, and ideas gives people a tangible reason to come back to your site again, which can lead to increased brand awareness and strong cheering fans.
3. Provide valuable resources
In addition to providing a wealth of tips, tricks, and information, any valuable data information can become a very effective way to drive massive traffic to your site and send your search engine optimizations.
Shutterstock is an excellent example of this. She has not only harnessed her expertise to produce the Creative Trends Report but has enhanced this valuable resource with stunning visuals and interactive music and video components.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, this attractive graph has led to over 6 billion visits to their site, as well as thousands of posts on social media.
4. Engage influencers
Collaborating with others is one of the most powerful content promotion ideas on this list.
Involving social media influencers in promoting your content is a surefire way to get more attention online, as you can take advantage of their social reach and greatly expand your brand awareness.
There are also some additional ways you can use this marketing medium even more.
When you combine a marketing message with a movement or cause — something that has the potential to elicit an emotional response — you take your influencer's impact from a simple product endorsement to an inspirational message that can attract more attention.
Olay has done this brilliantly with her #FaceAnything campaign. By bringing together the far-reaching pieces of 9 social media pioneers, they focused on an empowering message that could mean many things to many women.
Ultimately, she's been cleverly linked once again to a facial skin collection while inspiring women's empowerment to send her brand's positive awareness through the roof.
5. Maintain the diversity of your content
While you may be primarily known for one or two particular products or services, you can build a much broader network through some smart content promotion.
When you intelligently expand your online content to attract multiple audiences, you can increase your conversions and achieve more brand followers. The cracker barrel is an excellent example of this.
Although it is primarily known for its cooking and antique souvenirs, it preserves its content and offerings on a larger scale. In doing so, you have amassed an online audience that is interested in a more comprehensive set of things.
By incorporating articles and content focused on anything from recipes to holiday decorating tips, they keep a wide range of interested consumers while boosting their SEO as they do.
6. Identifying social challenges
Finding new ways to create active promotional content is a great way to increase brand awareness and conversions. If you can find a way to incorporate a positive message into that, all the better.
Focusing on global issues, such as sustainability, but in a fun way, can increase your digital marketing footprint and highlight your brand.
Leading jeans brand Levi has done this brilliantly with their #7Days7Ways Social Challenge. They asked people to style their trusty Levi's jeans differently every day for a week and use a trending hashtag in their posts.
This campaign helped position the brand as sustainability conscious while encouraging people to wear and share their brand more. The campaign shows that business ethics are vital to their brand.
7. Personalization
Every now and then, an advertising campaign comes up that reaches farther and wider than usual. The example of Coke's personalization campaign is undoubtedly one of those.
Coca-Cola knew what it was doing when it launched its "Share a Coke" campaign. Their strategy was to take what was already a global behemoth of the brand and allow consumers to feel a part of it by customizing their bottles.
After searching for the most common Australian names, they first added them to Coca-Cola bottles in Australia in 2012, followed by Britain in 2013. The posters said, "Share Cola with" followed by a commonly used name, allowing people to buy their favorite drink with their name or that of a friend on the bottle.
This campaign was so popular that it quickly spread around the world and eventually appeared in no fewer than 80 countries. So, what made it such a success?
Personalization makes people feel unique, meaningful and inclusive. They inevitably considered the most common names for the demographic group most likely to join the idea. It's still, in general, a far-reaching strategy where everyone wants to feel included.
The focus on the idea of "sharing" also reinforced this stellar marketing idea, sparking an emotional attachment to the brand and encouraging people not only to buy one with their name on it but for someone else as well. It was a new idea that proved to be a huge success.
8. Educate
One way to engage the audience is to offer ways to improve their skills. Canva is a perfect example of this, having created its own unique online design school.
Canva is a popular online graphic design platform that enables its users to create professional quality images and animations for use in their blogs and social media channels.
But, going forward, they also now offer a range of courses across their design school that enable users to improve their graphic design skills from the comfort of their own home - and without the high costs of completing a degree.
Canva is an excellent example of how interactive content marketing that offers educational benefits can highlight the platform's usefulness. It's also great for credibility, positioning the business as an authority in the industry.
9. Building trust through honesty
McDonald's is one of the most successful fast food chains on the planet, if not the most successful, yet it always carries whispers of questionable ingredients. It's a long-standing brand now that it has survived countless conspiracy theories regarding the quality (or lack thereof) of the ingredients they use and how to get those ingredients.
For a long time, McDonald's continued to thrive despite these rumors. However, consumers today are becoming more aware of what they are consuming and what businesses they support, so McDonald's decided to take some action to change public perceptions.
With a very cleverly designed campaign, McDonald's Canada accepted the challenge of answering nearly 10,000 customer questions. They came out from behind their famous golden arches and shared their truth in a display of somewhat radical transparency and honesty. The audience loved them for that.
You can change the audience's perception and gain or regain trust and faith in your product and brand by telling your story authentically. Doing so also gives consumers a sense of superior customer service by interacting with them on their terms and giving them the information they want and need to make their own decisions.
There is no doubt that the information shared by McDonald's Canada would have greatly (if not completely) endorsed the brand's reputation. But the campaign was nonetheless well executed as a sign of commitment to transparency regarding their products.
10. Take the highway
Of all these content promotion ideas, iterating may be the most difficult.
During the pandemic lockdowns, many businesses were struggling, and people all over the world began to feel a sense of solidarity unprecedented in our generation.
Burger King was one of those companies that used these terms to further this sense of community support. By encouraging its customers to eat some of their competitor's food in a show of solidarity, Burger King's "Ask McDonald's" campaign has caused shockwaves, fostered empathy, and attracted a great deal of attention as a result.
Whether this was a very strategic move or a really honest plea - maybe a bit of both - he has fallen into a storm. This campaign is another exceptional example of how prioritizing higher values can enhance a brand's reputation.
11. Virtual Shopping Experience
L'Oreal Paris is a giant in the world of makeup, which has been creating lipsticks and foundations for many years along with its famous line of skincare products. The brand now features an interactive approach to content marketing called “Featured Faces” to stay relevant in today's highly digitized world.
Signature Faces uses technology that allows consumers to virtually test different shades of lipstick from the comfort of their own home. This interactive tool uses artificial intelligence filter technology to offer a practical and efficient closing option for online shopping, and it is also very convenient and fun to use.
When creating virtual interactive experiences for consumers, companies can put the needs of their customers first. And making it fun and shareable adds a new twist that makes it even more effective. It also helps customers make a decision to buy a product, especially since it makes them focus more on the product they are buying rather than buying a product at all.
12. Telling stories
Everyone enjoys a good story, something they can believe in, get lost in temporarily, be inspired, or feel the movement. Stories evoke emotions and attract audiences, and they can be a great way to get people to come back for more. That's why blogging has become such a phenomenon.
Microsoft has honed this skill and used it to build stronger relationships with its audience and brand users. The blog - aptly called "Stories" - contains many heart-warming stories that lead people to feel more emotion and, in turn, more trust with the brand.
The humanity of well-told stories can reach and connect with customers like few other customers, and in turn build trust and a stronger relationship. After all, humility is contagious.
It's not frustrating that great content is developed just to put it out there without even realizing it. Content promotion ideas are essential to a solid marketing plan, as content creation is only half the battle.
There are many innovative ways to significantly increase your reach and attract consumers' attention, so consider all of them and be prepared to think outside the box for the best results.
Think about how to evoke emotion, inspire and encourage interaction, create a social movement, increase transparency, transform public perception, and give consumers what they want most.
Source: Neal Schaffer