You have the content. You have the social media profiles set up. But somehow, nothing seems to work. You run in a circle of publishing and posting without avail. Your social media marketing isn’t driving you business, and neither is your content. What’s happening?
Chances are, there’s a lack of synergy between content marketing and social media marketing that’s costing you opportunities.
Here is a super simple five step process to align your content and social strategies for bigger success online.
Table of Contents
1. Get to Know Your Buyer
Drop that pen! Before you create any piece of content, do you know who you’re writing for?
Targeting your buyer requires an intimate idea of who she is, what she wants, and the challenges that keep her staring bright eyed at her smartphone’s screen at 3 a.m.
- How will you help her sleep better at night?
- How will you help her breathe easier throughout the day?
- What can you offer her to make her life a little bit better?
Getting to know the ins and outs of your buyer shows you where you fit in. Understanding your business’s role in your buyer’s life shows how you fit in. Armed with that information, you can start creating your goals.
2. Create Buyer-Centric Goals
You don’t need another lesson in the importance of setting goals. You can find enough information about that online.
What you might not know is how to tie in your idea of success with the people who’ll help you attain those goals – your buyer.
Too many businesses focus on vanity metrics, such as Facebook likes or email subscriber numbers. Although those are good jumping off points, they don’t paint the true picture of how your customer feels about your business.
Buyer centric metrics are those that show how your customer engages with your company. For example:
- Churn Rate: How often do you need to go out and get new customers? How many of your customers are returning to your business?
- Customer Lifetime Value: How much does each customer bring to your business?
- Customer Engagement: How often are your customers engaging with your brand online and offline? How often is your content liked or shared? What is the open rate of your email blasts? How many people bring your coupons into your store?
Your goals should center on whether your customers love or hate your business. With this you’re more likely to strive for delivering value through your content and social media, instead of leaping after vanity goals that won’t give you the growth you deserve.
3. Produce a Foundation of Outstanding Content
With your buyer and goals in mind, you’re ready to start creating content. By now, you understand what your buyer wants, how you can help, and what you hope to see happen as a result of your content marketing. You’re ready to produce!
Reality check: There’s a lot of noise out there these days.
Content is offered on every corner of the Internet. To get yours to stand out, it needs to be exceptional.
Produce a foundation of outstanding content. Here’s how:
- Write blog posts that are both entertaining and informative. Make people want to listen to what you’re saying.
- Share something that’s newsworthy. Got the scoop on a big event or special deal? Share it!
- Create a podcast that’s fun to listen to.
Creating subpar content won’t cut it these days. You need a foundation of quality content to stand on if you want your voice heard. With a balance between entertainment and value, you’re more likely to stand out from the crowded content space and have your brand’s message resonate with your buyer.
4. Add Your Content and Voice to Social Media
When you publish your foundation of high quality content, you need to share it on social media. To get heard among the cat gifs and food porn, you need to fit in.
Social media is all about fitting in with the cool kids. You want to get people to like you and talk to you. More importantly, you want people to go to your website and get away from the noise of Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. If you don’t, your message will get lost in the shuffle and your brand will soon be forgotten.
Post your content on social media with a small message that’ll entice people to click further. This is where your brand’s personality needs to shine!
Add flair. Add pictures. Infuse zest into your social media post. Make it exciting and interesting. Most of all, make it relevant. Here are a few examples of social media posts done right:
HubSpot entices you with a few hot names, then tells you to click the link to find other “phenomenal” speakers for their upcoming conference. The goal is to get you off of Facebook and onto their website where they hope you’ll be so impressed that you register for the event.
This post starts out with a question. A little fear mongering never hurt anyone, right? Then, it offers an immediate solution – if you click on their link.
This Cinco de Mayo post was timely, relevant, and enticing. Doesn’t that margarita look delicious? Click away from Facebook and over to the Baublebar website to get the recipe! See what they did there?
5. Analyze What’s Working
No matter how well you think you know your buyer, you’ll always learn something new. The best way to know what’s working in your marketing and what isn’t is to analyze your progress.
- Which blog posts are getting the most attention? Write more of those.
- Which pages are getting the most traffic? Add more of those.
- Which social media posts are getting the most clicks? Incorporate more of those.
You get the idea. To meet your buyer-centric goals, analyze what your customers are telling you through their actions. Then, do more of what’s working. It’s not rocket science, but it takes careful execution and insight into what your customers want from you.
Want help getting started? I’m here for you! Let’s work together to create a foundation of outstanding content and analyze what’s happening month after month so that your website fuels your business goals…
… because standing out in your buyer’s eyes isn’t easy. It takes strategic effort.
About the author: Kimberly Crossland
“I’m Kimberly Crossland, owner, writer, and operator of The Savvy Copywriter, LLC. My full time job as a copywriter and content marketer is to save savvy entrepreneurs without a clue (or interest) in the Internet from destroying their business with a terrible or nonexistent website.
Fun Bits About Me
I have an unnatural obsession with the power of words.
You don’t want to talk to me first thing in the morning if I haven’t had a cup of coffee.
I speak two languages: English and Danish.
My other job titles include wife and dog-walker.
It doesn’t take a lot of convincing to get me to want to travel somewhere new and fun.
I follow the paleo diet, but I LOVE chocolate, cookies, and wine.”
