Word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing tools around, and thanks to social sites like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, there are lots of ways customers can share company or product recommendations and other information, even when the customers are located a world apart. The problem is, those recommendations are more likely to occur soon after a purchase or interaction with your company. Your goal is to boost interest in your company at all times, even outside the sales cycle. And content is the way to do just that.
Offering content that’s shareable attracts both current and potential customers coming to your site, even when they aren’t specifically looking for your product or service. It helps build your trust factor so that when they do need your product, your company springs to mind.
So how do you make your content shareable? Here are some tips:
- It has to be relevant; it has to focus on a common problem or issue that matters to the customers you want to attract.
- Being funny helps; so does being controversial or touching.
- It should bring a new perspective in some way – either by offering a helpful tip or by presenting information in a fresh light that’s worth sharing.
- Surveys, contests and giveaways are good ideas to fall back on, but don’t overdo it.
- Leave heavy-handed marketing behind and make it about the customer.
- Finally, make it easy to share by adding share buttons for social media sites at the bottom of your page.
Of course, before your content can be shared by your customers, it needs to be found by your customers, and that means it needs to be found by the search engines. A lot of people make the all-too-common mistake of thinking that “findable” content is content that contains a lot of keywords or key phrases strategically sprinkled throughout the text, but actually, that type of approach can do you more harm than good. Instead, focus on fresh, quality content that’s relevant to your customers and publish at regular intervals to help your site become found by the customers you hope to attract.
If this all sounds too difficult, consider hiring a content writer or marketing company to help your company get its share of attention
