Inbound marketing is at heart about capturing people’s interest and drawing them to your site where they can learn more about your business. While text based content can achieve this, especially if it is targeted well for search, it is also important to share more innovative forms of content, such as images, infographics and interactive subject matter.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
When it comes to content it is not always necessary to reinvent the wheel. Equally of value is to take existing content and to present it in a fresh way. This Guide to Farming in the UK is a perfect example as it takes agricultural statistics, which in themselves could be quite dry, and presents them interactively. The attractive visual element of the content makes it easy to read and the figures, which update in real time, are suddenly more interesting when presented in this format.
What Type of Content Works Well
Naturally you will want to share content relevant for your business but if possible it should also be multi-faceted. Content which entertains, has a human interest element to it, inspires or touches on our emotions always seems to do well. Recent research by Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman found that three different aspects to content helped it to go viral. First, positive content won out over negative content. Second, content fuelled by emotion, positive or negative, got shared more than content devoid of the emotional aspect. Third, content that was practically useful also got shared frequently.
This third point is great news for businesses of all types as if you can create content which is of use to people, based around your field of expertise, it stands a good chance of being shared and therefore making a much wider audience aware of what your business offers. If you can also create that content in a visually appealing way you will perform well as it is spread across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.
Help it to Get Shared
Once you have created your content you want it to be shared by as many people as possible. There are key factors you need to consider if you want to give it the best chance to go viral.
- A great title will attract people’s attention and draw them in to find out more
#The content should be all about the visual as this is what will stop people in their tracks when they are scrolling through their newsfeed on their mobile phone
- That so many people now view social media on their mobile also means it is vital the content is mobile enabled and it should be quick and easy to consume. This will lead to more shares
- The content should be optimized for sharing. So for example if you add it to your Facebook page include a great headline or title as we mentioned above; a short excerpt telling people what it is about and including those valuable search keywords; and let Facebook know which image it should share.
Be Patient
The final part to the equation is to have patience. Content doesn’t always spread like wildfire immediately. Sometimes it is a slow burn with quite considerable numbers viewing it over a much longer timeframe.
Once you have added the content to your website don’t be afraid to revisit it often and to share it frequently. It is hoped you will have chosen evergreen subject matter so it will be as relevant to people who see it in six months’ time as to those who view it tomorrow. This slow burn type of content is perhaps even more valuable to businesses than the short lived alternative, as it will continue to draw people to your site for months or perhaps years ahead, each time offering valuable insights into the products or services you provide.
