YouTube is an indispensable platform for social media and content marketers, especially now that audience members are consuming YouTube content like never before. People are spending as much as 72 minutes a day watching video content, and marketers are keen to make the most of this trend to increase audience engagement. However, engaging an audience on a highly competitive platform such as YouTube can be tough. But with the help of the right strategies and content marketing tools, you can have the impact your desire on the social media platform. Here’s a 3-step process to increasing audience engagement on YouTube using content marketing tools or content curation apps such as DrumUp.
1. Create channel(s) on YouTube for your types of content
Many people do a great job on this first step. They create excellent content that’s on-point, timely and entertaining. Some brands choose to have one central YouTube channel where they publish all of their content, while others split their content based on categories across multiple YouTube channels.
Irrespective of what you choose to do, it’s critical to first have a channel that contains your content. This is your home-base using which you will attract and engage your target audience. Marie Folio’s YouTube channel is a great example. Her brand focuses on start-up advice and inspiration.
2. Create visually-enticing design
Apart from having a channel for relevant content, it’s also critical to have great design, so you can attract your target groups’ attention.
Great design is a combination of having great video titles and alluring thumbnails. Clickbait still works, but how much of clickbait you apply depends on the tone of your brand and your personal preferences. It’s also important to consider displaying your most interesting stills as thumbnails on videos. To do so, you can use photo editor and graphic design tools such as Canva, which allow you to alter already-existing templates for your use.
3. Promote YouTube videos to your social media followers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
YouTube by itself is difficult to run, if you’re not already viral or popular. But you can use your existing following on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to increase audience engagement on YouTube.
Here’s an effortless way to do it using DrumUp’s RSS feed reader & content library.
Path 1 – Automatically share YouTube videos to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as soon as they are published.
- Go to your YouTube channel and get the channel ID.
- Insert the channel ID to this URL https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<channelIDHERE>.
- Add the complete URL to your DrumUp feed reader.
- Choose between custom/1-click/auto scheduling to share content on your attached social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) accounts. DrumUp will automatically take you to the screen below once you have added your RSS feed.
Path 2 – Share evergreen videos automatically every once a while to your audience to keep them engaged.
- Follow Path 1 from Step 1 to Step 3.
- Once your YouTube posts appear in the feed channel, choose the videos qualify as “evergreen videos” and add them to a content library by clicking on the Star icon.
- Once you have filled your library, choose automatic publishing and set a frequency to keep your audience engaged.
You can apply Path 1 and Path 2 to your own YouTube channel, and/or any other channels that publish content relevant to your target audience.
Video content can be powerful to engaging your audience and convincing them to eventually convert into paying customers. All you need is the right set of content marketing tools and strategies.
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We think of Pinterest as a lifestyle social network, chock full of party ideas, crafts, home decor inspiration, recipes, and fitness routines. But Pinterest is so much more than that. It’s become an asset to marketers who want to show off their visual content and drive traffic to their sites.
And here’s a notable benefit of Pinterest marketing. According to this infographic, the half-life of a Pin is a whopping 3.5 months. That’s 1,680 times longer than the half-life of a Facebook post. And don’t even get me started on the 24-minute half-life of a Tweet. Which means that the effort you put into your Pinterest presence will pay dividends for a long time.
And the value of Pinterest marketing isn’t limited to B2C businesses. Pinterest can supply fresh traffic and leads to B2B businesses as well. In this post, I’ll share 10 tips for B2B Marketing on Pinterest.
1. Pin a Variety of Visual Content
Pinterest is for visual content. That’s why so many B2B businesses often think Pinterest isn’t for them. They feel like they don’t have enough—or in fact any—visual content to share.
So, first of all, if you don’t have any visual content, it’s time to get cracking. Content marketing is the future of marketing, and the sexiness of visual content is undeniable.
But don’t wait until you have a fresh bank of visual assets before you dip your feet into the Pinterest pool. Trust me, you have more visual content than you realize. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Product images. Post your product images and link back to your site’s product pages.
- Quotes. Create graphic quotes that would inspire your target audience. Canva makes the job quick and easy.
- Blog posts. Pin your blog posts to drive people back to your site.
- Events. Pin photos of company and industry events.
- Employees. Show off photos of team members. Let your unique company culture shine through pinned photos of your inter-company social events.
- Marketing materials. Pin the covers of your e-books, white papers, and brochures—with links to where the materials can be downloaded.
- Presentations. Put your decks to work for you. Create a board for each presentation and pin key slides to the board.
- Industry-related topics. Share infographics and other pieces that are relevant to your industry.
- Tips and recommendations. Be helpful to your prospects and clients. Curate tips and recommendations to make their lives easier. Create boards on books you recommend, great blogs for them to follow, podcasts, and apps.
- Targeted boards. Create specific boards that cater to the needs and interests of individual industries and your different personas.
2. Balance Quality and Personality
When you create a new board, aim to make it the best board on that topic, and include a wide variety of quality pins. But while you target quality, don’t be afraid to show your personality. Quirkiness and humour can be very effective at making you stand out on Pinterest.
3. Use Pinterest to Find Great Content
Don’t limit your Pinterest presence to your own content. Round out your boards with content that your audience will enjoy, from other sources.
Don’t have time to scour the Web for that content? Follow relevant Pinners to fill your feed with quality Pins that you can conveniently re-Pin to your boards.
4. Use Great Images
Attention-grabbing imagery is key on Pinterest. Make sure you’re using the optimal image size for your Pins, board images, and profile images.
Use stunning photography, beautiful fonts and place subtle branding in the corners of your images. And make it easy for your site visitors to pin your content right from your site. Make sure that all your posts and pages contain at least one Pinnable image.
5. Write Quality Copy
Of course, great imagery that your Pinterest audience wants to click is key. But don’t forget to make your copy work for you too. Think of your descriptions as ad copy. Make them engaging enough to earn a click. And add compelling calls to action to help convert visitors to your site.
6. SEO Your Boards and Pins
Pinterest can be an asset in your SEO efforts. The more people re-pin your site content, the more backlinks your site earns. And social signals can improve your rankings.
To help people find your Pins on both Pinterest and Google, optimize your profile, boards, and pins. Search Engine Watch offers up some great advice here on how to do that.
But how about the Pins that are created directly from your site? You can’t always count on Pinners to enter a keyword-rich description on those pins. Many won’t enter a description at all. Give Pinners a hand by enabling Rich Pins, which automatically pull some of the post content into the description.
7. Get the Data
To help you decide what new content to create and post to Pinterest, you need to understand how your current content is performing. And for that, you’re going to need to get the data. Here are three great sources of analytics data for Pinterest.
To start with, access the analytics data for your Pinterest business page here. You’ll find a variety of engagement insights about your pins.
Next, remember that not everyone pins from Pinterest. Find out what content people are pinning directly from your site by visiting pinterest.com/source/example.com. (Substitute example.com for your domain.)
Finally, use Google Analytics to monitor engagement and conversion metrics for your Pinterest traffic.
8. Research Your Ideal Client
Are you trying to get a better understand of who your ideal client is as a person? Pinterest can provide a wealth of data. Just check out the boards of your clients and people who have repinned your pins. What else are they pinning? What insights can you glean from their boards?
9. Research Content Ideas
If content creation is a priority for you, you’ll hit occasional droughts in content ideas. (It happens to the best of us, believe me.) Pinterest’s guided search is effective for unearthing content ideas and curation opportunities around a topic.
10. Get Inspired by the Greats
Why reinvent the wheel when you can follow the lead of other great brands? Check out these great Pinterest business pages to see how it’s done:
11. Bonus tip: Collaborate with Clients and Partners
Ok so this isn’t really a marketing, so consider it a bonus. Pinterest is a fantastic tool for collaborating with clients.
I use it whenever I build a visual asset for a new client – whether it’s a video, presentation, infographic or Website. So that I don’t waste time building a piece my client won’t like, I strive to get into my client’s head before I begin. I try to get a sense of the design styles that resonate with them.
Sure, I could have them fill out a client brief. But that exercise feels too esoteric to some of my clients. What’s worked brilliantly for me instead is to create a secret board on Pinterest, and add my client as a contributor. My client then spends time Pinning images, photos, colour palettes, fonts, and websites they love. Before long, I know exactly what they’re after and can deliver on their vision.
Over To You
Have you been using Pinterest in your B2B marketing? If not, why? If so, have I missed any key points? I’d love to hear from you. Please share in the comments.
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When you create emails, do you send them out to everyone on your list? If so, you’re suffering from “bulk email disease.” This very common digital illness occurs when small business owners send every email to every single contact on their list.
Common symptoms include low open rates, poor conversions, and confusion about what to do next.
Well, If you’re ready to conquer this condition once and for all, you’ll need a healthy dose of segmentation. This includes dividing your larger list into small, targeted subgroups and coming up with a content strategy for how and when you’ll send emails to each list.
A method with proven results, as illustrated in the chart below, segmentation can increase your open rates by nearly 39 percent. It can also help boost your leads by 24 percent which is much higher than average growth statistics.
Here are six ways you can segment your list and get it back on the mend:
1. Geographic area
Segmenting lists by geographic area is one of the most popular methods and can be helpful for many reasons. This method gives you the opportunity to communicate with and talk to your customers where they are, increasing their ability to relate to your business.
Remember though, there are some businesses like cleaning or meal delivery services, which are limited to a geographical region. For these businesses, splitting contacts into even smaller segments, such as cities or towns, is useful.
2. Demographics
Similar to location, segmenting your list by demographics may work well for a single email or future email campaign series.
Let’s say you run a retail business that caters to women ages 30-60. When you release a new item that appeals more to the under 35 crowd, you can increase your chance of creating buzz with an email specifically for the people on your under 35 list.
The standard business demographics that are frequently used include age, gender, and income level.You can collect this information from customers by including it on a signup form and embedding it on your website or blog.
3. Loyal customers
Everyone likes to be rewarded for their loyalty. You’ll find that your customers are no different. With a marketplace overflowing with options, repeat buyers are a much smaller segment than they once were.
Use this to your advantage through emails that show your frequent customers you appreciate their business. Consider making a ‘Loyal Customer Promo’ or send out an email inviting 15 of your most loyal customers to a sneak peek of a product. You can make the deal even sweeter by giving them a chance to buy it with a select percentage off the final cost.
4. Brand advocates
Every business has a group of customers that advocate for their business without being asked to do so. This is also known as benefiting from the power of word of mouth marketing. Create a segment in your email list for this group. Much like your loyal customers, it’s important to reward those who spread the word about your business.
How do you identify a brand advocate? Look for customers that sing your praises on social media. Customers that have referred friends to your business, or reached out with positive feedback should also make the list.
5. Inactive customers
From those who champion your brand to the group that is nowhere to be found, you’ll need another segment of your list that’s dedicated strictly to inactive customers.
You shouldn’t let inactive customers go without a fight. Okay, maybe “fight” is a strong word, but you shouldn’t let them go without making a targeted effort to bring them back into your sales fold.
Consider sending a promo email to those inactive customers. Use a message titled, “We miss you!”
or “It’s been a while, how have you been?” to reestablish contact and attempt to connect with them again. You can also send a survey asking for insight on why these customers have strayed away from your business. Through the survey results, you could make improvements to keep others from straying.
6. Role or position of contact
It goes without saying that to be effective, an email has to land in the right inbox. If an office supply store, for example, sends a promotional email to a CEO rather than the office manager, it’s probably going to be ignored. For this reason, it’s important to break up your list by positions, if possible. By doing so, the right person gets the right email, which leads to increased sales.
A few words on implementation
Curing bulk email disease can take some time. In fact, we suggest starting with only two or three segments listed above. If you overdose on segmentation, you could get frustrated and make your email marketing strategy more complicated than it needs to be.
Need extra guidance? Luckily, we have a resource guide to help you segment your list in your VerticalResponse account. Check out the step-by-step segment instructions to get started.
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