So, you’ve poured your heart and soul into creating some content worth writing home about – give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. However, please don’t shoot the messenger, but your job is only half complete. Why? Because the first hurdle is creating the content, the second is getting it out to its intended audience. And when it comes to content promotion, timing is everything.
As a general rule, marketers want to get the right message to the right people at the right time –after all, you want to make sure your investment is well-spent. It’s not as simple as taking a wild guess that it’s a good time to post to your social channels because you think everyone is taking a lunch break or having a scroll over their morning coffee. Here are a few tips to hone your timing and ensure your content is as visible as possible:
1. Create buyer personas
I am always banging on about how crucial it is to get to know your audience better than the back of your hand, and creating clear buyer personas is a great way to ensure there is a consistent understanding of your target audience across your team, informing your every move. By focusing on your target group, you can set about collecting insights from social media to work out the times of day that your audience is most active. Numerous studies have been done to reveal when users are at their most active on social, such as this article by Mento, however it’s your target audience that matters the most. Testing a variety of different posting times is the best way to find out what works for you.
2. Try your hand at reactive marketing
Social media has overtaken TV as young people’s main source of news (28% cite it as their main news source, compared with 24% for TV), according to research by Reuters. Additionally, 66% of Facebook users and 59% of Twitter users get news from these respective platforms, according to a study by Pew. This clearly shows that people turn to social media to find out up-to-the-minute goings on. If you can market your content in a way that demonstrates you’re on top of trending topics as well as any recent events or changes taking place within your industry, it could well grab your audience’s attention. For example, when infamous hook-up website Ashley Madison got hacked a couple of years ago, revealing the details of 37 million philanderers, Arena Flowers was quick to take the opportunity to offer a 10% discount on all ‘apology flowers’ with the discount code: ASHLEYMADISON. Taking advantage of a trending issue or current affair can help get your content noticed – just tread with caution and sensitivity around issues that could potentially cause offence.
3. Content calendars help you stay consistent
Another common timing error I see is that of how regular businesses post content. They might be going hell for leather for a few weeks with regular blog posts and social media chat. Then suddenly, we get to a busy time for their business and it’s radio silence, save a few sporadic, spontaneous posts. The momentum they’ve worked so hard to build then falls flat, and they wonder why they aren’t getting the results they hoped for. Content calendars are something of a godsend in this respect and there are a variety of effective tools that can help you plan and automate your posts to ensure consistency. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 85% of the most successful marketers release content on a consistent basis, demonstrating that timing your delivery right should come at the top of your priority list.
We understand that content creation and promotion go hand-in-hand. So, if you’re looking for content experts who can help you get the balance just right, contact M2 Bespoke today to find out what we can do for you.