Do you want to increase conversions at the bottom of your marketing funnel? How about enhance your brand reputation and boost visibility? A powerful content marketing in 2019 will certainly do all of the above. But what if there was a hack to leverage even more visibility?
Brand awareness is by far more important for your business or individual brand in 2019. Without focusing on brand awareness, your content marketing strategy is already behind the curve.
“For example, when someone wants new basketball shoes, perhaps Nike is the first brand that comes to mind,” explains Eric Hammis of B2C. “Depending on the product or service you provide, being first in line is what you are looking to achieve when it comes to brand awareness.”
The following content marketing hacks to improve your brand visibility in 2019 are . . .
1. Influencer marketing via major publications
2. Leveraging your influencer placement with paid social ads
3. Using invisible influence to drive visibility
If you develop a content marketing strategy that encompasses brand awareness, the funnel will always be full.
Why Hack Brand Awareness in 2019?
Hacking brand awareness to improve visibility extends beyond name recognition. You want your future followers and customers to know what your brand does too.
A fantastic example of exceptional brand awareness is ride sharing economy leaders, Uber and Lyft.
What is the first thing you think of when you hear the brand name “Uber?” It is most likely not the idea of ride sharing, but rather the cars, app, and low cost of the service. And if you hear the brand name “Lyft?” Chances are you imagine pink mustaches and the same services Uber provides.
These are perfect examples of brand awareness. You visualize company logos, services, and cost. This is what you want to focus on when creating your content marketing strategy for 2019.
What assets can you use to improve brand awareness? Influencer marketing and paid social media campaigns are one content marketing hack you can’t ignore.
“No matter the age, authentic content created by trusted influencers will bring more awareness to your brand or company,” explains Forbes contributor Stephanie McCratic, the founder and CEO of Acorn: The Influence Company.
Influencer marketing is not easy, but it is well worth the return on your investment. A written placement in an industry leading publication such as Forbes and Mashable is the first content marketing hack.
First, Use Influencer Marketing to Land a Written Placement on a Major Publication
Did you know that 84 percent of marketers are planning at least one influencer marketing campaign in 2019, according to a survey by Schlesinger Associates?
Influencer marketing is a trending topic in the realm of marketing and SEO. And this content marketing hack is no surprise.
Influencers have a lot of power to boost your brand awareness. Especially those with a large following in your industry. In fact, 92 percent of people trust recommendations from people over brands, according to research by Nielsen.
This may be due to people’s increased skepticism toward advertising in the traditional sense. The best way to increase your brand visibility is to let someone else promote your brand and content for you.
An influencer marketing study conducted by Tomoson found that “51% of marketers believe they acquire better customers through influencer marketing.”
The key to this hack is finding relevant influencers writing for major publications for your industry. However, these influencers can be costly. Work on your negotiation skills this year to get the best possible deals from influencers and other brand ambassadors.
Most major publications also have a “guest blog” you can submit content to as well. If you have a story to tell with expertise to support it, you may find this to be the better path to written placement.
Next, Leverage that Major Publication Placement by Amplifying Paid Social Ads
Once you have successfully landed written placement on a major publication, it is time to leverage that hit by amplifying paid social ads.
Once you have successfully landed written placement on a major publication, it is time to leverage that hit by amplifying paid social ads.
Improving your brand visibility in 2019 is all about your reputable name and the products or services you offer. Paid social ads are a great way to broadcast your personalized brand voice.
And with the reputation boost from your recent published content via a major publication, it is time to seize the content marketing moment.
The reason for paid social ads is to maximize your marketing efforts. Paid social ads allow you to target those who don’t already know about or follow your brand.
You can leverage your latest influencer marketing asset by narrowing your key demographic to those more likely to connect with you and your brand.
“The goal is to empower you to better align your brand’s efforts with the social conversations that matter most while making lasting, meaningful connections with core groups of brand loyalists,” explains Michael Patterson of Sprout Social.
For example, if your target demographic is women between the ages of 18 and 29, Pinterest would be a good platform to invest in paid social ads.
If you want to target professionals, both men and women between the ages of 30 to 49, paid social ads on LinkedIn will potentially offer more conversion results.
Dumping money into random social ads is not always an optimal marketing strategy. You want to get the absolute most of the written placement you worked so hard to get published in a major publication.
It is essential to understand your target demographic. What social channels do they spend the most time on? Once you have a demographic in mind, it is time to improve your visibility with invisible influence.
Lastly, Employ an Invisible Hack to Compliment Your Influencer Marketing and Paid Social Ads
Content marketing hacks are powerful. And not all hacks are as transparent as influencer marketing or paid social ads. Now you can use invisible influence to drive more brand awareness.
Using a tool to create invisible influence you can make a lead magnet available on the major media publication you recently received coverage on. You can then combine this with a retargeting pixel on your site to continue marketing to those visitors.
Employ this invisible influence tool by . . .
Step 1: Access Snip.ly and create a custom URL and connect it with the lead magnet (an ebook or webinar works well). You can customize this lead magnet to send your target audience to an external lead signup page. Or you can have an email field on the lead magnet too. The best practice for conversions is the lead magnet form.
Step 2: Add your retargeting pixel code to the Snip.ly account.
Step 3: Next you will share your article with the custom Snip.ly link on Facebook and run ads targeting your specific audience. The sharing link is generated when you created the lead magnet.
Step 4: Retarget the audience that read your article using Snip.ly, but chose to not opt in, with the available lead magnet. This helps keep conversion rates low since the leads are already developed.
This way you can accomplish various objectives:
● Leverage influencers to improve your reputation
● Amplify these posts to your target audience
● Use Snip.ly to capture those visitors’ information through a lead magnet or retargeting
Brand awareness is all about your reputation, visibility, and how consumers see your brand among others in your industry. Getting more access to them using these powerful content marketing hacks should certainly be part of your 2019 marketing strategy.