At Deore Design, we are always learning and trying new things. After creating content marketing strategies for a variety of clients in industries ranging from airplanes to art, we’ve learned that there are certain approaches that can be applied across several fields. Here are a few of my favorite engagement strategies that we have recently used along with the takeaways on their success. Each strategy focuses on what the audience can gain — the reward for their engagement. That’s the secret behind successful campaigns!
Calculators
There are two facts to explain the success behind this one. One – Everyone likes learning more about themselves. Two – People love when information is personalized. An example I use to back these theories is Spotify’s ‘Wrapped’ campaign. At the end of the day, yes, I would argue that ‘Wrapped’ is a marketing campaign, and what other marketing campaign do people look forward to like it’s a sporting event?? If you don’t know what Spotify ‘Wrapped’ is, it’s an in-app experience that generates facts about your listening habits, packages it, and spits them back at you in a vibrant, animated sequence that you can share on social media. And it worked. In 2020, Spotify Wrapped was responsible for increasing Spotify’s mobile app downloads by 21% in the first week of December.
While it is different from a calculator, it proves my point. A calculator by our terms is a quiz or survey where the audience can click through a series of questions to land at a result. We have implemented this on clients’ websites so visitors can generate a quote estimate. Sometimes we create calculators that follow a similar format of a Buzzfeed quiz in which visitors can find out what type of contractor they would be based on their personality. Lean into enough personalization that makes your audience feel special enough to share the results of their quiz, calculator, or user behavior outcomes with their friends. Depending on your brand persona, make it strictly informational or make it fun.
Asking Your Audience For Content
Some standard (but valuable) pieces of content for any business usually include reviews, testimonials, or pictures of their products with real, happy consumers. Naturally, all of these items can contribute to your business’s reputability. Never underestimate the power of reviews. According to the Pew Research Center, over half of adults under 50 years old routinely check online reviews before they buy new products. In the 18-29 age category, this percentage goes up even higher.
For a performing arts-based client, we plan to launch a campaign where customers can submit photos and videos of themselves with the product for a chance to be featured on the company’s social media. It’s a win-win situation because the client gets to promote their product and the customer gets a promotion of their own art. We can take it a step further by creating a contest, or “grant,” for student performers. Students can submit previews of their work and the client will select someone to receive free merchandise for their performance. While this is specific to performing arts, this strategy of incentivising engagement can be applied to almost any industry.
Connecting to Emotions and Changing It Up
Something I like to remember is the difference between a brand identity versus its industry. Don’t get pigeonholed into your industry’s persona! If you are creating content for a bank, it doesn’t always have to be serious. If you are creating content for a fun clothing company, you can still make something educational. People connect with brands that have personality and offer a wide variety of content. If you feel like your content is getting monotone or stale, try something new! Keep in mind that switching it up should still stay within the brand identity.
Recently, I started working on content for an insurance group. For the most part, we have created content for them that is strictly educational, aiming to increase their credibility. Usually, we pushed content that focused on testimonials, insurance tips, facts, service offerings, and loss control strategies. After looking at their social media analytics, their most successful post was a heartfelt note about memorial day. This had little to do with insurance yet engagement was at least eight times higher than the second leading post.
The takeaway from this is to find a way to appeal to emotions and connect with people. Creating insurance-related marketing content is, of course, important for an insurance agency but impactful brands will find a way to appeal to emotion. I also believe that the genuineness of the post was read by viewers loud and clear. It wasn’t forced. It wasn’t fake. I think creating content like that says a lot about your brand — sometimes more than anything else.
Creating engaging content comes down to how much it resonates with your target audience and asking – what’s in it for them? Creating calculators, reaching out to your audience for content, and appealing to emotion are three campaign strategies that have recently worked for our clients and I will continue to apply similar concepts in future work. I’m curious to know what strategies have been successful for you.
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