Creating a unique mobile app nowadays is challenging. With so many similar apps out there, it becomes hard to stand out and differentiate yourself from others. You not only have to make sure your app is functional, but it must also be relevant to a particular audience. Otherwise, who’s going to use it? Picture this: You’ve spent so much time developing your app, constantly refining and testing it, and you’ve finally reached a version that satisfies your vision. Great, now you can finally sit back and relax while you watch the number of downloads shoot through the roof. Those daydreams of rolling around in piles of cash seem a bit more tangible now, right?
Well, apologies for busting your bubble, but you’re missing a crucial piece of the puzzle that’ll make your daydream a reality: marketing. Your mobile app isn’t just going to get up and sell itself; you need to have a strong marketing plan in place. If you’re just starting out, you might want to check out these crucial app design tips to keep in mind to promote your product. However, if you already have an existing marketing strategy in place, you might be wondering what more you can do to market your app. This is where you might consider content syndication.
What is Content Syndication?
Simply put, content syndication can include repurposing content or creating content for the sole purpose of external publication. This is an important strategy to implement into your marketing plan because you’ll be able to spread your content to a wider audience – an audience who might have never heard of your product otherwise. In this way, you’ll be able to increase engagement around your product as well as increase brand awareness. After all, the more content that is available, the more likely it is for your product to be found! Even though only 14% of companies use content syndication as a distribution method, it actually ranks third in effectiveness at 45%, following SEM and promoted posts.
So what exactly are the best ways to syndicate your content? Here are 10 tips that will help you market your mobile app:
1: Know Your Goal
Similar to creating your app, you have to have a clear, focused point of view and know what you want to accomplish. Are you trying to drive traffic through SEO? Increase your customer base? Just building product awareness? Discovering the answers to these questions should be the first step you take in establishing a syndication strategy. With content syndication, you can either syndicate full articles or just a headline, description, and a link back to the original piece of work. Just make sure you know exactly what your goal is so that you can determine for yourself which form of syndication may be best. Keep in mind that this may not depend on you though, as some websites have strict guidelines that they follow.
2: Choose Your Partners Carefully
Before you go out and ask others to publish your content, you have to do a little research. Again, the whole point is to capture more leads based off of their existing customer base. Make sure that your syndicated content will do more than just reach this new audience; make sure to intrigue and induce them to check out your product or site as well.
You might want to consider the following: Are these websites relevant to your industry? How do they distribute their content? Who is viewing their content? Know what type of content is posted and which receive the most engagement; the more relevant your content is to their audience, the better the opportunity for lead generation. Ideally, these other sites would have a higher authority than yours, affirming you as a credible author and thereby improving your website ranking. Just keep in mind that outcomes vary amongst different partner sites, no matter how high their authority may be.
3: Tailor Your Content for Your Target Audience
Image Source: Aumcore
You need to know your audience (and your partner site’s audience) in order to know what content to present to them. Are they technically savvy? Are they an older generation? Do they respond more to videos rather than articles? Whenever a range of age groups utilizes the same service, it’s best to optimize for each so that everyone can comfortably interact with it, increasing your chances of conversions. If creating graphic content, note that older generations prefer muted colors and larger text as opposed to younger generations who respond well to bright colors.
According to the digital marketing agency, Aumcore, “Part of knowing your audience involves analyzing the apps you’ll be competing with, both directly and indirectly.” You need to be aware of what’s relevant to your target audience, and when posting on a third-party site, be sure to keep their audiences in mind as well. Whatever you do, remember to tailor your content. You don’t want to waste your time publishing things that are irrelevant!
4: Syndicate Third-Party Content
With permission from a third-party website of your choice, you can feature their content on your blog. Although this may not be original, incorporating others’ relevant work will help diversify your content and keep ideas fresh. Not only that, but you may also be able to leverage their strengths in order to fill a possible content void in yours.
Similarly, you can have your content published onto another’s website as a guest post. The goal here is to “capitalize on their established audience,” as mentioned by Lead Forensics. In this case, your partner site asks you to tailor something that is more suitable for their site and audience. For instance, you may be asked to change the angle of your content to make it more relevant, or even just make smaller adjustments like tweaking the word count or headline.
5: Syndicate on Social Media
It’s no secret that social media platforms are some of the best ways to share your content. In the United States alone, 79% of people use Facebook, and 128 million have registered for accounts on LinkedIn. If you didn’t already know, posting an article on LinkedIn sends each of your connections a notification; this makes content distribution a breeze. If using Instagram, make sure you focus on the visual appeal of your content. Stay consistent with the images you post on your feed; a crisp and clean display of high-quality images on your Instagram account does wonder for your brand image, whereas the opposite could severely harm it. While sharing your content on sites like LinkedIn or Instagram can provide a free way to mass share your content, you can also opt to pay for services such as Taboola or Zemanta that can make your content available to a range of sites. However, if you want to implement a low-cost content syndication strategy into your marketing plan, engaging regularly with your audiences through your social media accounts can result in high organic distribution through reposts.
6: Choose Your Content Wisely
The content you choose to syndicate should be the very best you have to offer. According to Position², “unlike advertising, the purpose of syndication is not to get audiences to click through to buy, but to click through out of interest.” The goal is to have content that is so engaging that visitors want to learn or view more about your app. We’re not just talking about blogs or articles here either; think about all the other types of content out there! If the goal of your content syndication is to gain more customers, then you should really consider where your visitors might be in their research process. Perhaps they have already been comparing other products when they discovered your campaign. Maybe your content is the first that they see. Either way, you need to be strategic in choosing the content that you share so that it aligns to the audience’s needs as closely as possible.
7: Make a Promo Video
Nothing makes consumers more excited about a new release than an awesome teaser video. After all, videos get 4x more traction than articles or blog posts and generate 1200% more shares on social media. Facebook specifically is a great place to put promo videos because you can follow up with ads that convert people into actual consumers. Videos are a pretty powerful marketing medium because once you are able to effectively tap into the emotions of your audience, they are more likely to remember your brand because the story that your video depicted actually means something to them. Eliciting some type of reaction from your audience (e.g., making them think), making them laugh, or influencing them to take some sort of action will not only increase your chances of being remembered, but also your chances of going viral. Since 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others, why not market your mobile app on a medium that most mobile users utilize?
8: Don’t just Republish…Repurpose
Don’t just think sharing the same link on every digital media outlet out there will help you gain a bigger following. Excessive sharing of the same thing is boring! I know you’re thinking, I already wrote a piece on digital marketing, what’s the point of putting the same content in a video? While repurposing your content into another form can be a little annoying, changing up your angle or media type can work in your favor. For instance, repurposing an article into a video or displaying statistics in an infographic are terrific ways to target various audiences. After all, not everyone uses Facebook, and not everyone has a LinkedIn or Pinterest account. So having a link posted on a platform such as Twitter that links to an infographic on Pinterest that links back to your site can immensely aid in increasing the likelihood of brand discovery. That’s three forms of content on three different forms of online media platforms. Imagine the possibilities! So definitely don’t solely rely on one form of content. Switch things up and get creative!
9: Monitor Your Leads
Don’t leave your leads unattended! New prospects aren’t guaranteed customers. They may have found your product on your site, yes, but conversions will definitely not be immediate. Be sure to nurture the relationship so that they end up as loyal customers. Monitoring the journey from start to finish will help you figure out what marketing strategy is most effective and will allow you to determine what works and what doesn’t.
10: Always Analyze and Adjust Your Strategy
As the idiom goes, you never know until you try. When it comes to figuring out the best way to engage and attract audiences, don’t be fearful of new strategies. What might have worked last year may not be as effective today. If you don’t constantly monitor and tweak your strategies, your business risks being surpassed by others, and your product will be forgotten. By analyzing your marketing plans regularly, you will be able to learn more about your customers and improve your offers. Always remember to measure your results, not matter how successful your syndicated content has become.
A Refresher
Syndicate your content if you’re looking for a different approach to drive traffic back to your site. Just note that you can’t solely rely on this method to market your products. Here’s a quick refresher of what we covered:
- Know Your Goal
- Choose Your Partners Carefully
- Tailor Your Content for Your Target Audience
- Syndicate Third-Party Content
- Syndicate on Social Media
- Choose Your Content Wisely
- Make a Promo Video
- Don’t Just Republish…Repurpose
- Monitor Your Leads
- Always Analyze and Adjust Your Strategy
So if you find yourself wanting to switch up your marketing strategy, give syndication a shot. However, you must remember to do more than just duplicate your content, but repurpose it in different forms to allow for an increased amount of user engagement. Really understanding the behaviors and needs of your users is vital in making sure that any marketing campaign you employ is successful. Once you’re able to establish meaningful connections with your audience, you’re one step closer to achieving your marketing goals!
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