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Guess what? Global marketing is no longer reserved for brands with deep pockets, nor is it a huge hassle for marketing managers who handle all marketing efforts.

In fact, a global presence is possible for any business with a creative strategy and an understanding of world markets. Let’s go over what a good global marketing strategy looks like and the best examples worldwide.

What Is Good Global Marketing?

Global marketing is the act of focusing a product on the needs of potential buyers in other countries.

Like most types of marketing, though, a global marketing strategy comes down to one thing: audience. Knowing who needs your product, what form they need it in, and how to market it in a way that strengthens the brand are core ingredients of awesome global marketing.

Typically, a global marketing strategy requires a business to do new market research, identify countries where the business’s product might be successful, and then localize the brand to reflect the needs of those communities. However, localization is not always necessary. Some brands adopt a global standardization strategy instead.

No matter where you visit those brands, the experience and imagery is virtually the same.

In contrast to localization, where there’s a more differentiated marketing approach to each market, global standardization provides significant cost benefits as a result of less messaging and fewer campaigns.

However, the key is in knowing when a global standardization strategy will be effective. Because it banks on a universal appeal despite cultural or locational differences, you’ll need to research whether customers use or think about your products differently depending on their market. If there’s no difference between the usage and understanding from country to country, a global standardization approach is practical.

Choosing localization or global standardization is one aspect of creating a great global marketing strategy.

To give you an idea of what a great global marketing strategy looks like, we’ve compiled a list of brands that totally “get it.”

From adapting their social strategies to translate across multiple languages to adjusting their menus to appeal to the cravings of a diverse group of people, these brands are taking positive steps toward creating a solid presence across the globe.

So, if you’re looking for inspiration on how to craft a successful international marketing strategy and expand your business’ reach, check out these examples from the world’s most successful companies.

1. Red Bull

Austrian company Red Bull does such a great job with global marketing that many Americans assume it’s a local brand. How?

One of its most successful tactics is to host extreme sports events all over the world. From the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix to the Red Bull Air Race in the United Kingdom to the Red Bull Soapbox Race in Jordan, the brand’s powerful event marketing strategy takes them here, there, and everywhere.

Aside from events, Red Bull’s packaging also plays a part in its global appeal.

“Red Bull really looks like a product from a global economy. It doesn’t look like a traditional American soft drink — it’s not in a 12-ounce can, it’s not sold in a bottle, and it doesn’t have script lettering like Pepsi or Coke. It looks European. That matters,” explains Harvard Business School professor Nancy F. Koehn. Though it’s since diversified its product selection since that article was published, the fact remains that Red Bull’s consistent packaging has helped this brand go global.

How to Imitate Red Bull’s Strategy

For smaller brands, reaching Red Bull’s level of international awareness might seem out of reach, but you can imitate the brand’s strategy by offering one notable product — the product you’ll most be known for. Then, be sure to keep the packaging the same no matter where you distribute it.

You can also host virtual events across different time zones and regions, which the pandemic has made more possible and trendier than ever.

2. Airbnb

Airbnb, a community marketplace for people to list and book accommodations around the world, was founded in 2008 out of San Francisco, California.

Since then, Airbnb has grown to 1,500,000+ listings in 34,000+ cities worldwide. A large contributor to the company’s explosive global success? Its video campaign titled “Made Possible by Hosts.”

Airbnb launched the campaign to bring its worldwide community of hosts and guests closer in the wake of COVID-19. The company referred to the campaign as a way to highlight “the magical experiences that hosts bring to guests.” To create the campaign, Airbnb took real videos and photographs from guests and put them in a video to create the “sense of nostalgia” we feel when we travel.

Over 3 million people worldwide have engaged, created content, or talked about the campaign. Just one of its videos has over 3.5 million views.

How to Imitate Airbnb’s Strategy

Airbnb is inherently an international brand because its guests and hosts hail from a wide variety of locations worldwide. Even if you identify as a more local brand, there are ways to globalize your efforts.

First, bring the focus to different customers in different regions when you create a testimonial or case study. You can also ask your international customers to contribute a photo or video of your product in use, and feature that in your social media content.

3. Dunkin Donuts

National Donut Day happens every year in June. While we get our hands dirty with a Boston creme (or two) here in the States, Dunkin Donuts China serves up a fresh batch of dry pork and seaweed donuts.

With over 3,200 stores in 36 countries outside of the U.S., Dunkin Donuts has evolved its menu to satisfy the sweet tooth of its global customers.

From Korea’s Grapefruit Coolata to Lebanon’s Mango Chocolate Donut to Russia’s Dunclairs, it’s clear that Dunkin Donuts isn’t afraid to celebrate cultural differences in an effort to strengthen its international presence.

How to Imitate Dunkin Donut’s Strategy

If you run a restaurant business, Dunkin Donut’s strategy should draw plenty of inspiration. To globalize your restaurant brand, try to serve regional or cultural menu items during special holidays for those cultures and regions.

You don’t necessarily have to expand to international regions first, but if it’s financially viable, opening new locations or launching regional websites can help you become a global brand.

4. Domino’s

Similar to Dunkin Donuts, Domino’s has prioritized menu innovation as a means of increasing international interest and awareness.

“The joy of pizza is that bread, sauce, and cheese works fundamentally everywhere, except maybe China, where dairy wasn’t a big part of their diet until lately,” explains Domino’s CEO J. Patrick Doyle.

“And it’s easy to just change toppings market to market. In Asia, it’s seafood and fish. It’s curry in India. But half the toppings are standard offerings around the world.”

By making a conscious effort to gain a better understanding of the preferences of the markets it’s trying to break into, Domino’s can deliver pies diverse enough to gain international attention.

How to Imitate Domino’s Strategy

Domino’s strategy is another you’ll want to use as inspiration if you run a restaurant business. Try to invite chefs from different cultures and regions, then have them cook your menu items in their regional style and with regional ingredients.

Highlight the chefs in your social media profiles. By doing so, you’ll show your followers in those regions that they’re also top-of-mind, expanding your global reach.

5. Rezdy

Some companies may not be trying to attract global markets directly, but if their clients are, they better know how. Rezdy is an Australian-based reservation software designed to make online booking smoother for tourists and agents alike.

Though Rezdy’s clients are Australian-based, the company needs to cater to its clients’ international visitors. On its homepage, it says it works for operators and agents in over 100 countries.

The service is designed to be used globally, with hundreds of personalization options for the tool’s timezone, language, and currency. Rezdy’s website and marketing collateral is English, so it caters to English-speaking tour operators, particularly in Australia, the UK, and North America. But it knows its customers’ target audience are in other countries abroad. It thus emphasizes its tool’s internationalization capabilities.

How to Imitate Rezdy’s Strategy

Rezdy effectively globalizes its services by taking into account that its customers’ target audience will be in other countries. Even if your company is marketing to other regional companies, consider their global customers as if they were your own. If your product, tool, or software can be used abroad in a wide variety of applications, be sure to add that to your marketing collateral — even if you operate regionally.

6. World Wildlife Fund

World Wildlife Fund takes the literal approach to global marketing by having hundreds of offices worldwide, each with highly localized goals for each region. It goes global every year with its Earth Hour initiative — a voluntary worldwide event where participants turn off their lights for an hour to show how easy it can be to battle climate change.

It specially promoted its Earth Hour event in Norway. Scandinavian countries like Norway experience extreme daylight hours in different seasons, making the country a prime candidate for WWF’s Earth Hour campaign. Using digital agency Mobiento, the nonprofit placed the Earth Hour Banner across Norway’s top media sites to promote the event. With one tap of the banner, the screen went black. Finger swiping the black screen slowly revealed the Earth Hour countdown. The banner attracted roughly 1,000,000 impressions and the campaign received three MMA Global Mobile Marketing Awards.

How to Imitate WWF’s Strategy

WWF has hundreds of offices that make it easier for the non-profit to go global, but thanks to the internet, its easier than ever to connect with international audiences, especially for a certain initiative you might want to launch, like Earth Hour.

If you have a cool idea, don’t be afraid to try it out on one international market — just make sure it’s the appropriate audience. (Also, don’t be afraid of the dark.)

7. Pearse Trust

With offices in Dublin, London, Vancouver, Atlanta, and Wellington, Pearse Trust has grown to be an international authority on corporate and trust structures. But it takes more than offices all over the map to reach an international audience.

That’s why Pearse Trust keeps content flowing on its blog that engages its various markets. In the screenshot above, you can see Pearse Trust posts a lot of content featuring international affairs relating to the company’s practice.

It also levels out external articles with Pearse Trust content, featuring news from places like Germany, Ireland (where it has a Dublin office), and the U.K. (where it has a London office).

How to Imitate Pearse Trust’s Strategy

This is a great example of focusing on common interests shared among your company’s various markets while also making the content relatable to customers by region. Globalizing your marketing can be as simple as creating content that caters to different target audiences in different target regions.

8. Nike

Nike has been able to evolve its global presence through the careful selection of international sponsorships, such as its previous long-standing relationship with Manchester United.

Although sponsorship spending can be fairly unpredictable — demand costs tend to surge due to triggers like championships and tournaments — these partnerships have certainly helped the brand capture the attention of a global audience.

Nike’s “Nike by You” co-creation platform serves as another strategy that the company is using to appeal to international markets. By putting the power of design into the hands of the consumer, Nike is able to deliver customized products that align with different cultural preferences and styles.

How to Imitate Nike’s Strategy

Partner with other brands, influencers, and ambassadors in your international target markets. Choose them carefully. For instance, Manchester United is a prominent cultural force in the UK, and that certainly helped Nike grow in that country.

If you sell a consumer product, why not give the option for your audience to customize — and resell — the products as well? You’ll end up capturing a much larger audience, and consumers from different regions will much better capture their region’s preferences and tastes.

9. McDonald’s

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We all know McDonald’s is a successful global brand. While keeping its overarching branding consistent, McDonald’s practices “glocal” marketing efforts. No, that’s not a typo. McDonald’s brings a local flavor to different countries with region-specific menu items. For instance, McDonald’s offers the McArabia, a flatbread sandwich, in its restaurants in the Middle East.

McDonald’s has also introduced macaroons to its French menu:

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And added McSpaghetti to its menu in the Philippines:

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No matter what, there’s something to learn from the giant.

How to Imitate McDonald’s Strategy

Like the other restaurant examples on this list, opening restaurants in other regions may be the first and most natural answer. But if that’s not feasible, especially if you run a regional brand, celebrate the flavors of the world by hosting an “International Day” and posting about it on your website and online. This will get you on the radar of those who may enjoy those foods daily and help you spread the word in other markets.

10. Innocent Drinks

Innocent Drinks is the leading smoothie company in the U.K., but that’s not the only place you’ll find its products. In fact, Innocent products are now available in 15 countries across Europe.

And despite its widespread reach, the company’s friendly branding remains consistent across the board. For instance, the website is very bubbly, with contact information that prompts to the viewer to “call on the banana phone” or “pop by Fruit Towers,” the name for its corporate office.

While global expansion and rapid growth can sometimes distract a company from consistent branding, Innocent Drinks has managed to remain true to itself. By ensuring that the brand’s voice is interpreted the same way around the world, Innocent is able to create a more recognizable brand.

How to Imitate Innocent Drink’s Strategy

Stay true to your brand voice even as you expand to other markets. Innocent Drinks is immediately likeable because of its tone on its website and social media. Friendliness makes you feel more approachable — and thus more accessible to a global audience. Plus, if your brand is consistent across the board, audiences across regions won’t feel like they’re getting cheated out of everything your brand can offer.

11. Traffic Ticket Clinic

The phrase “glocal” can be defined as “Think Globally, Act Locally.” But what happens when you switch the two around?

Traffic Ticket Clinic is a traffic ticket law firm that defends drivers in the state of Florida. Not very global, right? Well, Traffic Ticket Clinic understands that America is a melting pot and that Florida is bursting at the seams with different cultures and languages.

Though a domestic service, the firm’s website is available in English and Spanish. With those options, Traffic Ticket Clinic can cater to Florida’s nearly 3.5 million Floridians who speak Spanish. Don’t miss out on expanding your client base — sometimes you don’t have to look far to attract international business.

How to Imitate Traffic Ticket Clinic’s Strategy

One of the easiest ways you can begin global marketing is by offering your website in different languages. If you own a WordPress website, you can do that by using a translation plugin. But remember: Look at your target market first to figure out the best languages you should offer on your site. For instance, don’t offer Swahili if you don’t serve East Africa.

12. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a great example of a brand that’s well-known for its international marketing efforts. Though a large corporation, Coca-Cola focuses on small community programs and invests a lot of time and money in small-scale charity efforts.

For example, in Egypt, Coca-Cola has built 650 clean water installations in the rural village of Beni Suef and sponsors Ramadan meals for children across the Middle East. In India, the brand sponsors the Support My School initiative to improve facilities at local schools. Not to mention, the brand sticks with selling an emotion that can’t get lost in translation: happiness.

How to Imitate Coca-Cola’s Strategy

In your marketing efforts, try to promote your values by investing in communities worldwide. You can start small, such as with a yearly sponsorship or recurring donation, and then work your way up to launching a charity effort on the ground.

Try to appeal to a universal human feeling as well. If you’re a marketer at a hospital, you might appeal to grief and hope in a 1-minute video about a hospital visit. These are feelings that trascend countries and languages, automatically helping you reach a global audience.

13. Spotify

Spotify is considered one of the best global companies in the world, according to Interbrand. We’ve all heard of Spotify (no pun intended), but how did it suddenly, and so quickly, expand from Sweden into other countries?

Spotify’s business model is focused on helping you find something new.

It’s one thing to select a genre of music to listen to — it’s another thing to select a “mood” to listen to. In Spotify’s “Browse” page, you can listen not just to “country” and “hip-hop,” but also music that caters to your “workout” or “sleep” preferences.

By changing how they describe their content, Spotify gets users to listen to music that goes beyond their favorite genres, and instead satisfies habits and lifestyles that people share all over the world. This allows international artists to access listeners from other countries simply because their product is being categorized a different way.

Spotify now has offices in more than fifteen countries around the world.

How to Imitate Spotify’s Strategy

Spotify’s example is a winner because its global marketing strategy is entirely product-based. It offers music, podcasts, and media in so many languages, the audiences in those countries couldn’t help but start using the product. If your product lends itself to that, try featuring items or products that will appeal to the people of different regions and countries.

Start Global Marketing in Small Steps

If you have global aspirations for your business, you need to find out what customers in different communities have in common — and how to localize your product for these different markets. Your first step? Take inspiration from one of the businesses above. Start small, then work your way up as your business grows.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

A memo (also known as a memorandum, or “reminder”) is used for internal communications regarding procedures or official business within an organization.

Unlike an email, a memo is a message you send to a large group of employees, like your entire department or everyone at the company. You might need to write a memo to inform staff of upcoming events, or broadcast internal changes.

If you need to inform your employees of official internal business, here’s an easy-to-follow business memo template, as well as examples for further guidance.

Business Memo Template

MEMORANDUM

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT:

I’m writing to inform you that [reason for writing memo].

As our company continues to grow … [evidence or reason to support your opening paragraph].

Please let me know if you have any questions. In the meantime, I’d appreciate your cooperation as [official business information] takes place.

Header:

In your header, you’ll want to clearly label your content “Memorandum” so your readers know exactly they’re receiving. Then, you’ll want to include “TO”, “FROM”, “DATE”, and “SUBJECT”. This information is relevant for providing content, like who you’re addressing, and why.

Paragraph One:

In the first paragraph, you’ll want to quickly and clearly state the purpose of your memo. You might begin your sentence with the phrase, “I’m writing to inform you … ” or “I’m writing to request … “. A memo is meant to be short, clear, and to-the-point. You’ll want to deliver your most critical information upfront, and then use subsequent paragraphs as opportunities to dive into more detail.

Paragraph Two:

In the second paragraph, you’ll want to provide context or supporting evidence. For instance, let’s say your memo is informing the company of an internal re-organization. If this is the case, paragraph two should say something like, “As our company continues to grow, we’ve decided it makes more sense to separate our video production team from our content team. This way, those teams can focus more on their individual goals.”

Paragraph Three:

In the third paragraph, you’ll want to include your specific request of each employee — if you’re planning a team outing, this is the space you’d include, “Please RSVP with dietary restrictions,” or “Please email me with questions.”

On the contrary, if you’re informing staff of upcoming construction to the building, you might say, “I’d appreciate your cooperation during this time.” Even if there isn’t any specific action you expect from employees, it’s helpful to include how you hope they’ll handle the news and whether you expect them to do something in response to the memo.

Downloadable Memo Template

Want to see the above memo format in its final form? Download HubSpot’s free business memo templates, shown below. The document gives you a framework that sorts your memorandum into subtopics to help employees better digest the information and understand what’s expected of them after reading it.

Download this Template

Business Memo Template Format

The format depicted in the templates above is designed to effectively communicate your message. A memo should disseminate the necessary information in a way that is easy for a mass number of employees to digest.

An accurate subject line will alert them that this memo is relevant to them specifically. And beginning with an executive summary allows recipients to understand the general message before you dive deeper into the details. The background information offers context to the message, and the overview and timeline should answer questions that are likely to come up.

Business Memo Template Examples

Different industries or situations will require slightly different memos. Certain ones will need to be longer or shorter, others may not have a timeline, and some will have extensive background information. The format of your memo should change to fit the message you want your employees to receive.

Launch Delay Memo

The objective of this memo is to announce that the launch of a product will be delayed. The introduction includes the new date, so a timeline or long overview isn’t necessary. This format of memo could be applied to other situations where a simple, but important, change is occurring. Other date changes, promotions, milestones, or product announcements could also utilize this format.

Building Update Memo

There are logistical aspects of a business that concern your employees, but don’t necessarily involve their work. This memo depicts an example about the kitchen in the office. It’s a bit of an inconvenience, but shouldn’t affect their work much. This could be applied to other building updates, work from home days, or other widespread but minor announcements.

Community Memo

Celebrations, events, theme days, or other fun things for your employees can also be communicated through memos. Community memos like this example are generally shorter because they don’t require much background information or many details. These just need to include a summary, date, and location at minimum.

Write Your Memos To the Point

The main difference between a memo and just an email is not the level of complexity, it’s the size of the audience. A memo can be simple or intricate, as long as it effectively communicates your message and is relevant to the receiving group of employees. And the message itself should be clear and concise, no matter which memo format you use.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Blogging is not a major piece of artwork like the Sistine Chapel, but there is an art to making your blog a masterpiece. Blogs are a combination of timely and evergreen content.

Timely content focuses on trends, news articles, and pop culture events, while evergreen content stays relevant and provides value for a long time. It is rare to update timely content simply because it’s old news; however, there is value in updating and reviving old evergreen content.

Leveraging old blog posts and their established place on the web can extend the life of your best content. It is especially beneficial when your content has reached a traffic plateau — a period where your growth rate is stagnant.

John Bonini, the Director of Marketing at Databox, says, “Your best opportunity for increasing organic traffic short-term is in updating the content you’ve already published, not (exclusively) publishing new stuff.” Updating this content can boost your ranking on search engine page results (SERPs) and drive more traffic to your post.

Traffic to your post also comes from backlinks. It takes time to acquire backlinks to new content. Alternatively, old content is less likely to receive new backlinks because the information is outdated. Updating old blog posts can help you keep the backlinks your page has already received and acquire new backlinks by reinforcing the value and authority of your content with current information.

Imagine a years-old blog post listing “Minority-Owned Restaurants in Charlotte, North Carolina.” Looking at this post today might have some use, but overall, this post is severely outdated. Consider how fickle the restaurant business can be, especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s a chance that some of the restaurants on this list are no longer open. Other minority-owned restaurants could have opened up in their place. Updating this blog post with current information will immediately increase its value and improve its standing with users and search engines.

Reviving an old blog post for SEO isn’t a one-and-done process. Let’s take a look at how you can update your content with a few key steps.

How To Revive An Old Blog Post

Let’s turn your blog post into a masterpiece. Before reviving an old blog post, how do you choose which posts are worth bringing back to life? To hit short-term growth goals, John Bonini recommends updating the following content:

• The Biggest Losers: Content that’s decayed (lost organic traffic) at a high volume over the last 3-6 months.
• The Almost Famous: Content that’s currently ranking on page 2.
• The Nobodies: Content that’s targeting high-intent, high-volume keywords that are not ranking at all.

Bonini suggests that updating old content can drive organic traffic to previously successful but declining posts, and boost the ranking of content sitting on page 2 of the SERPs. For blog posts that are not ranking at all due to high-volume keywords and keyword difficulty, consider a complete overhaul to rewrite and restructure the content.

To revive an old blog post, you should:

• Target new keywords.
• Update the on-page SEO.
• Update the body content.
• Internally link to new content.
• Add and optimize new images and videos.
• Fix the format.
• Correct typos and improve readability.
• Update the blog post with a new date.
• Reindex your blog post with Google.

1. Target new keywords.

How old is your blog post? Depending on its initial publish date, one of two things could be true. One, you were targeting keywords based on keyword difficulty and search volume at that time. Two, you didn’t have the SEO knowledge to implement keyword research.

Search volume indicates how many people are entering a keyword into a search engine. This metric, commonly referred to as Monthly Search Volume (MSV), anticipates how much traffic is available for that keyword. Evaluate search volume with keyword difficulty. Keyword difficulty is a measure of how difficult it is to rank on the first page of a SERP for a specific keyword. Neither keyword difficulty nor search volume can solely determine your target keywords.

If your blog post is from years ago and you knew about SEO and keyword research, the keyword difficulty and search volume for your target keywords have likely changed. If you were unaware of the importance of SEO, your content is likely missing keywords altogether. That is why targeting new keywords is crucial.

How do you find new keywords? You will need to:

• Identify industry-related terms in your niche.
• Use keyword research tools to produce long-tail keywords.
• Select keywords based on search volume and keyword difficulty.

Let’s walk through the process. Imagine you are a fashion blogger updating a post on androgynous clothing. “Androgynous” will be an industry term that serves as the base for your target keywords.

Next, use keyword research tools. Google Keyword Planner is a popular tool among bloggers and marketers; however, other resources include Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, SEMRush, and Soovle. After entering the term “androgynous” into these tools, they will produce long-tail keywords. For example, a Google Keyword Planner search for this term yields long-tail keywords such as androgynous style, androgynous clothing, androgynous alternative fashion, and about 50 more options. Once you have a list of keywords to work with, evaluate their keyword difficulty and search volume.

Search volume is directly related to how many people are searching for that target keyword. While high search volume can mean more visitors, it is directly affected by keyword difficulty. That is why it is best to evaluate both at the same time.

Let’s compare the keywords “androgynous style” and “androgynous clothing.” Google Keyword Planner shows MSV results at 1K-10K searches for both keywords. Because the search volume is the same, the deciding favor comes from each term’s keyword difficulty. Using the Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, “androgynous style” has a difficulty score of 10 versus a score of 34 for “androgynous clothing.” Remember — keyword difficulty is a measure of how difficult it would be to rank for a particular keyword. Androgynous style has the lower difficulty score, meaning it would be easier to rank for this term.

Keyword research is a significant part of SEO; however, updating other on-page SEO factors can improve your content’s ranking.

2. Update the on-page SEO.

Updating and implementing your SEO strategy on an old blog post takes place in a few key areas. You will need to update and optimize your:

• SEO Title Tag
• Meta Description
• Article Title
• Subheadings

SEO Title Tag

The SEO title tag is often the first thing noticed on a SERP. It is the clickable name of the webpage that leads to the post. Update this title to reflect any new target keywords. Be mindful that while there is no limit to the length of SEO title tags, Google search results only show the first 70 characters. To maximize your post and its perceived relevance, include the keyword at the beginning of the title.

Meta Description

You can find the meta description on a SERP as the featured text beneath the SEO title tag and URL. This text should include your target keyword and clue readers into the purpose of your content. Make it good! An eye-catching meta description could be what causes readers to click on your content or keep scrolling to another result.

Article Title

Some bloggers fail to realize that your SEO title yag and article title don’t have to be the same. While the title tag appears on the search engine results page, the article title appears on the destination page. Update this title with any new keywords as well.

Subheadings

Subheadings act as an outline of your content. Before readers decide to commit to your blog post, many will skim through it to determine if it is worth their time. Add your keyword to the main header of your content. It will increase the perceived relevance of your content and help boost your rankings.

After you make changes to the title tag, meta description, article title, and subheadings, it is time to move on to where the most changes happen — the body content.

3. Update the content.

The bulk of your updates will happen in the body content. Begin by rewriting your introduction. Continue by updating the rest of the content as needed. It will be done in two steps — removing out-of-date content and adding current information.

When removing out-of-date content, start with information that no longer applies. Let’s revisit the keyword “androgynous style” from before. Imagine a fashion blogger writing a piece this yearon androgynous style and its style icons from the last ten years. They might write about Prince and David Bowie. With both musicians having passed away a few years ago, their information would no longer apply to a future update of this blog post.

Removing out-of-date content also includes removing old sources from your post. How old is too old? Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) recommends using sources published within the last ten years for arts, humanities, literature, and history. For fast-paced fields, such as online marketing and tech, aim to use resources from the last 2-3 years.

When removing old sources and content, your goal should be to replace them with new information. As you update your content, remember to build your internal links.

4. Focus on links.

Using links to revive an old blog post is a significant way to boost SEO. Links can boost your ranking on a search engine results page and increase the credibility of your post. Update your links in two steps.

First, search for broken links. Broken links are dead ends that take visitors to a 404 error page. If a reader clicks on a link, it’s because they want more information. If they find a broken link, it immediately diminishes the quality and credibility of your content and increases their frustration. Remove, repair, or redirect any broken links.

Second, refresh internal links. Interlinking is when you link to other relevant blog posts on your site. This practice keeps users on your site longer, boosts your content quality, and improves SEO. As you update your content, add new links to existing content on your website.

5. Add and optimize new images and videos.

High-quality blogs have high-quality visuals. Adding images and videos brings us back to the two benefits of reviving an old blog post — providing a better user experience and increased opportunities for SEO.

Adding and optimizing new images and videos can:

• Increase user time on your page.
• Drive more traffic to your post.
• Break up solid text.
• Encourage social media sharing.
• Make your post easier to understand.

Comparatively, a lot more goes into image SEO than video SEO. Here are the steps you need to take to revive your old blog post with images.

Find the Right Image

The first thing you want to do is prioritize original images if it is within your means. Taking originals often comes with the added cost of hiring a photographer. If this expense is out of your budget, use a combination of free and paid stock images. When selecting the right image for your post, choose candid images versus staged pictures.

Let’s use an example with two images we took from the free stock website Pexels. Generally speaking, most photography is staged, but there is a clear difference in the image above. A candid picture is when the subject doesn’t know they’re being photographed. The image on the left is not candid, but it appears as one. Compare it to the image on the right. While this image is significantly better than most over-posed, white background stock images out there, this image still feels less natural than that on the left. When selecting the right image, you want it to feel as natural as possible.

Finding the right image also means making sure they are relevant. Revisiting our fashion blog idea of androgynous style, it wouldn’t make sense to include examples of distinctly “masculine” or “feminine” styles unless they were tools for comparison. Make sure your images are relevant and match your content.

Once you have the right image, it’s time to name it.

Choose the Right File Name

The file name of your image is another way to improve SEO. Google indexes images found in blog posts. For them to understand what the image is about, the file name needs to do two things. It needs to include your keyword and describe the picture.

Say you were using an image of David Bowie during his iconic Ziggy Stardust tour. A name for the file could be androgynous-style-ziggy-stardust-tour.jpg. You might be wondering why Ziggy Stardust is used instead of David Bowie. In short, it’s not descriptive enough. David Bowie spent decades touring, so including his name in the file image is very broad. Because the alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, is associated with him in every corner of the internet, Google will have no trouble connecting the image to him.

Enhance Images with Alt Text

Alt text serves two purposes. One, it is the descriptive text for an image in case it can’t be displayed. It can happen if the user experiences technical issues. Including alt text for your images makes sure that the reader doesn’t lose any critical information.

Two, alt text serves to help when your image cannot be viewed. And yes, there is a difference. Accessibility is necessary for those who are blind or have other visual disabilities. Even when pictures appear in your blog post, the alt text will describe the image for those who can’t see it.

Use your keyword in your alt text, but focus your efforts on a good description of the image.

6. Fix or change the format.

Fix your format to match SEO best practices. As previously mentioned, online marketing is a fast-paced industry, which means the best practices often change over time. Current SEO best practices for format changes include adding a definition of your target keyword, adding numbered lists near the top of the post, and using headings and subheadings to strengthen your keyword.

7. Correct typos and improve readability.

First, let’s correct the typos. Tell me who and when. Who wrote the original blog post, and when was it written? The answer to this question can dictate how many typos you’d expect to find in the original post. It depends on the strength of the writer at that time.

Years ago, it felt as if we would live and die by the corrections provided by Microsoft Word. Now, there are options. Grammarly and Ginger are two popular proofreading tools that instantly identify grammar and punctuation errors. They also help improve readability.

Why is readability important? Readability directly connects to user experience. Readers will “bounce off” or exit the page if they decide that your blog post is too hard to read. High bounce rates negatively affect SEO. It sends a message to search engines that your content was irrelevant to users and that users are unlikely to read the content.

Readability measures how easy it is to read something. Higher scores mean that the content is easier to read. The words and sentences used in your post affect this score. Improve your content’s readability by:

• Writing shorter sentences.
• Breaking up long paragraphs.
• Avoiding passive voice.
• Removing filler words.

Previous tips on this list that improve readability including using headings and subheadings, bulleted lists, and images.

8. Publish the blog post with a new date.

It is one of the easiest ways to revive an old blog post for SEO. To emphasize it again, people do not gravitate to out-of-date content. Make sure your updated blog post reflects the current date. Another common practice is adding the current year to your SEO title tag. SearchPilot conducted a case study that demonstrated a 5% increase in organic traffic for a blog post with an SEO title tag that included the date versus one without. Adding the date to your title tag will show that your content is new — which users and SERPs prioritize.

9. Reindex your blog post with Google.

The whole point of updating your blog post is to get it noticed. Make sure it does. After you’ve republished your blog post, reindex it with Google. If your site is set up in Google Search Console, paste the URL of your blog post in the URL Inspection tool and request indexing. While Google will eventually reindex your content on its own, using this tool will speed up the process, allowing users to find your updated blog post as soon as possible.

Revive to stay alive.

Online marketing, which includes SEO, is a fast-paced industry. Its best practices are constantly changing. To keep up with current SEO practices and craft a great user experience, it is necessary to perform regular updates on your content. Use the steps and tips in this post to revive your blog posts and keep them alive in the eyes of your users and search engines.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2008 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If your business is reasonably successful, you may come up with many reasons why an effective website isn’t all that relevant for you.

Sure, you understand the need to have some web presence, but you might not believe that an effective website is going to make that big of a difference for your particular business — especially if you’re already plenty profitable.

What do you think? Do you need a website to run a successful business?

This article discusses reasons why having a business website is a wise investment and why you sometimes don’t need a website.

Does My Business Need a Website?

Many business owners ask, “Since I have a small business with a small workforce, and since we don’t sell anything online, do I need a website?”

The answer is YES!

If you have a business, you should have a website to avoid losing business to competitors that already have one.

Furthermore, are you sure you can’t sell your product online? COVID-19 has altered the retail landscape, with millions of shoppers online looking for everything from books to clips to houses to natural gas and more. So while you dither, your competitor has likely seen how effective a website can be for their business.

You definitely don’t want to be left behind.

But you might ask, “Doesn’t my Facebook page count?”

Do I Need a Website if I Have a Facebook Page?

It’s common for businesses to rely on Facebook or other social media platforms as their main advertisement channel. And these channels offer advantages.

For example, they help build a larger audience and even help you carry out market research. However, a Facebook page should not replace your business website. Here are some reasons why.

1. You Don’t Own Your Facebook Page

What happens if, one morning, Facebook decides that it won’t support businesses anymore? If your Facebook page were your sole online presence, all the clients and followers you built would likely disappear.

In fact, not too long ago, Facebook was down globally, causing moments of frenzy.

And while it’s doubtful Facebook will stop supporting businesses, you don’t have any say in the changes Facebook chooses to implement.

However, with your website, you have total control over your websites’ appearance and features.

2. Facebook Has SEO Limitations

Think about it. Where do you go when looking for a business locally? Facebook or Google? The 3.5 billion daily queries on Google show that most people turn to search engines over social networks to find information.

A business website allows you to position yourself so people will find you when they make search queries concerning the products you sell or the services you provide. Even if you can easily compete with larger websites, you can optimize your site for local searches to attract an audience in your area.

3. A Website is More Credible

A business website is a badge of trust, and people only buy from businesses they know, like, and trust. So while it might be quicker to create a Facebook page, you would be able to command more authority and trust with a business website.

4. Attention is Fleeting on Facebook

Facebook is massively competitive. Having your business listed on Facebook means that you’re constantly fighting off competition from several other companies.

What’s more, you have to compete with your potential client’s Facebook friends. Many people find advertisements annoying, especially when they want to interact with friends, making them ignore your business posts or ads.

On the other hand, a business website ensures that you have a potential client’s full attention. So while you might do some legwork to get them over to your website, once they’re on your website, the chances of patronage are higher.

Now, we aren’t saying you shouldn’t have a Facebook page for your business. But, instead, your Facebook page and other social media should support your website—not replace it.

Benefits of a Website

Whether you’re a small or big business, a business website offers plenty of advantages. Here are the most significant benefits of having a business website.

1. A Business Website Makes You Look Professional

Anyone can create a company page on Facebook; it’s free and can be done in a jiffy. This low barrier to entry takes away much of the credibility of a business social media page. Customers don’t know who’s behind a Facebook page, where they are, and whether it’s all a scam.

On the other hand, creating a business website is not free and indicates that you’re relatively serious about your business. Therefore, a business website makes you look more professional and credible.

2. It’s an Essential Step in Your Customer’s Journey

An effective website is where you want your audience from different channels to end up. It’s on the website that you’ll inspire action from your potential clients.

Your website is like a physical shop—people walk by it until they come in to look at what you offer. So even if they don’t buy something the first time they walk in, they might buy something on subsequent visits.

On a similar vein, customers come across your business via different channels like social media feeds. If the social feed ad is interesting, they’ll expect to visit your website to find out more about the business. If there isn’t a website, they might not take the next logical step in the customer journey.

3. A Website Increases Your Visibility

There are over 4.5 billion active internet users worldwide, and over 90% of them accessed the Internet via mobile devices.

Without a website, your business is virtually invisible to these people. With COVID-19 pushing the global market even more digital, your business will become invisible to those that matter unless you invest in a website.

4. It’s Essential For Local Businesses

Many small business owners don’t see the need to invest in an effective business website. However, they’re currently missing out on an incredible source of revenue.

The following statistics show how important a website is for a local business:

• 46% of search on Google include local intent
• 97% of users use search to find local businesses
• 28% of users purchased an item after a local search
• 70% of users will visit a store because of what they found online

A business website will help you capture all of this potential and make your business even more profitable.

5. It Offers Social Proof

What your customers say about your business can determine whether others patronize you or not. So while review websites like Yelp are good, your website is the best place for people to get more information about your business.

Displaying your best testimonials on your website is an effective way to establish trust and social proof. What is more, publishing your best reviews on your website ensures that third-party review sites don’t minimize the good things people say about your business.

6. A Business Website Gives Lasting Value

One of the best things about investing in a business website is how it continues to generate value for you even years after you’ve created it.

When you pay for ads on social media, your potential clients only see your ads for as long as you run them. If they don’t see it, you’ll have to pay again to run the ad campaign.

On the other hand, a business website will give you ROI over time. Even if it doesn’t give you returns in the first year, you have time to tweak things until you get returns.

7. Creating a Business Website is Easier and Cheaper Than You Think

Many business owners refuse to create a website because they believe it’s difficult and expensive to create an effective website. However, that’s not true.

There has never been an easier and cheaper time to create high-quality websites. There are affordable, easy-to-use website builders available to you. Creating a website and hosting a website is pretty straightforward.

8. A Business Website Lets You Sell Online

Ecommerce sales are exploding and are projected to hit over $5.4 trillion in 2022. Surely, none of these sales happen with businesses that don’t own websites.

Even if you aren’t a traditional ecommerce business, having an online storefront can help you attract new customers and help you continue selling even when your physical store is closed.

9. You Have Complete Control Over Your Website

Since your website is your property, you get absolute design freedom — unlike with social media platforms.

You can share user reviews, videos, images, and whatever else you desire.

Also, you don’t have to follow the constantly updated rules of social platforms. And if there’s a social media blackout, like when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all disappeared for several hours, your website and its content remain safe.

10. A Business Website is Easy to Manage

Managing websites used to be daunting. However, with a content management system (CMS) like CMS Hub or WordPress, it’s now easier than ever to manage a website. In addition, you don’t need any technical skills to keep your website up to date.

11. Websites Improve Customer Service

An effective website will contain plenty of important information your customers need. Therefore, there’s no need for them to call about location, hours of operation, and other simple questions. By helping customers, a website improves the overall customer experience.

Furthermore, since simple questions from customers don’t bog down your workforce, they can focus on other vital processes that increase company productivity.

12. A Website Helps You Edge Out The Competition

Even as a small business, an effective website allows you to compete with your industry’s “big boys.” If you play your cards right and properly optimize your website, it’s possible to outrank bigger websites, and get quality leads organically from search engines.

But even with the many benefits a website provides, is it still possible that you don’t need one for your business? Yes, and here are some reasons why.

5 Reasons Why Your Business Doesn’t Need a Website

Here are some reasons why your business might not need a website.

1. You’re Not Looking to Grow

One of the primary reasons for having a working, effective website is to increase the number of clients you have and grow your revenues. If you’re not looking to grow your business significantly, there’s probably little reason to try and find more clients or increase your revenues.

2. You Have Enough Leads

Many businesses do a great job of getting referral customers and tapping their existing network for new business. If this is you, then perhaps a website is not that important. This assumes, of course, that your Rolodex will continue to be an effective mechanism for you to get all the new business you need.

3. You’re Not Hiring Any Time Soon

If you are looking to increase staff, the chances are that your prospective hires will likely want to learn more about you. And they’ll probably turn to your website.

With all other things being equal, potential recruits will pick a company with a vibrant website over one with a brochure on the web.

Small businesses would be well served by a website, as they don’t have the resources that can help attract exceptional people outside of their immediate network. A website can help with that.

But if you’re not looking to hire top talent, then you can do without a business website.

4. You’re Operating in a Virtual Monopoly

If you have the luxury of running a business for which there’s very little (if any) competition, and you’ve got an offering that people must have, a website is probably not crucial. Your clients need what you have, and there’s nowhere else to go. Congratulations! Though a shiny new website might impress your spouse and colleagues, you probably don’t need one to improve your business.

5. You Don’t Expect to Sell the Company Any Time Soon

For more and more types of businesses, the website is an important asset that factors into valuation discussions. This is particularly true if you have a startup business, a hi-tech business, or one that “scales” well (i.e., adding new customers does not increase costs proportionately).

The reason is quite simple. If you have an effective website and can demonstrate that it is successful at helping you get new clients, you have a better business than someone who doesn’t. The Internet is an excellent way for many companies to have a low customer acquisition cost.

The other nice thing about the Internet as a vehicle for marketing and sales is that it can be more easily measured. Imagine if you are selling your business and showing the acquirer a chart of your web traffic (and how it’s grown over time) and precise data on how that traffic translates into revenues — you will likely find that the two are highly correlated. If I were on the buying side, I’d sit up and take notice.

Final Thoughts

The decision to either create a website for your business or not is ultimately yours to make. However, if part of your business goals is to improve lead generation, visibility, social proof, and authority, then creating a website is an excellent place to start.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2006 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Imagine you’re tasked with baking a cake for a friend’s birthday. You’re not exactly an expert baker, so you hop online and look for an easy-to-follow recipe that will help your dessert be the star of the party.

Your mouth is watering as you scroll through photo after photo of delicious-looking cakes. Finally, you settle on a gorgeous strawberry shortcake photo and dive into the recipe. It has a list of ingredients and then one line of instruction that says: “Bake cake.”

Confused, you frantically scroll down looking for more guidance. With none available, you end up wasting ingredients when you have to remix your batter and it takes forever to bake because you have to stop and repeat earlier steps or start from scratch because you’ve done something wrong.

Your cake is an utter failure and you end up swinging by a bakery on your way to the party.

Perhaps you’ve never had to bake a cake, but no doubt, you’ve been given assignments at work that leave you wishing you could rely on a bakery.

The only information provided to you is an end goal and you struggle to meet your boss’s expectations because you have no idea how to complete the task they’ve given you.

It happens more than you think, and if you’re a manager, you may even be guilty of doing this to your employees.

When this happens, projects don’t get done on time or don’t get done properly, employees are frustrated and employee satisfaction tanks, and with missed deadlines or no finished product at all, customers will go elsewhere to have their needs met.

If only there were a way to avoid this type of problem.

You probably guessed that there is. It’s called business process mapping, and you’re going to learn how this could help save your business.

Business Process Mapping

What is process mapping?

Creating a process is when you break down a project into a series of tasks and activities that will eventually create your desired end result. Process mapping is a strategy whereby you create a visual representation of this process which is easy-to-follow and can be communicated to everyone involved in the project.

Going back to our cake example, a process is the steps that take you from gathering and measuring your ingredients, all the way to leaving the cake in the oven for a prescribed amount of time, and everything in between. You are transforming inputs (ingredients and steps) into outputs (delicious cake).

When you get the process down on paper or on a computer, you’re able to see inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and the challenges that your team or your customers may be facing. Armed with this information, you can tweak your process to correct these problems and create a well-oiled machine.

The Benefits of Process Mapping

No matter what industry you represent, product or service you offer, or department you work in, process mapping can help you improve efficiency, employee and customer satisfaction, and your bottom line. Here are just a few of the benefits of incorporating process mapping into your organization:

1. Identify redundancies.

If you make a product, materials may be wasted if employees have to repeat activities before they get them right. Whether you offer a product or a service, your employees’ time is valuable and care should be taken not to waste that either. To that end…

2. Improve employee efficiency.

It’s been stated that between 15% and 20% of employee time is wasted due to overlap in jobs and not understanding roles and responsibilities, redoing tasks that have been done wrong, and not having a full set of instructions before they begin their activity.

When you clearly state every step involved in creating an outcome, and who will complete that step, employee efficiency will improve as will your company culture.

3. Increase employee satisfaction.

Most people don’t enjoy being confused. Employees want to know exactly what they are responsible for and how to complete those tasks. With this information, employees are happier, less likely to look for a new job, and more likely to treat each other, and your customers, nicely.

4. Foster happier customers.

When customers receive their product or service in a timely fashion, delivered by employees who are pleased with their work and excited to help them, customers are happier. They then return as customers and tell their friends to do business with you as well.

Why should I use process mapping as a marketer?

As a marketer, you may be wondering how to do process mapping for your projects and responsibilities.

Just like producing a product, you have certain steps that you must follow in order to reach your end goal: attracting leads and converting them into customers. You might not even realize that you’ve been doing it all along.

For example, do you create random content and visuals before you know who will be seeing them? Hopefully not. Do you close your eyes and point to a marketing route without researching where your ideal customer spends time? If you do, you’re probably not seeing a lot of ROI.

No, you have a series of steps you take to identify the right opportunities to reach potential customers and then speak to them. Now, we’re going to get that process down so it can be improved, tested, communicated, and replicated.

How do I use process mapping as a marketer?

The first step to process mapping is to determine your desired outcome. Your process may look slightly different depending on your goals and your company’s specifics, but here are seven steps you can use to guide yourself and your team through a marketing process map:

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1. Do your research.

Research who you want to market to, where you will find them, and when they will be there.

2. Segment your audience.

Allocate your audience into groups of customers or potential customers with similar attributes. This will help you perfect your specific messaging.

3. Target the best fit segment.

Identify who needs what you want and has the ability to buy it.

4. Position yourself apart from the competition.

What makes you different? This is called a unique selling proposition and will help you craft your marketing message.

5. Determine what you will offer.

Then strategize around how much it will cost, where it will be distributed, and how you will promote it to your audience.

6. Implement your process.

This is where you put your strategies into action. This may include marketing automation.

7. Measure your success.

Use the goals you’ve set to measure how you’re doing. These may include reach like web traffic and conversions, or revenue-based goals like profit.

Don’t try to change your process until you’ve mapped out exactly what it is you do now. Once every activity is listed, you can begin looking for ways to improve. If you have a team assigned to process creation, you can assign roles and responsibilities to each member.

Process Mapping Tools

When you’re ready to begin process mapping with your team, there are a variety of tools that you can use to get the job done. Some of these can be used for free while others have a paid version that’s helpful or necessary to create your process map.

We’ll take a look at a few of these options here.

1. LucidChart

LucidChart is a professional diagramming software that can be used on any browser or device.

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It can be integrated with productivity apps such as Google Suite and Microsoft Office and allows users to chat and comment in real-time.

2. Google Drawings

Google Drawings is a free mapping software that allows you to create various diagrams and charts with basic shapes.

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Google Drawings is browser-based and completely online. It includes free storage without expiration.

3. Edraw

Edraw is process mapping software that looks similar to the Microsoft Office interface. If you’re familiar with that environment, this tool will be easy for you to navigate.

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Edraw includes an automatic layout for mind maps and allows you to customize everything simply.

4. Gliffy

Gliffy is great for those of us who are not particularly artistic. With a variety of templates and themes available, users can create professional looking process maps without a lot of headache.

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With Gliffy, you can easily revert back to a previously saved version of your work. This is a helpful feature if you missed something or encountered an error while you were working.

5. Cacoo

Cacoo is the perfect process mapping tool that can be integrated with a number of apps.

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Cacoo is extremely collaborative and allows multiple users to work on a project, tracking changes, reviewing the status, and working together to reach the goal.

Depending on your needs and your budget, there are a number of tools that can assist you along your process mapping journey.

Process Mapping Examples

Remember that your process may look different than the next marketer’s. Because of this, the visual representation you use will differ as well. You can find a number of process mapping examples. Use the tool and the setup that works best for your business’ needs.

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When you create your process maps, remember that “good” is sometimes good enough. This doesn’t need to be a museum-worthy work of art. It just has to be a functional, easy-to-follow plan that everyone can understand. Keep it simple. Ultimately, this needs to work for you and your situation.

Marketing is inherently risky. You never know if the money and effort you put into a campaign or ad will produce results. To mitigate the risk, spend more time on the planning phase before you move on to execution.

Once you know who your audience is and how you will reach them, you can focus on the messaging and the specific strategies that you’ll use to attract new leads and convert them. Without this step, you’re basically crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. Luckily, when you use process mapping to map out your project’s plan, you’ll have a better chance of seeing the return on investment you were hoping for.

Companies often rely on blogs, articles, and social media to engage with their consumers and attract new clientele. However, creating new and exciting content can be a time-consuming process. A great solution to this dilemma is to repurpose existing content.

Repurposing content doesn’t have to feel redundant or boring. In fact, with a few great strategies, old content can gain a fresh new perspective and reinforce critical points. This article will go over a few ways that businesses can reinvigorate their old content while increasing their potential reach.

Content Reach Examples

Here are some great examples of content that reaches, engages, and delights a large audience.

1. State Farm

Have you ever heard of “Jake from State Farm”? I’m sure you have. He’s been featured in nationwide State Farm commercials, blog posts, memes, and videos — State Farm hit gold with this idea. The insurance giant’s content reach consists of the repurposed use of “Jake” in new and inventive ways. This includes creating intriguing storylines that mix plausible life situations with the use of its insurance policies. Customers can see themselves in the everyday interactions Jake has with his customers.

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2. T-Mobile

T-mobile’s Newsroom constantly makes old content new again. The brand’s Loyalty Program, T-Mobile Tuesdays, for example, has been around for five years. The content strategy involves images, videos, app links, and articles that strive for engagement through consistency and fun contests, polls, and incentives. The Loyalty Program runs every Tuesday with slight alterations each week.

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3. Netflix

Netflix has created a new way to introduce its content: by sponsoring articles. The company often chooses content that works alongside its tv shows.

An example includes a New York Times article on women inmates for the Orange Is the New Black series. These articles are recycled with fresh storylines to attract new readers and customers.

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Best Content Reach Strategies

1. Add Visuals

One way to give languishing content a new twist is by adding visuals. Research shows that clear, concise visualization aids can boost engagement in even the most complex subject matter. This can include graphs, charts, videos, and infographics.

2. Use Keywords

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a way for consumers to find blogs and posts quickly. Google’s search engine has algorithms that search for the best content to give to its visitors.

This content is typically full of helpful words and phrases related to a particular subject. The result is a more helpful site for the reader which can bring more traffic to your site, too.

3. Use the Power of Social Media

The great thing about social media is that it is versatile. People can like, share and comment on many platforms and move these conversations to other platforms. You can repurpose older content to get a fresh take from users on other social media streams.

4. Try Backlinks

Backlinks are an example of this kind of approach. These are hyperlinks from one site that link to another. This signals to the search engine that the content in the two articles is related. The anchor text used to link the two articles together further helps the search engine infer the relationship between the two, which can give your page and site more authority if your backlink strategy is done well.

5. Make Your Content Interactive

Content doesn’t have to be two-dimensional. Bring old content to life with games, polls, videos, and even clickable slideshows. Research shows interactive content boosts engagement and sales. You can use tools like Slideshare to create colorful slides to make sharing your message easy and attractive.

6. Write an Ebook

Ebooks are a great way to repackage information from multiple sources, like blog posts into one educational resource. You can optimize ebooks for mobile or desktop and even include interactive content.

7. Send an Email Newsletter

Email newsletters can also serve as a way to repurpose older content by reminding audiences of previous campaigns.

The e-newsletter is a good way to mix in new content with older content in templates that cater to specific audiences while maintaining the interests of existing subscribers. Some excellent newsletter services include MailChimp and Constant Contact.

8. Include an FAQ or Resource Page

Placing an FAQ or resource section on a website is a fantastic way to reintroduce older content. You can link to prior articles and posts that are relevant to the customer’s needs. This can reinvigorate interest and attract new audiences. FAQs and resource pages can also condense hundreds of pages into just a few clicks. This can ensure a cleaner site and allow audiences to connect with your brand.

9. Use a Podcast

Turn an old blog post or article into content for a podcast. Podcasts are an excellent way to connect with consumers since they appeal to auditory audiences and offer an alternative (and efficient) way of consuming information. Podcasts also allow for a more personable approach that can make your audience feel like a part of the story.

10. Use Consumer-Generated Content

Take old customer reviews and use them as the basis of newer content. For example, if users point out that your business has a quick turn-around time, capitalize on this by creating content with this in mind. You can post blogs or articles about the importance of timeliness and link to many of the reviews. This approach spotlights the consumer and makes them center stage … and what customer doesn’t want to be in the spotlight?

11. Recommend Old Articles in New Posts

When writing new blog articles, you can create a new experience by placing older content on the page. This can be done using links or snippets of the post to capture the reader’s attention. You can also get new eyes on pages with less traffic by placing recommendations at the end of posts or blog entries.

12. Create a Part-Two

Follow-up posts are a good way to repackage content. It can posit a concern or problem that is still relevant while adding new points. This approach can bring a whole new dimension to a subject. It also allows for a more thorough analysis of old information.

For example, if you own a coffee company and have an article related to “Great Drinks for the Morning Rush,” you can follow up with “Great Drinks for the Evening.” You can then reference the prior article while highlighting some of the other products you sell to create new and interesting content.

13. Invite Others to the Experience

Guest posting is standard on many blogs. Refresh your content with new opinions and perspectives from people outside your company. This approach keeps things fresh without sacrificing core goals or ideas.

For instance, an expert baker may have great things to add about your catering company. You can use some of their tips and ideas in new content and couple this with references to older content.

14. Create New Campaigns Using Old Ideas

Companies often do this to re-energize marketing. This approach utilizes new marketing strategies such as viral video to engage consumers with old, tried-and-true content.

An example of this can include companies offering for a limited time a “retro” look or producing giveaways that include old merchandising. Businesses can build new, solid campaigns around these ideas.

15. Rewrite and Repost

Awkward phrasing, misspellings, and low SEO rankings can hurt your ranking potential, but it’s common in old content. Editing with services like Grammarly can eliminate some of these issues. In addition, updating statistics and replacing old information can make a world of difference for your traffic potential.

16. Combine Old Posts

If your content library gets large enough, posts could begin to overlap. Generating new content can be as simple as taking similar posts and combining them into one. This method can bring great ideas and repurpose them for a new audience while creating cohesiveness.

Improve Your Content Reach

Improving your content reach can mean more sales and a bigger client base. You can recycle and repurpose old content in new ways. Get creative and make the most out of your content. The result is a stronger, better online presence.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2011 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

We are currently living in the age of the internet, and that means your business must cater to it. Promoting your business, your brand, and your product or service can all benefit from digital marketing.

There is an audience to be reached online and a reputation to build from your presence. There is, however, a right and a wrong way to do digital marketing. Check out these common mistakes to make sure you are doing it effectively.

1. Not Having a Blog

Remember that you are not only trying to market your site as a business, you are also trying to market yourself as a trusted industry leader. Publishing blog content that is valuable, informed, and accessible will establish you as a voice to be trusted. Additionally, each blog post is another indexed page for your site, and more indexed pages lead to your site showing up more in Google search results.

Don’t just create the blog, it’s also important for it to be interactive. Ask questions in the comment section to get responses. Also, add guest posts or interviews from researchers or successful professionals in your field. Utilize this blog post writing guide for creating the most impactful post each time.

2. Avoiding Social Media

You might think you can get away with not using social media. I’m sorry to tell you that you’re wrong! It’s an essential way to turn leads into customers. Spreading your content, reaching your audience, and engaging with users will help you promote your business online. But don’t try to do it all yourself; learn why you need a social media manager.

3. Forgetting About Mobile Users

Mobile browsing accounts for about half of web traffic worldwide. So, as you are optimizing your site, don’t forget to also optimize it for mobile users so that the load time is equally as fast as on desktop. Ensure the design of your site is also adjusted to be viewed on mobile.

4. Not Offering Discounts and Promotions

A survey from Retail Me Not revealed that two-thirds of customers made an unplanned purchase solely because of a discount. Online coupon codes or limited time offers are great pop-ups for your site, especially on the landing page or when they may abandon their cart. Your site should also have a call-to-action that can be incentivized with a promotion.

5. Underutilizing Keyword Research

Potential customers need to be able to find you online, so it’s essential to focus on SEO. Identify what keywords are the most relevant, have high search volume, and are relatively easy to rank for. Then, monitor where you rank for each keyword, how much traffic you’re getting from each keyword, and whether the visitors coming from that keyword are turning into leads.

6. Targeting a Broad Audience

Spending your marketing budget to reach as many people as possible isn’t an efficient use of your money. Pinpoint a clearly defined target market that will yield more relevant leads.

Don’t make assumptions or rely on guesses for information about any audiences. Do your research to determine your target audience and the best way to reach them.

7. Having Subpar Customer Service

A visitor who hasn’t done business with you before is taking a risk if they choose to become a customer. Having good customer service is important to lower that risk, because 70% of customers will continue business with you if their complaints were resolved well.

Offer help in a clear place on your site so that visitors know they have access to it. This may be a Contact Us page, a 24/7 virtual chat box, a helpline, or other methods. Just be sure that if someone goes to your site, they clearly see they will have help if they need it.

8. Ignoring the Competition

It’s likely that there is someone else out there offering the same thing you are. Don’t pretend that they don’t exist; instead, find a way to stand out. Figure out what makes your brand special and highlight it on your site. It should be loud and clear on your site what makes you different from the competition.

9. Not Using Social Proof

Seeing examples of happy, satisfied customers encourages more conversions. Testimonials, case studies, and success stories ensure your web visitors that other people are happy with your business. They can feel reassured that they will be too.

10. Lacking a Clear Strategy

Without a plan and a vision, there are no goals to track or research-backed methods. This can often be a waste of time, money, and resources. Start building your marketing strategy by defining your target audience, setting reasonable goals, understanding what you need to achieve them, and keeping track of your progress.

11. Failing to Convert Web Traffic to Customers

Visitors to your website who don’t end up becoming customers have little value, unless they happen to do some word-of-mouth advertising for you that introduces a lead. Getting visitors to your site is goal number one, but goal number two is to turn them into customers. Develop a strategy for converting web traffic into sales.

12. Having Poor Website Design

A website that is constructed with digital marketing in mind should have a call to action and a well-optimized landing page. Any promotions or discounts should also be displayed front and center. Having an informative and inviting website is important in your efforts to turn visitors into fruitful leads.

13. Not Tracking Your Leads

Online leads can come from a variety of traffic sources such as keywords, email blasts, referring links, social media, etc. One of those sources might be pulling in leads that rarely turn into customers, while another might be consistently garnering them. This is important to know so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

The Power of Digital Marketing

Your business needs the proper marketing tools and strategies to thrive. Digital marketing opens you up to endless opportunities for learning and growth. Boost your business to its highest potential by fixing your digital marketing strategy, targeting the right leads, and creating an optimized website.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2008 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If you really think about it, the content formats we rely on today have an uncanny resemblance to the content formats we relied on yesterday — our blog posts look like print articles, our offers look like books, and our slide decks look like look presentations.

Relying on the content formats we used yesterday to educate and entertain our audience today is fine: Our audience is ultimately used to these mediums. At the same time, “fine” is not exceptional, and we’ve missed a huge opportunity to engage them at record levels because we glossed over the fact that screens and computers are so much more than just digital pieces of paper and printing presses.

Fortunately, the interactive marketing movement is charging along, and their early adopters have proven that if marketers want to cut through the noise, they can’t just do what they’ve always been doing. They need to refresh their work.

Common Types of Interactive Marketing Strategies

• Interactive videos: Using video is a great way to explain a topic or entertain viewers. Savvy marketers have found new ways to engage viewers by adding CTAs in videos prompting them to subscribe or participate in the conversation in real time. Some videos allow viewers to answer questions by clicking a set of multiple choice answers right on the screen. Other formats immerse the viewer in beautiful landscapes, which is becoming more popular as the use of 360-degree video becomes more prevalent.
• Quizzes, surveys, and polls: Quizzes and polls are a fun way to get visitors to interact with your site and you can create them for just about any topic. Buzzfeed has excelled in this area, but it’s not uncommon to see them used for travel, home search, and interior design sites. They are popular tools for social media marketing as well.
• Personalized content: From addressing customers by name in email to curating specific ads targeted at their individual needs, adding a personal touch gives the impression that you are speaking directly to them. Ever abandoned an item in your cart and received an email reminder about it later? That’s personalized marketing at work.
• Interactive storytelling: It can be difficult to keep readers engaged with a long-form article. Interactive storytelling uses infographics, gifs, video, clickable maps, charts, and other visual aids to help break up text and keep readers from getting fatigued.
• Calculators: While calculators don’t sound super interesting, they are incredibly useful for organizations that want to showcase data. Looking for a home? You’ve probably used a mortgage calculator to get a ballpark estimate of your monthly payment.

Interactive Marketing Examples

Capturing attention sounds great in theory, but you may be unsure of how to incorporate interactive marketing into your strategy. To get some great ideas, learn from some of these great examples of interactive marketing:

1. Interactive Series | Sweet Digs by Eko and Refinery29

Why we like it:

• This series gets viewers directly involved with the show by having them choose furniture or answer questions in real time.
• Additionally, it builds on Refinery29’s already successful content.

If you’ve ever watched a house hunting or interior design show and either found yourself talking to the TV or gawking at the owner’s decor choices, Refinery29’s Sweet Digs is for you. They partnered with Eko, a platform known for creating interactive shows, to bring viewers inside the coolest and quirkiest homes — with a twist.

Instead of merely being a voyeur, viewers are prompted to interact with homeowners and renters. From recommending how they should redecorate to guessing how much certain furniture items cost, viewers can get in on the action. Even more satisfying, you’ll get to see if they chose the items you suggested at the end. It’s HGTV on steroids.

The best part is, Refinery29 didn’t need to create a new marketing idea from scratch. Instead they took a concept they already did well, and improved upon it using Eko’s interactive tools. This new content gives viewers a sense of agency in the content they’re consuming while also leveling up engagement.

2. Vimeo Virtual Courses That Get You Moving | Y7

Why we like it:

• Adding details like a studio playlist helped Y7 patrons create the studio atmosphere at home.
• Creating an online community not only helped the studio stay afloat, it provided patrons a sense of normalcy in uncertain times.

Pandemic restrictions shuttered many businesses that required in-person interaction, like gyms and fitness studios. Those that survived adapted their offerings for the virtual market. But let’s face it, working out at home just isn’t the same as getting a boutique fitness experience.

Trendy Yoga studio Y7, rose to the occasion. Using Vimeo OTT, the brand known for its candlelit classes and trap soundtrack moved instruction for all 15 studios online. They then kicked the online experience up a notch by helping their students create the studio vibe at home, complete with an in video QR code to access the class playlist.

All the little details paid off. These improvements in virtual teaching kept students coming back for more, enabling Y7 to stay in business and retain their loyal fanbase.

3. The Structure of Stand-Up Comedy | The Pudding

Why we like it:

• The visuals and diagrams dissecting Wong’s routine are like taking a class on performance and creative writing at the same time.
• It leaves the audience with a deeper understanding of not only how Wong crafts her routine, but also allows them to connect with her in an empathetic way.

Stand-up comedians might seem like the lucky wisecrackers who are blessed with the talent to improvise some of the funniest jokes and bits you’ve ever heard, but in reality, they polish their performance with painstaking precision.

To crack their audiences up as much as possible, they make sure their routines’ stories seamlessly flow from one to the other. However, some comedians like Ali Wong take their stand-up preparation to an entirely different level.

In their interactive slideshow about how Ali Wong structured her Netflix special Baby Cobra, The Pudding, a digital publication that crafts visual essays about culture and entertainment, describes how she sculpts her routine into a narrative instead of just telling a bunch of separate jokes.

By visually outlining her entire routine, The Pudding reveals how Ali Wong weaved all her bits into a story, building her world and perception of life in a way that her audience can truly understand, which left them with a deeper feeling of empathy, meaning, and ultimately humor.

4. Conversational Marketing | HubSpot

Why we like it:

• The chat bot’s prompts allow users to customize their own experience on the site, ensuring that they quickly get the information they are looking for.
• Since the user is dictating their experience on the site, it eliminates any sales pressure, providing a better overall user experience.

We rely on messaging apps to interact with friends and family, so it only makes sense that brands should incorporate them for communication to reduce friction in the buying journey. Despite this, marketers have been sluggish to adopt conversational marketing — using chatbots, live chat, Facebook Messenger, and other chat features — into their inbound marketing strategies. In fact, according to Business 2 Community, only 36% of companies have adopted these tactics. At HubSpot, we hope to change that by offering new messaging tools that can integrate with your entire marketing suite and database.

We double down on this idea by using our own conversational marketing software on our homepage. Website visitors are asked a question and given several choices of potential answers. This allows the prospect to engage in website content almost like a “choose your own adventure” story. This improves the overall site experience and ensures that the site is serving up the content (or actions) that will benefit them the most… without any sales pressure.

5. A Personal Thank You with Vidyard | Amnesty International Canada

Why we like it:

• Giving donors a visual representation of how their donation aided Amnesty International’s various causes builds trust and establishes a personal connection.
• Donors will most-likely share the video with friends and family, which could lead to an increase donations.

In social settings, getting too personal too quickly is intrusive. However, when it comes to marketing, getting a little personal can go a long way in building brand loyalty.

Take this carefully crafted thank you video created by Amnesty International Canada using Vidyard’s platform. Personalized videos like the one above were sent to all of the organization’s donors. After reviewing their metrics, the organization reported higher donor satisfaction and retention from the use of these videos.

Sending a thank you card or email is nice, but adding a personal touch in the form of a video really won their donors over. When customers are happy with your product or service, they will inevitably share it with their network, providing you with valuable word of mouth promotion and credibility

6. Interactive Infographic| Family Fun in Scottsdale by Marriott

Why we like it:

• This interactive ad is a fun take on vacation planning.

• The clickable flowchart acts as a tool to help viewers customize their vacation activities to the parameters they set (e.g., interests, age)

Marriott Hotels manages to make vacation planning even more fun while positioning their brand in front of potential customers with an interactive infographic. Vacationers who are headed to Scottsdale are able to take a customized path through the flowchart to receive destination advice. Just a little bit of animation goes a long way, and it adds a touch of personalization that normal infographics don’t.

The beauty of this is that infographics are a great visual tool that have a ton of utility. By using lemonly.com, Marriott pushes the envelope just a step further, which provides unexpected delight.

7. Interactive Virtual Events | Built to Last by Wistia

Why we like it:

• By having an audio conference instead of a traditional virtual one, Wistia freed up their audience to attend whenever was convenient for them (while running errands, at the gym, etc).

• Visitors could attend any session in whatever order they liked instead of being forced into a rigid schedule, making the event more accessible.

By now we’re all used to virtual events, but meeting and video fatigue is real. How do you keep guests engaged? By mixing it up. That’s what Buffer and Wistia set out to do when they created the first ever audio conference for brand builders.

That’s right, no staring at the screen or being stuck at a desk. The audio format allowed listeners to join in from wherever they were, be it during their commute or while taking an afternoon stroll by connecting to a podcast player.

Each session ranged in length from roughly 25-35 minutes, and gave listeners the option to “choose their own adventure” by simply selecting the sessions they wanted to attend. This reduced friction as listeners were free to attend only the sessions relevant to their interests instead of committing several hours of their time.

8. Interactive Slide Show | The New Media Message by Velocity Partners

Why we like it:

• This slideshow beautifully illustrates the importance of showing rather than telling audiences why they should care about a particular topic.

• The build-up from the basic slides walks us through the progression of how using more interactive and attention grabbing graphics changes the audience’s experience in real time.

In their interactive slideshow, which honestly looks like it belongs in Tron, Velocity Partners, a B2B marketing agency, explains why innovative marketers need to leverage new content formats in order to tell more refreshing stories.

Velocity Partners shows, not tells, how their interactive slideshow can captivate an audience. This is in stark contrast to how marketers have churned out so many blog posts, ebooks, and SlideShares that they’ve become dull and predictable. The end result of this message hammers home the point that the most engaging and surprising mediums are the best at delivering the most engaging and surprising stories.

9. Interactive Article | The Big Gronkowski by Ceros

Why we like it:

• Ceros’ take on a visual representation of the article instead of traditional text is fresh, and immediately draws readers in.

• Bucking the norms of article structure, readers can quickly toggle to the information they want to know first, rather than having it dictated to them.

When Rob Gronkowski temporarily retired in 2019 , Ceros, an experiential content creation platform, decided to create an interactive article that spotlights the two things Gronk will always be remembered for — his athletic prowess and goofy attitude.

When you visit their interactive article, you can toggle between Gronk’s “Warrior” and “Goofball” side, clicking on hotspots that reveal his impressive achievements, his laundry list of injuries, and some of the funniest things he’s ever done. Once you finish interacting with the article, you’ll truly understand how Rob Gronkowski is just as athletic as he is goofy.

10. Immersive Video | Scotland From the Sky by BBC Scotland

Why we like it:

• This 360-degree video nails the art of showing rather than telling.
• Using Scotland’s immersive landscapes as the backdrop, the viewer is made to feel like they are exploring Glen Coe with the filmmaker.

In 2019, Rough Guides, a renowned travel guidebook, named Scotland the most beautiful country in the world.

And a big reason why it’s such a spectacle is that Glen Coe, a Scottish valley that cuts through the ruins of an ancient supervolcano, is one of the most striking landscapes in the world.

With their immersive, 360-degree video of Glen Coe, BBC Scotland can grip viewers because they’re able to experience the landscape from an intimate point of view at every possible angle, making them feel like they’re actually there.

11. Playable Video Game Ad | Narcos: Cartel Wars

Why we like it:

• The ability for people to go from just viewing the game to participating in it is a great way to draw them in.

• Allowing potential customers to play the game before buying eliminates sales pressure and puts the customer in control of their experience.

In the past, video game apps had to use video or gif demos to advertise gameplay in hopes to attract new players and increase app downloads. The thing about watching videos, though, is that it’s a passive activity. The visuals of the game may be enough to attract prospective players’ attention, but it may fall short of giving them enough inertia to actually engage and play.

FTX Games found their way around this by partnering with Glispa for their game Narcos: Cartel Wars. Prospects are immediately drawn into the action of the game with the ability to try it before buying it. Rockets and explosions abound for a few rounds before the demo prompts the player to install the app and continue their game.

The good news is that this type of functionality is about to become much more mainstream with Facebook offering playable video ads on their platform. Much like the Cartel Wars example, these playable ads are composed of:

• A short video preview
• A playable demo to get people hooked on the gameplay
• A call-to-action to get the users to take the next step

12. Interactive Voice Ad on Pandora | Doritos

Why we like it:

• Doritos found a creative way to take the audience from passive to active listeners, complete with crunching chip sounds to get folks salivating.

• The ad serves up questions to the audience and then uses AI to tailor their experience based on their answers.

Pandora for Brands has recently begun testing a new interactive ad functionality on their platform that allows users to verbally engage with the ad. Doritos is one of the first brands utilizing this new interactive format on Pandora. The audio uses the distinctive Doritos crunch and then prompts the user to answer a yes or no question. Using artificial intelligence, the ad can then serve up a personalized experience based on how the listener answered.

This is exciting for the same reason as the playable video game ads are: They disrupt passive listening in an attempt to get the listener to engage and actually process the information being conveyed to them. Plus, by being able to respond hands-free, there is less friction in order to learn more.

Applying Interactive Marketing to Your Campaigns

The campaigns in this article should give you a few takeaways to apply to your own marketing. As you create great content, you should also be thinking about:

• How to disrupt expectation to earn attention, engagement, and interest
• How to best personalize the experience for each individual prospect
• How to reduce friction as much as possible to increase momentum

By putting concepts these concepts in action, you’ll be in a position to generate buzz, make your content stickier, enhance the experience, and fuel your flywheel.

This article was originally posted April 3, 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

In today’s highly digital and connected society, it’s funny to think people can still feel disconnected from others. With so many people who communicate online, behind screens, this connected world can actually feel rather lonely at times.

This goes for personal relationships as well as business relationships — specifically between brands and their customers as well as brands and their employees.

So, what is it that has people feeling a disconnect from others and the companies they do business with?

A lack of community.

A community provides people with a feeling of belonging and a network of other people they can connect with based on their shared interests and/ or characteristics. And that’s why so many brands today are beginning to invest in the creation of communities for their customers, employees, and fans — as part of a process called community management.

Businesses build communities — or implement community management tactics at their companies — to build authentic relationships among their external audience (their customers, fans, and followers) and their internal audience (employees, vendors, partners, and team members).

When businesses invest in community management, they transition from an everyday brand to a human brand — one that cares deeply about the people who support them, work for them, and interact with them.

What is the purpose of community management?

Community management has become increasingly popular and recognized by all types of businesses — however, it’s still largely undefined.

So, what makes it so special? Why should your business adopt it? To answer those questions, let’s cover some of the main reasons why community management is critical to your success as a brand today.

“Brands need to hire community managers because they’re the tone, voice, and human element behind your brand,” said Krystal Wu, former social media community manager at HubSpot.

Community management allows your business to:

• Obtain feedback and gather ideas from your customers and audience members through real conversations.
• Provide support for audience members, fans, and customers when they need it.
• Increase brand and product awareness among your target audience.
• Learn about your customers and what they want, expect, and need in terms of content, products, services, and support.
• Build one-on-one and one-to-many relationships between audience members and your brand.
• Boost customer interactions, conversions, and sales.
• Provide value to your customers beyond a product or service.

It’s important to note community management is a broad industry — these are just some of the things community management allows your business to do.

Additionally, community management is an umbrella term, meaning there are many forms of community management that live beneath it. Let’s review those types of community management to help you determine which one(s) you’d like to focus on at your company.

Types of Community Management

There are six main types of community management — some of these happen behind a screen and require no face-to-face interaction, and some involve members of your community to interact with you and your team in person. The easiest way to review these types of community management is through the SPACE Model.

Community Management SPACE Model

The SPACE Model represents different types of community management — this way, you can get a better understanding of which options will work for your needs. Let’s take a look.

Important note: This section is an overview of just six of the many types of community management. We’ve also provided a couple examples of each.

S: Customer Support/ Success

The first type of community management is customer support and success. There are a few simple ways to think about customer support and success in terms of community management — a forum, FAQ document, and community website.

A forum is a question and answer, community-based discussion board focused on customer service and support. It’s a great way to connect your community. With a forum, your customers can chat with each other, ask each other questions, provide you with feedback, or strike up a discussion regarding a new product or service.

On the forum, you might provide your community members with access to your FAQ document so they can self-help and get quick answers to commonly-asked questions.

You’ll also be able to see who’s writing what so you can intervene and provide assistance if needed. This keeps things straightforward for your community members and also prevents your team from having to take the time to answer the same questions over and over again.

With a customer success platform or software, you can create a branded website or landing page for your community members that’s focused on supporting your customers.

Here, your customers can help themselves (and each other), communicate with members of your team, locate any resources they need (such as your knowledge base), and review your FAQ document.

A great way to create and manage your company’s community forum, your FAQ document, site, or page is with the help of software like Vanilla Forms. You can customize the entire site to match your branding, write and manage your forum and FAQ documents, and even ask for your customers to provide you with ideas and ways to innovate your products and services to better meet their needs.

This type of community management is ideal for companies that have an in-depth product line — like a software company — so users can communicate with each other about tips, tricks, and issues they may run into during use.

One of HubSpot’s customer support communities is our Developer Forum for those looking to build on the software. This keeps developers connected to the company, others in the same position, and resources they can use while working on the platform.

P: Product Ideation, Innovation, and Feedback

Product ideation, innovation, and feedback is both a proactive and reactive type of community management. It requires you to create a safe space where your customers and target audience can share their feedback and thoughts about the ways you can innovate and improve your products and services.

You can ask your community members to complete surveys or participate in in-person feedback discussions you lead. There are also many other types of user testing that your audience and customers can take part in if you choose to organize them.

For example, you might host a focus group with ten real customers at your office to learn about the ways they believe you can enhance your product or service after they use and/ or experience it.

This type of community management is ideal for most companies — asking for feedback from real customers and members of their target audience on how they can innovate their products is a critical part of the success of virtually every business.

A: Acquisition and Advocacy

Acquisition and advocacy is another type of community management. This form of community management allows you to directly with the people who are most excited about your business including your leads, customers, brand ambassadors, and brand advocates.

These community members help you build brand awareness and promote your business, products, and services through various methods such as word-of-mouth, affiliate programs, and social media.

A common way to create a community for these (very important) people is through an acquisition and advocacy program such as a brand ambassador initiative. Let’s look at an example.

The Skimm has a brand ambassador program for any user who gets ten people to sign up for the media company’s content. Once they’ve done so, they become a “Skimm’bassador.”

These brand ambassadors and advocates help The Skimm acquire new consumers and readers. They also become members of the Skimm’bassador community in which they receive swag and gain access to internal events, company headquarters, and parties.

Additionally, they’re able to connect and communicate with the community of Skimm employees and other Skimm’bassadors and provide The Skimm with feedback on how they can continue to grow and improve.

This type of community management is great if you want to delight your best customers by keeping them at the center of your flywheel, promote brand loyalty, increase brand awareness, and build long-lasting relationships with your biggest supporters.

C: Content and Programming

Another type of community management involves the creation of content and programming for your members — such as your customers, fans, followers, or employees. Your content and programming might include marketplaces, crowdfunding, user groups, and user-generated content.

This is a great option for companies with contributed content at the core of their products, business model, and other assets. For example, for companies like GoFundMe and Airbnb, their value is created by the people who join their sites and use their platforms to share fundraisers or rental properties.

These types of companies typically have community teams who work to ensure all community-generated content is appropriate, follows company guidelines, and meets the requirements of the site.

E: External Engagement

External engagement is a type of community management that provides your customers and supporters with a sense of belonging that leads to a stronger connection to your brand through a space that exists outside of your business. One of the most common types of external engagement community management is social media management.

For example, look at HubSpot’s Instagram page — it’s a highly interactive and engaging space that promotes brand awareness all while creating a community of followers with a similar interest (HubSpot).

HubSpot’s social media community managers ensure every single person who interacts with a post is noticed and treated like a human — not just a number. Followers are able to engage with HubSpot, the branded content that’s shared on the page, and their fellow followers.

This type of external engagement is great for companies looking to improve brand awareness while creating one-on-one and one-to-many relationships with fans, customers, and followers of all kinds.

Virtually any company has the ability to create an external engagement community management with the help of social media.

(I): Internal Engagement

Lastly, there’s internal engagement community management. Companies today are learning the value of creating strong communities internally — among their employees, partners, vendors, and suppliers.

Strengthening these internal relationships creates a sense of belonging and allows people to find others to identify with, which, in turn, boosts company morale and overall happiness.

For example, many companies, including HubSpot, use platforms like Slack, which has features, like channels, to improve internal engagement and communication.

This feature also helps build a sense of community through groups of employees (remote and in office) with common interests and positions at the company.

This type of community management brings your internal contributors together, connects them with like-minded individuals, and creates a sense of belonging, support, camaraderie, and inclusion in the workplace.

This helps them better serve your company by boosting their knowledge of your products and services and improves their happiness and retention rates.

Almost every business can take part in this type of community management as it only requires community building within the office space and may include software you already have (like Slack) or the formation of interest groups among your fellow employees.

So, you’ve reviewed the main types of community management and how they can add value to your business. Now, let’s cover the ways you can actually get started building a community management strategy so you can start reaping its benefits.

How to Build a Community Management Strategy

As you can see, there are several types of community management and ways to go about implementing them at your company.

For the sake of this piece, we’re going to review how to create just one community management strategy — an external engagement strategy (which we defined earlier), specifically through social media.

1. Choose a social media channel.

The first thing you’ll want to do is choose the social media channel on which you’ll manage your community.

Think about your target audience’s demographics to determine the best option for your company — for example, you might choose to focus your efforts on Snapchat if you have a young target audience, Instagram if you’re going for a broad target audience, or LinkedIn if you’re targeting a more professional crowd.

Other examples of platforms you might consider building and managing your community on include Facebook, Youtube, and Pinterest.

Learn everything you need to maximize engagement with a social media checklist.

2. Identify your audience.

Once you’ve chosen a social media channel, identify your audience on that platform.

By doing this, you’ll be able to see the type of content your target audience interacts with on the specific platform, what they like and expect from the brands similar to yours they already follow, and who they currently engage with.

This research and information will allow you to begin thinking about how you’re going to tailor the content your business creates to your target audience and your chosen platform.

3. Ask your audience what type of content they want to see.

In addition to identifying your audience, you should also ask your audience what they want to see to ensure you’re creating and pushing out content that’s relevant to them.

This will ensure you’re going to be able to reach your audience with social media content they want and are interested in.

Asking for this feedback and being open to suggestions also shows your audience you care deeply about their opinions and what they have to say — this will help you enhance your brand loyalty and advocacy, and create valuable interaction within your community (versus a one-way platform).

4. Determine how you’ll identify your success.

Now it’s time to determine how you’ll identify your success. There’s no right or wrong answer here — this is completely based on what matters to you and your company. Ask yourself, “what’s ideal for my brand?”

Here are some examples of success identifiers you might choose to focus on:

• Boost in audience members/ increase in followers
• Number of conversation participants in a live chat or discussion
• Amount of content shared or liked by your followers
• Overall engagement (likes, shares, mentions, hashtags, messages, comments)
• Increase in brand awareness
• Increase in customer satisfaction and retention
• Traffic that’s directed to your website
• Boost in your sales and conversions

(We’ll review how you can measure your community management success identifiers and metrics shortly.)

5. Set goals.

Like most things in business, setting attainable goals, as well as stretch goals, is crucial when working to achieve your various objectives and measure your success.

However, if you’re developing a completely new strategy or if you’ve never set goals like the ones you need to make for your social media community management strategy, this task might seem like a difficult one.

To get started, try running an experiment or two after you’ve determined how you plan on measuring your success.

For example, if you’ve decided that you’re going to measure your success through your overall engagement on the social media platform, you can run an engagement experiment. Try keeping track of all engagement related to the content you produce and share on the social platform for a specific amount of time you’ve chosen (maybe 4-8 weeks to start).

When the experiment has come to an end, average out your overall engagement (likes, shares, comments, mentions, hashtags, messages, etc.) and then use that number to create an attainable goal — and stretch goal if you choose — for your engagement over the next 4-8 weeks, and so on.

You can always update these numbers as time goes on and as you begin collecting more data.

Throughout your experiment, you can also A/B test different content to see what your followers like the best and choose to interact with most.

6. Post regularly and engage with your audience.

Success on social media requires consistency in terms of your frequency of posts and engagement. You should determine how often you’re going to post on social media and stick to that plan so your audience members know you’re reliable and start to expect to see your content — you’ll train them to look for your latest posts.

Social media is a great way to develop close bonds and relationships among your brand and audience. Show your customers and followers they aren’t just a number and they’re heard by your company and employees.

“Like” their comments and respond to all questions, comments or concerns (even the positive comments that warrant a “Thank you!” or “Yay! We’re so happy you’re enjoying our free CRM!”).

You can even follow back your biggest brand advocates — if you deem it as appropriate — or interact with the content your followers share (whether or not it has a direct tie to your company) to show your support.

No matter how you choose to interact and engage with your followers, remember to be authentic and address each person as an individual. Social media isn’t a forum, so there shouldn’t be any canned responses you use for your social followers.

By maintaining an authentic voice and presence on social media, your brand will have a unique, human element behind it that feels trustworthy and personal to customers and community members.

7. Measure your results.

Now it’s time to measure your results. Remember, when it comes to measuring your success on social, you shouldn’t always get hung up on the quantitative data — numbers don’t always reflect all of your efforts accurately, or the sense of belonging you’re creating for your community members.

Additionally, you rarely see immediate results when it comes to your social media efforts — identifying your target audience, building a following, and learning how to reach your customers on a specific platform takes time.

To measure your results, decide on the method that works best for your needs, goals, and company. Here are a few ways to do this.

• Social listening: Social listening is the process of monitoring your social media accounts to look for and keep track of all mentions, customer feedback, keywords, and discussions related to your brand, products, services, and customers (even your competitors, too). You then take a deeper look at all of these things to analyze them and gain insight into what’s working for your customers and followers, and what should be modified.
• Platform analytics: Depending on the social platform you chose for your community management strategy, there might be a built-in analytics tool for you to measure your success in terms of variables specific to that platform. Examples include Twitter Analytics, Instagram Insights, and Facebook Analytics.
• Analytics tools: If your platform of choice doesn’t have an analytics tool included, or if you’re looking for deeper analysis, you might choose to incorporate another tool or platform to help you measure your success. Examples include Google Analytics, Sprout Social, and HubSpot.

Community Managers: How They Can Help Your Business Grow

If your business has the resources, you might want to consider hiring a community manager (or even a team of managers) to help you kickstart your efforts and community.

What is a community manager?

Community managers run your community management efforts. Depending on the type of community management you chose to incorporate at your company, you might require the assistance of several community managers with entirely different focuses.

However, there are some universal traits shared by almost every community manager, no matter their role in the field. Generally speaking, a community manager:

• Has the ability to lead your community development and growth efforts.
• Is highly customer-focused.
• Can empathize with their members on forums, during in-person meetings, on social channels, on community platforms, and more.
• Knows how and when to show empathy.
• Is an authentic and detail-oriented person.
• Can analyze and measure community management efforts and results.
• Understands who you are as a brand and carries that image and voice — along with your marketing efforts — over to your community management strategy.

To bring us back to our previous example of external engagement community strategy, let’s review the specific in-depth tasks of a social media manager.

What is the role of a community manager?

A social media community manager:

• Maintains the voice of the brand in all posts and interactions.
• Ensures all content being shared has a purpose and meets the expectations and needs of followers and the target audience.
• Schedules, posts, and engages on all social content.
• Creates, manages, and follows up with all contests, giveaways, and promotions on social.
• Ensures community rules and guidelines are being followed by all community members.
• Measures results of all content and work on social (and makes modifications when necessary).
• Keeps up with industry trends and updates made to the platform at hand.
• Knows what audience members want and need out of the shared social content.
• Is authentic and knows when to say, “Thank you”, “We’re sorry”, and “We support you”.
• Creates a safe space for followers and members to ask questions, get help, feel supported, share ideas, provide feedback, and solve problems.

Where to Find a Community Manager

1. Community Club

Looking for all things community management? Community Club is the place to go.

With over 1,000 members, it caters to just about everyone who’s interested in the field — from community managers looking to network to brands looking to hire community management experts.

2. CMX Hub

CMX Hub is an online platform that serves community builders looking to grow in their careers.

On the networking side, the platform offers networking, education, and mentorship opportunities for aspiring and thriving community managers.

On the hiring side, brands can post job openings on their job board. Because it’s a designated job board for all things community management, businesses can more easily find someone whose qualifications align with the role.

3. LinkedIn

If you’re looking to hire a community manager or join a community management group, LinkedIn is a great place to start.

On LinkedIn, you can easily find local and global community managers who are open for work opportunities. If you’re interested in becoming a community manager, you can visit user profiles to see what road other community managers took to get where they are today.

If you’re interested in a community management group, there are also hundreds of LinkedIn Groups that serve that exact purpose. In them, community managers discuss updates in the industry, share advice, and even job opportunities.

4. Facebook Groups

On Facebook, you’ll find hundreds of community management groups, each offering something different.

Some Groups are location-based, connecting community managers in specific states, cities, or regions while others are industry-specific.

Most of them allow community managers to network and discover new opportunities.

5. Upwork

Looking to hire a community manager on a contract or freelance basis? Consider Upwork.

On the freelancing platform, you can create a job post that outlines the project you’re hiring for and the qualifications you need.

A survey from over 1,538 clients reveals that the online community managers on Upwork get an average rating of 4.7/5, indicating that most are satisfied with the pool of professionals available on the platform.

Community Management for Social Media

1. Determine where your audience lives.

Instagram. TikTok. Facebook. LinkedIn. Triller. And the list goes on.

With so many social media platforms available to consumers, it’s important for community managers to identify where their target audience is most active.

For instance, if you’re targeting young adults, you may focus your efforts on TikTok and Instagram, which caters to a younger demographic.

The idea is that you want to prioritize the social platforms that will reach the most users and generate the most engagement. Otherwise, you risk speaking into an empty room, wasting time and resources.

2. Define metrics to track your progress.

As a community manager, it may be unclear how to measure your success — particularly because it’s a relatively new industry.

However, there are many ways to gauge your progress. You can look at engagement, social mentions, and brand sentiment.

Engagement may look different from one platform to the next. However, likes, comments, shares, and replies are standard metrics to track.

You may also want to track how often your brand is mentioned and how that changes over time. That can suggest how far your brand is reaching. There’s also qualitative data you can measure. When users do mention your brand, what are they saying?

This leads us to the next tip.

3. Monitor the conversations surrounding your business.

Social monitoring and listening are key parts of your community management strategy.

It helps you stay connected to your audience, figure out what resonates with them, and brainstorm content ideas.

For instance, say your clothing company hires a community manager. While monitoring conversations surrounding their brand, they realize that there is a lot of mention of your brand’s sustainability efforts — something that hasn’t been a key part of your messaging.

This discovery can inform future marketing efforts and help you generate even more interest in your brand.

4. Constantly engage your audience.

Building a community requires two-way engagement.

It’s not enough to simply publish content, you also have to be reactive to your audience. This can look like:

• Leveraging user-generated content.
• Responding to comments, whether they’re questions, concerns, praise, or something else.
• Creating polls and surveys.

The more visible and engaging you are with your audience, the more trust you will build and from there will flourish a community.

1. Set community rules and guidelines.

When it comes to anything related to your business, it’s probably fair to assume you want it to represent you well and serve as an accurate portrayal of your brand. Your community is no exception. Therefore, you’re going to want to set community rules and guidelines for all members and contributors (including your team members who are managing the community).

Depending on your type of community, how you go about setting your community rules and guidelines may differ. However, here are some examples of ways to create these guidelines to help you get started.

• Create a written document with your expectations for the way all members are expected to communicate, behave, and contribute. Then, share that document with your team and community members when they join.
• If you have a forum, FAQ document, or community website, you can also make this document available at all times to members there. If your community meets in person, review these details face-to-face and consider handing out a printed copy to set expectations.
• Have a method for your team members to escalate any major issue within your community to the right person at your company so they can manage it appropriately.
• Be sure to update your rules and guidelines as necessary (as your community grows, changes, etc.).

2. Check on your community regularly.

No matter what type of community you manage, check on its members, the content being shared by your customers as well as your team. Whether it’s related to your brand ambassador program, forum, Facebook account, or community website, it’s your job to ensure everything is running smoothly — that people are receiving the support they need, their questions are being answered, and they feel a sense of community.

3. Be authentic.

You need to be authentic while managing any type of community. When your customers, fans, followers, and leads come to your community, they should immediately know it’s yours based on different factors like your branding and voice.

And no matter the type of interaction, being genuine and human is crucial whether or not you’re behind a screen or face-to-face. After all, one of the main reasons you’re creating a community is to make sure your members feel valued.

4. Listen to your community.

Since community management requires so much thoughtful interaction with members, listening is crucial. Whether it’s social listening, reviewing your forum and FAQ pages regularly, or responding to in-person and online feedback, listening is how you’ll improve your community to the best of your ability.

It also shows your audience and members you value their opinions, hear what they have to say, and care about their experiences within your community.

5. Show appreciation to your followers.

A large part of managing a successful community is showing appreciation for your members. This will help you build brand loyalty and trust between you and your members.

It also shows your members how much you value their time and commitment to your brand — remember, some of your community members are most likely also some of your most invested, supportive, and loyal fans, followers, and customers already.

To ensure you’re showing appreciation when necessary, you can try the following tactics depending on the type of community you have.

• Interact with all new community members as soon as they join — say, “Thank you and welcome!” and ask them what you can do to make their experience a great one.
• Pay attention to who your biggest community contributors are (keep a document with their names, emails, etc.). This way you can send them swag or give them a shout-out for simply being awesome.
• Invite your ambassadors and brand advocates to your office to meet your team and give them a behind-the-scenes look at your operation.
• Keep an eye out for mentions, keywords, and hashtags, on your forum, social media platforms, community website, and more so you’re able to engage with those people to show your appreciation and the human element behind your community.

6. Maintain your brand voice at all times.

Similar to what we reviewed about the importance of authenticity, maintaining your brand’s voice at all times is critical when it comes to community management. This is a large part of what makes your community unique as well as ensures your community is identifiable to your members and audience.

No matter how many people are working in your community, make sure they understand your brand voice so they can help you maintain it throughout all interactions, engagement, and content.

One way to make this a simpler process is by tying your community back to your company’s marketing goals and/ or collaborating with your marketing department. It’ll keep your messaging and interactions focused as well as push you to maintain your brand voice.

7. Explore new ways to engage your community.

You always want to be engaging your community — but what happens if there are changes in your industry, your company’s products or services are drastically updated, or your members request new types of content?

To keep your community up to date, always explore new ways to engage your members, whether that’s online or in-person (depending on your type of community). You can also engage members as soon as they join to continue learning about your audience, what they want from you, and what made them join your community — this will also help you learn about new ways to interact with them.

At this point, you may be wondering how to get all of this work started — where to begin with your community management strategy efforts at your company if you haven’t done any work related to the field before.

A common first step businesses take when spearheading their community management plan and strategy is to determine whether or not they want to hire a community manager.

Whew! That was a lot of information — but, you should now have a better understanding of why community management is so important, how it can help your business grow, and how you can get started on your business’s strategy.

Start Building Your Community

Community management is a new, yet powerful, industry. By implementing a community management strategy at your company, you’ll be able to create a safe place for your customers, fans, employees, and followers to collaborate, provide you with feedback, bond, and learn.

This will help you build brand loyalty, increase conversions and sales, and show the people who matter most to your success a human side to your brand that they can relate to.

So, get started by reviewing your options for types of community management to incorporate at your company, developing a strategy, and determining whether a community manager is the next hire you need to make.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

It’s simpler than you think to master content marketing on LinkedIn’s platform. Deciphering when to share and what features to use can be overwhelming at first, but it will become second nature with a few guidelines in your marketing toolkit.

To get a better handle on where and how to execute a content marketing strategy on LinkedIn, keep reading. I’ve covered everything you need to know from tips on content you should (and shouldn’t) share to how to determine the right frequency for posting.

The good news is you can leverage LinkedIn for content distribution without having to pay for it. Check out our video on how to build our content strategy on LinkedIn:

Regardless of what medium you’re using, there are a few tips that will ensure your LinkedIn marketing efforts perform their best.

1. Consider your target audience.

Before you post anything, think about who the content is for and tailor your messaging to that particular audience. For example, if your target audience is sales professionals, choose industry topics they care about to hook them in. What problems or obstacles are they trying to solve? Create content that speaks to their needs.

2. Engage with your audience.

It’s easy to create a post and then move on to the next project, but using LinkedIn for marketing shouldn’t be a one-way street. If you’re fortunate to have users commenting on your post, interact with them. Respond to questions and comments, ask for feedback, or ask questions that spark discussion.

3. Be genuine, not salesy.

Yes, social media marketing is about promotion, but you can promote yourself and brand without taking a hard sell angle. Producing good content with an authentic voice will perform better than a hollow sales pitch. People are smart, and can spot dishonesty quicker than you may think.

4. Use hashtags.

Just like other social media sites, LinkedIn hashtags are used to categorize content. You can use them to help you reach your target audience and those with shared interests. Hashtags are also a great way to reach those outside of your network who may be interested in your content based on the hashtags you use. Two to three relevant tags should do the job.

5. Be consistent.

A successful LinkedIn campaign requires consistency. This may be hard at first, but it’s important to develop a regular cadence for publishing. This builds trust with your audience and will help establish yourself as an expert in your field.

6. Offer exclusive content.

It can be tempting to publish the same content across multiple platforms, but that would be a mistake. Provide your LinkedIn audience with exclusive content that they can’t find elsewhere. It’s not uncommon to have the same followers on several platforms, so you don’t want to bombard them with duplicate content.

7. Observe and adjust.

Don’t get discouraged if your posts don’t initially get the level of response you hoped for. Make adjustments and continue to improve with each new post you share.

1. Publish quick status updates.

One of LinkedIn’s most underutilized features is the “LinkedIn Status Update” (also called your “Network Update”) in your LinkedIn Profile. This is one of the best ways to stay in front of your target audience on a consistent basis. And when used correctly, these little messages pack a big punch.

Your status update “block” is a white box located just below your picture on your homepage. Whenever you share an update, your message is then broadcast to all of your network connections.

You can also control the visibility of your posts before sharing. This means that you can pick and choose which posts you want to share with everyone, share with just your connections, or share with both everyone and your Twitter network.

While updates serve as a great place to share your thoughts, linking in a blog post or interesting website will help you to provide an even richer source of insight.

Tips for Sharing Updates on LinkedIn

• Share links to interesting articles, websites or videos. Use words that grab the readers and encourage them to click the link.
• Attach a document to your status update. Your audience might appreciate receiving checklists, white papers, or case studies. Job seekers, this is a great place for your resume.
• Mention a person or situation that might be helpful to some of your connections. For instance, “I just met with @AlexPirouz from @Linkfluencer and found out they’ve just won the readers choice award from Anthill Magazine.” The “@” before an individual or company name allows the reader to click through to that person’s LinkedIn profile or company page.
• Talk about an event you are attending or have attended. This might encourage involvement and/or questions about what you learned there.

Things You Should Avoid When Sharing Updates on LinkedIn

• Talking about what you had for breakfast (or your cat). LinkedIn is a professional network. Before you post, make sure that what you’re sharing is relevant to your audience and provides value. While your pancakes this morning may have been delicious, this isn’t the place for it.
• Being a spammer. While it may be acceptable to post 20 times a day on Twitter, the landscape of LinkedIn is a little different. To avoid coming off as spammy, try to limit your updates to no more than a couple times per day.
• Talking about sensitive topics. I am too embarrassed to even think about, let alone share, some of the items I see posted as status updates. If your mother wouldn’t want you talking about it, don’t include it in your status.
• Continually pitching products and services. This takes people back to the days of big newspaper ads and screaming radio messages. This is not the purpose of social media, especially LinkedIn.
• Don’t bother posting when no one’s looking. The update you posted at 11:30 p.m. on Friday probably won’t get much traction. Try to align your posting schedule with the business hours in which people in your industry operate. Of course, this varies if you have a global audience.

2. Publish and share an article on LinkedIn.

Another powerful way to distribute content on LinkedIn is through the publishing platform. With all members now having access to the platform, it serves as a great opportunity to expand your reach in a major way.

I was first made aware of this feature when a friend of mine posted an update on Facebook mentioning how his article on LinkedIn managed to achieve over 6000 views and 550+ shares in little over 10 hours. I was intrigued, so I decided to conduct an investigation to see how it all worked.

I decided to test it out by publishing one of my articles, “5 Things All Great Leaders Have In Common.” Given that it was my first time publishing on the platform, I had no idea what to expect. However, what happened next totally blew me away …

Within a matter of minutes I started receiving invitation requests and messages on LinkedIn from members who had come across my article.

Within a matter of hours the article had gone viral — achieving over 70K views, 11K+ shares, and close to 500 comments. Over the years, I have written hundreds of business articles but none of them had achieved the exposure and interaction that this one did.

In addition to the exposure, I also managed to secure a few speaking engagements and an opportunity to coach clients for our business advisory firm.

And while the article continued to gain traction as time went on, I couldn’t help but think that it was too good to be true. Unable to shake this thought, I decided to publish a few more articles over the coming weeks. Whilst none of them achieved the level of exposure my first article received, each article has now reached 10k+ views, 1000+ shares and 100+ comments on average.

If my success story wasn’t enough to sell you on the value of this platform, maybe the following benefits will.

Key Benefits of Publishing Long-Form Posts

• Targeted audience: Considering a majority of your connections are like-minded professionals, it’s easy to select topics that will resonate. This type of shared interest provides an opportunity to create a two-way dialogue where everyone is sharing their expertise and strengthening their relationships.
• More exposure: Every post you write and publish prompts a notification for your connections. This is a great way for you to showcase your thought leadership on your chosen topic and add value to those within your network.
• Increased following: If your connections enjoy your content enough to like it or share it, that can open doors to a whole new audience. And if your connection’s network sees your posts and finds value, there’s a chance they will follow you to keep up with your contributions.

Steps for Publishing on LinkedIn

• Define your purpose: What is your outcome in publishing content on LinkedIn? Who is the main target market you’re writing the content for? What are the main challenges they face within their role or industry?
• Brainstorm topics: Once you have a clear understanding of why you’re writing the content (and who you’re writing it for), try to come up with a handful of working titles based on your audience’s challenges.
• Narrow your focus: Once you’ve created a backlog of ideas, it’s time to hone in on one. Select the one that you think is most relevant to your audience and get writing. If you need guidance, refer to this resource from LinkedIn for tips on how to write effective long-form content.
• Select an image: Pick out a compelling cover image to accompany your post. (If you’re stumped for an image, check out these free stock photos sites.)

3. Publish video content.

If you’re a video marketer, you can alternatively publish pre-recorded or live video content on the platform. To upload a video, all you have to do is go to your status box and upload a file you’ve created. If you’d prefer to do something a bit more interactive, like a Q&A or a live stream, you can now use LinkedIn Live.

Here’s a great example of a video recently published on the social platform:

Key Benefits of Publishing Video on LinkedIn

• Targeted audience: Similarly to status updates and long-form publishing, you can cater content to the audiences that are following your brand or account on the platform.
• More exposure: Like many other platforms, LinkedIn’s algorithms aim to show users a feed with diversified content from users in their networks. When you launch a stream on LinkedIn Live, your followers might be notified or see it pop up on their feeds. Similarly, when you upload a video, it might capture a user’s eye more than a text-based post.
• Increased following: Similarly to other content strategies, those who like your videos will share, comment, or engage with them, which could cause their own followers or audiences to see your content.
• Co-branding opportunities: Know a thought leader, or want to partner with another non-competing brand in your industry? Video is a great place to do this. When you feature a Q&A with an expert or a co-produced film on your LinkedIn, then tag the affiliated influencers or brands, their networks will see it as well. Not to mention, those involved with the video will probably share it to ensure their work goes noticed.

Steps to Publishing a Video on LinkedIn

• Brainstorm ideas: Before you start producing something, you should work with your team to build out a video idea that will be engaging to your audience, provide valuable information, and can be scalably created on your budget.
• Create a recording environment: Once you have an idea, create an environment that you can film in, while also investing in any equipment you might need such as a camera or lighting.
• Go live on LinkedIn or pre-record your video: To go Live or record a video through LinkedIn directly, go to the app and click the camera button in the status bar. From there a camera screen will open where you can start recording. To upload a video you’ve already recorded, simply go to the status bar on the app or desktop site and click the photo icon to add a video file.

How to Execute a LinkedIn Content Marketing Strategy

Now that we have discussed the two main strategies you can use to distribute your content on LinkedIn, let’s discuss best practices for executing that content. Although each industry is different, keep in mind that the right frequency can make a difference.

Step 1: Plan Your Content in Advance

In order to achieve optimal results, you need to plan the content you are going to share. Here are some tips for how to plan more effectively:

• Start by taking some time to find articles you want to share, status updates you want to post, or infographics that are relevant to your industry.
• Organize the content on a calendar and decide when you want to share them. (Click here to access HubSpot’s free social media content calendar template.)
• Leverage software — like HubSpot’s Social Publishing App — to schedule your content in advance.

When you have a plan, you not only save time, but you are able to focus your energy on finding the right content for your audience.

Step 2: Determine Your Frequency Strategy

When sharing content, the goal is to identify a frequency that allows you to stay top-of-mind without overwhelming your audience. To help you achieve this balance, here are the publishing guidelines I follow:

• Status Updates: 2-3 times a day.
• Long Form Publishing: 1-2 times a week.

Keep in mind that every industry is different. While this works for me, you may need to modify this schedule as you see fit.

Step 3: Utilize Content Creation Templates

Your content needs to have a purpose and an outline. Are you writing a blog post, or a case study? Will you be promoting content on LinkedIn, or publishing it there?

In this collection of content creation templates, you can pick and utilize the template that most closely aligns with the content you’re creating and promoting on your LinkedIn account.

Download Now

Step 4: Follow Up With Generated Activity

If your content marketing efforts are working, you’re going to notice a spike in your activity. This could be anything from increased views, connection requests, or even direct messages from viewers.

With that said, now is the time to strike up a conversation. If people are viewing your LinkedIn profile or requesting to connect, consider striking up a dialogue with them. By uncovering what interested them about your profile, you can then begin to uncover potential opportunities for collaboration.

The Benefits of LinkedIn Content Marketing

Including LinkedIn as a component of your content content marketing strategy is a great way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. Posting timely and relevant content that speaks to your audience not only builds trust, but can lead to more opportunities to share your expertise with those outside your immediate network.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in July 2015, but was updated for comprehensiveness.