Ericka Lewis
Thought leadership is all about wielding the power of influence through valuable content that resonates with your buyer personas. Creating a truly valuable content, however, is only half the battle.
No matter how great your content may be, it’s rendered useless if you can’t get it in front of the audience (or in some cases, in front of an audience at all). Here are five helpful tips on how to amplify your though-leadership pieces to reach and engage your intended audience.
1. Know where your audience are
First things first, you can’t preach if you’re not sure where the chapel is. Find out where your buyer personas congregate — which social media platforms, forums, publications, or any other mediums to they gather and engage in?
Instead of making a wild guess, get to know your ideal audience by delving into a thorough buyer persona research. Doing so will not only let you discover where your audience congregates, but also what matters to them most.
2. Tailor your messages accordingly
Great, you found them! Now don’t go copying and pasting generic messages to share your content across social media platforms. Remember that each platform is unique and serves a different purpose. Don’t tweet an esoteric novel, and don’t flood LinkedIn with social banter.
Each channel gives you an opportunity to capture your buyer personas at every different angle so be creative and choose your words and images strategically. Personalize where you can and target groups or individuals with precision.
3. Set a schedule and stick to it
The key to building an influencer’s net with an active, engaged, and growing following is to publish consistently. You know the adage, out of sight, out of mind? This applies to you. With the overwhelming amount of content bombarding your audiences online, you’ll simply fade away if you’re not ever-present. This, however, does not give you an excuse to post nonsensical content just so you can post something. At the same time, posting too much can be just as bad.
Your best bet, my friends, is to create a posting matrix. Plan out what and when you will be posting ahead of time and make sure the frequency is consistent. Build anticipation from your followers by setting regular postings to occur and committing to it. Let them miss you and let them look forward to your next post.
The frequency of your postings should vary depending on the platform as well as the best times to post on each. Marketing softwares such as HubSpot have built-in social inbox tools that can help you automate these posts ahead of time as well as monitor your audience’s engagement with every post or every channel.
4. Always be timely
Just as important as frequency is timeliness. If there are important industry updates, events, or new laws that impact your clients or industry, post about them as soon as possible or you’ll miss a great opportunity to be the conversation starter. To keep yourself well-informed on any industry-related news, you can set Google Alerts and subscribe to reputable outlets that can keep you posted. The longer you wait to chime in, the less relevant your insight will be.
5. Switch it up
B2B marketing doesn’t mean “boring”. Use creative mediums to share your voice and to stand out. Give your audience a reason to be excited about what you’re sharing and not think of it as just another buzz from just another company. Make an effort to liven it up with video content, images, infographics, slideshares, podcasts, and more. There’s a wide range of free resources and mediums at your disposal. Use them! Doing so will enable you to attract a fresh audience and allow prospects to connect with you in different ways.
So there you have it! Remember, if you want to be a leader then you have got to lead. Don’t settle for mediocre content and don’t let your amazing content fizzle away in a dark lonely page somewhere on the internet. Find your audience, post consistently, engage, and be creative!