Optimizing Video for Different Social Media Channels 101

Social video: it’s kind of a big deal. People watch more than 100 million hours of video on Facebook every single day, and YouTube reaches more viewers in the coveted 18- to 49-year-old demographic than any cable network in the United States. Snapchat has been reported to have 10 billion video views every day.

While those are already big numbers, the volume of social videos out there is still increasing. Tweets with videos increased more than 50 percent in the first half of 2016, and Cisco predicts that nearly 1 million minutes of video content will cross global IP networks every second by 2020. If you’re not incorporating social video into your online strategy, you’re going to be left behind.

But with so many videos popping up in social media feeds, it takes some planning to ensure your video content isn’t lost in the noise. We’ll start by looking at some general principles for social video, then dig a little deeper into the specific optimization strategies that work best for each network.

How to optimize video for social media

Here are some key ways to optimize your video for social media to maximize engagement with followers and fans.

Grab attention quickly

Browsing social media feeds is overwhelmingly a mobile activity, with social media time spent on mobile ranging from 63 percent for those over 50 up to 78 percent for those aged 18 to 34.

Image via eMarketer.

That means you’re primarily dealing with users scrolling through a long feed on a small screen, and you have very little time to grab their attention. Data from Facebook and Nielsen shows that 47 percent of the value of a video campaign comes from the first three seconds of video, and 75 percent from the first 10 seconds.

Since most social video autoplays, viewers see the beginning of your video without having to press play. That gives you the chance to pull them into your content by leading with striking, compelling visuals.

This Lexus Facebook video, for example, is only four seconds long but packed with intense graphic elements and effective brand messaging:

Test vertical video

Since so much social media activity happens on mobile devices, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even YouTube have all introduced vertical video formats to maximize the viewing area on mobile devices so that viewers don’t have to rotate their screens. Especially if you’re targeting the younger demographics that do almost all of their social browsing on mobile, it’s worth testing vertical videos across networks to see how they perform.

This National Geographic Instagram video of a giant panda takes advantage of mobile screen real estate to serve up maximum in-your-face cuteness:

Expect viewers to watch with no sound

The majority of social videos that autoplay do so with the sound turned off and research from Digiday shows that most people—up to 85 percent—never turn the sound on. If your video requires sound to be understood, it doesn’t stand a chance of capturing most viewers’ interest.

It’s important, then, to create a video that stands on its own with no audio track, emphasizing any visual components that make it appealing to the eye, and incorporating subtitles or text to convey any messages that require words. Take advantage of automated captions where they exist (like Facebook’s automated captions tool), or add your own—but also consider creating videos that convey much of their meaning through visuals alone.

This Twitter video from DiGiorno is more fun with the music pumping, sure, but it conveys its messaging equally well without sound:

 Follow

DiGiorno Pizza 

✔@DiGiornoPizza

Pizza finally got the anthem it deserves #RiseToTheOccasion

3:45 PM - 18 Jan 2017

 
•  169169 Retweets
 
•  996996 likes

Choose your thumbnail wisely

Autoplay may be the default, but users have the option to disable this setting, or it may not work if users have a poor connection. That means your video needs a compelling thumbnail to encourage users to click to watch, so don’t just go with the default. Take a look at your thumbnail options to make sure the image conveys the value users will get by pressing play.

The thumbnail in this KFC Facebook video shows one of the final frames, but it’s a good choice because it highlights the product and works well with the video description to convey the full message even if the viewer never watches the rest of the video:

Now that you understand some basic principles of how to optimize video for social media in general, let’s look at some network-specific strategies so you can get the best performance from each of your social media channels.

How to optimize video for Facebook

Upload native video

If you already have videos posted to YouTube or other video sharing sites, it may be tempting to simply share a link on Facebook. But doing so seriously cuts your video’s organic reach, according to eMarketer, from 13.2 percent to 7.9 percent.

Image via eMarketer.

Simply put, the Facebook algorithm values native video, and it’s in your best interest to play by the algorithm’s rules. You’ll also notice that only native videos, not linked ones, become part of the video gallery on your Facebook Page.

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But wait, there’s more: Only native videos also autoplay in viewers’ feeds, while linked videos do not.

Give your video a catchy description

Don’t neglect the text portion of your Facebook video post, which serves as a headline. Make it highly scannable and compelling to pique viewers’ interest as they scroll through their Facebook feed.

Don’t go overboard

The maximum length of a Facebook video is a whopping two hours, but Wistia found the optimal length to be two minutes or less.

Image via Wistia.

If your content is highly engaging or detailed, it might make sense to go a little longer—Wistia found virtually no engagement drop-off between minute six and minute 12—but most publishers should not get anywhere close to that two-hour mark.

How to optimize video for Twitter

Just like on Facebook, uploading native videos to Twitter provides the advantage of autoplay, so users see your video right in their feed without having to click. Native videos also become part of your photo and video library, with your most recent visuals appearing on the left of your Twitter profile.

Twitter internal data also shows that native videos get 2.5 times more replies, 2.8 times more Retweets, and 1.9 times more likes than linked video.

Native Twitter videos can be anywhere from one to 140 seconds long, and videos less than 6.5 seconds long will loop automatically, Vine-style, like this one from IKEA:

 Follow

IKEA USA 

✔@IKEAUSA

Live life on your own terms! See more from the #IKEA PS 2017 collection: http://bit.ly/2kuHKRv 

7:00 PM - 10 Feb 2017

 
•  66 Retweets
 
•  1717 likes

How to optimize video for Instagram

Instagram videos can be anywhere from three to 60 seconds long, and all videos loop automatically. While you can post any content you like as an Instagram video, there are two Instagram-specific apps that can help you create video that is, by definition, optimized for Instagram.

Boomerang

Boomerang creates GIF-like short videos that loop forwards and backwards, creating an effect that’s similar to, you guessed it, a boomerang. The app takes a burst of up to 20 photos and stitches them together to create a short, snappy video that’s a perfect fit for the Instagram universe, like this capture from the USA Basketball Women’s National Team:

Hyperlapse

Hyperlapse is a stabilization technology for timelapse videos that also gives you precise control over the speed at which your timelapse plays. This can be a great way to show a quick video of an event that would otherwise be too long or slow for Instagram, like a sunset, a party, or even a tour of a city or property.

Lowe’s does a great job of using Hyperlapse videos to create ultra-short project tutorials that showcase the products they sell:

How to optimize video for Snapchat

Snapchat videos are a maximum or 10 seconds long (other than Snap Ads) and have to be recorded through the Snapchat app—no uploading previously recorded video here. Since Snapchat is a mobile-only social network, viewers overwhelmingly watch videos in portrait mode—so be sure to shoot vertically.

Snapchat video, like all other content on this particular network, lasts for only 24 hours. If you want the chance to re-use your videos later, or post them to other social networks, be sure to save them to Snapchat Memories.

After all, if you don’t save your Snapchat videos, you can’t use them later to create content for other social networks, like this epic video from Jimmy Fallon and Ariana Grande:

For more ways to optimize different types of video for your social marketing strategy, including live video and 360 video, check out our post 6 Social Media Video Formats Marketers Need to Try.

Best Social Media Blogs : 2016 Winners

Looking for some great social media blogs to add to your daily reading? Here are 10 that are worth your time!

Our eighth-annual social media blog contest generated hundreds of nominations. A panel of experts carefully reviewed the 20 finalists based on their content quality.

Here are the top 10 social media blogs you should add to your regular reading list in 2017.


Top 10 Social Media Blogs: The 2017 Winners! by Lisa D. Jenkins on Social Media Examiner.


#1: AgoraPulse

AgoraPulse consistently provides content several times a week, using screenshots to show readers how to use social media.


Visit AgoraPulse for consistently published content.

#2: Buffer Social

Buffer Social publishes strong content with lots of value and original angles. This blog has the right balance; it’s valuable and interesting.


Buffer Social has a consistent history of quality long posts that include step-by-step processes with images.
#3: Dustn.tv

Dustn.tv publishes extremely thorough content that looks good, sounds good, and reads well.


Dustn.tv provides new, useful insights on popular topics.

#4: Mike Gingerich

Mike Gingerich‘s blog has quite a mix of value-driven content. He covers new products and changes to existing ones, and shows readers how to use them.


Mike Gingerich offers useful advice for getting the most out of social media.

#5: Peg Fitzpatrick

Peg Fitzpatrick‘s posts provide useful, in-depth information that’s fun to consume.


Peg offers information on a wealth of social media topics.

#6: Socially Sorted

Socially Sorted has a nice focus on all things visual, helping businesses leverage visual content as much as possible.


Socially Sorted provides how-to information in easy-to-consume formats.

#7: Spiderworking

Spiderworking‘s content is extremely thorough and includes lots of visuals. Posts go beyond the basics and feature useful tips most people don’t talk about.


Spiderworking has lots of useful content.

#8: Sue B. Zimmerman

Sue B. Zimmerman has an incredibly specific focus: Instagram. Her videos provide information without being too teachy.


Sue uses a nice, direct, conversational writing voice.

#9: The Social Media Hat

The Social Media Hat stuffs posts with quality information. The content approaches social media from interesting angles so the reader doesn’t feel like everything’s been done before.


The Social Media Hat features well-researched, in-depth articles that show how to use stuff step-by-step.

#10: Top Dog Social Media

Top Dog Social Media takes the time to produce great content and their tutorials are thorough.


Top Dog Social Media offers plenty of good factual advice.

Congratulations to the winners! Be sure to check out these amazing social media blogs.

The badge of distinction: If you’re a winner, you can post the image you see here on your blog. Please link back to this page.
The Judges

Special thanks to our judges Heidi Cohen (chief content officer of Actionable Marketing Guide), Marcus Sheridan (founder of The Sales Lion), and Sonia Simone (founding partner and chief content officer of Copyblogger).



What do you think? Did you find something new to read? Share your thoughts and comments in the box below.


Top 10 Social Media Blogs: The 2016 Winners! by Lisa D. Jenkins on Social Media Examiner.


Related Posts
Finalists: Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2017
Nominate Your Favorite Social Media Blog: 8th Annual Top 10 Social Media Blog Contest
Advanced Blogging: How to Make Your Blog Serve Your Business

Tags: blogging

Israel's $1-a-Cup Coffee Chain Cofix Takes on Starbucks

Avi Katz, founder and owner of the Israeli low-cost-cafes chain. Credit: Ariel Jerozolimski/Bloomberg
Near Red Square in Moscow, Irina Kushnir waited for her order of coffee. As soon as she learned that a new coffeehouse was selling all items for 50 rubles ($0.82), the 28-year-old graduate student decided to forgo the nearby Starbucks and join the queue outside the tiny, cable car-like stand.


"I haven't seen any other coffee shops in Moscow offering cappuccinos at this price," she said, shuffling her way forward in the line of six people.


This is the first Russian branch of Cofix. It won't be the last. Founder Avi Katz, who started the chain in Israel in 2013 and now is the country's biggest coffee-stand operator, has big plans. In addition to Russia, he's planning to expand into the other two top branded-coffeehouse markets in Europe: the U.K. and Turkey. He's also about to open New York and Madrid offices for Hagshama Fund, his $650 million real estate investment firm.


But in the competitive business of coffee, it's one thing to succeed in your home country. It's another to try your hand in foreign lands, especially three that are undergoing political or economic turmoil. All the while competing against coffeehouse behemoths Starbucks and Costa Coffee. Though absent in Israel, Starbucks owns the most stores in Europe, followed by Costa Coffee.


Mr. Katz, 54, says he's counting on the Cofix model: Strip out the chairs and waiters. Sacrifice space and price for volume. Most importantly, find places where the difference between what people pay in shops and what it costs to make coffee at home is huge. Then drastically undercut the competition.


His approach is embodied by the fact that he can't meet with a reporter in one of his own shops -- too small. Instead, he's nursing a large cappuccino he doesn't like in a Tel Aviv coffeehouse he doesn't own.


"A new market is opening up to those who couldn't afford outside coffee," said Mr. Katz, wearing jeans and a blue polo shirt, a small knitted yarmulke on his bald head. "And for those who already can, they save money. This is my revolution."


Born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Bnei Brak, he left religious seminary for boarding school at age 14. He still devotes 15 hours a week preparing his Wednesday sermon, delivered in his packed living room in Kfar Saba, and is writing an introduction to a book about Ayn Rand. A passage from Genesis in which Jacob professes his unworthiness of all that God has given him is painted in black above the sofas in his corner office at Hagshama headquarters in Petach Tikva, an industrial town east of Tel Aviv.








"There's only one person in all of Tel Aviv who knows what God wants. That's me," Mr. Katz said. "Why? Because I know God wants what's best for Avi Katz."


Mr. Katz found himself a wealthy man in 2008, after he sold his Israeli dollar-store chain for 180 million shekels ($47 million). The next year, he founded Hagshama, which lets small investors allocate investments to global real estate projects. The fund now has about 23,000 investors and operates a second office in London. His fund has yielded an average annual return of about 15%, according to local press reports.


He opened the first Cofix branch in Tel Aviv two years after the largest protests in Israel's history were sparked by rising prices for basic goods like cottage cheese and milk. At the time, Israelis were paying as much as nine times the cost of a homemade cappuccino, said Mr. Katz. Cofix now has 161 stores across the country.


Mr. Katz has inspired imitators -- and angered rivals. Days after opening, Kobi Hakak, the owner of a competitor called Roladin, held a press conference and challenged the quality of Cofix products. With his spokesman, Rani Rahav, he cut up Cofix sandwiches and cakes and invited reporters to taste what he said was Roladin's better quality. Rahav called the bread verkakte (Yiddish for "crappy") and insinuated the coffee might have come from Syria, a blood enemy of Israel. Mr. Katz says the coffee comes from Latin America and Italy.


At one point, Mr. Katz rejected a bribe to close down his chain, he said: "When leading a revolution you're always under threat."









Cofix in October opened the Moscow shop, the first of up to 1,000 planned Russia branches, for an investment of about $2 million. Roughly equal partners in the venture are Melson's Group, the Russian food distributor, in charge of purchasing; and ADG Group, which is committed to investing about $930 million to remodel 39 Stalin-era theaters into commercial centers throughout the capital. They will house the Cofix shops. Mr. Katz's initial outlay was several hundred thousand dollars, he said.


At 50 rubles, prices are about one-fifth the cost of a cappuccino at Starbucks. That could serve as a respite to Russians, whose wages have fallen due to economic sanctions by the U.S. and European Union, and who face a second year of economic contraction. Still, Mr. Katz says that high rental costs in one of the most expensive cities in the world will force Cofix to sell 1,700 items per day to break even, compared with 1,000 in Israel.


High Margin


"Coffee is a high margin product but you have to sell a lot of it to make money,"' said Jeffrey Young, chief executive officer of research and consultancy firm Allerga. "You have to remember, even Starbucks is spreading that profit across 23,000 stores around the world." Mr. Young spoke before Starbucks said last week it plans to add another 12,000 locations globally.


Cofix has added another two branches in Moscow since the opening, Mr. Katz says.


Mr. Katz says the other major cities he is targeting -- London and Istanbul -- match his main criterion: Coffeehouses charge six to nine times more for a medium cappuccino than the $0.40 the ingredients cost consumers, according to data from Allegra.


The timing, however, may be problematic there as well. The U.K. is still digesting the impact of its decision to leave the EU, and confidence among services firms has fallen since. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is consolidating power and resisting efforts to increase rates, key to sustaining the foreign investment on which the country runs. This erosion of the checks to Erdogan's power isn't conducive to foreign investment, according to Wolf-Fabian Hungerland, an economist at Berenberg Bank. Mr. Katz says he's actively seeking partners to open in both countries.


Psychological Barriers


"It's problematic because if investors want to stay for a long time they need to be able to forecast what the government is going to do," said Mr. Hungerland, who specializes in Turkey and Russia.


Mr. Katz faces psychological barriers, too. People living in major cities like London are less sensitive to high coffee prices, and many want their coffeehouse to be more than a "to-go" factory, says Allerga's Mr. Young. That partly explains why Caffix, the London cafe that offered everything on the menu for one pound, failed earlier this year, he said.


"Coffeehouses are places where people talk, relax and take time out of their busy day," said Mr. Young. "They've become almost like our sanctuary. For that, people are happy to pay $5 for a cup of coffee."


Back in the queue, Ms. Kushnir gets her order. Satisfied by the quality of the coffee, less so by the quantity of the chocolate cheesecake, she offers a truncated version of Mr. Katz's vision for Cofix.


"Not so different from Starbucks," she said.

@ContentMarketing 101 : Guide to Creating Successful Campaigns

I  wrote this guide as an internal resource but hope that it helps other content marketing teams as well. It’s a sort of content marketing 101 primer. You’ll learn the key principles of content marketing strategy as well as sophisticated ways to research, refine, and improve your team’s content marketing output.

This document will help your team:

• Brainstorm campaign ideas that broadly resonate in your market
• Create customer-centric content that generates leads
• Use data to better focus on your customer’s needs
• Boost your traffic and conversions with advanced selling principles

I. Content marketing principles  

Whether you’re writing a blog post or thinking of a new webinar campaign, we’ve found these six principles to be at the heart of successful content marketing. 

1. Make the customer successful.

Writing feels abstract. But our customers come to our website with concrete problems. If they don’t grow their client’s Instagram followers, they could lose the business. If they don’t find a faster way to create reports, they need to work late fighting with a frustrating spreadsheet. Before we try to hit our goals, we need to help the customer solve their problems. Everybody agrees with this. But often content marketing attempts to solve the company’s problems (tell people about our product features so they fill out a lead form) before solving the query that brought the reader to the page.

2. Make it real.

To make the customer successful, you need to write about what they actually struggle with. The best way to do this is to root content in a real insight. Talk to the sales team. Talk to customers. Look for concrete problems that people are trying to solve. Managing the corporate complexity of global and local teams is not a concrete problem. Instead, “how do I get our local offices to actually read our brand policies?” is closer to what people are actually trying to do in their daily job.

3. Make it simple.

Your reader isn’t dumb. And you are not smarter than your reader. But they also don’t have time to wonder what you meant by “integrate your workflows to drive higher revenue.” Use concrete language. Write so simple that a fifth grader can understand it.

4. Make it sound human.

Short sentences and short paragraphs work best. Avoid big words. When you find a sentence longer than 15 words, consider chopping it into two. Strive to include a mix of long and short sentences. Avoid generic language. A writer’s job is to destroy cliches.

5. Make your advice immediately actionable.

As Rand Fishkin noted in his content marketing manifesto, the reader needs to be able to walk away from your content and immediately do something differently to grow their traffic, use a new social network, or impress their boss with advanced knowledge.  A lot of content offers generic advice (such as “optimize your social media profiles”) instead of giving people advice they can go and try out right after reading. Ask yourself: after reading this content, what can the reader go and immediately apply to their job?

6. Make things you’re proud of.

Don’t settle. Create things you are proud of. Fight for good work. When you encounter an obstacle, build a better way.

Five questions to stay on track:

1. Does this help the reader? Are you actually solving their problem (“this is how you increase your sales”) or masking product information as advice (“how to increase your sales = book a demo with our sales team”).
2. Is this rooted in a specific, tangible, and real customer problem? Saving time on social media is not a problem. But spending four hours trying to create social media reports for your boss in Excel is.
3. Is this fake content? You know the problem (customer wants more sales from Instagram) but does the advice actually show them how to solve this? To make the customer successful, your advice needs to provide concrete steps that helps them solve their challenges.
4. Is it actionable? After reading this content, what can the reader go and immediately apply to their business?
   
5. Are you proud of this? Is it simple? Does it sound like a human? Is it something you’d share with your friends?

II. The best types of content to create

From blog posts to webinar presentations, here are the five best types of content we’ve found to drive traffic and attract leads.

1. Do the work for them

Spend five hours reading about trends in the industry and then summarize your findings. This saves your reader time—they only have to spend 10 minutes to gain what took you five hours to find.

2. Write about your company’s values

“To ensure you don’t go down the rabbit hole of forgettable content, write about what you know and write with conviction . . . the best writing comes from your unwavering belief in how things should work,” says Intercom. Express simple messages such as “social media is changing businesses” with stories.  Such as: “how a wine-lover built a global business with his Twitter handle.”

3. Learn something and then share the how-to

Figure out how to do something (like setting up conversion tracking in Facebook) and then explain how to do this with clear steps. Make it real. Ask someone to try to do the steps after you write it—but before you publish it.

4. Share something they can’t find anywhere else

Share something only your company knows. For example, a study based on company data or a customer story you heard from sales.

5. Do the thinking for them

Spend an hour brainstorming marketing tactics a company could do. Then write a list post with your creative ideas. Most people don’t have the luxury to think. You do. Even a few ideas can help them look smarter in meetings.

III. Where to find new content ideas

Customer and product research

As the legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz said: “Listen to your customers and the mind of your market. Learn more about the product. These two sources will never fail you.”

Trying to grow traffic by 20 percent in the next quarter? Stuck for a marketing campaign idea? Overwhelmed with creating a strategy to reduce churn?

The answer is in the mind of your market or in your product. There is no other source of inspiration.

This is a simple point. But teams rush to whiteboards, hoping their creativity will pull a solution from the air. As a result, you get generic strategies, pun-filled ad campaigns, and surface content. The role of creativity isn’t to produce ideas from nothing. Instead, creativity connects the dots between two sources of input: product and customer knowledge.

Go on a sales safari

One of our favorite strategies that we learned from Pamela Slim, a popular speaker and marketing consultant, is a sales safari. A sales safari helps you observe customers in their natural habitat. This helps you find ideas for products or campaigns by understanding the concrete problems your customers stumble over each day.

Use these five questions to guide your safari.

ONE, what is their knowledge level?

Does your company collect information about different deals that you’ve won or lost? If so, a good method to research an audience’s knowledge level is to look at these notes to see who is involved in typical deals.

For example, if the brief is to write for the travel industry look for a travel deal. Then look for the different people (the customer, not your sales team) involved in the deal, their job titles, and names.

With that information, go to LinkedIn and Twitter, find their profiles, and then look at the content they share regularly. You can build a search stream in Hootsuite and regularly see what they like to share and the level of knowledge they have about social media.

TWO, what is the concrete problem they are trying to solve?

This is harder to find. People don’t talk about it on their LinkedIn profile. The best place to begin here is to talk to sales. Book a meeting and ask about what their customers ask about on a daily basis. Even better, see if you can sit in silently on an actual sales call.

A few places to look:

• Look for a public Facebook Group where prospects talk about their daily struggles at work.
• Search Inbound.org, Quora, and Clarity for people asking questions. Varying results here but you can uncover some gold.
• Talk to real people. Talk to the sales team, interview an expert in the field (such as a consultant who works with the vertical), or interview a customer to learn about their daily challenges.
• Search for a book on the topic. Such as “Social Media for Dummies.” Then go to Amazon. Read through the reviews. You’ll get a human picture of the actual pain they were trying to solve by reading the book. Joanna Wiebe, an author and copywriter, first introduced us to this tactic.

THREE, what have they done already to try to solve this problem?

It’s rare people have never tried solving the problem your product solves.

What’s more likely is that they’ve tried to solve the problem, bought your competitor’s software, and failed. Copywriter Ray Edwards calls this your buyer’s “try-fail cycle.”

Good content says, “this is what you are struggling with, here is a solution.” But great content says, “this is what you are struggling with, here are the things you’ve probably already tried and why they didn’t work out. Here is what to do instead.”

FOUR, what’s the transformation?

This is where marketing skill comes in. Prospects will tell you basic outcomes such as “we want to increase our social audience.” But they won’t tell you their true desired outcomes: “I want this to be a big campaign win so that my boss keeps me on this important client account.” Great content speaks to the organization’s vision and the prospect’s individual career goals.

• Read the book “Crossing the Chasm” to learn how transformation means different things to different people. For example, a young disruptive company buys software for different reasons than established organizations.
• Go to your brand positioning for ideas. At Hootsuite, our cultural manifesto helps to align content strategy with our brand story.  By expressing your company’s vision with customer stories, blog posts, and guides, you’ll avoid having too many messages out there in the market. It’s the glue that keeps your content thematic and memorable.

FIVE, how can the product help them?

At some point, you’ll need to show customers how your product helps to solve their challenges. Be an expert in your product. This gives you better ideas (such as ways to reduce churn or better onboard users). Use it in your everyday work. Read technical manuals. Master new features.

IV. Advanced principles to grow your conversions

Once you have a direction, here are a few things to help refine your content.

Be generous

“Content marketing’s goal,” says Rand Fishkin, the founder of the software company Moz, “is not to convert customers directly.” The goal is to build familiarity, likeability, and trust. One of the greatest skills you can develop as a marketer is to learn how to give without asking.

Create more than unique content

Unique content isn’t enough. Being useful isn’t enough. People need to remember you. They searched for days for strategy advice. They found mediocre advice. Then they found your blog post. You cared and actually helped them. The goal of content marketing is to arrest the reader in their search. They’ve found their mentor.

Hide your obvious sales language

One of the first things you learn in sales is to sell benefits, not features. Completely true. But what you don’t learn is that the best salespeople hide their selling techniques. “Drive more revenue” sounds like advertising. It’s a benefit we’ve all heard before. Peter Thiel’s book “Zero to One” is a great resource. He shows that if you want to be good at selling, you need to learn how to hide your tricks.Go advanced, rather than basic

“Don’t include advice, tips, or tactics that more than 20 percent of your audience already knows,” says Rand Fishkin. When in doubt, go for more advanced than too basic.Make your CTA (call to action) congruent

AND NOW IT’S TIME TO SELL SOME BENEFITS. If you spent 1,000 words being a funny, likable expert, you don’t need to shift into your sales voice to get them to download a guide. This breaks the mirror. You’ve already built trust. So just tell them in the same voice what to do. Keep it casual. For example, “here’s a free downloadable template that will help you craft a professional social media strategy, including a PowerPoint template to present your strategy to your boss or clients.”