Content marketing is challenging. There’s no sugarcoating that. Long hours of concepting, writing, and pushing things live can feel like a massive waste if no results are generated. If you feel like your social media posts just aren’t resonating with your audience, or if you’re just looking for a couple of ways to amplify your team’s content marketing strategy, you’ve come to the right place.
Introduction To Perfecting Your Content Marketing
I’m sure you’re aware of the traditional advice. Keep it short and sweet, use bold imagery, include a shortened link. Sure, all of these elements are important, but perhaps the most overlooked aspect of great content marketing is compelling copywriting
In-fact, writing great social media content is its own beast. Long and thought-provoking prose gives way to quick, hard-hitting phrases designed to push conversions. If your team is struggling with generating results, perhaps it’s time go back to the drawing board and adjust your strategy. Have you set up SMART goals? Is your writing refined? Are you properly aligning your content strategy with your SEO strategy?
If you answered yes to all of these questions, and you still aren’t generating a positive return on investment for all the effort you put into your social media content, read on. The dirty details of content marketing perfection will give you the tools you need to start generating results.
The Dirty-Details Of Content Marketing Perfection
Demian Farnworth, chief copywriter at Copyblogger Media and maverick in the content marketing world, perfected a simple way to write compelling online copy that converts using the problem-agitate-solve formula.
The formula works like this:
- Problem: state the problem your buyer personas are experiencing (and one you can solve)
- Agitate: really hit at their pain points
- Solve: present your solution
Simple, yet effective.
Need a visual? I’ll use my own work as an example ~
Here’s a sample Facebook post:
Finding it difficult to create social posts that convert? We know you’re under pressure to produce content that sells, and it starts with social.
Use this formula to craft your next post: (link)(image)
A Sample Twitter Post :
Social posts not converting? Can’t figure out why? Use this formula to craft your next post: (link)(image)
And Finally, A Sample LinkedIn Post:
Are you creating social posts that simply don’t convert? Try this formula, it gives you everything you need to craft social posts that actually convert: (link)(image)
Now you’ve transformed your writing into a converting machine that pulls at your audience’s pain points and curiosity.
The trick is adapting your message for each individual platform. The Facebook post is longer but informal. The Twitter post is short, sweet, and has an instantly gratifying CTA. The LinkedIn post is longer, and the writing is more formal.
Understanding the purpose of each platform, and how to effectively reach your target audience on the platform is essential to tailoring the proper message. Otherwise, all your work will go to waste!
Content Marketing Amplified
Now, let’s kick it up a notch. Below you will find additional sample posts for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The same copy as before is used, except now they are optimized using the problem-agitate-solve formula as outlined by Damian Farnworth –
Words – 32, Characters – 186
Pro tip – Facebook makes posting links directly to the timeline super easy. Use this feature whenever you can because Facebook tells us that this option garners more engagement than posting an image with a link as shown below.
As far as post copy length, there’s quite a bit of conflicting data as far as how long your Facebook post copy should be. BlitzMetrics found research stating that your posts should be under 40 characters while Track Maven’s research shows that posts around 80 words have increased engagement.
That’s a huge gap!
I suggest considering your buyer personas. If you’re marketing directly to consumers, maybe keeping your post length short would be optimal. Marketing directly to businesses is different as knowledge-seeking professionals are usually willing to read more, especially if you have captivating copy.
If your Facebook copy is longer than average, I suggest separating your CTA by hitting the return (enter) key – it makes it more noticeable.
My Tweet: Characters – 92
The journey to a perfect tweet is a simple one. You should keep your copy less than 100 characters to make room for your short link and image link. Also, including a clear, actionable, and instantly gratifying CTA is important. I suggest the use of a colon to usher in your short link.
One note regarding your image: If you have text on your image, make sure it’s centered so that it’s viewable after tweet image cropping.
Words – 25, Characters – 152, Link title – 70 characters, description – 270 characters
Achieving the perfect LinkedIn post isn’t difficult, but you have a few extra elements to customize.
When you link to your piece, the main image is automatically pulled so make sure you have a featured image set on your blog post. Also, the title and a snippet of your message are pulled.
If you have a long title, I suggest making it shorter – between 70-80 characters. Also, edit your link description to be clear and concise. If you can get it under 250 characters, that’s great, but going a tad over does no harm.
And as always, include a CTA to persuade your audience to click through to your piece.
Effective Content Marketing Summation
No matter the platform, properly tailoring your message to fit your target audience is integral to success. Combine this with an air-tight schedule of posts, and you will generate results in a short amount of time. Need additional lead generation tips? Only 1 in 10 marketers feel like their lead generation efforts are a success.
We’ve created a 30 lead generation tips and tricks guide, jam-packed with our tried-and-true lead generation methods, in order to help more marketers feel like their lead generation efforts are making a difference. If you feel like your lead generation strategy could use a little TLC, download your free copy!
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