We’re excited to welcome Amber Shimkus as a new staff contributor! Amber is an experienced writer and a valued member of the PartnerOn Team. Read more about Amber here.
Sometimes, I’ll follow a social media account or blog just because of ONE really interesting and engaging post. I’m talking about the kind of post with short, quippy messaging, a focused topic or promising call-to-action, and the right hashtags for me to have found it in the first place.
When I get a taste of great content, I want more of the same. So I check back every week or so in search of the next post. But the post never comes. How disappointing. More often than not, that blog or account eventually loses me as a follower (and therefore, as a customer for the foreseeable future).
The same thing might be happening right now with your brand. You found some great content and put on your writer’s hat, researched hashtags and keywords, and one day you crafted something incredible. The likes kept coming, and some unexpected LinkedIn comrades enjoyed the post enough to share it with their own networks.
But the next time you had time to post, it was weeks (or months) later. You didn’t quite get the LinkedIn salute that you had expected after your exalted initial post. There isn’t a “share” to be seen. What happened?
Your second post flopped because you forgot about two golden rules of content marketing: consistency and engagement. These important tools will take you far when it comes to setting yourself apart from the competition (aka, the ones who never post). Depending on the time and energy that you’re willing to put into your content marketing efforts, you can become a Digital Selling Apprentice, or even a Digital Selling Master, using a few simple strategies.
How to become a Digital Selling Apprentice
Apprentice, here are your tips:
- Automate your process
- Develop a regular cadence
- Capture what you need the most
Now, not everyone has the time to scour the worldwide web for the best piece of content and rack their brains for the best bit of copy to go with it. Lucky for you, you don’t necessarily have to with all of the content and tools available to you in PartnerOn. But, you do need to be consistent about posting and emailing your lead lists to see results.
If you’re starting from square one, follow these tips to lay your digital selling foundation and become a Digital Selling Apprentice.
Automate your process
Having personally met with dozens of PartnerOn partners, I find that the ones who are seeing the most success are taking advantage of one key feature: automated posting. These partners are usually the super small businesses, and the one-man operational superheroes. They truly don’t have the time to squeeze in anything extra- even the things that are worth squeezing in, like content marketing.
Like we saw in my example, if you’re not generating expectation and consistently providing quality content, you can drop valuable leads with just a few underachieving (or non-existent posts). Since automated posting takes the work and the thought out of posting, you have no excuse not to be achieving Apprentice status right now! Log in today, set your posting schedule, and let your PartnerOn account do the heavy lifting for you.
Develop a regular cadence
If you’d rather be a bit more intentional about your posts by sharing content manually, that’s just as awesome! If you have a few minutes each week to curate your own content, just make sure that you’re creating a content calendar for yourself to develop a consistent cadence. You can even use the suggested schedule in each of your weekly PartnerOn content episodes to get your content strategy on track. With just this bit of extra effort, you’re exceeding that first golden requirement of consistency, and instantly capturing more of your leads’ attention.
Before you know it, you’ll have leads who look forward to seeing your company name pop up on their feed a few times per week, and you’ll be front of mind when they need your services.
Capture what you need the most
While you’re developing that valuable cadence to keep leads and prospects engaged, make sure that you’re also sharing content that helps you capture their interest level – and email address. The Build Your List items in your PartnerOn account are gated assets that require your leads to provide basic contact information in order to read the whitepaper or ebook that you’re offering them. Leads who fill out these forms are considered to be highly interested in learning more about your products and services; that’s why we call them your Level 4 leads!
When a lead requests your content, you’re also automatically (and immediately) notified by email, so that you can start the follow-up process. Follow-up is a HUGE part of engaging with your leads, and it’s a key strategy of relationship building, which we’ll discuss when we help turn you into a Digital Selling Master.
Interested in becoming a Digital Selling MASTER? Subscribe to PartnerOn Journal to get notified when Part II of this article is available.