PPC
Identifying an Effective B2B Target Market for Ads
There’s a very popular term in the world of marketing that goes something like, “talking to everyone is talking to no one.” This maxim is particularly true in the overly competitive B2B world, where the ability to understand exactly who you are targeting with your marketing streamlines your efforts.
Make your marketing strategy more effective by tailoring your communications and materials to the right audience. This process involves refining how to speak to them in a way that resonates. Do you know how to tailor your output to their needs and desires? Can you hone your products and services to whatever it is your target customers want?
Read on for our simple tips to position yourself correctly in the market and attract more customers. Stop targeting everyone, everywhere today!
Understanding Your Product or Service’s Need
Choosing a target market is all about speaking to the people who are actually likely to invest in your products or services. The vital question is, how do your products or services help your customers solve their problems?
Discover the answer by listing the primary features of your product or service. Highlight the benefits of each and reverse engineer the issue they solve. For example, if you are selling a form of automation, you are working to save your customer time.
This list of benefits is the first step in identifying your target market. The second step is to think about who might benefit from those features. In the example above, your target market is companies with time-consuming manual processes. Once you’ve identified your brand’s benefits and their intended market, tailor your communications and landing page to ensure an effective sales funnel. Need help creating landing pages? Use a landing page platform that offers 500+ customizable templates built to help you increase your advertising conversions.
What Does Your Current Customer Base Look Like?
You already have some very helpful information that will tell you a lot about the audience you should be targeting: your current customer base. The people that already buy from you likely have something in common, and this commonality is important to identify. Armed with this information, you can engage in marketing strategies like creating B2B Facebook ads that actually convert.
Learning about your customers can be done in a number of ways, including:
- Talking to them directly
- Running surveys to gather more information
- Looking at sales, customer relationship management (CRM), or other data
- Assessing social media profiles
When learning about your customers, keep an eye out for any similar characteristics, locations, interests, and industry similarities. Collate the parallels and rank them based on which customers are most profitable.
Understanding Your Competition
No matter what business activity you are trying to master, a good understanding of your competition is vital. This understanding is particularly relevant when trying to discover your target audience. Which businesses are your competitors targeting? Identify around five of the biggest brands in your industry, then look at the business types they are targeting.
Do they aim their products and services at small businesses? Locals? Marketing or finance departments? Chances are they have done some legwork to figure all of this out, so save yourself time and effort by following their blueprint. Identify who they are targeting and be sure to look for audiences they might have overlooked. Larger organizations will have higher budgets so while you follow their lead, keep an eye on the sectors that they aren’t targeting.
Deep Dive Into Your Data
If you are a copywriter, you need a great copywriting portfolio; if you are a B2B marketer, you need amazing data sets. While high-level information about your audience is helpful, you will likely see better results if you get a deeper understanding of the types of people your product or service can help.
Start with an overview of a potential target market, then dive into the psychographics of your customers. This includes the personal characteristics of your audience, such as personality, values, hobbies, behaviors, and lifestyle. Identify the similarities in these aspects and the type of business they have and then determine how your offerings tie in with their marketing persona.
Consider which features of your products or services are the most appealing and beneficial to these types of people.
Your Perfect Customer Persona
All of the information you find from the methods above gives you the ability to create the ultimate customer persona for your business. The more in-depth you get with your customer persona, the easier it is to create tailored marketing communications and design better products and services to suit their needs.
Make sure your customer persona includes demographic and psychographic information to gain an accurate picture of the types of people and businesses you should speak to. Match this information with creative automation, the process of automating parts of the production of creative assets, and you’ll save time on your marketing strategies while also making them more effective.
How Best to Contact Potential Buyers?
Now that you are armed with all this helpful information, how do you reach the customers you identified? There are obviously many channels. Paid ads, social media, and even the simple yet effective B2B email marketing strategy.
While there is no single correct answer, the demographics you’ve uncovered will point you in the right direction. Perhaps there are social media groups that target the personas you have identified. Maybe you can write helpful FAQs that target gaps in certain industries to demonstrate your brand as an authority in your field. Whichever option you choose, the deep dive you’ve taken into your customers will reveal the best places to find them.
Market Smarter, Not Harder
Spend a little extra time and effort on the above actions and you will see marked improvement in your marketing reach. Read our article about social media advertising tips to hone your communications even further. The more time you put into your marketing planning, the greater the outcomes will be!
As always, our Hero Blog is a helpful resource where you can further your knowledge, hone your strategies, and get more from your marketing efforts.
PPC
17 Content Distribution Strategies to Try in 2024
Creating content is great, but it’s only the first step in your marketing strategy. When you write articles, put together reports, or record videos, you need to make sure you promote them effectively, too. That means testing out new content distribution strategies whenever you can.
Today, we’re sharing 17 content distribution strategies you can try and test this year. But first, let’s go over what counts as content promotion.
What is content distribution?
Content distribution, or content promotion, is the process of distributing your blogs, articles, infographics, webinars, and more to reach a wider audience than its initial publication.
Here’s a strategy we used as an example. We published a blog post covering the biggest content marketing trends in 2024. The blog is the initial marketing channel for this piece of content, and this initial audience includes website visitors and blog readers. It’s also optimized for on-page SEO, which encourages ranking on organic search. That’s another channel. Posting about the blog on LinkedIn is another channel. That’s coordinated sharing of a single piece of content across multiple channels. That’s content promotion.
By sharing or even repurposing your content in multiple ways throughout your marketing strategy, you can increase its visibility and reach among your target audience. This has benefits beyond a single piece of content, including increased brand awareness, a stronger competitive edge, and even more conversion opportunities.
If you’re investing the time, effort, and (often) budget to create high-quality content, you want to make it as beneficial to your business as possible.
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17 content distribution strategies to start testing now
Here are 17 content promotion strategies that will help you distribute your content, reach a wider audience, and build your brand. Whether you’re working to put a content promotion plan together or already have a solid strategy, take a look and see what you can test out this year.
1. Repurpose in another format
Content repurposing is the first strategy we’re sharing because it’s the most fundamental and presents the most opportunity. If you have a blog post, turn it into a video for YouTube. If you have a longer video, splice that up into shorter, bite-size clips for social content. If you have a data-packed report, pick out the most compelling headlines to make shareable graphics.
Shopify has two versions of this content: a YouTube video and a blog post that explains drop-shipping.
Creating content takes a lot of time—ideating, researching, developing, editing, finalizing, and launching. That’s why content promotion across as many channels as possible is so important. The best way to create even more possibilities for promoting and sharing your content is by repurposing and repackaging it in another medium.
This extends both the reach and the life of your content. By turning blogs into videos or long-form videos into short clips, you can distribute across different channels and reach new audiences. When you repackage, it takes less time than creating pieces from scratch, but you’re also creating fresh content, which keeps yours new for longer.
This, of course, has its limits. You don’t want to seem like you’re repeating yourself constantly to your community. And it’s not always feasible or effective to repurpose a blog into a video or a guide into podcast episodes. That’s what the rest of the strategies here are for.
2. Brand all of your visuals
If you ensure that all of the visuals in your whitepapers, articles, or blog posts are branded, you can share those graphics elsewhere. You can share these as eye-catching posts on social media to increase brand awareness, use these elements in other pieces to create internal links, and even optimize your image SEO for organic reach with the graphics alone.
Take this example from Semrush. It’s a simple but effective graphic of the elements of a content marketing strategy with the brand’s logo in the corner. It’s also the first result in an image search for content marketing strategy.
This is something you bake into your content creation process. Like the Semrush example above, it doesn’t have to be extensive. Make sure graphics feature your brand colors. Include your logo at the bottom of any charts or tables. Take the time to optimize for SEO, which leads to our next strategy.
3. Optimize content for SEO
Organic search is an opportunity for content promotion. If you’re writing a blog post, publishing a report, or even releasing a video series, getting your content on the SERP offers you the chance to reach a wider audience through another channel.
Take advantage of this by improving your SEO strategy this year. Whether it’s spending more time considering long-tail keywords during your ideation phase or focusing on improving your local SEO site-wide, it’s an opportunity to get your content out there.
4. Include links in relevant blogs or guides
Internal linking is important for your SEO, but it’s also a chance to promote your content to interested readers who already trust your brand.
This Etsy blog post about using the color black as a wedding theme links to a blog on trending wedding colors. Relevant research for event planning.
But in-context linking is only one way to help promote content with internal links. You can link to high-value content from your company’s educational materials, add call-outs to your blogs, or add clickable links to your whitepapers. To learn more about getting creative, check out this guide to internal linking. (See what we did there?)
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5. Post on social platforms
Promoting your content on social media is important. Even if you don’t have a large following, posting can broaden your reach and grow your audience. This could be as simple as writing a quick intro and including a link to your post on X (formerly Twitter) or Threads if you’re on there. You can also use major takeaways to record a quick video for Instagram or create a slideshow with major takeaways on LinkedIn.
Example of a LinkedIn slideshow.
The most important thing is to start sharing and pay attention to the responses. Figure out what works for your brand, your audience, and your typical content production.
6. Plug content on a podcast
Podcasts are excellent places for sharing recommendations and plugging content naturally. You’re not dropping a link (except in the show notes), but you can reference thought leadership, share data and findings, or use a case study as an example. The spoken medium feels more authentic, and if your content comes up naturally on your brand’s own podcast or during a guest appearance, that’s another great way to promote it.
You can run podcast ads if you’re not running a podcast or looking to take on guest spots. These still offer the same benefits. In fact, in a study by Acast, 72% of podcast listeners reported that they visit an advertiser’s website after hearing a brand’s spot, and 62% of listeners reported making a purchase after hearing a podcast ad.
7. Syndicate your blogs
Some publications syndicate content, meaning they republish blog posts or articles as excerpts or in their entirety. How this works will depend on the publication. Some will automatically republish all of your content, while others ask you to submit it for syndication.
For example, this article in Fast Company includes a “republished with permission” note.
Here’s how to find sites that might syndicate your content: In a search engine, enter “republished with permission,” plus a keyword related to your brand or content. The results are sites that likely syndicate content in your area of expertise.
8. Share with your email mailing list
Your subscribers have already indicated an interest in your brand and offering. Send them your content, too. This could be a regular newsletter to share links to new releases if you have a full and varied content calendar or a one-off email if your content creation is slow and steady.
Email is an effective content promotion method. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 69% of B2B marketers distribute content through their own newsletters and 67% share content in other emails.
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9. Pitch your content to related newsletters
You should definitely send emails to your own audience, but that’s not the only way to get your content into newsletters. There are many regular newsletters that aggregate industry content or share a variety of links with their audience. Pitch your best content—think high-value articles penned by an industry leader or an annual report with compelling data—to include here.
10. Share on forums
Forums like Quora and Reddit are potential channels for your content distribution, too. If you have a free course or helpful guide, you can share that. Look for people asking questions about your topic, then answer with a helpful explanation and the link.
A link to a tool that seems helpful, not purely self-promo.
Keep in mind that no one wants to be spammed. Make sure you’re sharing relevant content and doing so selectively.
11. Partner with influencers
If you have the budget to promote your content, try working with influencers in your industry to get your content in front of more people. Here’s a great example. In the video below, marketing influencer Laurie Wang breaks down the fundamentals of digital marketing. She also shares templates from HubSpot, which is the sponsor of the video.
It’s also worth noting that this influencer has 15,000 subscribers on YouTube. That’s closer to a micro-influencer, which can be more affordable.
12. Promote with banners, pop-ups, or sidebar CTAs
Your content promotion doesn’t always need to be focused on reaching a new audience. It can also be a push to engage people who are already visiting your site further, whether they’re warm leads checking out cornerstone content one more time or new contacts who landed on your top-of-funnel blog post for the first time.
In those cases, you can promote your content to your website visitors through pop-ups, banners, and sidebar calls to action. The key is to promote high-value, relevant content in a compelling but non-intrusive way. Take a look at the example banner below from audiobook platform Libro.fm.
The black-and-white images with the bright background are eye-catching without being overwhelming. Very clickable.
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13. Credit and tag your sources
If your content contains references to other people’s work, try tagging them in your social posts, especially on LinkedIn or Instagram. Mention found a compelling correlation between tags and engagement for Instagram posts.
More engagement will help more social media users find your content. If you quote an expert in your industry or use photographs from someone with a social following, try tagging them.
14. Encourage your employees
Another channel you can tap to promote your content is your employees. Some companies have formal employee advocacy programs, which incentivize sharing content and more online. But even if you don’t have a formal program yet, you can still encourage your team members to post your high-value content.
In its report on employee advocacy programs, Hinge Marketing found that the biggest benefits of these programs include increased visibility and increased inbound traffic.
The key is to make it easy for employees to share content. So post graphics and messaging in your shared channels, send out emails with links to new content when it’s available, and let people know it’s a good thing to post.
15. Let your community know
If your brand runs a community, make sure you’re sharing your content there. Community-led marketing takes a lot of investment to get started and maintain, but once you’ve established a group, it’s incredibly effective. These members are engaged with your brand and with each other. If it’s a community listserv, send a quick email. If it’s a Slack or Discord group, set up a channel for distributing new content.
Pro tip: If you have a community, this is also a great place to get ideas for content. Check out which threads stay active and which questions keep coming up time and again.
16. Write a guest blog post
Writing a guest post can be a good way to distribute your content—as long as you’re approaching it the right way. This works best if you have a big, in-depth piece of content, like a benchmark report or survey. You can focus on one finding to create an original guest post for the publication’s audience, which will hopefully be new to you. And you’ll be able to include any branded graphics there, too.
It’s worth noting that, in the Content Marketing Institute’s annual survey, only half of B2B marketers reported using guest posts as a distribution strategy this year.
This is only a slight decrease from last year, and it could be because guest posts work to promote specific kinds of content—original reports or data. If you have those, identify some target publications and give it a try.
17. Run paid ads
Most of the content promotion strategies we’ve talked about here are organic. But if you do have the budget to promote your content, run ads this year.
Here’s a LinkedIn ad that I saw at the top of my feed while I was working on this post.
Braze is a customer engagement platform that offers email marketing, in-app messaging, and more. Marketers are the target customers, so LinkedIn is a great platform, and this is a compelling piece of content.
Figure out where the best place to reach your target audience would be, like LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or maybe TikTok.
Try these content distribution strategies
We covered a lot of methods for getting your blogs, reports, graphics, and more out there, so let’s recap.
Here are 17 worthwhile content distribution and promotion strategies:
- Repurpose in another format
- Brand all of your visuals
- Optimize content for SEO
- Include links in relevant blog posts
- Post on social platforms
- Plug content on a podcast
- Syndicate your blogs
- Share with your email mailing list
- Pitch to related newsletters
- Share on forums
- Partner with influencers
- Promote with banners, pop-ups, or sidebar CTAs
- Credit any influences—and make sure to tag them
- Encourage your employees
- Let your community know
- Write a guest blog post
- Run paid ads
If you’re creating great content for your brand, then it’s worth spending a little more time promoting it to as many people as possible. So this year, try some of these promotion strategies to get more eyes on your content and grow your business with more customers.
PPC
31 Best Giveaway Ideas (+Tips to Make Them Successful)
Here’s a hill I’m dying on: giveaways are one of the most versatile and efficient marketing strategies available. They work on any channel, are easily scalable to your budget, and create their own buzz (we all love free stuff!).
But the best part is they are endlessly variable—there are infinite giveaway ideas.
I want you to get a feel for what a good giveaway can do for your business and find a few versions to try. So I’ve listed over 30 ideas, a handful of examples, and some things you can do to make sure your giveaway delivers what you need it to.
Table of contents
Why should you run giveaways?
Giveaways produce results across your entire sales funnel, from early awareness to customer evangelism. Here are some of the most popular ways I’ve seen giveaways used in marketing:
- Boost brand awareness: When people don’t know or trust your brand yet, a giveaway will help you break the ice.
- Support a product launch: Giveaways capture attention fast, which is exactly what you need for a new product.
- Introduce a new location: A little free gift will build rapport quickly with new neighbors.
- Grow your social media and email following: It’s crazy how well tag-a-friend giveaways multiply social networks.
- Clear out seasonal merch: Turn a sunk cost into a wildly effective marketing strategy.
- Capture UGC: Make sharing user-generated content a sweepstakes entry, and watch the awesome customer images pour in.
- Get customer referrals: Incentivize customers to become your best salespeople.
- Recover abandoned cart sales: Put all those “almost-won” sales over the finish line with free shipping or by throwing in a gift card or trial size.
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How do you make a successful giveaway?
The type and scope of giveaway you manage depends on what you have available, who you’re trying to reach, and what you hope to get out of it. Follow these steps so your giveaway makes a huge splash.
Set a goal
The goal of your giveaway is the first piece of the puzzle. Everything else snaps in around it.
Say you want to blow up your Instagram follower count. The platform, set of rules, and promotional plan supporting your giveaway should all align to make that happen.
Choose the prize
This is trickier than some people realize. Ideally, you want a prize aligned with your brand and right-sized for your goals.
A brand-aligned giveaway helps you focus on attracting ideal potential customers. If you sell baby monitors, giving away running shoes will attract lots of people who don’t need your products.
Choose a gift that matches the size and goal of your giveaway.
Likewise, a huge prize for a simple entry method (like tagging a friend on Instagram) is going to bog you down with so many entrants outside of your core audience. Pick a prize just large enough to make it worth the effort to get it.
Pick your platform
Here, I’m talking about in-person, social media, email marketing, etc. Where can you find the people you want to reach? Which option makes it easy to achieve your specific goal?
If you’re drumming up brand awareness for a new dentist’s office, handing out travel toothcare kits at a health fair is perfect. However, an email campaign would be better if you’re looking for new patient referrals.
Schedule appropriately
Timing matters a lot in giveaways for several reasons. Seasons, competition levels, and your own internal needs all factor in.
For example, a brand awareness giveaway that would triple your TikTok follower count in June might get drowned out by holiday marketers in December.
Create the rules
There are two questions to answer here:
- What do people have to do to get the giveaway?
- What laws and platform rules do you need to follow?
To set the rules of entry, match the ask’s difficulty to the prize’s value. The better the prize, the more you can ask. It’s fair to ask someone to buy one shirt to get another similar shirt for free. Or to register their email address for a chance to win a weekend trip. But if your giveaway is an inexpensive branded pen, you won’t get many people registering (those are great handouts at conferences, though).
Make sure you’ve listed all giveaway rules clearly.
Laws and platform rules can vary. Instagram has its own rules, for example. In general, you want to clearly and fairly describe the prize, give a minimum age to participate, list the rules, and give the odds of winning if it pertains to your type of giveaway.
Hype it up
Before and during the big day(s), use social media posts and popups on your website to get more attention. Email your subscribers and offer your loyalty members early or extra entries. Look for influencers or related businesses to partner with. If it’s a really big deal, consider spending on paid search ads or boosted social media posts.
Follow up
After your giveaway is over, there’s plenty of attention and excitement to be had. Announce the winner (if it was a contest) and tag them in the social media posts so their network can see them. Let people who didn’t participate or win know what they missed, and tell them to stay tuned for future events.
You could end up gathering more email addresses with the promise of a future giveaway than the original giveaway itself.
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Best giveaway ideas for businesses
These are your tried-and-true giveaway ideas that have proven to generate buzz, leads, and sales.
1. Sweepstakes
You’re probably pretty familiar with this one. You give up your email address or some other information, and you’re entered to win a prize. Unlike a gift-with-purchase, your free gift isn’t guaranteed, which adds a little anticipation to the game.
Sweepstakes are useful for all types of brand awareness and lead-generation campaigns. They’re less often used to generate direct sales since requiring a purchase to enter can be legally tricky.
2. Customer loyalty giveaway
Customer retention is a critical business growth strategy. This giveaway aims to keep your best customers happy and returning for a long time.
Use exclusive giveaways for your loyalty members to keep them active longer.
The actual giveaway can take on many forms. The important part is to talk up the exclusivity of it. Only your best customers get the gift, discount, or entry to win. That’ll help cement the feeling of community, which strengthens brand loyalty.
3. Holiday-themed giveaway
Holiday-themed giveaways come in many variations. Black Friday doorbuster deals are a very popular one, but you can get pretty creative. For example, you could offer a self-care giveaway for singles as part of your Valentine’s Day marketing.
4. The year’s supply giveaway
There’s some psychology behind our desire for abundance, even for everyday products. Think of having a pantry full of mac and cheese or all the laundry detergent you could use for a year. It’s more exciting than it should be.
That’s the motivation behind giving a year’s supply of a product. The bonus is that you can make this highly relevant to what you sell, attracting future customers.
5. BOGO
Buy one, get one free deals are among the most popular giveaways for both the giver and the receiver.
Use BOGO deals for a big boost in sales and awareness.
Your customers get double the product for the same price, and you make a sale every time someone takes advantage of your offer.
Giveaways like this can also be great loss-leaders—products that don’t generate much profit on their own but drive lots of new customers to your store to buy additional items.
6. Free upgrade
This is a nice option if your product or service has pricing tiers and you want to attract more customers to the higher tier.
Say you sell software with entry, pro, and executive plan options. Run a promo where anyone who buys the entry plan gets the pro version for the first month. Some of those users will get hooked on the expanded capability and upgrade at the end of the giveaway period.
You can use this for physical products, too. Offer the premium product at the standard price for a limited time. Then gather as many reviews of the higher-end version and use that social proof to sell it after the promo is over.
7. Free product with purchase
I love these types of giveaways, especially for two specific purposes:
- You have seasonal or excessive stock you need to turn
- You’re introducing a new product
Make the free product as relevant to the purchased one as possible. Socks with a pair of shoes is a perfect example. You could also throw in something that often causes friction when forgotten, like batteries with a battery-powered toy.
8. Product bundle giveaway
Grow your add-on sales by bundling several complementary products and running a sales promotion giveaway to demonstrate how they all work together.
Bundling products for a giveaway is a great way to promote complimentary products.
9. Surprise discount or coupon code
Here’s the gist. A customer opens a promotional email with their secret code. They click through to a sales page and enter it to learn they’ve been given a 20% discount. That little bit of intrigue and anticipation makes a much bigger impression than simply getting 20%.
This giveaway works best when you can give away something valuable—you might disappoint people if they go through the motions for 5% off.
10. Branded swag giveaway
This is a standard and useful tactic for in-person events. Hand out pens, t-shirts, ball caps, or fidget spinners (remember those?) to get people to your booth or table.
A slight modification here is to buy fewer, more expensive items and only give them away to people who talk with your team. That shifts the focus from brand awareness to a lead generation campaign.
11. Refer-a-friend giveaway
There is no better salesperson for your business than happy customers. Use a little gift to give your customer referral program a big shot in the arm.
Use giveaways to get more customer referrals.
You’re asking people to discuss your business with their friends, and the leads you get will be very high-value, so make sure the gift is a good one.
12. Influencer giveaway
If you don’t already have a big audience, partner with an influencer to get more eyes on your giveaways.
Pick an influencer with a smaller, niche, engaged audience. So find a holistic health professional with a few thousand dedicated followers over Selina Gomez for your essential oils giveaway. That’ll deliver higher quality traffic which leads to more future sales.
13. Buy a gift, get a gift
This is such a great variation of the holiday giveaway or buy one, get one promo. When someone orders a present, give them something for themselves.
Gift cards work well here, so the buyer can choose what they want. But you can also create a cool version where both people get the same gift, especially if your product is great for friends—like bracelets.
14. Appreciation giveaway
Use this type of giveaway for milestones like business anniversaries or getting your first 100K followers on TikTok.
You can make this about the individual, too. For example, you could send an extra gift or discount to people one year after their first purchase.
15. Reengagement giveaway
Now, for those customers or prospects who haven’t made a purchase or opened an email in a while, a re-engagement giveaway is just the trick.
Start by segmenting your email list to pull out subscribers who haven’t done what you want them to do (click a link or re-order a product) for a set period. Send them an email with a concise, compelling subject line announcing the giveaway.
If reordering is the goal, an extra discount or BOGO offer is a good giveaway to use here.
Giveaway ideas for small businesses
Every penny counts for small and growing businesses. These giveaway ideas don’t require a lot of money or time to manage but can still net a really nice return.
16. Co-sponsored giveaway
Co-sponsored giveaways are events managed and promoted by two or more businesses. I purposely put them at the top of this list because they’re such a smart way to share the load of running a giveaway while multiplying its effect.
Giveaways work great as co-promotional events.
With multiple businesses involved, you’ll be able to afford a larger prize or gift. But even better, your brand will get exposure to the existing networks those other businesses have built.
Co-sponsored giveaways are a good social media marketing strategy, but they can also be effective in person or even via email.
17. Tag us in your post giveaways
This giveaway is a UGC-gathering powerhouse. Ask followers to tag you in their social media posts using either your handle or a branded hashtag in exchange for entry into a sweepstakes, then share the content on your account.
These events are easy to run. Just make sure you explicitly mention that tagging a post is consent for you to reshare the image. And don’t forget to highlight the winners so everyone knows the contest was legit and to get an extra splash of attention for your brand.
18. Tag-a-friend giveaways
If you scroll Instagram or TikTok for about five minutes, you’re almost guaranteed to stumble on one of these contests. That’s simply because they’re so good at exponentially growing your social network.
Use tag-a-friend giveaways to grow your social media following quickly.
Try to keep the instructions simple. If you ask someone to follow three accounts, like two different posts, and share the post to their network, they might keep scrolling (unless you’re offering a monster prize).
Combine this with a co-sponsored giveaway for an extra boost in online presence.
19. Giveaway for feedback
Online reviews do a lot of heavy lifting for your business. Buyers trust reviews, and Google uses them as a local search ranking factor so you show up in more searches.
You can use giveaways to get more reviews in a hurry. Just make giving a review a requirement for entering the giveaway.
Caution is warranted here. You don’t want to come off as buying reviews. And some platforms, like Yelp, don’t allow this tactic. Plus, you need to start with an excellent product and service, or you’ll just get more bad reviews.
20. Free information giveaway
This one is nice for small businesses because it leverages your valuable expertise instead of a costly product.
To launch this type of giveaway, create an ebook, template, or some other form of content that your target audience would love to have. For example, if you’re a chiropractor, you could create a PDF showing 10 daily habits for a healthy back. Then use a popup, or lead magnat, which asks visitors to enter their email address in exchange for the guide.
Not sure what to create? List out the five questions your customers most frequently ask and start there.
21. Free trial
An old sales trick says that if you can put a product in a prospect’s hands, your chance of making the sale will increase dramatically.
A free trial giveaway does just that. Let people who register on your website try your product without cost. They’ll gladly pay to keep using it when they fall in love.
You’ll see this strategy used for software sales a lot. But you can also send a sample size of a consumable product. Make it a gift with the purchase of another popular item to get it in more hands.
22. Free quote
This might be the most underrated giveaway on the list. Especially if your competitors regularly charge to price out a job.
Don’t sleep on the value of a free quote.
Besides attracting new potential customers, you’ll also create a cost barrier that makes it more likely people choose to work for you. Once they have your quote, they’ll be less likely to pay another business for theirs.
Cool giveaway ideas
Here are several fun giveaway ideas your customers and followers will love (and you’ll love to run).
23. Quiz/trivia
Ask your customers to answer a question about your business or industry. Tie it to your unique selling proposition so as people search for the answer, they learn what makes you different.
Here’s an example. Say your long history and wide range of services set you apart. Ask people to reply to a Facebook post with the year your company was founded and the number of services you offer. Then, pick one winner out of the replies and give them a nice giveaway.
24. Choose your own gift
I used to love it when my mom handed me a little cash and told me to pick out one toy I could take home. I had a blast prowling the isles for my special treat.
Give your audience that same thrill by letting them pick their prize from a list of options.
Let customers pick their prize for an extra exciting giveaway.
Ideally, the prize list will be a curated selection of things you sell. But it could also be from a list of your favorite seasonal products or any other themed group of items.
25. Scavenger hunt
This one is a lot of fun. Create a list of little details from your website pages (or on multiple pages if it’s a co-sponsored event). People who register get questions to answer, each requiring them to visit different pages. Then pick a winner from all of the completed entries.
These are best done over a short time period to limit answer sharing. So, make sure to create a lot of hype before the event so you have as many people playing as possible.
26. Photo or video contest
Here’s a twist on a UGC giveaway. Instead of simply collecting tagged images, offer a prize for the best one(s)!
By making it a contest, you’ll encourage people to send in their absolute best pics and videos. Plus, you’ll get a double dose of engagement when everyone checks back in to see who won.
27. Nominate a hero
People love to work with businesses that give back. This giveaway lets your audience spotlight their local heroes while you get to give back to people making a difference.
The hero nomination giveaway requires more work, but it pays off in many ways.
To run a giveaway like this, ask your followers to nominate someone they believe is a true hero and explain why. Then pick one (or more) to receive the prize and promote the event. If possible, get a video of the hero accepting their prize. You could also create a landing page listing all the nominated heroes.
Unique giveaway ideas
One of the defining characteristics of a great giveaway is that it stands out against all the other messages and ads people are exposed to. These interesting and unique giveaway ideas grab attention, even in a crowded space.
28. Gamified giveaway
A gamified giveaway adds gameplay elements to your offer. If you’ve ever spun a wheel to get a freebie or discount, you’ve seen a gamified giveaway.
Spinning the wheel is one of many ways to add engagement-boosting gameplay to your giveaways.
Digital “scratch-off” tickets add a fun element to a standard sweepstakes giveaway.
Try creating digital scratch-off tickets that give customers points for making a purchase that they can spend on future products. Anything that ups the ante by asking people to play in order to win instead of simply getting a freebie is worth consideration.
29. Caption this photo
A photo caption giveaway is great for a quick engagement boost. Post a picture on your social media platform of choice and ask your followers to write a caption for it. You pick the most creative caption and send a prize to the winner.
The game is fun, so you can expect decent participation, even with minimal prizes. Just closely moderate the replies so you don’t accidentally post a caption that isn’t safe for work.
30. Brand ambassadorship giveaway
Instead of just partnering with a brand ambassador, create a contest where people can win a chance to become one.
Who wouldn’t want to be a B.A.R.K Ranger?
Make this as big or as small as you want. You can give away a little gift to everyone who completes a task to become an ambassador. Or sponsor a huge contest where the winner spends a year using what you sell and gets paid (in products or cash) to share their experience with the world.
31. Do a good deed giveaway
This is a play on the pay-it-forward theme. Ask your followers to do something kind for a stranger (or maybe volunteer for a non-profit), document what they’ve done, and submit it for a chance to win a gift for themselves. Double the impact by offering a second gift people can give to a loved one.
This type of giveaway drums up lots of good feelings while also doing something positive for the world.
The best giveaway idea is up to you
There is no one perfect giveaway idea. What works best will be the one that matches your brand, achieves your goals, and you actually enjoy running.
Remember to be extremely clear on the rules and follow through on your promise. Missed expectations can turn a great giveaway into a public relations hassle.
Here’s a recap of the best giveaway ideas:
- Sweepstakes
- Customer loyalty giveaway
- Holiday-themed giveaway
- The year’s supply giveaway
- Buy one, get one free
- Free upgrade
- Free product with purchase
- Product bundle giveaway
- Surprise discount or coupon code
- Branded swag giveaway
- Refer-a-friend giveaway
- Influencer giveaway
- Buy a gift, get a gift
- Appreciation giveaway
- Reengagement giveaway
- Co-sponsored giveaway
- Tag us in your post
- Tag-a-friend
- Giveaway for feedback
- Free information giveaway
- Free trial
- Free quote
- Quiz/trivia
- Choose your own gift
- Scavenger hunt
- Photo or video contest
- Nominate a hero
- Gamified giveaway
- Caption this photo
- Brand ambassadorship giveaway
- Do a good dead giveaway
PPC
Programmatic Advertising: What It Is & How It Works
Did you know that programmatic advertising, a now-ubiquitous element in digital marketing, have their roots stretching back almost 30 years? From its humble beginnings, programmatic advertising has transformed into a cornerstone of modern digital marketing strategies.
This evolution mirrors the advancements in technology and the ever-changing digital landscape. Today, it represents not just a method for placing ads but a comprehensive approach that leverages data, technology, and analytics to optimize advertising efforts. In this journey from a simple banner to complex, AI-driven campaigns, programmatic advertising has redefined how marketers connect with their audiences.
In this article, we’ll delve into what programmatic advertising is, its benefits, and challenges of programmatic advertising, offering a blueprint for modern marketers to navigate this dynamic field.
Table of contents
What is programmatic advertising?
At its core, programmatic advertising automates the decision-making process of where and when to place ads, bypassing traditional, manual methods of purchasing advertising space.
Programmatic advertising represents a significant leap in the field of digital marketing, one that harnesses the power of automation, algorithms, and artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize ad buying and placement.
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How does programmatic advertising work?
This sophisticated approach utilizes AI and machine learning algorithms to analyze vast amounts of user data. By processing information like browsing behavior, demographic profiles, and even specific interactions with previous ads, programmatic systems can determine the most effective ad placements in real time.
This technology enables advertisers to target audiences more precisely and with greater relevance, enhancing the likelihood of ad engagement.
The seamless integration of data analysis and automation in programmatic advertising provides a more efficient, targeted, and cost-effective approach compared to traditional advertising methods. It empowers marketers to reach their desired audience at the optimal time, with the right message, on the most suitable platform, maximizing the impact of their advertising campaigns.
Programmatic advertising channels
Programmatic platforms operate across various channels, including display, mobile, video, and social media, offering a versatile range of options for marketers. Key components in this ecosystem include Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs), which allow buyers to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through a single interface, and Sell-Side Platforms (SSPs), which enable publishers to sell ad space to digital marketers.
Programmatic advertising vs. digital advertising
What’s the difference between programmatic advertising and digital advertising? Digital advertising encompasses any type of advertising campaign you run online. Programmatic advertising is a type of digital advertising that allows you to simplify ad buying and placement to show ads to the right audience, in the right place, at the right time.
Pros and cons of programmatic advertising
Curious about the benefits (as well as potential pitfalls) of programmatic advertising?
Programmatic advertising benefits
The transition to programmatic advertising brings many benefits, significantly enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns.
Efficiency and time-saving
One of the most significant advantages of programmatic advertising is the automation of the ad buying process. Programmatic advertising eliminates the need for traditional, time-consuming negotiation and manual insertion orders. This automation streamlines the process, allowing marketers and advertisers to focus more on strategy and less on logistics.
Improved targeting and personalization
Programmatic technology goes beyond basic demographics, enabling hyper-targeted advertising. By leveraging real-time data and sophisticated algorithms, it can personalize marketing messages to individual users based on their online behavior, interests, and past interactions. This level of personalization leads to more relevant ads, increasing the likelihood of user engagement and conversion.
Real-time data and analytics
The ability to access and analyze data in real-time is a game-changer. Advertisers can monitor campaign performance as it happens, allowing for immediate adjustments and optimization. This real-time feedback loop ensures that campaigns are constantly refined and improved, leading to better performance and a higher return on investment (ROI).
Cost-effectiveness
Programmatic advertising often proves to be more cost-effective than traditional methods. By targeting specific audiences and utilizing real-time bidding, advertisers can control costs and ensure that their budget is being spent efficiently, reducing wasted impressions and increasing overall campaign ROI.
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Scalability and flexibility
Programmatic platforms offer unparalleled scalability and flexibility, allowing marketers to adjust campaigns quickly based on performance data or shifting market trends. This adaptability is crucial in the fast-paced digital environment.
These benefits collectively make programmatic advertising a potent tool for modern marketers, enabling smarter, more effective campaigns that resonate with the intended audience.
Programmatic advertising cons
While programmatic advertising offers numerous benefits, it also presents certain challenges and considerations that marketers need to navigate carefully.
Ad fraud and privacy concerns
A significant challenge in the digital advertising space is the risk of ad fraud, where the authenticity of ad impressions, clicks, or conversions is questionable. Combating fraudulent activities requires constant vigilance and the use of sophisticated tools.
Additionally, with increasing concerns about user privacy and data security, marketers must ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, balancing effective targeting with respect for user privacy.
Complexity of the programmatic ecosystem
The programmatic advertising ecosystem is complex, with multiple players including DSPs, SSPs, Ad Exchanges, and Data Management Platforms (DMPs). Navigating this complexity, understanding the roles of different entities, and integrating them effectively into a marketing strategy can be daunting, especially for beginners.
Choosing the right platforms and partners
The success of a programmatic campaign heavily depends on selecting the right technology platforms and partners. Marketers must choose platforms that offer transparency, robust targeting capabilities, and reliable analytics. Establishing partnerships with trustworthy and experienced vendors is crucial to ensure campaign success.
Quality of inventory and brand safety
There is a risk of ads appearing alongside inappropriate or irrelevant content, which can harm brand reputation. Ensuring brand safety and securing high-quality ad inventory is essential for maintaining brand integrity.
Keeping up with rapid technological changes
The rapid pace of technological advancements in programmatic advertising demands continuous learning and adaptation. Marketers must stay abreast of new trends, technologies, and best practices to remain competitive.
Addressing these challenges requires a strategic approach, careful planning, and a commitment to continuous learning and adaptation in the ever-evolving digital advertising landscape.
How to get started with programmatic advertising
For those new to the world of programmatic advertising, understanding certain fundamental aspects is crucial for successful navigation and implementation. Here are five key things every beginner should know to get started with programmatic advertising.
Understand the ad ecosystem
It’s essential to grasp the roles of Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs), Sell-Side Platforms (SSPs), and Ad Exchanges. DSPs allow advertisers to buy ad impressions across a range of publisher sites, targeting specific user demographics. SSPs enable publishers to sell ad space to the highest bidder, while Ad Exchanges act as the digital marketplace where these transactions occur.
Define your audience targeting
Targeting the right audience is vital for the success of your programmatic advertising campaign. This involves understanding user behavior, interests, and demographics to create more relevant and effective ad campaigns. Leveraging data effectively for audience segmentation is key to successful targeting.
Determine your budgeting and bidding strategies
Beginners need to understand how to allocate budgets and use bidding strategies effectively. Programmatic advertising typically uses a real-time bidding (RTB) process, where ad impressions are bought and sold on a per-impression basis in a real-time auction.
Choose the right creative and messaging
The content of the ads is just as important as where they are placed. Creating engaging and relevant ad creatives that resonate with the target audience is critical for campaign success.
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Measure and analyze campaign performance
Finally, measuring and analyzing the performance of campaigns is crucial. Understanding metrics like click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS) helps in optimizing campaigns for better performance.
Armed with these foundational insights, beginners can start navigating the programmatic advertising landscape more confidently and effectively.
The future of programmatic advertising
The future of programmatic advertising points towards further integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning, enhancing targeting precision and efficiency. The rise of voice search and IoT devices will expand programmatic’s reach, necessitating new strategies and formats.
Privacy and data security will increasingly shape practices, driven by evolving regulations and consumer awareness. We’ll also see a shift towards more transparent and ethical advertising ecosystems, with a focus on combating ad fraud.
The continuous advancement in technology promises even more personalized and immersive ad experiences, solidifying programmatic advertising’s role as a key player in the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing.
Get started with programmatic advertising
Programmatic advertising offers automation, targeted personalization, real-time data analysis, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility, significantly enhancing campaign effectiveness. Despite challenges like ad fraud and privacy concerns, the benefits of programmatic advertising make it an invaluable tool for modern marketers.
Beginners in this field should focus on understanding the ad ecosystem, mastering audience targeting, budgeting and bidding strategies, crafting effective creatives, and analyzing campaign performance. Embracing programmatic advertising is essential for anyone looking to thrive in today’s dynamic digital marketing landscape.
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