A content beast lurks inside your company. He’s always hungry. He always wants more.

How do you feed him? That was the question posed to attendees at September’s SMBMad event.

Luckily, three speakers from Suttle-Straus, in Waunakee, offered a multitude of inbound marketing ideas about how to feed the content beast.

Maeghan Nicholson, marketing manager, Christine Edgren, graphic design team leader, and Courtney Coffman, graphic designer, joined forces to explain how to generate a continuous stream of content. Their work promotes the commercial printer’s services, clients, and employees.

Look to Customer Preferences for Content Ideas

Customers’ preferences and your goals will help you select the appropriate social media content and channels. “Determine what works for your company,” Christine said.

They suggested that attendees could investigate five key areas:

• Industry Expertise
• Products
• Employees
• Customers
• Culture

The Channel Guides Content and Tone

At Suttle-Straus, the tone and content used for each social media channel reflects its format and audience:

• LinkedIn: customer focused, formal, using videos + images + GIFs featuring people
• Facebook: employee focused, casual, using short videos + images + GIFs
• Pinterest: customer focused, project specific, using a collage of project photos with titles
• Instagram: employee and customer focused, casual, using hero shot images + boomerangs

When planning posts, use strong graphics and follow the specific channel’s specifications. Limit the use of stock photos because authentic photos perform better.  Mix up the type of content and use of combination of videos, images, GIFs, and boomerangs.

Focus on Industry Expertise

Want to increase your visibility in the marketplace? The team suggested use of the following:

• Blogs
• Webinars
• E-Books
• Quick Guides

For blogs, Maeghan recommended embracing your personal and professional interests. “Show your personality,” she emphasized.

Want to get noticed? Then “spin a work topic around a non-work topic.” For example, she wrote about “Tidying Up Your Marketing for 2019,” inspired by Marie Kondo.

For webinars, broaden your reach by inviting guest speakers on your firm’s platform. Tag your guests and ask the speakers to share the content on their social media channels. You may even gain a few new followers.

Use e-books to maximize interest in “unicorn” or popular content. Quick Guides can be considered industry “Cliffs Notes.” They’re one page or less and simplify complex information.

Highlight Your Products

Bring a company newbie into the creation of your products or services.

Many people have no idea what’s involved with the printing process. Suttle-Straus shows them. They offer popular “How It’s Made” videos that reveal the production process and strategy sessions. They give online visitors a “sneak peek” of their operation.

Celebrate Your Employees

Turn to your employees for your next engaging Facebook post. Suttle-Straus celebrates employee anniversaries starting at five years. Their Meet the Team feature also gets a great response. Customers get to know the people they’re working with.

Look for the human stories within your organization. Highlight their successes and challenges. For example, the firm’s social media channels have previously included photos of employees dressed up as an Elf on the Shelf or celebrating National Selfie Day.

Share Your Customers’ Wins

Find ways to support your customers’ business on your social channels. Reshare their posts and take photos with them, if possible.

Christine emphasized that “customers are more likely to share posts about themselves or their work.” Just make sure you get permission to share.

If clients agree, use testimonials in different ways. Turn them into social media posts, case studies or videos.

Highlight Your Company’s Culture

Potential employees may follow your social media channels long before they’re ready to apply for a position. Highlight the perks of employment, so when you have an opening, that prospect will be eager to apply.

Demonstrate your commitment to supporting charities. Promoting nonprofits not only helps those organizations but also helps show your company’s values.

Check out the full presentation as well as a list of marketing tools recommended by Suttle Straus—or visit their website for details.

The team has also made a copy of their Employee Anniversary Social Media Questionnaire and their Meet The Team forms available to you.

With the help of the panelists, attendees now have an extensive list of inbound marketing ideas they can use to feed the insatiable appetite of their firm’s content beast.

Special thanks to the Suttle-Straus team and all in attendance.

Don’t Miss SMBMad in October!

Join us October 16th for Back to the Future: 10 Years of #SMBMAD and the Future of Social. The event will be held at 7:30 a.m. at Madison Turners. Learn how one of your favorite professional development groups got started 10 years ago, and where our community and social media trends are headed next!

SMBMad NonProfit Spotlight

In September, session attendees also learned about Healthy Food for All, the organization’s first nonprofit monthly spotlight. Going forward, SMBMad will highlight local nonprofit organizations at each monthly event, so they may share their mission.  Non-Profit Spotlight Application is here.

Leslie Blaize wrote this post on behalf of Winbound, a content manufacturing marketing firm. Winbound provides an all-in-one content marketing and conversion optimization package specifically designed for small manufacturing and industrial marketing departments.