Content curation for your marketing and social media feeds is often the most overlooked aspect of the process. For starters, what is curation of media content? We think of curation and immediately, my first thought is of a old historian or librarian dusting off ancient volumes of old books.
In actuality, media curation is one of the key factors in making your branding and marketing successful – especially in the Social Media medium. With that in mind, see below for a few tips on how to successfully curate your media content.
1.)Recycle and Reuse Images that have proven sucessful:
The images used in your promotions are integral to driving response. When you find a particular image that your audience reacts positively to, make sure you save it. Use it across all your marketing channels – social media, email, videos, direct mail offers, etc. Change up the text you use with the image, punch up the image with filters – basically make sure that the image becomes part of your brand and brand messaging. An example of this can be seen below.
As a marketing consulting firm, the image below on the right was tested via our social media feeds. The image of a cozy meeting, the calm serene colors and overall tone of a client/consultant trust felt right for our brand message. So, we added our “Bedford Street Promise” language to the image – and it garnered multiple likes, follows, and comments across our Instagram, Facebook & Twitter feeds. Our initial assumption on the image proved right, so we have reposted the original “Promise” ad multiple times, as well included it in other media channels. See the embedded Youtube video below.
In summation, recycling is not just good for the environment!!! Reusing and recycling images with new messages and across media channels is a must when it comes to media curation.
2) Brand All Your Posts and Messages:
Let me start with a simple question – Would you send out a letter with no return address? Then, there is no reason to not include your brand image on every piece of marketing your send out – no matter what the media channel. Bedford Street Marketing recommends including, at a bare minimum, your logo, website, email address and phone number.
If you are running a special offer, then always include a Promotion Code. For proper back end analysis, you want the prospect/customer to include the Promotion code – so you can track and quantify how successful the campaign worked. To even better track, set-up a landing page for the offer – which we will tackle in another blog.
See below for some examples of how we brand our Social Media posts, as well as use Promo Codes for our special offer. Across ass 6 images, we’ve included our logo or mentioned our business name. Our phone number, email address, website, Website and hosting tool site are all included. No matter the offer, give a prospect the opportunity to get to know your brand and interact with it. On the “Certificate” offer, you can see we’ve asked for respondents to use a promo code to let us know where they saw the offer.
3) Use Images to successfully market your Affiliate Partners brand, as well as your own:
If you are an affiliate partner or influencer, then successfully promoting these products is an imperative – we all want to get paid for our work, right? Here again, media curation is key to making these promotions successful. In addition to the branding mentioned above, make sure to include your partners logo and Promo Code (again!!!) so the end user can take advantage of the savings your are offering.
Currently, we have a few partners we affiliate with, as well as use their products for our own business needs: Ampsmart Home Security, G Suite Email and Hosting, & Tailor Brands for logo/design. For each partner, we’ve developed a unique marketing approach to highlight their products. See below for some examples.
In each instance, we’ve co-branded our images/promotions with our logo(s) and the affiliate brands logo. We’ve included our contact information, as well as the Promo Code to earn the savings on each offer. Additionally, we’ve created affiliate brands pages on our website – this is another way to drive traffic to your business site – cross-promoting both your services and that of the affiliate partner.
In closing, media curation should be fun. Picking the images and creating the messaging is a creative experience, where you can let your unique and idiosyncratic perspective shine!!!!
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at Paul@bedfordstmarketing.com or visit us at www.bedfordstmarketing.com
Bedford Street Marketing Insights 