Why Popular Content is What Your Business Needs in 2022 

We’ve got some big news.

If you’re promoting a business online, you must already know that content is the king, and that video is the preferred medium, both by social media platforms and marketers to display it.

A business’s success or decline these days is strongly related to its ability to maintain online visibility. Consumer habits have shifted significantly. In this new content-first climate, brands must now come up with innovative ways to produce valuable and engaging content that will later drive customers to take action. That content can now be at your fingertips. 

While content focused on branding and promotions is still essential, consumers have become increasingly wary of brands that share only self-serving content. As we enter a new era of marketing, buyers are looking for more. Consumers are eager to initiate a conversation with businesses, to be educated, enlightened, and inspired. 

This kind of conversational relationship is now the door to genuine and authentic online engagement, and editorial media is the key that opens it.  

Until now, high prices and very complicated licensing have made editorial (or popular) media almost unusable for smaller businesses. With research showing that consumers are 131% more likely to buy from a brand after engaging with the educational content they provided, from today, you can tap into this success. 

What is Editorial Media?

In contrast to promotional content which directly promotes your business, editorial (or popular) content is all about engaging, entertaining and educating. Editorial footage will usually feature celebrities & famous figures, fashion events, thought leaders, current events, sports, and more, and its licensing will always limit it to non-commercial use. 

What may seem like a drawback at first, is actually the reason for its secret success in helping brands engage better. It forces businesses to focus on connecting with their audience rather than promoting their business.

Editorial media has become the “golden ticket” for businesses in connecting with audiences online and increasing readership, and that ticket can now be yours. 

BIG NEWS: Unlimited Editorial Media Now Available on Promo

Traditionally, only large businesses had the budget to access popular content marked for editorial use. The groundbreaking news is, now you can too! For the first time ever, smaller businesses can access similar types of popular footage large companies with bigger budgets have been enjoying for years.

The doors have been blown wide open for small brands to use popular (editorial) footage, and we are super excited by what this means for small businesses competing online today!

Using Popular Content is a Marketing Game-Changer. This is Why:

J.Lo, Beyoncé, Lebron James… Do you find yourself paying more attention when you come across images of famous people such as these when scrolling through the web or your feed?

Content that resonates with your audience and invokes interest goes a long way in getting users to further explore your website or additional online channels. As a result, viewers are more likely to respond later on to your call-to-action (CTA) in different promotional posts or social media ads. But that is just the beginning of all the benefits popular content can bring to your business. 

Enables you to Engage Better

Editorial media helps your brand become an effective communicator of ideas, and that leads to higher engagement. Whether it’s a social cause, a celebrity’s birthday, or a trending event, the constant flow of ideas with real-time relevant topics creates points of contact, which nurtures a relationship with your customers. 

Small businesses that regularly cultivate popular posts on social media significantly impact their brands’ relevancy which directly affects engagement because social interactions affect brand perception. Brands that use social media to share popular content are building valuable relationships with their customers. Recently, a study from J.D. Power and Associates showed that 87% of customers reported that their online interactions with a business positively impacted the probability of them purchasing from that company.

Attracts New Business

Attracting new business was quoted as one of the top challenges by small business owners in a Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business poll for 2021. 

Popular video content provides engaging, entertaining ways to offer genuine value to attract new customers and provides a way to invest in cross-channel experiences through sharing on social media platforms in a non-salesy way. 

Builds Brand Connection and Increases Loyalty

Most readers appreciate content that seeks to give value to them and not just sell something. Story-based or trendy editorial content gets the results by inspiring, educating, and genuinely serving your customers’ needs for meaningful content.

In a world where attention spans are very short, attention matters. Therefore, creating a video that entertains or informs the viewer and holds their attention, positions your brand to stand out in a user’s mind, leaving a positive impression which customers remember.

Sets Your Brand Above the Competition

Do you know how to compete online in the ocean of all the big brands for your audience’s attention? The Wells Fargo Poll also cited maintaining a competitive edge as the second highest-rated challenge for small businesses. Your brand can use editorial media to step away from over-marketing and stand out as well as engage audiences. 

An illuminating editorial piece with properly placed keywords can make great shareable content that does well on Google. A reader who likes your content enough to recommend it to others increases brand awareness among a new audience. Creating SEO-rich popular (editorial) content is a way to rank highly as well as push conversion rates above your competitors.

Additionally, your brand is a unique voice that reflects its personality in everything you share and how you interact with your audience. Using popular (editorial) content demonstrates the soul of your brand story. Popular (editorial) content provides the way to use your voice to craft messages intended for specific audiences that are more meaningful, effective, and relevant to that person because it treats the audience as an individual instead of a potential buyer, making your brand stand out. 

Establishes Your Brand as a Trustworthy Authority

When you use editorial or popular content that is educational and informative about aspects of your specific industry, you are cashing in on the golden opportunity of leveraging thought leadership and brand authority.

Having access to diverse and entertaining editorial footage is a guaranteed way to draw attention from the audience and demonstrate your knowledge and experience without selling. Continually sharing your brand’s views regarding holidays, trendy topics like celebrity events, or real time issues,  eventually creates traction for your brand as a leader. 

After gaining traction, people automatically turn to you because they see you as a valuable source of information, and your credibility resonates throughout your brand, which increases awareness and engagement.

Increases Your Brand Share of Voice 

With social media becoming more and more competitive, capturing and keeping your audience’s attention can be a formidable task. Imagine being a little tiny fish in the vast ocean surrounded by thousands of other fish, and somehow you need to stand out. This is what Share of Voice (SOV) measures for your brand.

SOV is the number of times your brand is mentioned in web content vs. your competitors’. Of course, It isn’t easy to be heard now more than ever when over 6,000 Tweets are sent out every second, and 95 million photos are shared a day on Instagram. However, the good news is popular content gives your brand the power to populate the web with lots of variety of video-relevant material that drives awareness. 

Keeps You Active on Social Media Channels

Ideating and producing content regularly for all the social media channels is an extremely time-consuming task. With most platforms favoring brands who post regularly, any business who wants visibility has quite a lot of content to create. 

A common misconception for brands is that social media is purely a content distribution channel. Still, research shows that consumers want to connect, and social media channels are where that happens. 

Consumers want to understand more about the perspective behind their favorite brands and appreciate it when brands connect them to a specific cause, ideology or create a conversation around them. 

A recent study by Hootsuite found that the ideal posting frequencies for the different platforms are:

Instagram: 3-7 times per week

Facebook: 1-2 times per day

Twitter: 1-5 tweets a day

LinkedIn 1-5 times a day

Creating a branded hashtag or sharing popular content on a regular schedule will generate the concept of a branded personality for your business. For example, if your brand shares some exciting posts about holidays during the holiday season or acknowledges a popular celebrity’s birthday. Editorial content can fill the gaps between when you have a promotional post and when you’re unsure how to engage. Using popular content on your editorial calendar provides instant ideas for easy sharing of exciting and interesting relevant real-time content without having to take the time to build it from scratch. 

So not only does popular content help you provide quality value-driven content, but it also provides quantity. 

Ready to start engaging better?

There is nothing more exhilarating than seeing your audience expand with happy and appreciative customers. By now, hopefully, you are inspired to discover the possibilities of how using popular editorial content can help your brand excel and grow. Today, where we are all competing for our brand’s unique voice to be heard, editorial content is a remarkably fun and engaging way to increase your web-share-of-voice, connect to your audience, make you an authority, and much more. It’s nothing short of game-changing to access this valuable footage to be seen and heard in our digital age.