How to find social content inspiration when you’re one of a kind
Before starting a social discovery, any good marketer will ask who your brand’s competition is. Who do you lose business to? Who has a similar product?
If you’re on a marketing blog, I’m sure I don’t need to sit here and talk about the value of competitive research or analysis–but from a content-generating perspective, there are so many ways to slice what you see from competitors: what type of content are they posting (videos, photos, links), where are they posting (LinkedIn, Youtube, Instagram), what are their CTAs, how do they talk about their service…goes on and on and on.
But what if you’re in a space where you don’t have competitors? What if no one out there does what you do?
It’s rare, but it happens. And if you find yourself in that situation, how are you supposed to know what to make and what to post if there is no model? Where do you even start?
My method for brainstorming and research is to look on the lateral–a.k.a. write off the subject.
What it means to “look on the lateral”
From a content research/strategy planning perspective, that means looking at accounts or companies with business goals similar to yours, but not in the same industry.
They may offer the same service, but the target audience is completely different.
Or they may not even play in the same stratosphere as you–maybe they sell rebuilt stereos and you’re an accountant–but you love the way they talk about their product, or explain their process, or put their videos together, or pull in leads.
How to apply
As always, the best way to describe is through an example. I used this same scenario a few blogs ago, but we’re gonna expand here.
Let’s say you’re an engineering firm and you’re starting a community for engineering firm owners to connect and commiserate over running their own business. There’s nothing out there like it (after all, engineers aren’t known for being a social bunch), but you’ve had lots of traction and interest in your group from your network, and you want to market for more members outside of it. Problem is, you don’t quite know how to get started.
If I were handling this, I would start looking for other strong membership communities to use as a model. And I’d start with the big guns–think Tony Robbins or Donald Miller/Storybrand. Both have educational resources that ladder up to clear goals to get people to join a seminar, or a group, or somehow open up their pockets to connect and learn. They’re talking to a completely different audience, but their business goals are pretty similar to yours.
So I’d start to look for patterns in their posts.
What types of content are they putting out?
What looks like it’s meant to attract new members?
What does that funnel look like?
Are they running ads, and if yes, what’s the creative?
As always, keep a running list and write down all your notes and inspiration.
Another example I’d pull is SaaS products with a strong community following. People are paying a monthly or yearly fee for these tools, kind of like a membership–what sort of support are they getting? What makes them such advocates of the product that they want to comment and join a community? How does the brand introduce potential customers to the tool and what to expect?
Two of my favorites that I often pull as examples are YNAB (a budget tool with an absolutely cult-like following and killer social strategy) and Dassault Systemes (a major player in the engineering software industry who’s Instagram is ugly AF but whose content gets TONS of engagement).
YNAB does a fantastic job of listening to their community and helping customers understand why you need them. They have a fairly easy audience: people (sometimes desperate ones) who want to get their financial ish together–but they sure know how to keep them engaged.
Dassault, on the other hand, has done the impossible, in my opinion: they’ve figured out how to crack the code and reach one of the toughest audiences to find on IG, and they don’t have to sell all the damn time.
That being said, Dassault then spirals me into a place of, how can I build that type of high-funnel content that connects me to people in my audience who have never heard of me?
Pull it all together
You can start to see how this opens threads that you can follow, and if you’re documenting and mind-mapping and following the rabbit trails, you should have plenty of inspiration that you can tie back and make ultra-relevant to your brand.
Still not making sense? Or maybe you just don’t quite have your pulse on the trends to pull the type of examples that help your strategy come to life? Reach out to me–I’m happy to chat or help!