Businesses today are looking for the best ways to reach potential customers online. Disruptive forms of advertising, such as pop-up ads, are no longer considered effective. Consumers are more likely to close an ad after giving it a brief look. For this reason, brands are turning to content marketing as the best way to attract customers.

Content marketing is not about writing descriptions of your products, giving them a title, and posting them on the web on whatever site has them. It is providing valuable information to consumers that is relevant to your brand. By doing so, you present yourself as an expert and a business that can meet a person’s needs.

One of the keys to a successful content strategy is to incorporate it, hand in hand, with your social media strategy. Once you produce content, social media channels are the best way to share it with your audience.

One challenge companies face in this strategy is producing enough content that encourages the audience to interact and participate. One way to keep your content unique is to encourage your followers to create content for you.

There are apps available that will make it easy to invite your audience to create and share content related to your brand:

put it to a vote

Using voting apps, create a topic that your followers can vote on. For example, a t-shirt design or the name of a new menu item. Voting not only gets people to vote for their favourite, but also starts a conversation within the comments. You get valuable insights from the people who support your brand.

Pick a topic, ask your followers to vote, and see how far the conversation goes.

Personalize the experience

You can use engagement apps to give your followers a more individualized experience. For example, if you are a clothing brand, you can send each user suggestions for clothes that match their style profile.

Find ways to make the fan feel like you’ve selected them for a new product or service. This level of service is something that they will soon share among their own social networks.

Invite fans to submit content

When you invite your followers to create something for your brand, you contribute to that sense of community that you are trying to build. It makes your fans an important part of your business.

Ask them to submit videos, stories, and photos for you to post on your site and share on social media.

throw a challenge

People like to compare their knowledge with others, so taking a quiz is a great way to interact with your followers. Ask people to submit their own questions that will be informative for the audience as they engage with your brand.

For example, if you are a travel company, you can post questions that relate to your favorite destinations. These types of posts get a lot of engagement on social media because they are fun and interesting.

Encouraging your audience to take an active role in your content marketing doesn’t just make things easier for your brand. It also creates a connection with your followers that cannot be created any other way.

People want to feel that the things they have to say matter to you. Including them as part of content creation leads to stronger bonds with your customer.

How do you get your audience to help you with content marketing?