So you just had an athlete post about your brand on social media. Woohoo!! But after about 48 hours, the likes & comments on the post, website traffic and excitement from your internal team all slow down. Now what? Check out our 5 best tips to repurpose that content to maximize ROI below!
1. Re-post on your own social media channels to increase engagement
This should be an easy one. If you have an athlete post about your product on their social media channels, chances are you have social media channels of your own. The whole idea of having an athlete talk about your product on his/her social media channels is to reach a new audience. But what about engaging the audience you already have? Our studies have shown that posts on social media that include athlete content receive up to 7x more engagement (likes + comments) than standard branded content. This is a great way to get people who have thought about buying your product before but never pulled the trigger, to finally convert - as well as excite your current customer base even more for using your product. I mean, who wouldn't brag about driving a Kia after hearing LeBron James drives one too?
2. Use in your next digital ad campaign to increase click-through rate
My personal favorite. Like we just discussed above, using athlete's content drives more engagement. Period. So why not try to drive as much engagement as possible on all those digital ads you are running? It's 2019, so chances are your business' main revenue source is e-commerce. The best way to sell online (in most cases) is running digital ads - but creating content for those ads can get difficult (not knowing what content is engaging) and expensive (all those photo shoots and marketing agency bills add up). So why not turn to content that others make for you? It's cheap because you don't have to pay for production, and more engaging because it's an athlete telling your story for you, rather than you doing it yourself. I mean, would you rather buy a generic pain relief gel you know nothing about and have never seen before other than on a Facebook ad, or one that has a relationship with a professional athlete that you know, recognize, and inherently trust? I bet most would pick Icy Hot in that example.
3. Use in email marketing to increase open rate
If the athlete is sharing his/her thoughts about your brand on social media, we have to make sure that they're actually using the product and have authentic beliefs about it. When they tell you what they like/dislike about your product (you should ALWAYS get this from an athlete), using that testimonial can be incredibly beneficial.
A lot like posting content on your own social media handles, email marketing is mostly used to engage your current audience (people who have signed up to receive emails from you) and get them to:
- Buy your product for the first time
- Buy your product for the second, third, fourth (and so on) time
- Buy a new version of your product
- Take advantage of a sale you are running
- Announce exciting happenings within your company, that your customers would care about
With ALL of those bullet points above, you need one important thing to happen. That your prospective reader actually OPENS THE EMAIL. How can we do that? Yes, a witty subject line can help. But, who wouldn't open an email titled, "Top NFL athlete Tom Brady shares his secrets on grooming" or "Draymond Green's favorite pregame ritual is..."?
4. Use on your website to increase purchase rate
Most brands spend a ton of money advertising online, with the hope of driving more website traffic. But what happens when you drive prospective customers to your website, but they don't end up actually buying your product? We've all been there, intrigued by an idea but not 100% convinced to spend our money on it. So, let's insert your newest athlete ambassador into the fold!
One reason why testimonials are so hugely important to brands today is to not only drive trust in these prospective customers but to also tell stories of how they can improve their lives using your product. If you don't know how the product is going to help you in some way shape or form, why buy it in the first place? Now, everyone has seen those testimonials from "Robert B from New York" or "Jessica W, 25", but you always have to wonder are those actual people writing those reviews? One way to build trust with people who visit your website is using the user-generated content you derived from your athlete up front on your website! Having someone people recognize ("NBA All-Star, NFL Pro Bowler, 3x USA Gold Medalist, etc) sharing their story on WHY they use your product and the authentic results they had from using your product will help you start converting this website traffic into higher purchase rates.
5. Write a blog post to increase SEO
Educating your prospective consumer base on why they should buy your product is every marketer's biggest challenge. Why buy your product over your competitors? Why do I actually need your product right now?
Testimonials, case studies, and reviews are crucial to driving purchases of your product - but how can you get people to read these reviews if they're not on your website already? Writing blogs is a great way to improve your SEO ranking and drive new eyeballs to your website. Including athletes in these blogs is a great way to increase awareness even more - not just because people are already googling athletes for their accomplishments on the field, but also because athletes are celebrities. They are literally ALWAYS in the news (good and bad) for what they do on and off the field, so why not use that to your advantage when partnering with an athlete? Having content you write about a deal you closed with an athlete get picked up by a news site is another cheap way to take advantage of the one off deal you closed!
