By now we’d like to assume you’re already know a great deal about SlideShare, and how much of a crucial marketing tool it is – and which any marketer worth their salt can’t afford to miss in their marketing pellet.
Resting on LinkedIn, the platform boasts an upward of 80 million users, with the number expected to blow up to 100 million by 2020.
What the platform basically does is provide the much-needed space that individuals and businesses alike need to share their work, findings and projects in the form of slides, info-graphics, and presentations.
Through the platform, business owners can share their creative pursuits and even engage with fellow entrepreneurs, business owners, and potential customers in productive conversations about their products, services or brand.
You have all the reasons in the world as to why you should be using SlideShare. For instance, you could use it to increase brand awareness or ramp up the amount of traffic you drive to your site.
However, for more pointers on how to take advantage of this simple yet powerful marketing tool, you might want to consider reading through the listicle below:
Appealing Titles and First Slide
You’ll agree, with the thousands of slides people post on LinkedIn and the rapid rate at which the platform is growing, then it’s super-easy for the slides you post to get over-shadowed or eaten up by the posts on board. .
It’s for this reason that you’re advised to exercise your creativity by coming up with really compelling titles and the first few sliders to lock in more viewers on first impression.
The title you come up with should be able to grab a viewer’s attention upon viewing the post for the first time. You can do this by directing all your focus on coming up with a really strong and compelling title instead of pulling it off thin air.
Make sure the title evokes emotions and keeps the reader begging for more of the content there-in, and you’ll be halfway there.
Be creative with Your Slides Designs
The SlideShare platform is full of Slide decks that are kind of drab – with headlines that are a snooze-fest, over-done bullet points, and over-recycled stock images you wouldn’t want to look at twice.
You don’t have to follow the same script, while you have plenty of options on how you could let your creative juice flow and come with awe-inspiring templates to set you apart from the overcrowded pool of marketers.
Start by hiring an in-house designer and let them put their creativity to work. Walk them through your vision and let them help you bring it to life through their design work.
You can help them come with really compelling images, while minimising on the text content, and cashing in on a consistent colour pattern for eye-catching slide designs that command attention instead of begging for it.
Put Your Agenda in the Clear
After designing your cover and introductory slide, you can go ahead and lay down your agenda in a clear and more concise manner.
The agenda you lay down is like a simplified rundown of what you’ll be covering in your SlideShare deck.
This is important as it prepares your viewers on what to expect. If by any chance the information that particular user happens to be looking for is packed somewhere in the middle of your slides, you can expect the viewer to stick by. Otherwise the viewer will open the slides and immediately next you after opening the first few slides.
Provide Actionable Takeaways
You want your reader to go through your slides. Then what?
Speaking of which there must be something you’d like to see them implement. There has to be some actionable takeaways that they can run with and feel like they’ve gained something.
It could be strategies that you wish to see them try out or a how-to guide that will enable them get something done. Whatever the case, you have to find a way to make your viewers remember you and may be consider to come back for more of your slides in future.
Remember to Include a Call to Action
Your effort to prepare slides that stick out must never go unrewarded. You have goals and objectives, and the plan here is to use SlideShare to inch you closer to them.
Whether it’s to drive more traffic, generate leads, or get the viewers to consider checking out your site, find a way to include that in your CTA.
More typically, a CTA will appear at the end of your slides, in the final slide for that matter. While you can still go ahead and follow the same script, there’s NO harm in sneaking it up amid your slides just in case some of your viewers fail to make it to the end.
Proof-read the Slides
It’s unprofessional to publish something that’s full of grammatical mistakes. Of course some grammar mistakes may slip through regardless of the number of times you choose to edit it through, but there some that can be interpreted as carelessness.
You certainly don’t want your viewers to peg you as someone sloppy. You want them to trust in both your and brand, and that you have the required level of professionalism to offer them quality.
Promoting Your Slides
You can’t rely on shares to create a buzz around your SlideShare. Unless you weren’t hoping to gain much from it, be prepared to invest both your time and money in promoting it and get it in front of as many viewers as you possibly can.
Here are a few tips to help you out:
Optimise it for SEO
You want your slides to be indexed, and awarded a prime spot in the SERP, then learn to optimise it for the search engines. Look into the slides title and make sure it’s well optimised for a prime ranking.
It’s also important that you consider checking out relevant keywords and come up with tried ways to integrate them in your slide descriptions and the tags you use.
Analyse the SlideShare
With SlideShare, you have free access to an analytic that will be running you through the performance of your slides after a certain duration of time. Be sure to check out the information given and use it to improve on your slides and overall marketing strategies for better results in the future.
Share the Slides
It’s simple logic — the Slideshare deck won’t promote itself. You have to dedicate an ample amount of your time to sharing it across platforms. Share it on twitter, Instagram, and all the groups and pages you’re signed with on Facebook and other social media platforms.
Embed it to Your Blog or Website
If you own a blog or website, you can easily embed them as part of your content. Even better, embedding them on your site will also help in getting the site favourably ranked in the SERPs. It also makes sharing the slides a lot easier and more convenience, considering viewers can still check out the rest of the content you have on site.
Email the Slides
Lastly, you want to make sure your email subscribers are also given a chance to check out the slides. After all, they are one of the most converting group of potential customers, and who knows – this might be the last straw that finally gets them to jump over the fence and take action.
It’s a Wrap
Whether your business is small or big, there are tons of ways you could SlideShare to drive business and even move it to the next level of success. This post only covers the tip of the iceberg.
For more information, tips and help regarding Slideshares, feel free to contact MediaOne today for a free SEO and SlideShare consultation.
