Do you want more Likes, Comments, Conversations, and generally more engagement or sentiment on paid content? Well, duh! That’s a no brainer. Everyone wants that but many are failing at this miserably.

Follow along and you will see where this is going.

Content marketing is without a doubt at the height of priorities for every company today. Some will even argue that content marketing is even the new way of selling but I am not debating that here by any means. There is a major difference though between good content and terrible content. That is a more accurate depiction of what I’m trying to accomplish with this post.

Recently I was cruising through my Instagram feed and stumbled across a promoted post. It was from a local PR, marketing, branding, or whatever else they call themselves these days marketing company. They will remain nameless though for the duration of this post. What striked a chord with me was how irrelevant the sponsored post was to anything I’m generally interested in. Wouldn’t you feel a bit baffled to stumble across a sponsored post in your Instagram feed that spoke to you in no way whatsoever?

In the reality of things consumers are bombarded with over 1,500 different marketing messages on daily basis. Including shitty Instagram sponsored posts that are irrelevant to majority of designated target audience.

Do you want better response to your boosted content? Here are 5 proven tips that will help you accomplish that.

1. Be Relevant

This is a really big one. You have to speak to your target audience in terms of relevance. Who is it that you are attempting to capture? Is the content relevant to their interests? Interest and demographic targeting is a great way to reach specific people. For example, refrain from boosting a post that discusses a company cultural experiment to automotive enthusiasts. You’re being irrelevant.

2. Tell a Good Story

Your content needs to have an engaging storyline to it. I am specifically referring to that next post you intend on boosting. Telling a story is a great way to relate towards others. What makes a good story?

Humor, Character, Personality, Interest, Conviction, Empathy. These are a few things to highly consider when storytelling. Your story has to have purpose and ying yang before even considering paid promotion. Let’s think about this for a second. Ask yourself, “Would I read this piece of paid content? Does it pertain to my interests and likings?”

The fundamentals I outlined above will help you craft a compelling story. However there is no out-of-the-box solution for comprising the best story or one that will get you the most amount of likes, comments, engagement.

3. Respect The Platform…ALWAYS!

This is probably one of the biggest mistakes that companies and advertisers make all the time. You have to respect the platform where you intend on sending boosted content. What you intend on sponsoring for Instagram will be different than Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or even Snapchat.

The main point here is that advertisers boost the same piece of content across multiple channels. You have to be respectful of each independent platform. Also, it’s imperative to take strong consideration of the interests and demographics in your target audience. They will differ significantly from one platform to another.

4. Emphasize on Branding

Marketers these days are all about ROI. ROI this, ROI that and tend to completely forget about branding. Why is it that people remember McDonald’s? The golden arches have been engraved in our minds through awareness and interest-based campaigns. Why do people know Pepsi and Coca Cola? Both of these brands have too put forth strong efforts into branding, awareness, and interest-based campaigns.

Prior to boosting any piece of content think about your branding. Is it intact with your brand’s vision, mission, goals, and objectives? If not, what is it that it’s missing? You have to realize that branding is one of the most important components that will resonate with any target audience. Regardless of what channel you intent on boosting that piece of content on.

5. Hyperfocus On Your Target Audience

This one sort of goes hand in hand with #3 above. You have to segment your target audience, buyer persona, their demographics, and interests. In doing so you can further refine who you are speaking to particularly in addition to increasing your chances for better engagement. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat will provide further insights on targeting options. Use those as guidance to determine the best hyperfocus of your message.

6. Be Human!

This is probably one of the biggest essential components of content. Human marketing will play an even bigger role in content this year. Something that a lot of brands should be taking into heavy consideration. Many brands these days are boosting content that invokes forceful marketing tactics. Consider strong integration of human marketing techniques within your content prior to boosting it.

BONUS — Enticing Creative

There are two types of consumers that every brand should be concerned with. Visual and Auditory. When it comes to boosting content on marketing channels it’s imperative to have compelling creative that will entice your audience. This can be a tough one though especially if creative is a struggle. Most companies these days will have a creative individual on their team that can assist with this.

Regardless of the marketing channel you are advertising on, creative will play a fairly large role in your boosted content.

Thoughts, comments? I’d love to hear your feedback below.

Article originally posted on Medium.