Content distribution – syndicating social media and search engine content to retail partners isn’t a new idea, but its execution is evolving. Innovations in social media management often involve streamlining the connections between brands and social platforms. Instead, content distribution focuses on reconnecting brands to hundreds, if not thousands, of partnered social media destinations. It targets a different problem than most management tools so it requires a unique solution.
Despite the field being relatively new, there is a variety of software in 2022 attempting to address specific pain points in social media marketing. They delegate making creative content to AI or determine the perfect time for your content to be posted. It speaks to our inclination towards automation which is usually due to frustration over tedious tasks that waste resources. While we often notice the need for software solutions to our marketing woes, exactly how that solution should function is more difficult to conceptualize. ThumbStopper® recognizes the need for a tool that addresses the disconnection between brands and retailers’ social marketing efforts.
The Problem
Large, international brands (specifically OEMs and consumer manufacturers) have a recurring problem when it comes to social media: cultivating new reach and impressions. It sounds counterintuitive. Household names are largely recognized by their visual branding and are widely are known to most consumers. Even though brand recognition is one of the drivers behind the social media following that OEMs have cultivated, it can also explain the reach issue. Users following brands on social media are generally brand loyalists. OEMs have already won those customers’ sustained attention. Improving reach – an ever-moving target as your brand grows – means gaining attention beyond people who are already following your brand channels.
Of course, there are methods to improve this metric, especially when leveraging paid media options. Meta platforms give tips on how to improve advertising content while you create it. LinkedIn has similar resources plus a library of educational content for marketers. But in-platform optimization recommendations and suggestions from other management tools can’t identify one key approach for improving reach because it involves venturing outside of branded social accounts. Approaching social media marketing with a traditional mindset limits brands to expensive advertising options and only reaching their existing followers.
Many brands have concluded that inviting their retailers to participate in co-op advertising programs would mutually benefit both parties. It’s a great concept, but tackling the logistics of a project like this reveals major roadblocks. Typically the software solution for co-op advertising is Digital Asset Management (DAM), used to organize and share digital assets. Large companies can have hundreds of digital assets. At best, it’s difficult to manage properly. At its worst, it can create a new barrier to adopting retailers and building effective co-op advertising.
The use of DAMs is initially enticing to retailers. They’re busy running their businesses and likely won’t have the extra time or creative energy to be active on social media. Having high-quality branded content provided to them should make managing their social accounts easier than ever.
But DAMs also put the responsibility of actually executing the advertising program on the retailers. In order to benefit from the program, retailers need to log in, download content, generate posts, add captions, and potentially put an advertising budget behind posts. It creates several points of failure around common user errors. We’ve all forgotten passwords and struggled with new software before. But when retailers run into these problems, they often don’t ask for help and simply abandon the program. It’s a predictable pattern: barriers lead to inconsistent participation from retailers and, unable to reap the benefits, retailers silently drop out of the program.
The Solution
ThumbStopper’s hyper-local content distribution is a streamlined system that enables brands to bypass the clumsy, manual distribution of DAMs. It’s an ideal way to connect brands and retailers. So how does it work?
The ThumbStopper team handles the retailer enrollment process on behalf of OEMs. Through customized onboarding, retailers receive education on the program and assistance linking their social media accounts. Once enrollment is complete, retailers don’t have to worry about executing the program as they would with traditional digital asset management. By removing the roadblocks that cause retailers to abandon most other programs, ThumbStopper’s social media experts ensure that brands and retailers see consistent results and sustained retailer participation.
OEMs branded content is effortlessly distributed to their retailers. Strategic distribution allows brands to send content to the retailers that carry featured products and will make the biggest impact with their posts. At this hyper-local level, retailers’ social media accounts and search destinations reach hundreds, if not thousands of people in their local community. These potential customers aren’t necessarily brand loyalists, but they’re loyal to their local retailer and have an existing interest in your industry. This is where brands can improve their reach: by meeting consumers at the local level with branded social media content that drives sales and brand awareness.
ThumbStopper provides brands with the best solutions to connect with their retailers and form a stronger social media presence.
To learn more about what ThumbStopper can do for your brand, book a demo.
