Tracy S is a 6-Star writer at WriterAccess
This Friday, millions of us will tune in to the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Over the next two weeks, we’ll marvel at the prowess of the athletes and the thrill of watching our country compete in on an international level. It’s a great opportunity for savvy content marketers to capture some of the excitement of the Summer Olympics in your marketing campaigns.
Don’t simply “piggyback” on the popularity of the games. Instead, use the games to engage with your customers. We’ve put together a list of five tips that will help you to build dynamic content relating to the games.
Show Support
Now is the time to show team or country spirit. If you blog, publish a fun post with a little lighthearted “go team” attitude. Your customers will appreciate a look at your lighter side, and you can always find a way to tie the subject into your brand. For instance, if you have a good relationship with (for example) a supplier based in another country, it’s a good time to show some support for that “team.” You can build additional interest and connect the post to one of your major vendors.
Choose a Theme
Your theme for the Olympics could be nearly anything that works for your marketing message. You could decide to follow a particular event, theme your content around the ceremonies or choose the occasion of the games to launch a new blog series. Just make sure you are not blogging (or posting social media updates) aimlessly. You want your message to matter.
Make Your Product or Service the Star
Nearly any product or service can be tied into the Olympic games. Do you offer web services? Publish an article reviewing a team’s web presence. Do you sell decorating services? Say something about the colors or styles of Brazil. Do you market for a medical practice? Now would be an excellent time to post healthcare tips for athletes. It may take some creativity and perhaps some help with ideation, but there is a way to make the Olympics topical for your firm.
Get Involved in a Discussion
Social media is all about being social. Use your social media accounts to start or join a discussion about the games with your followers. You don’t have to market all the time in an active sense. When you engage with followers on your social media profiles, you are gaining exposure and potentially obtaining new fans. [Tweet it] This exposure is the type of inbound marketing that is hard to beat. Events like the Olympics are a fantastic time to take advantage of this opportunity.
Remember, The Games Move FAST
UnSplash.com / Matt Lee
The Rio Olympics are packed with events at a rapid pace. If something amazing happens, you need to be ready to post or blog about it immediately. Don’t wait a week and try to be relevant. [Tweet it] It won’t work well for you. Try to think one step ahead. If you’re working with a content writer, having him or her write a post about one of the events now, before it happens, is the way to go—you can always update the details later, if necessary.
One thing that every marketing strategist needs to keep an eye on is the recent announcement by the USOC. Essentially, the organization has announced that commercial entities that are not official sponsors may not post about the Olympic Games or Trials on their corporate Twitter accounts. You can check out a recent report in The Guardian. However, this type of announcement is unprecedented, highly unusual and to put it bluntly, rather hard to enforce. Keep an eye out for more updates on this announcement.
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; chances are your customers will be tuning into the Olympic games or at least following the highlights online. Take advantage by figuring out the best way to incorporate the Rio games into your content marketing. Every four years, the Olympics show that the very best athletes who put in the work earn the gold. The same goes for marketers. If you flex your creative muscles and work out with trending topics, you can beat your competition and win a gold medal in marketing!
6-Star writer Tracy S is an experienced writer who creates effective and reader-friendly blog posts, articles, press releases and other forms of web content.
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