Cascading Content.

 

Efficient Digital Marketing Strategy

We know from the Four C’s of Marketing that your messaging should be consistent, coherent, complementary, and demonstrate continuity. 

If you aren’t familiar with the Four C’s or are just getting started with building your marketing strategy, we strongly recommend that you get started with this article.

We know from our examples that this means your customers are seeing messages which reinforce each other across your different channels. But where does this messaging come from?

Enter Cascading Content, a strategy to share relevant information with your target audience and keep them engaged. 

Let’s break this down:

 

  • Relevant information is content that is interesting, informative, entertaining, or otherwise brings value to your audience.
  • Target audience is a group of people that you know are interested in your business, industry, or area of expertise.
  • Engaged means actively reading, commenting on, or sharing your content.

 

 

Why is Cascading Content important?

Most people are facing information overload, especially from online advertisements. 

What we want to avoid is gaining subscribers who forget about your company after clicking “follow” or, worse, are so annoyed by your posts that they unsubscribe. 

To gain (and keep!) subscribers, it’s important to demonstrate that you have something to offer. Cascading Content moves beyond just sharing essential business information (e.g. hours of operation, sales, services offered) to 

Treat each new member of your audience as someone whose trust you need to actively nurture and whose support should be rewarded – just like you would treat a customer in person.

How does Cascading Content actually work?

 

  • Pick a topic and a medium: this should be a topic which is relevant to your business/audience and (most importantly!) something you know about. Choose a medium (article, video, presentation etc.) you’re comfortable with and get creating!*
  • Upload your content: if you have a website, create a new page and add your content. You could do this by adding a blog, for example, making sure you have at least 4 key points in your piece of content. If you don’t have your own website, you could upload the content directly onto your page on a third-party hosting site like Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube.
  • Share: this is where the Cascading happens! Using key parts of the content you have previously prepared, re-publish those key points in a different channel. You can even add extra info to support the message. For example, we could now make a post on cascading content, with a link to this blog!

Cascading content

It’s often a good idea to create a compelling image to accompany the link to your content to grab attention –we recommend using Canva. For more information on how to design images for social media and whether you might need to spring for the premium version.

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Canva. The $ Debate.

Who doesn’t love a graphic design tool? Especially when it is so simple to use, and one that is going to make your organization stand out. Well, I introduce to you Canva, the graphic design tool that has been helping make my social media look beautiful since way back.

What is this Canva thing?

If you haven’t already heard of Canva you are going to be grateful you are hearing about it now. As mentioned, Canva is a graphic design tool that provides everything you need to create a killer design for your business or other purposes.

Canva gives you access to millions of photos, images, and fonts as well as pre-made templates to make things super simple. Because let’s be honest, we aren’t all natural born graphic designers, so the more help the better, right? I think yes! And may I add it also has pre-made measurements for Facebook posts, Instagram, cover pages etc.…. I know! No more are the days where you spend time creating graphics only for it to be half cut off in the uploading process.

What’s also great about Canva is it can be used for both web and print media, basically your one stop shop for graphics. AND you can have its basic version for FREE! Yes, Canva offers a paid and unpaid version, so depending on your needs there is an option for everyone.

So, what’s the difference between the paid version and the FREE version?

The main difference between the paid and unpaid version of Canva is the levels of customization and organization. For example, unpaid users have access to some free graphics, can save a personal colour choice or two, and you can have up to two separate folders to save your work in. You can get away with the free version if you are just doing very simple social media and basic design.

Due to the work I do, I personally prefer the premium version. It is only $12.95 per month and totally worth it. It allows you to choose more design templates, upload yours or multiple brand guides and you are able to create many folders to organize your designs.

The best way to know what version is right for you is to go have a look and check it out for yourself. Start off with the free version and if you need more out of it then you’ll know the premium version is right for you. But trust me, you won’t regret taking a look and testing it out. Why not give it a go.

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