What Is Content Seeding & How to Use It to Pull 2X More Traffic? With Examples

What Is Content Seeding?

Content seeding highlights a brand product or content in a place target audience is actively engaging. 

Content seeding is the process of planting content in specific places with the hope that it will take root and grow. Companies use different types of media businesses for content seeding, including user-generated content, collaborative spaces like online communities, and weaving content with user input. With these methods, brands create a cycle of engagement that leads to more exposure and reach for their brand or product.

Simply put, content seeding is the act of spreading out your content across a variety of platforms so that more people can see it and engage with it. You might post a link to your latest blog on Twitter, share an excerpt from your ebook on LinkedIn, or post a video of one of your recent speeches on Facebook.

We have used this technique and collaborated with Hubspot to create an e-book on content production

What Is Influencer Seeding?

Content seeding is a marketing technique that involves giving out products or services to influencers in hopes of good reviews and exposure. This type of content seeding is often called "influencer seeding." When brands do this, they hope influencers promote the product or service on their social media platforms.

That way, businesses collaborate with influencers with the same targeted audience and double their brand awareness. But, we do not mean that you have to address the influencer with 1 million followers, no.

Look beyond just follower count when selecting an influencer. Instead, try tapping into smaller influencers with more engaged followings who are more likely to spread the word about your product or service. And don't forget about social media platforms inundated with marketing ads - make your product or service stand out by taking advantage of word-of-mouth cred.

Customers are changing their buying behaviors due to the rise in influencers. Seeding has shifted from brand partnerships to influencer seeding and content seeding. In fact, according to a study by Tomoson, nearly half of all customers are more likely to make a purchase based on an influencer's recommendation than traditional advertising methods like TV ads or banners.

What Is the Goal of Content Seeding?

1. The goal of content seeding in the initial phase is to convince industry leaders or other companies that your brand is worth sharing with their audience. 
2. Then the core goal of content seeding is to achieve the best effects in terms of viral spread: raise brand awareness, generate backlinks, improve the web and social media traffic, pick up new customers, and increase sales. 

What Kind of Medias Do Businesses Use for Content Seeding?

Owned media - businesses use a variety of channels for content seeding. The most common ones have owned channels, social media platforms, and the company website. Companies have creative and administrative control over their mediums, meaning they can seed their content the way they want and measure its effectiveness.

Earned media - refers to any publicity you receive through unpaid means and does not directly come from you. It can include reviews, word-of-mouth marketing, or social media shares. Companies achieve it through publicity stunts, journalist outreach, or simply getting people to talk about their brand online. Earned media includes influencers, PR, your product or a company review, and fans sharing on social sharing tools. Word of mouth marketing is a strategy that builds trust in your business and products or services. 

Earned media is more credible than paid advertising and often has a better ROI. According to a study by Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over other types of media marketing or advertising.

Paid media - includes any marketing you have to pay for, and it can be split into two categories: traditional advertising and online advertising. Traditional advertising includes print ads, radio ads, TV ads, and billboards. Online advertising encompasses ads on social media platforms, search engine results pages (SERPs), and ads on websites.

What Are the Most Popular Platforms for Content Seeding?

Any social media platform can be used for content seeding, so long as you create great content. But to maximize your reach and get the most out of content seeding, choose the right platforms. The most popular platforms for content seeding are:

With over 2 billion active users, Facebook is a great place to seed your content. Typically, posts receiving high engagement on Facebook tend to do well on other social media platforms.

Twitter has 330 million active users and is the place for promoting your content. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than those without images. So make sure to use visuals in your tweets whenever possible.

LinkedIn has 500 million active users, and companies use it to share their content with professionals. LinkedIn posts with videos are six times more likely to generate shares than those without videos.

Reddit generates 330 million unique monthly visitors. It is a convenient space for companies to reach potential new customers.

Forums help you seed content in the form of discussions. Forum content seeding is used for various purposes, including social sharing and promotion. Forums like Growthhackers, Indiehackers, and Morioh are good places to start when looking for communities to seed your content.

How to Create Content Seeding Marketing Strategy?

Content seeding is the process of distributing information to create engagement. Generally, it involves using a thought leader, expert, influencer, or ordinary consumer as the seeder. The seeder creates content and spreads it across social media channels to reach a larger audience.

Content seeding aims to increase the chance that the content will go viral. The seeded content that becomes popular on social media might spread virally without extra marketing effort.

Let's see how we can get the seeding campaign rolling.

Develop the Goal

Before you can start working on the content seeding campaign in-depth, you must develop the goal of your seed. What do you want to achieve with your content? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Boost trust in the brand? Once you know what you want to achieve, it becomes easier to create content that will be effective.

Seeding is very similar to marketing- after all, the ultimate purpose of seeding is to boost your brand. However, unlike traditional marketing methods, seeding uses sociological values and methodologies to be successful.

That's not to say that because something is "evergreen" (meaning it doesn't have an expiration date), it will be effective as a seed. The content still needs a goal in mind - without one, it'll be difficult for marketers to track their success rates and determine whether or not they're meeting their objectives.

Research Influencers & Companies

As long you have your persona profile, you will narrow down the list of possible influencers and companies. Look for the influencers your audience would follow according to their interests, problems, characteristics, etc. 

If you are unsure how to start the searching process, google influencers or explore the trending hashtags and topics closely related to your company.

Also, some blogger outreach tools will help you identify the most well-suited influencers for your content seeding campaign.

Negotiate with Influencers & Companies

In this stage, you convince the influencer that the potential collaboration with the brand will get a win-win situation for both sides. Influencers and companies care about their image. Thus, try to convince your company, instead of breaking, make their reputation.

• Offer a thought-provoking idea.
• Be open to compromising the content direction - you won't be the only one in the creation process.
• Introduce your product or service to influencers and explain how it benefits customers. 
• Set a budget range 
• Negotiate over KPIs and deliverables

Seeding influencers and brands is also a way to help you build relationships with them in the future. To achieve this, you need to provide value for them so that they want to work with you again. By providing great content, valuable information, or exclusive deals, you ensure that these individuals will want to continue collaborating with you.

Create Content

1. Start by developing a brand message. Once you understand what your company represents and stands for, you'll be able to craft much more effective material moving forward.
2. Ideate like crazy! Once sorted out your branding, start generating ideas for blog posts, videos, social media updates, etc. The more options you have at your disposal, the better off you'll be when in content publishing.
3. Take advantage of evergreen topics. These are topics always relevant and will continue to attract attention over time. For example, "how to's" or trend analysis pieces do well, no matter the season.
4. Be creative with your content formats. Don't just stick to the standard blog post – try experimenting with different video styles, infographics, or interactive experiences.
5. Make sure your content is highly actionable and helpful. It is one of the crucial factors that will set your marketing efforts apart from the rest. If you can provide real value for consumers, they'll be more likely to check on you again.
6. Finally, always test and measure your results! Use analytics software like Google Analytics or Hootsuite Insights to track how well different types of content relative to each other. With this data, you can tweak and adjust your strategy until you find what works best for your business.

Share the Content to Influencers'/Company' Channel

There are many ways to seed content so that it reaches the right audience. One way is to use partners' channels to promote your message. It means finding people who have a large following and a high level of trust within their respective industries and getting them to share your content with their audiences.

Like, Comment, and Share

When an influencer posts anything related to your brand, engage with the post. You can do this by commenting and liking the post. If the feedback is negative, you can thank them for their honest review and find out how you can make improvements.

Measure the Result of Content Seeding

When you seed content, it's vital to measure the results to determine whether or not the investment was worth it. There are several ways to do this.

The first is to look at traffic data. As a direct result of the seeded content, it will show you how many people visited your website.

You can also use web analytics tools to measure how long people stayed on your site and what pages they looked at.

Finally, you can use engagement metrics like social shares and comments to gauge how well the content resonated with your audience.

Two Things You Should Keep in Mind

Transparency

When adding paid placements to your website or blog, be transparent. It means labeling the placement as "Paid" and not disguising it as organic content. Paid placements can come in many forms, such as Sponsored Posts, Paid Reviews, or even Ads.

Limited Reach

One of the main challenges with content seeding is its limited reach. Even if the audience shares the content, it's difficult to determine how many people will see it. Additionally, because seeding is often used to generate awareness for a product or service, it can be challenging to track whether or not the campaign was successful in the long run.

The Best Examples of Content Seeding

FIJI Water x Bodyworewhat

Bodywhorewhat launched at-home workout videos featuring the trainer and influencer Eric Johnson. The launch project covered several posts about workout methods, fitness routines, and the importance of hydration. 

Danielle reminded their followers that staying hydrated is crucial for fitness success and showed FIJI water bottles with a discount code for home delivery.

Microsoft x National Geographic

Microsoft started a campaign to encourage more girls to kick into STEM careers. Rather than executing the activities alone, they partnered with National Geographic to picture women scientists and present their stories to an audience. 

The collaboration turned out to be a success for both sides. Microsoft reached 90 million people through its campaigns. Meanwhile, the National Geographic Instagram page photos received over million likes and generated impressive engagement.

Buffer x Guest Posting

In 2010, when the Buffer social media scheduling app was new to the digital market, Leo Widrich, the co-founder of Buffer, collaborated with more than a hundred blogs and published over 150 guest blog posts.

Initially, Leo Widrich posted on blogs that did not drive massive traffic. But after a year of consistent guest-blogging, Buffer became famous, and their focus turned to blogs with higher traffic.

Leo Widrich, in his interview, discusses the story behind guest posting and gives some valuable tips for gaining better exposure.

Dunkin' Donuts x Charli D'Amelio

Dunking Donuts has one of the best and most-liked posts on Titktok. Their key to Tiktok success is a partnership with the most followed creator Charli D'Amelio. 

Dunkin Donuts teamed up with Charli to promote a limited-edition menu and create a coffee named after the famous Tiktok star - The cold brew coffee "The Charli". Also, as part of the seeding campaign, Dunkin' launched the contest under the hashtag #CharliXDunkinContest. 

As the result, Dunkin' reached and engaged with a Generation Z familiar with Instagram and TikTok. On the other side, D'Amelio received millions of views and gained publicity over the months.  

Tom Holland x GQ

British actor Tom Holland collaborated with GQ in 2019 and engaged with fans across the globe. In the video series, "undercover" celebrities and influencers answer fun questions. 

GQ is an American international men's magazine that changed its communication style and forms in its early days in 1931. GQ utilizes content marketing seamlessly. They host a youtube channel that features famous people from multiple industries. 

GQ partnering with Tom Holland was a unique opportunity to attract more subscribers, double their monthly views, etc. For Tom Holland, it was a convenient way to better connect with their fans and showcase the personal side not visible in movies and behind the scenes. 

Conclusion

Looks, like you do not have to splash the cash on expensive ads! You can improve your company's online presence through micro-influencers, guest blogging, podcasts, videos, etc.

All of this makes it essential to have a solid seasonal SEO strategy in place. If you want to create SEO that hits the spot, greatcontent is here to help.

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