Piggyback Marketing

7 Dos and Don’ts

By Erica Rascón on Oct 9, 2018 in Marketing

In a perfect world, you’d create all of your own content. It would all go viral. You’d burst with success. All the content creation would all be completed in less than an hour per week.

Unfortunately, that’s not how life works. You likely excel in real estate, not content creation. Time minimizes how much original content that you create. Sometimes you have difficulty getting readers to engage with your posts. Piggyback marketing may be able to help.

Piggyback marketing describes the use of recycled, trending content on your social media feeds and blog. It allows users to borrow and benefit from the popularity of someone else’s content. Sometimes piggybacking is sharing a video, meme, or post. Other times, it’s referring to a trend within your original content.

There are advantages and disadvantages to piggyback marketing. When used wisely, it can build engagement and improve the reputation of your brand. When abused, it can erode trust and water-down your brand identity.

The dos and don’ts listed below will help you use viral piggybacking to your advantage.

1. DO supplement your content with piggyback marketing.Viral piggybacking of relevant content allows you to tap into what’s already successful. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, which is great when you feel creator’s block or you’re pressed for time.
2. DON’T rely on piggybacking. Limit how often you use others’ content to market your brand. Keep the percent of borrowed content in the single digits compared to your original content. There is no substitute for content that reflects your brand, your objectives, and the unique tastes of your audience.
3. DO stick to content that is relevant to your brand, market, and clients’ interests. Use tools such as Buzzsumo and Scoop.It to identify relevant content. Those tools allow you to search by longtail keyword and then peruse search results to find just the right content.
4. DO add your own captions and calls to action. Draw the connection between your brand, your purpose, and the content that you’ve borrowed. The viral clip of animals playing in the pool will benefit you more if you remind your audience that your property just upgraded the pool and that the pet policy welcomes them into the space. Use Facebook or Instagram buttons to encourage your audience to book a tour.
5. DON’T ride every trend. You’re going to come across content that is hilarious or features one of your favorite celebrities. If there isn’t a natural connection, don’t force it. It’ll come across to your audience like you’re fishing for attention, which is a huge turnoff for savvy audiences.
6. DO engage with your audience. When you content receives comments and questions, be sure to address them. Your professional and timely responsebuilds a relationship with your audience.
7. DON’T get involved in a trend without a research. Trends—particularly hashtags–can have complex social implications. Before taking a hashtag at face value and integrating it into your content, be sure to do your research to avoid (or wisely enter) a hotbed of controversy.

For examples of piggyback marketing done right, check out this post on Can I Rank.