WWE have always invested heavily in their Online presence, even during the early years of the web, the WWE (then WWF!) website was considered to be cutting edge in terms of the content published, media usage and visitor interaction.
WWE’s online presence is huge and with Wrestlemania 31 just around the corner, here are some lessons that you can learn from WWE’s approach to Online Marketing and incorporate into your own!
Ensure you content is accessible & be more mobile friendly
The past few years has seen a huge increase in the amount of users viewing websites on mobile and tablet devices as opposed to their desktop or laptop PC. So if your website isn’t delivering a great experience for your users on different devices, you are going to be losing business and potentially destroying what could have been an incredibly successful Online Marketing campaign.
WWE.com delivers a fantastic experience across all platforms, with even the busiest of page’s being fully responsive for mobile devices.
In February Google made their intentions clear by announcing that from April 21 they will be expanding their use of Mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal, which will have a “significant impact on search results”, meaning that it is vital for your website to be “mobile friendly”. For you to quickly see if your website is mobile friendly Google has launched a mobile friendly testing tool
Incorporating campaigns
Many Businesses are still sceptical about using paid campaigns, but find themselves lagging behind their competitors who have taken the plunge. Paid Campaigns don’t have to break your bank account and are a great way of driving targeted and relevant traffic to your website.
WWE uses paid campaigns across different platforms such as Google Adwords and Twitter to ensure they are in front of their target audience. If your business isn’t doing the same then you are likely to missing out.
Use email marketing
E-mail Marketing has enjoyed a huge comeback in the past few years having often been considered “outdated” by many marketers during the rise of SEO and Pay Per Click. E-mail marketing is a great way of keeping in touch with existing clients, customers and those who opt to receive information about your business or brand.
WWE sends regular newsletters with details about current programing, forthcoming events and appearances. The ecommerce focused mailers are well designed outlining new products and special offers, while often incorporating exclusive discount codes to give existing customers an extra incentive to make another purchase.
Many businesses aren’t generating anywhere near enough traffic and revenue from the existing clients or customers that they should be – don’t be one of them! Incorporate e-mail marketing into your strategy.
Build a purposeful, varied presence across social media platforms
WWE has a huge presence across all of the major social media platforms, with hundreds of millions of fans generating an incredible amount of likes, shares & comments hourly. Where the WWE social networking team do well though is to share different and the most suitable content across their channels and not simply push out the same content to each of their profiles.
Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect to see on each of the WWE’s social platforms:
Facebook: News, Profiles, Video Highlights
Twitter: News, Q&A, Interaction & Retweets
Google+: News, Profiles, Video Highlights
Youtube: Promotional, Feature, TV Recaps, Highlights & Classic Video
Instagram: Behind The Scenes and Fan Photos
The different content gives fans a reason to visit each of the company’s social media profiles. The frequency of which new content is added varies significantly as well, for example the Facebook profile may see a new post hourly, with Twitter seeing multiple posts each hour, while only a handful of images may be added each day to Instagram.
Give each social media profile for your business a purpose and publish content tailored to what each audience will expect and enjoy.
Use different media for further reach, engagement & to drive people to your website
If every social media post was comprised only of text, the world would be quite a boring place! WWE incorporates video and image content in addition to written posts in order to keep users interested and to generate further interaction and to drive users to their website.
While you may not have access to the multitude of content that the WWE has, using different media is unlikely to be an obstacle for most business.
It is widely reported that Tweets with images are significantly more likely to be retweeted by users – so if you are looking to make your Tweets more interesting, include an image and show people what you are doing instead of just saying.
Encourage interaction
WWE does a great job of reaching out to fans and encouraging them to interact across their social media platforms. One of the biggest examples happen during live programming where users can vote for their preference of match stipulation, opponent or special guest referee via Twitter.
In addition to this, WWE also holds Q&A sessions, competitions and will respond to users where appropriate.
While your business may not have the luxury of having its own TV show, there is plenty you can do to encourage interaction on your profiles – why not host a Q&A session or run a competition?
If you’re selling online, then encourage potential customers to use Twitter to ask pre sale or support queries if you’re able to commit to delivering a great service.
Publishing interesting, factual & comprehensive content
If you look at WWE.com you’ll begin to get an idea of the substantial amount of content published. The content itself is incredibly varied ranging from factual information such as the histories of championship title holders, comprehensive wrestler biographies and more light-hearted content.
The varied content serves a purpose as it gives a reason for users to return to the website and gives the social media team content to push to the different audiences.
Google loves websites that publish high quality content and if your content is at the standard that others would like to share and link to, you will soon find that the amount of traffic your website receives from organic search increasing.
There’s no excuse for neglecting your website – you need to be creating high quality content.
Integrate social media on media on your website:
WWE is aware that not every visitor to their website will be particularly active, or have an account on some or all of the social media platforms. To ensure that these visitors can still gain a feel of what content is being published, there are sections dedicated to some of the content such as a weekly roundup of the most popular images posted on Instagram from their or their employees profiles.
Integrating aspects of your social media presence on your website is often quite straight forward, for example you could add a feed of your latest tweets, youtube video or Instagram photos. This can also help you further build your audience across your profiles.
Get everybody involved & build sub brands
When it comes to getting employees involved in a social media presence the WWE takes it to the next level – with profiles made for different divisions of the company and with each wrestler having their own profile across different platforms! Each employee is adding a different perspective to conversations and driving attention to the company.
Wrestlers generate interest in themselves by being active online and are building their own “brand”, which will no doubt have a positive impact on the sales of merchandise such as t-shirts.
Encouraging your employees to be active on social media and building “official” profiles is a great way of building relationships with clients and customers and offer more than just one perspective on a topic. As your employees “brand” develops, you could well find that clients choose to speak and work with you because they are seen as knowledgeable or leaders in the field, giving you an advantage over your competitors.
Showcase charity work & fundraising efforts
WWE does a huge amount of work for charity and worthy causes and uses social media to talk about what they are doing to help raise awareness.
If your company supports charities or worthy causes, don’t be shy to publish content about it on your website and social media profiles, not only will it help raise awareness, but will also position yourselves in a positive light amongst your clients and customers – make it part of your brand’s “story”.
Develop an app
WWE also has its own app, which has reportedly been downloaded more than 16 million times. This app is used to engage viewers during their television programs by asking poll questions, offer exclusive content and to engage and enter the conversations using hashtags. Tweets are often read during live broadcasts, creating a multi-screen experience for their fans.
The app also features elements of the website, meaning that users can quickly look up some information while using the app and can be directed to the website.
An App is often an unnecessary expense for many business that don’t have a good reason to invest in one. If your business can offer value to customers and clients with an app then it’s worth investigating, if not focus on your other marketing efforts!
Integrate your offline and online channels
Integrating the Offline and Online world has been a buzz term for a while now and its importance is being understood by more and more marketers.
WWE was relatively quick to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, opening an account in 2007. Twitter usernames of each wrestler are displayed on the screen during television programming, hashtags are used for each live show and the commentators plug the social channels at every opportunity.
How often are you reminding your customers or clients about your social presence? If you are yet to truly integrate your offline and online channels then you can begin with ensuring that your website and social profiles are listed on your business cards and printed materials.
If you host events – use a consistent hashtag and don’t be afraid to invite users to a Q&A session after the event or to be forthcoming with feedback.
Gain feedback & listen to your audience
WWE takes into account the reaction and what viewers are talking about during the television programming so they can instantly asses how characters, storylines and segments being broadcasted are being perceived.
The reactions of users across social media is also used to develop new merchandise and other products – for example if a wrestler’s catchphrase is being tweeted a lot, it wouldn’t take long for an official t-shirt featuring the catchphrase to appear in the online store!
In addition to this the WWE often seeks feedback on all aspects of its programming and direction on their website, allowing their audience to have their say.
“Our fans are the secret to our success. They tell us what they like by cheering, they tell us what they don’t like by booing, and–worse–they tell us what they don’t care about by being silent,” says majority owner, Chairman and CEO of WWE Vince McMahon.
There are many tools available to you to measure and gauge what your visitors and social media followers want and enjoy from you – listen to them! Don’t be afraid to seek further feedback in the form of surveys and polls to gain further clarification and insight.
What next?
If you are interested in incorporating any of the above into your Online Marketing campaigns but are unsure where to start, talk to us – we’d love to help!