Just a couple years ago, SlideShare was primarily a way to share PowerPoint presentations with others on the Web. But today, with the right execution, SlideShare can be a productive and highly cost-effective source of targeted, contextual leads.
The volume and quality of leads you generate is largely up to you. The more effort you put into SlideShare, the more you’ll get out. Here are six specific recommendations to get you started.
Post everything
Don’t stop with PowerPoint decks. Start posting everything that would be of value to a prospect. White papers, sample templates, spreadsheets, videos, even sales collateral. You never know what someone will be interested in. I’d further recommend you consider posting content that on your site is behind a registration wall, but on SlideShare is free to access. This will drive more views and registrations (see LeadShare below).
Use LeadShare
For just a couple bucks a day, you can have customized request forms on each piece of content you post to SlideShare. You can designate certain offers for “all” content, and customize offers for particular assets. These request forms are optional, but the more content you have the more likely you’re going to get registrations. SlideShare offers different levels of LeadShare, with an unlimited leads version available for $250/month. Depending on how much content you have, this could be incredibly cost-effective and very quickly become a great source of new leads on a daily basis.
Covers are really important
Like a lot of content syndication sites, visitors will judge most books initially by their cover. So before you post that latest PowerPoint Webinar deck with the “template” cover, consider giving your designer a couple hours to create something more visually appealing. The more people stop and click on your cover, the more views and leads you’ll receive.
Descriptions are important
SlideShare continues to enjoy powerful SEO juice, which means content you’ve posted that comes accompanied with a richly-written description is more likely to get found not just within the SlideShare community but directly from Google as well. Use the description and tagging features liberally to increase discoverability of your content.
Embed content with an intro via your blog
Don’t do this for every little thing, especially sales collateral, but consider drafting and publishing a short introduction to content with the SlideShare viewer embedded right within the blog post. See below for an example of how the embedded content looks. Great way to drive more attention to your SlideShare page overall, which of course will drive viewers to check out other content you’ve posted as well.
Use the LinkedIn app (and encourage others on your team to do so too)
One of a small handful of apps you can add to your LinkedIn profile pulls in specifically-designated SlideShare content wherever you want. Check out my profile as an example. Great way to give your content even more visibility, and especially good for sales and customer-facing teams who want to promote your brand and thought leadership credibility through content in their own profiles as well.
