Topical marketing: Why every brand should draw inspiration from trending content

Topical marketing, also known as moment marketing, news jacking, or trend jacking is a great way to capitalize on an existing trend and gain momentum for your brand. Social media is the go-to medium for creating online buzz about your brand, and creating posts around a trend helps you gain more visibility and reach a wider audience.

Before we discuss how to apply this trend to your content marketing plan in detail, let's talk about the different types of topical posts and how to pick the right one for your brand.

What are the different types of topical posts?

Seasonal and topical days: These are days that create awareness or encourage festivity, which brands use to create campaigns, stay on trend, and gain momentum. Topical posts can be planned ahead and revisited every year. Examples include festive days, awareness days, and days of national importance.

News jacking or moment marketing: These are the posts that happen when there is an event or a current affair going viral. News jacking and moment marketing posts are unplanned and have to be delivered fast. The main idea is to piggyback on an already-trending topic with a unique, but related, post. Some brands that actively use news jacking are Zomato, Nike, Netflix, and Amul.

Why should every brand employ topical marketing?

Basing posts off trending topics is a popular and proven strategy for boosting brand visibility. Here are three reasons why every brand should include topical marketing in their content plan:

• Increases brand awareness and social media visibility
• Reaches a broader audience and drives engagement
• Boosts sales through tailor-made and industry-specific campaigns

How to use topical marketing for your brand?

Be relevant: Find topics and days that are relevant to your industry and align with your brand. While the topic may not directly be related to your brand, it is important for there to be a clear connection. 

Keep it simple: Your audience should be able to grasp the message at a glance without thinking too deeply. Topical posts are usually packaged as bite-sized content, like a quick tweet, a short video, or even an image.

Use hashtags: When you use trending hashtags, your post becomes discoverable to more people. Use your hashtags wisely to garner more attention. Remember, not all trending hashtags will complement your post, so choose the ones that are relevant.

Keep posts timely: Time is a crucial element when it comes to trend jacking as the internet is flooded with new topics becoming popular everyday. Make sure to post in a timely manner, while the topic is still relevant.

Employ humor: Humor is a great approach to posting, especially if you are a consumer-centric brand. Just keep in mind, humor is not appropriate for sensitive news topics and events.

Strategy, planning, and pitching to your colleagues are essential steps in the campaign process, regardless of whether your topical posts are pre-planned or spontaneous. Pitch your post ideas to coworkers, or send postcards to friends, family, clients, and acquaintances with Show's new customizable seasonal slides.

Check out our new seasonal slides