Content Marketing: 7 Steps to Creating an Irresistible Slidecast Presentation

I've recently discovered one content marketing strategy that will get your business found in the search engines is through the creation of a slide show, or slidecast, and posting that on slide sharing sites.  More and more when I do a search for a term, some of the top results are slidecasts in which the titles match my search phrase.  I don't mind looking at slidecasts, as most of the time I can click forward through them quickly and pick up the information that I need, unlike watching a video, where I'm unable to fast forward to get to the "meat" of the video.

If you're regularly creating content, whether that's an article or a blog post, you can easily convert that content into a slidecast.  Here are 7 steps to creating an irresistible slidecast presentation:

1.  Brand your slides.  Create a template or slide master for your slides that incorporates your logo and your look.  You'll want your slide shows to be recognizable as uniquely yours.

2.  Create valuable content.  It should go without saying that the content for the slidecast should contain actionable content.  Don't create a promotional slidecast; rather create one that solves a pressing problem of your target market.

3.  Create your Word document.  In Microsoft Word, open the article that you will turn into a slidecast. Make sure each sentence of the article is on its own line in the document and then save the document.

4.  Import into PowerPoint.  Click on "File >> Send To >> PowerPoint". When you use the "Send To" feature, you will notice that the PowerPoint slides aren't properly formatted.  Simply click on the top slide in the left hand "slides" view, and then on your keyboard, click "CTRL + A" to select all the slides.  Right click on the slides and then select "Slide layout". Select the first slide layout template. This will now turn all the content in the slides into headers and center the content in each slide.  Or, choose your new master template, if you created one in Step #1.

5.  Format your slides. To make the slides look more professional, insert your "call-to-action" URL at the bottom of each slide so that the viewer will know where to go for additinal information.  The URL may be that of your opt-in page, a product page, or the home page of your site.  You need to determine the appropriate call to action for each slidecast as well as the your purpose of the slidecast --  whether that is to build your list, sell a product, add subscribers to your blog, etc.

Then, using copyright-free images, add images to each of the slides that matches the content of the slide.  You don't need to illustrate each slide with an image, just the ones where it makes sense to have an image.  Once you have added the images, you will need to go through each slide and make sure everything fits and flows well. You may need to adjust font size as well as text and image positions.  Save your presentation.

6.  Create your call to action: In your last slide, you will want to create an effective call to action.  Consequently, that means that the last slide is dedicated to telling the viewer exactly where to get more information and how to get there.

7.  Upload your slides.  There are a number of slide sharing sites online. Create an account at those where you want to post your slideshow, upload your slides, and share them via your social media profiles.

After submitted several slideshows, you'll soon begin to notice that you have followers on the various slide sharing sites.  Integrate this content marketing strategy into your regular online marketing mix to help increase your online visiblity and get found online.