How to Use SlideShare for Marketing — and to Grow Your Business
SlideShare’s one of the biggest content platforms around:
- It attracts 80 million visitors a month, mostly via search.
- It’s one of the top 200 sites in the world.
So how can you take advantage of SlideShare to help market your business?
That’s what you’re about to find out... but before we get started, grab the free cheatsheet you need for using SlideShare effectively for marketing:
In fact, publishing content onto SlideShare can deliver a ton of benefits, including:
- Lead generation.
- Attracting traffic back to your website.
- Increased engagement levels on social media.
- Growing your credibility and authority.
- Growing your audience on social networks.
- Multiplying your visibility on search engines.
Even better:
- There’s little competition, and…
- It’s easy!
In this post, you’ll find out:
- What SlideShare is and what type of businesses should be using it (it’s not suitable for all)…
- How to create content for the platform (and make it a regular part of your content marketing activities)…
- How to maximize your advantages from using SlideShare…
- How the benefits grow over time…
- Other similar websites you can submit the same content to…
Let’s get started…
What is SlideShare?
You might like to think of SlideShare as a bit like YouTube, but showing slideshows instead of videos.
So you can register, free of charge, and upload slideshows (a.k.a. presentations) you want to share with the world.
Publish regularly and consistently, and you build an audience on the platform that serves to increase visibility of your slideshows over time.
Although it’s best known for slideshows, you can also upload infographics, documents, even videos (though few use it for that!)…
SlideShare’s History
SlideShare started way back in 2006, founded by Jonathan Boutelle and Rashmi Sinha.
It’s changed hands a few times since then:
- LinkedIn bought it for around $120 million in 2012.
- Microsoft bought LinkedIn, including SlideShare, in 2016.
- SlideShare was then sold to Scribd in 2020, who have said they intend to maintain the platform as-is:
Who Should Be Using SlideShare?
SlideShare is more suited to B2B than B2C businesses.
It’s demographic is similar to LinkedIn’s (hence their earlier acquisition), generally attracting affluent professionals, and potentially delivering valuable leads via your uploaded presentations.
I’ll show you how to do that shortly…
The benefits of using SlideShare aren’t however restricted to the platform itself.
Presentations can be embedded into content you have elsewhere, which:
- Adds value, credibility and authority.
- Keeps visitors engaged for longer, which in-so-doing…
- Helps your SEO.
- Increases lead conversions.
Now you know what it is and who should be using it, the next step is to start creating a presentation to share.
Here’s the process I use…
How to Create a SlideShare (the Easy Way)
What you don’t want to do is start off with a blank slate each time, wondering what to create a presentation about.
Instead, to ensure regular and consistent use of the platform, it needs to be part of a regular systematized process.
That involves simply repurposing existing blog posts.
(Which in fact means the whole process can be easily outsourced or otherwise delegated too).
Here’s how.
1. Create the Script.
Based on the original blog post, put together a document that contains an outline for the content on each slide.
This means you have a structure in place before you start creating slides.
It’s an informal document, very simply put together.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say the first couple paragraphs of the blog post look something like this:
Once converted into a script, that becomes:
As you can see, each slide has minimal text that gets the message across while allowing the viewer to quickly scan through the slides.
As a couple of further tips:
- Use bullet points wherever possible — they help split up longer sentences and increase engagement.
- Use headline slides to provide an overall sense of structure.
2. Create the Presentation.
Choose Presentation Software
There’s lots of software available to create the slideshow itself, including:
- Google Slides
- Powerpoint
- Keynote
- Canva
- Visme
- Crello
Build the Presentation
Your header slide should be designed to attract attention, and acts like the subject line on an email.
It’s what gets people to open it.
It’s the first thing people see when your presentation is:
- Shown on SlideShare.
- Embedded in a blog post or other web pages.
- Shared on social.
As well as captivating visuals, the title of the presentation should be clear and succinct.
The good news (for you, at least!) is that most SlideShares fail in this.
Many are not designed specifically for SlideShare, but are simply an uploaded presentation that was delivered from the stage.
For example, here’s one from Dropbox that doesn’t tell you anything about what it’s actually about:
By strategically designing it for SlideShare users and online viewers, you have a chance to shine.
This SlideShare from Gary V is far more compelling:
So think of this initial slide as your headline.
Its job is to get viewers to the next slide.
After that, just as each sentence in a sales letter should be written to get people to read the next one, the job of each slide is to get viewers to the next one…
Until they reach your call to action (which I’ll go into shortly).
Again, similar to a sales letter:
- Some will read in-depth…
- Others will simply scan.
Your presentation should cater for both.
So…
- Use formatting like bold and italics for key words and phrases to aid scannability.
- Similarly, use differently colored fonts to highlight information and attract attention.
- As mentioned above, use bullet points a lot!
- Increase engagement by reusing images from the original blog post (add links/references for these to your presentation script — see above).
- Use additional graphics such as for bullet points, or engaging photos (try these free stock photo sites).
To optimize the presentation for marketing, each slide should contain some reference to your domain name or website.
I usually add my logo for this purpose, such as in the bottom right-hand corner.
However, I don’t link it directly.
That’s because SlideShare auto-extracts all text from the presentation and displays it underneath, including any links (displayed as plain text).
If each slide contained the exact same link, it would:
- Mess up the extracted text.
- Hurt engagement levels.
- Potentially damage the ranking of the page on Google and other search engines.
Adding a Call to Action (CTA)
This is where most businesses on SlideShare mess up — yet it’s a crucial step for using SlideShare effectively for marketing.
You need a call to action that actually tells people what you expect them to do.
And that (usually) needs to include a clickable link.
First though, decide what your goal actually is for your presentation.
Your CTA should then reflect that goal.
For most businesses, the most effective call to action will be to convert that viewer into a lead.
As with most content marketing platforms, your aim should be to get the consumer (of your content) off a platform you don’t fully control, and onto a platform you do control.
Ultimately, that’s usually going to be your email list.
By the time the viewer reaches your CTA, you already have an advantage — your viewer has:
- Raised their hand as someone who’s interested in your content’s topic.
- Taken the time to view the information you’ve provided so far.
- Begun to know, like and trust you thanks to that information.
By the time they reach your website or opt-in page — presuming they click on the link provided — the visitor is already to some extent ‘warm’.
So what should your CTA look like?
In brief, it should:
- Offer a useful, relevant resource (“Lead Magnet”) —usually this will be something the viewer can obtain for free. It gives them a safe, easy, non-committal micro-step to get to know you a little more.
- Link to an opt-in page — this is a page specifically designed to maximize opt-in conversion rates.
To maximize click-throughs and conversion rates, the Lead Magnet should be valuable to the viewer, and as relevant as possible to the presentation’s content.
Further, the link in your presentation must:
- Be clickable (many businesses forget to actually do this!)
- Be easy to remember and otherwise type in (long links or links with random letters/numbers will lose you clicks).
- Match the website potentially mentioned elsewhere in the presentation (such as via your logo). This is what the user has started gaining familiarity with. Trying to send them elsewhere will again lose you clicks.
Don’t leave your CTA until right at the very end…
Put it earlier in the presentation as well.
Think about it…
- Most people don’t finish reading a book…
- Most people don’t finish watching a YouTube video…
- Most people won’t finish your SlideShare presentation either!
If you leave your offer until right at the end, most viewers will never see it.
Try making your offer in the middle, or after the first few slides, before then continuing with the presentation.
People are busy… some will just want to grab the resource and run.
With your presentation done, it’s time to finally…
3. Upload It to SlideShare
Before you do that though, carefully check your presentation for errors.
Even better, get someone different to run through it — a fresh pair of eyes can work wonders.
Unfortunately with SlideShare, you can’t go back and edit your presentation later.
The only way to correct something is to upload a fresh presentation and delete the old one.
That would mean a different link with your stats reset from scratch — and any embeds of your existing presentation would no longer work.
It’s best to therefore ensure everything’s correct right from the start.
To upload to SlideShare, you need the presentation in PDF format.
After logging in, click Upload.
Select the file, and while it’s busy uploading, edit your title and description.
Your description aids discoverability — in other words, helps more people see it within SlideShare and on search engines — so remember to use relevant keywords and to make it sound engaging.
Finally, select a suitable category, and add some keywords into the Tags field.
Check your Discoverability Score is at the maximum level, and click Publish.
Your SlideShare is now viewable on the platform.
But that’s not the end… you need to now…
Promote Your SlideShare
It’s important to promote it in order to:
- Maximize your view count — this grows your credibility and authority, and can even increase your visibility within SlideShare…
- Generate leads via your CTA (see above)…
- Engage audiences and build trust on social…
- Benefit content you have elsewhere (more on how this works soon)…
Add Back on Your Blog
Earlier, I described using your original blog post as the basis of your SlideShare presentation.
The good news is that now it’s created it can be embedded back onto your blog for a host of benefits!
These include:
- Increasing your opt-in leads.
- Keeping visitors for longer, boosting search engine rankings.
- Increasing view stats for your SlideShare, boosting the authority of the presentation and the information it contains.
To embed it, click the Share button shown underneath the presentation on SlideShare:
This gives you two options — Embed and Wordpress Shortcode.
As most people use Wordpress for their blog, we’ll look at that option first.
Wordpress Shortcode
The shortcode provided simply needs copying and pasting into your post:
If you like, you can adjust the size of the presentation that’s shown by adding a couple of parameters to the end of the shortcode.
Here’s an example, where the width and height are set to 650 x 500 pixels:
Embed
Use the Embed option if your blog does not use Wordpress.
Just copy the code from the Embed field, and paste it into the required location.
As well as embedding back on your blog, you should share it elsewhere too.
Doing so gives you a similar set of powerful benefits:
- Increases your view stats for your SlideShare.
- Helps convert audiences on other platforms into leads.
- Grows engagement with your other content.
- Boosts visibility of that content.
- Illustrates your knowledge and expertise.
- Helps grow our audience on other platforms.
To start with, you should immediately start to…
Share Your SlideShare on Social Media
So grab the link, and share it across your main social platforms, such as:
But don’t just do it once.
Of course, posts on social, particularly Twitter, only last for a short while, replaced by a constant stream of new content from elsewhere.
So share it regularly — say once a week for several weeks on Twitter, maybe once a month for several months on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Describe it a little differently each time and use different hashtags to attract the attention of different audiences and people.
Feature on Your LinkedIn Profile
As mentioned previously, LinkedIn used to own SlideShare — and your SlideShare presentation is ideal for featuring on your LinkedIn profile.
Just do the following:
- Click the + icon on the Featured section on your profile.
- Click on Links.
- Paste in the link to your SlideShare.
As well as social, you should also…
Embed Your SlideShare Onto Other Content Platforms
Medium
To embed a SlideShare into Medium, just paste the link provided — after a short moment, your SlideShare will be displayed.
It’s just as easy on LinkedIn, embedding a SlideShare into an article:
- Click the icon in the margin on the left.
- Click Slides.
- Paste in the link for your SlideShare.
9 Ways to Use SlideShare for Marketing… and Grow
So far I’ve shown you how to:
- Build your SlideShare presentation.
- Promote it effectively.
I’ve also referred to various ways in which SlideShare benefits your business.
So let’s gather all of that together and summarize exactly how to use SlideShare for marketing, including some ways I’ve not yet mentioned...
1. Grow Traffic
Do this by:
- Linking direct via your CTA — for example, link through to an opt-in page for a Lead Magnet offered via the presentation.
- Showing your domain name on each slide — this works best via a small unobtrusive logo on each slide. A proportion of viewers will visit your site as a result.
2. Grow Leads
As stated immediately above, use an effective CTA to convert SlideShare viewers into leads for your business.
Ideally, present your offer more than once in the presentation.
As with much of content marketing, the leads tend to be good quality:
- They’ve already raised their hand as interested in what you do.
- They were engaged enough to reach the CTA and take action.
- They already know a bit about you thanks to the presentation, so are warmer than completely cold leads.
3. Grow Search Engine Visibility
Thanks to publishing your SlideShare, you can now have another listing on Google for keywords related to your niche.
It’s not just the main search either.
SlideShare presentations also show on image search via the header slide.
4. Grow Authority and Credibility
In publishing a SlideShare presentation, you’re showcasing your expertise.
It helps position you as an expert and authority on your topic.
Promote your SlideShare as described above, and the increasing views for your SlideShare adds social proof and credibility.
5. Grow Social Media Followers
Use SlideShares in three main ways to grow your social media followers:
- Share them on social media.
- Tell viewers of the presentation how to find and follow you on social media. Here’s an example of someone doing that on a slide within a Hootsuite presentation:
- Add your Twitter handle, for example, to the footer of each slide.
6. Grow Social Media Engagement
SlideShares are inherently visual and engaging than straight text.
Take advantage by sharing your SlideShare presentations regularly, not just one time when you first publish
7. Grow Your “Session Duration”
SlideShares help keep visitors on your website for longer.
That feeds into and assists multiple marketing metrics, including:
- Your conversion rate (leads and sales).
- Your search engine ranking — if someone clicks through from Google and sticks around, it tells them something about the suitability of the result for the user’s query.
So embed SlideShares into relevant blog posts on your site.
8. Grow Your Presence on YouTube
In creating your SlideShare, I recommended repurposing an existing blog post.
Now you’ve got your SlideShare, you can repurpose that too into a video, such as by narrating through the presentation as it’s shown on screen, perhaps with your own face shown via an inset to increase engagement.
By publishing the video on YouTube for example, it gives your business a presence on the platform, and the second biggest search engine in the world.
The video can be further shared across your social channels.
9. Grow Visibility and Engagement… Right Here on Medium!
If you’re publishing content on Medium — like I’m doing here —embed the SlideShare into relevant content in order to:
- Engage readers in your posts for longer.
- Increase the visibility of your content on the platform.
- Attract more readers to your content.
Where Else Can You Submit Your Presentation?
Now that you’ve got your SlideShare presentation, you can publish it on other websites too to reach new audiences for your content:
- SlideServe
- AuthorStream
- Speaker Deck
- Scribd (current owner of SlideShare)
Finally…
So now you know exactly how to take advantage of SlideShare to help market your business. Remember to grab the cheatsheet so you have it to refer back to:
As with most content platforms, the best results come from regular and consistent action, through which the benefits will increase over time.
With that in mind, make it a regular part of your content marketing activities (such as via a Trafficonomy campaign) enabling you to take advantage of the platform in all the ways described above.
Sincerely,
Steve Shaw
EverywhereMarketer
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