We often think of the internet as a vast, open space where content flows freely. However, much of the digital landscape is increasingly controlled by Walled Gardens—platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and even AI-powered search engines that curate and control the user experience. These platforms decide what content users see, and as a result, they restrict how brands and marketers can reach their audience.
As AI algorithms improve, these walled gardens have become more effective at keeping users within their ecosystems, delivering content tailored to personal preferences without requiring users to venture outside. While this is convenient for consumers, it poses significant challenges for marketers trying to stand out.
What are Walled Gardens?
A walled garden refers to a closed ecosystem where the platform controls both the content and the way users interact with it. Social media platforms and search engines are prime examples of walled gardens. The content is algorithmically served, keeping users within the confines of that platform, limiting organic reach and prioritising paid content.
For marketers, this means competing for visibility in highly controlled spaces where external links, such as to your website or blog, are less effective because the platform wants to keep users engaged within its ecosystem. The rise of zero-click experiences, where search engines provide answers directly on the results page, only exacerbates this, further reducing the likelihood that users will leave the platform.
Challenges marketers face with Walled Gardens
The dominance of walled gardens presents several key challenges for marketers:
- Limited organic reach: Social media algorithms prioritise content that keeps users on the platform, meaning organic posts that link to external websites often receive less visibility.
- Pay-to-play environment: Walled gardens, particularly social platforms, are increasingly monetised, requiring brands to invest in paid advertising to maintain visibility and engagement.
- Data access and ownership: These platforms control user data, making it difficult for marketers to fully understand their audience. Data gathered within walled gardens remains under the platform’s control, limiting the insights marketers can extract from user interactions.
- Content saturation: The sheer volume of content within these platforms makes it difficult to stand out. Users are constantly bombarded with posts, ads, and suggested content, creating intense competition for attention.
- Lack of control over algorithms: Algorithms change frequently, and strategies that work today may not work tomorrow. Marketers have little control over which content gets prioritised, making it difficult to build a reliable content distribution strategy.
Five strategies to break through Walled Gardens
While these challenges are significant, marketers can use several strategies to make their content stand out in these controlled environments. Here are five ways to build a defence against the limitations of walled gardens:
1. Content Audit and Topic Vault
One of the most effective strategies to stand out in walled gardens is to perform a Content Audit and create a Topic Vault. A content audit helps you identify which pieces of existing content resonate most with your audience and where there are gaps. By refining high-performing topics, you can create a vault of evergreen content ideas tailored to your audience’s interests on these platforms.
At Carmen Murray Communications, we’ve developed Topic Vaults specifically designed to follow algorithms rather than simply chasing trends or keywords. Instead of relying on short-lived trends, our topic vaults are built to reveal what the algorithms prioritise in terms of user engagement and preferences. This approach allows us to focus on the deeper insights provided by algorithmic data rather than jumping on fleeting trends. By understanding how algorithms serve content and what engages audiences over time, we can continuously feed your content strategy with relevant and sustainable topics.
A Topic Vault is essentially a repository of content ideas that you can regularly draw from. These topics should align with what your audience is actively engaging with on social media or search engines, ensuring your content remains relevant within the walled gardens. By focusing on what algorithms reveal about audience behaviour, you can create a long-term, effective content strategy that evolves with the digital ecosystem, keeping your brand front and centre.
2. Leverage Netnography
Another powerful tool to break through the walls is Netnography, the study of online communities and their cultural and social interactions and its a useful research methodology for both B2B and B2C to keep the finger on the pulse in real time. By observing how your target audience behaves and interacts within these platforms, you can gain deeper insights into their interests, preferences, and pain points.
Using Netnography allows you to tailor your content to the language, style, and behaviour of your audience within specific platforms. This creates more authentic content that resonates with the community you are trying to reach, increasing engagement and visibility.
3. Create platform-specific content
Each walled garden has its own algorithm and user preferences, meaning a one-size-fits-all content strategy won’t work. To succeed, marketers need to create platform-specific content optimised for the unique features and culture of each platform. For example:
- Instagram favours visually compelling, snackable content like stories and reels
- LinkedIn leans towards thought leadership and professional insights
- YouTube prioritises long-form video content with high engagement potential
By designing content that aligns with each platform’s strengths, you increase the chances that your posts will be prioritised by the algorithm and seen by your target audience.
4. Build interactive content and communities
In walled gardens, building a sense of community around your brand is crucial. One way to achieve this is by creating interactive content that encourages engagement. Polls, quizzes, live streams, and question-and-answer sessions are excellent examples of content that gets users to actively participate rather than passively consume.
Additionally, building communities within platforms, such as Facebook Groups, LinkedIn communities, or subreddit threads, fosters deeper connections with your audience and can lead to higher engagement and user-generated content.
5. Repurpose content across multiple platforms
To maximise your content’s reach in walled gardens, it’s essential to repurpose it across multiple platforms. What works as a blog post can be transformed into an Instagram carousel, a LinkedIn article, or a YouTube explainer video. By repurposing content, you ensure that your message reaches a broader audience while adapting to the specific nuances of each platform.
Diversifying your content distribution also helps mitigate the risk of relying too heavily on a single platform, especially when algorithm changes can impact your organic reach.
Rethink your content strategy today
Navigating walled gardens is a critical challenge in today’s digital marketing landscape, but it’s not insurmountable. By conducting a Content Audit, building a topic vault, leveraging Netnography, creating platform-specific content, fostering communities, and repurposing your content, you can break through the walls and engage your audience effectively.
At Carmen Murray Communications, we specialise in helping brands develop tailored content strategies that stand out in walled gardens. Contact Us Today to learn how we can help you build a sustainable, high-impact content ecosystem that resonates with your audience, no matter where they are online.
