With content marketing, content creation is just half the battle. The other half is getting your content right in front of your target audience. Other marketers even say it’s supposed to be 20% content creation, 80% content promotion.
The fact is, there are millions of posts published each day and the challenge is to have your content rise above that noise. Hence, the need to get into the habit of content promotion.
There are a thousand and one strategies to do this. To start with, here are some of the best ways we’ve found to give your content the attention it deserves.
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Take advantage of owned media and resources
This is something companies often fail to leverage: they have an army of content promoters right within their office. Often, companies leave it to their marketing agency to do content marketing for them—from strategy to content creation to promotion.
While it’s true that this is what hiring professionals is for, an agency’s work is only as good as its client’s support and cooperation. In all our years working with companies from different industries, we find that the best performing projects are ones where clients actively participate in the process. This includes providing us ideas and data to help us create valuable content, as well as promoting the content that we build for them.
In the same way, it’s easy to “leave it to the Content Marketing Department” to brainstorm, create, and promote content; after all, everyone else has other things to do, right? Big. Mistake.
I like pointing out that ; instead, it’s the collective effort of the entire company in delivering its message to its target audience. And when everyone involves themselves in the content strategy, the community effort increases the company’s reach, strengthens thought leadership, and builds up the brand.
Get your employees (or your client’s employees) to promote content. Alert them when new content is up, push them to get involved in the process, and establish a company culture where content creation, idea generation, and content promotion is a way of life.
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Reach out to influencers
At this point, we’ve established that an effective content strategy involves a lot of things beyond creating content. You engage with your readers, connect with them through social media, and take part in discussions. You can’t just drop the link to your blog anywhere, leave, and expect people to read. You want to give them a reason to check your website out.
Influencer marketing has gotten big over the past couple of years, too, prompting marketers to explore their options with internet personalities. It’s proving to be effective, with 89% saying ROI from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels.
So, when you find thought leaders and influencers in your industry, begin building a relationship with them. Comment on their blog posts, follow them in social media, introduce yourself, email them with a warm, personalized outreach email. When they see that your content is relevant, chances are, they will promote your content in their social media feeds too.
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Find (or build!) your tribe
“Tribe” is a fancy term used to describe a group of like-minded individuals learning from each other and helping each other in their ventures.
You want like-minded followers and influencers in your “tribe.” As we repeatedly mention, it’s okay not to have a lot of readers—you only need targeted ones. In other words, you’d rather have 100 close friends than 1000 random acquaintances. These are the people whom you know can learn from and benefit from your content at the same time.
One practical way to find your tribe is to search key phrases, say, in Twitter, and check the people who are talking about the key phrases you searched for. You can also use networks like Triberr to connect and engage with these people and help promote their content as well.
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“Hang out” where your buyer personas are
This is why it’s imperative to establish from the get-go who your buyer personas are, what type of content they need, and where to find them. 44% of marketers have already discovered the power of using personas, so if you’re missing out on this, you’re likely far behind on the game.
Not only do you need to create content that will answer their questions and help them with their challenges, but you also want to hang out where they are, join in their discussions, and promote your content where they’ll see it.
remains to be one of the most effective ways to promote blog content and interact with your audience. There are various social media channels that you can use. Take note—you don’t have to be in ALL of them. Invest time and effort in social media channels that fit your goals and reader personas.
- LINKEDIN is the best place to find job seekers, employers, business partners, and collaborators. They also have a publishing platform for thought leaders, allowing you to share your thoughts about your industry, work ethics, world views. B2B organizations will find their efforts to work the best here, as they report that the platform is 277% more effective for lead generation and customer acquisition than Facebook.
- TWITTER is useful for real-time updates. 79% of Twitter users like to discover what’s new, making it the top platform for discovery. We see a lot of businesses using Twitter as a customer support channel. TV stations use it to engage with viewers. Many B2B organizations use it to connect with industry leaders and subject matter experts too.
- PINTEREST & INSTAGRAM are image-heavy and, therefore, ideal for creative industries. It’s an excellent place to showcase web and graphic design, interior design and architecture, fashion and retail, photography, real estate, etc. These are great places for visual brands to make themselves known. 77% of Pinners report that they discover a new brand or product on the platform, while 90% of active Instagram users mention they like hearing from brands on their feeds.
- FACEBOOK is still the biggest social media channel, so whatever industry you’re in, you’ll want to establish a presence on Facebook. Practically any niche has a place on FB. It has a comprehensive platform and e-commerce functionality, which is especially useful for retail businesses. 89% of marketers are already using the platform for their brand marketing efforts.
Consider investing in sponsored social media posts. As competition gets tougher, content promotion should also get smarter. Putting in a little budget to get your content out there will give it that initial boost of traffic that can act as an impetus for engagement. The key is to make sure your content is aligned with your business goals and drives visitors down your marketing funnel.
Keep Promoting!
The takeaway here is that you should be spending a lot more time making sure the content you worked so hard on makes its way to the audiences that matter the most. Once your posts start gaining traction and your brand becomes known for creating valuable content, you’ll gain more consistent traffic.
Even then, content promotion shouldn’t be kicked out of your content marketing processes. Re-promoting what you’ve produced on the most effective channels is an overall good practice that will keep your traffic fresh and help you reach a lot of your key metrics and targets down the road.
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