Content promotion is one of the most overlooked steps by companies. The focus is usually on production,
but it is on the dissemination of materials that they gain visibility. See now how to promote your content to have more results with them!
You planned the blog’s guidelines, produced the posts correctly and published on the scheduled dates.
Now just sit in the chair and wait for the visitors to arrive… Hmm, is it really so? Nothing like that: you need to get the content promotion to them!
Many companies think that Content Marketing ends when the post is published. But after publishing, you still have a lot of work to attract visitors and make your content reach more people.
The more visitors to your target audience you are able to attract , the more results the content can bring.
After all, you don’t want to see your amazing materials get overlooked on your website, do you?
So, learn now to create a content promotion strategy and the main tactics to go after your audience on the internet!
You will know now:
Table of Contents
What is Content Promotion?
Content promotion are strategies for disseminating the content produced to increase its reach and the chances of generating results. They can be used to promote blogposts, ebooks, videos, webinars, surveys or any other publication that deserves more visibility.
Content promotion is one of the stages of the Content Marketing strategy, which generally follows the following steps: planning, production, publication, promotion and measurement.
The problem is that the production of content gets all the spotlight, while planning, promotion and measurement are often neglected.
So, what some companies do is to play the content link on social networks. This is one of the content promotion tactics, but it doesn’t work if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Therefore, promoting content is not about throwing links around – this step requires strategy, audience definition, choice of channels and creativity to stand out on the internet. You will now understand how to plot this strategy.
Why Content Promotion?
The internet is huge. Users are full of content to read, watch and consume.
You may have published some incredible content, but there is a plethora of materials out there that are also waiting to be discovered.
So, if the competition for people’s attention is fierce, you can’t just wait for Google to advertise your pages on the search engine.
Yes, SEO can bring you a lot of organic traffic if you optimize the page. But, if your content is so amazing, it doesn’t deserve to be forgotten on the blog. You have to make it appear to the world!
Therein lies the primary role of content promotion: making your materials reach more people and generate more results .
The importance of content promotion is so great that some professionals recommend the 80/20 rule in Content Marketing.
This rule says that you should only dedicate 20% of your time to the production of content, while the other 80% go to the promotion.
It’s quite different from what companies usually do, isn’t it?
Okay, you may not agree with this proportion, but understand the logic: the promotion of the content is what ensures that it has interested people and, more than that, that it reaches the goals outlined by the brand .
In this sense, promoting content tends to be more worthwhile than creating new content.
Do you know why? Let’s say you posted a blog post that received 1,000 visitors.
Without promoting it, it is likely that there are thousands of potential people interested in this material who have not even heard of it.
So, why would you devote more time to creating new content, if you already have material that can reach many more people with just a job of dissemination?
Better, then, is to devote that time – the 80% of the rule – to promoting content.
It is clear that the production of quality content deserves your time and dedication .
There is no point in trying to promote poor and shallow content, as they will not please anyone.
But, if you have incredible content with the potential to win more people, it is worth dedicating yourself to promoting them.
How to Create an Effective Content Promotion Strategy?
First, let’s get to know the pillars of a content promotion strategy. We don’t want you to waste your efforts spreading your links around without criteria. The intention is to plan a surgical strategy.
So, now here’s where to start:
Think About Promoting Content Right From Planning
Among the steps of Content Marketing, planning is also often neglected. Many companies already go into production and start writing without knowing why and for whom.
However, this step is essential for the performance of the strategy. After all, this is where you outline the paths that support the quality of the content and guide all stages, including the promotion of the content.
You need to know what the objectives, indicators and personas are to promote content with the right tactics.
So, the promotion of content should be in your sights since when the agenda is in planning.
That way, you can align your Content Marketing strategy from start to finish.
Choose The Right Content
You can design a promotion strategy for all the content you produce.
However, some deserve priority, especially if you have a high volume of production.
These contents that deserve more attention are those incredible productions, that you are sure that people will enjoy reading,
that have high potential for sharing and that can bring more results to your business.
They are often pillar blog articles , in-depth ebooks, complete guides, interactive content or other materials that are different for your strategy.
Focus your efforts on the dissemination of these contents, which can bring better business opportunities.
Define Who You Want To Attract
Promoting content requires that you know who you want to attract.
Spreading the material over the internet and gaining thousands of views or downloads are useless if this audience does not represent business opportunities for the brand .
Then, define your strategy persona . This should be done at the planning stage, as the persona must be the same from start to finish: the audience for whom you created the content is the same for whom you are going to promote it.
From the definition of the persona, identify what are the best channels to reach her, what problems she wants to solve and what language she must use to communicate.
Choose the Channels that Perform Best
Later on, you will see content promotion tactics and you will see that they can be applied in various channels: social networks, emails, blogs, influencers, etc.
Once again, we suggest that you devise a strategy to optimize the dissemination of content, instead of playing links across the internet. And what are the channels that deserve your attention?
First, it is those channels that the persona uses . If she doesn’t usually use email, there’s no reason to send messages there. Then, you must also identify the channels that bring the best results .
An analysis in Google Analytics already helps to understand this, by monitoring the traffic sources that most generate visits, interactions and conversions.
Define Tactics For Each Type of Media
There are three types of media for distributing your content over the internet:
- Owned media (includes its own channels, such as website, blog, email and social networks);
- Earned media (includes third-party content and channels, such as mentions on social networks, consumer reviews and shares);
- Paid media (includes paid channels, such as sponsored posts, display media and partnerships with influencers).
Knowing all of these possibilities, design a promotion strategy that encompasses the three types of media to enhance the results.
On each channel, you can reach different audiences and use different approaches:
- On your own channels, you talk to those who already know your brand.
- With third-party content, you expand your reach and brand awareness .
- With paid media, you define your target audience more precisely.
So by defining all these media tactics, you cover all possibilities.
What Mistakes can Hinder the Content Promotion Strategy?
Now, let’s see what NOT to do. If you already take any of these actions, you need to review your strategy soon so as not to hinder the promotion of your content.
Now see what problems may be affecting your results:
Your Content Is Not Good
It can be difficult to admit, but truths need to be told: you may not be able to promote your content because it is not good …
If you write too shallow articles, it gives the reader no value. If your text has Portuguese errors, it doesn’t give credibility.
If your video has audio and recording problems, it is unable to arrest the audience.
Then, check for production flaws , which may be in content planning or technical errors.
You Are Being Boring
You may have seen some people out there who comment on blogs and groups just to spread the links on their pages.
This happens in spam emails as well. They are not looking to interact or contribute to discussions – they just want traffic.
This does not bring any results, because people will ignore your links and still have a bad impression about your brand.
If you insist too much, you may even be banned or marked as spam, which makes the situation worse.
Production and Promotion Are Not Aligned
When the production and promotion strategies are not aligned, you do not know what objectives you need to achieve, nor to whom you should target the content, or how to measure the results.
Thus, the strategy does not have a path to follow and ends up going to the wrong channels and people, which only wastes the promotion efforts.
You Target the Wrong Audience
This is one of the problems with not aligning Content Marketing from beginning to end.
If there is no definition of a persona for the content, you can promote it to the wrong people, that is, who have no interest in the subject or are not at the right stage of the journey . Thus, its content tends to be simply ignored.
8 Content Promotion Tactics to Put into Practice
So, let’s now see some content promotion tactics that can boost your visibility and the results of the strategy. Follow:
1. Promote on Social Networks
The social networks have a high power to reach and engagement. So, you can’t waste this opportunity to promote content.
Start with your own owned media. On your Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn page, for example, you can publish content that has more affinity with the audience of each network.
The performance of your brand must be consistent across all networks, but you must also be flexible to adapt the content to the profile of each platform.
On Instagram, for example, you can present the main information of an ebook in a visual way to arouse interest, while the LinkedIn audience better accepts the texts.
On Facebook and LinkedIn, you can also interact in groups about your brand or area of expertise.
But it is essential that you use the group to relate to people, not just spread links. Promoted content should always be of value to them.
Another way to pump up the promotion of content on social networks is to encourage spontaneous media (earned media).
Make your content spread to users’ word of mouth . Share buttons on the website and CTAs that encourage share are used for this.
To complete the promotion of content on social networks, there is only a lack of paid channels.
Here you can sponsor posts that take the audience – segmented according to the persona of the strategy – to your most relevant content.
You can also work with remarketing to reach users who have already been interested in some of your brand’s content.
If the person has already read an article on the blog, how about indicating to him the ebook that delves into that subject?
Remember that this media is paid, so be sure to direct the user to the conversion you want (a download, a registration, a purchase, etc.).
2. Promote Content to Your Email List
Email marketing is a relationship channel that you can use to maintain proximity to users and get them back to your blog.
Here you can promote content in two main ways: newsletters or email flows.
You can deliver blog updates directly to users’ inbox. Daily, weekly or monthly newsletters (understand the ideal frequency for your audience) or RSS Feed subscriptions are for that.
To segment submissions, you can ask each user’s interests and send updates on just those topics.
In addition, you can create email flows to nurture leads with content that helps them make their decision.
Each content promoted should propel the person forward into the funnel . Thus, you promote the content and, at the same time, direct the leads to the purchase.
3. Post New Posts and Updates on the Home Page
Your own website can also be a channel for promoting content. To increase the visibility of a content, you can advertise it in your biggest showcase: the homepage of the website.
This position of the site usually has great visibility for new visitors , who are getting to know your brand or looking for information about it.
So when quality content appears to that audience, you can engage them.
Linking content on the first page is also an SEO technique. This measure shows Google that that content is important in the hierarchy of the site and, thus, the page gains points in the ranking .
For new publications, this measure is also important for search engine robots to index content more quickly.
Remember: to receive traffic from organic search, the content needs to be indexed and well ranked.
4. Get in Touch with Media and Influencers
A good press office job can greatly extend the reach of your content. You can contact journalists from traditional media, but also bloggers, youtubers and influencers who have a loyal audience on the internet.
The intention here is to make your content spread to their audience. For that, it needs to have the audience profile that you want to reach, and the content must be relevant to the vehicles and the audience that accompanies them .
Imagine, for example, sending the results of market research to influencers in the marketing field. They and their followers are likely to be interested in what you have to say.
Often, the approach does not have to have the formality of a traditional press office. You can start a personalized email conversation and recommend some content that might interest you.
Brian Dean suggests looking for people who have already mentioned your brand on social media to then suggest new content.
But here’s the tip: don’t ask the person to share the content – if they think it’s good, it will happen naturally. See the example:
5. Transform Your Content into other Formats
Do you know that blog article that was quite successful? Try turning it into an ebook, a video, a webinar.
With a new guise, you can spread the content again and breathe new life into it.
With each new format you create, insert links to other content and generate more traffic for them.
This transformation also helps to win over people who prefer one or the other format – watching a video instead of reading an article, for example.
But remember, copying content is not enough. Each format requires a different language and approach to communicate with the public.
6. Talk to People and Brands you Mentioned in the Content
This is a tactic that affects people’s vanity! After all, who doesn’t like to see your name mentioned as a reference in a material?
Then, contact people or brands that appear in your content to let them know they are there.
Let’s say you did a survey on the most admired brands in your region. So, you can send a message to the brands that appear prominently in the ranking: “hey, did you know that your brand appeared first in our search?”.
Do you think they will not want to show everyone that they did well !?
7. Comment on Blogs, Groups and Forums
No, we are not talking about black hat . You shouldn’t pollute the comment box or bother Facebook groups with insistent links, right?
Often, links inserted in blogs, social networks and forums are marked with the “nofollow” tag.
That is, they do not transmit authority to your page. Therefore, this is not the focus. The intention here is to generate traffic, but with relevance in the conversations .
Comment on blogs, groups and forums to contribute to the debates.
Participate without links, first, to build a relationship with the community and gain the trust of people.
So, insert links to promote your content only when they are relevant to the conversation and offer real value to people.
8. Do Guest Posting
Like comments, guest posts also got a bad reputation because many people abused them to gain backlinks.
However, when this strategy is well done, it can bring great results in promoting content. Well done guest posting means:
- Find partner blogs that have an affinity with your audience;
- Produce unique content for each partner, without replicating in other blogs;
- Include relevant and contextualized links in the article, without forcing the bar.
That way, you can win over the reader of the partner blog and promote your content to a new audience.
Tools to Promote Content on the Internet
You will get help to promote your content on the internet: there are several tools to apply the tactics that we showed above.
Check now which you can count on:
Social Media Management Tools
Social media management tools – such as mLabs and Hootsuite – allow you to create and schedule publications for different platforms in one place.
In addition, some of them report the best times to post (when followers are online). So promoting content on social networks is much more efficient.
Social Sharing Buttons
Share buttons on your website and blog encourage users to promote their content. Some examples of tools for this are Better Click to Tweet , Pinterest’s Save button and Image Sharer .
Email Marketing Tools
Count on a good email marketing tool to promote your content by email. MailChimp , GetResponse and Aweber are good examples of tools that allow you to segment lists, create email flows and automate sending.
Email Capture Tools
To promote content via email, you need to build a robust list. Use friendly email capture tools on your site, such as Sumo and OptinMonster .
RSS Feed Tools
If readers of your blog want to receive all updates, you can use a feed that sends posts via email.
WordPress offers a native feature for feeds, but Google Feedburner and FeedPress provide additional features.
Influencer Search Tools
To work with influencers, you need to look for partners who have affinity with your brand and your audience.
Then, use tools to find influencers , like Buzzsumo and Airfluencers, that aggregate multiple profiles.
Anyway, now you know the importance of promoting content and how to outline the strategies and tactics for that.
Leaving your content still after you post it means leaving several opportunities behind .
So, don’t settle! Go after your audience for even more results in Content Marketing.
Now, we want to promote our content so you can learn even more. Access our comprehensive SEO guide and learn more tactics to gain organic visibility!
