Top 6 Ways to Promote Great Content

1. Utilize Call to Actions

Call to actions are a great tool to place eBooks, whitepapers and infographics in front of readers who are already enjoying related content. For example,if you’re writing blog posts that support one of your content offers, it is beneficial to add a text CTA and a visual CTA to the bottom of each post so that when readers finish, they can easily see and access the next step.

For example, on this blog post from Syntrix Consulting, they are writing about questions to ask a consultant before implementing Epic Reporting at a healthcare facility. Then at the end of their post, they have an eBook about steps to a successful Epic Reporting implementation. This is a great way to capture already interested prospects because if they’re reading a blog post looking to solve a problem, they might want to learn more about the problem and how your business can help solve it!

Furthermore, if you have a set of resources, it might be beneficial to include call to actions for them on your website’s home page as well as call to actions for specific resources on relevant product pages. You want to give visitors the option to see all of your resources, but you also want to present them with specific resources if they are looking at specific products or services.

2. Send Out Emails

Current customers or prospects could be interested in seeing your new content, but never revisit your website to actually discover the it. Therefore, your best bet is to promote it via email. It can be as simple as sending out one email or as complex as adding the new content offer to a marketing automation workflow.

When sending emails, be educational and try to help a segmented list of your contacts. If you know that 20 contacts have inquired about your kitchen remodeling services and you’ve created a new eBook on “Design Ideas & Tips for Your Kitchen Remodel”, then those 20 contacts would probably benefit from an email about that eBook. You don’t want to email a specific eBook to your entire contact database because it probably doesn’t relate to your entire contact database. When you don’t segment emails, your engagement will be lower and your success will be diminished.

3. Social Media

Promoting content over social media is a no-brainer, but promoting content correctly on social media does take careful consideration. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest all have their strengths and weaknesses. If you’re a B2B and your ideal customers live on LinkedIn, that’s where you should be promoting. If you’re a B2C and your ideal customers love Pinterest, that’s where you should be promoting.

Come up with different ways to catch a reader’s attention through rewording the title, using statistics from the post, creating catchy graphics and playing to your social network’s strengths:

• Facebook - Biggest, has the most users, anything goes from pictures to longer messages
• Twitter - Popular for bite-sized messaging, use hashtags for discoverability
• LinkedIn - Professional networking, informative based messaging
• Pinterest - Visuals are key, use informative infographics and stunning photos

Then once visitors interact with your posts, interact back with them! Keep the discussion going! Your social media posts will be more successful as more individuals see them, like them and share them. By interacting with people on social media, your brand and content can stand out.

4. Syndicate Content

Finding popular websites to syndicate your content can spread their reach. Sometimes your blog network isn’t as expansive as others, but the readers on other websites would probably enjoy your content too! That’s one reason why I’ve been syndicating a few of my blogs on Business2Community (B2C). Their audience is reading posts related to what I’m writing about, but my reach on B2C is much larger than my reach on our Leap Clixx blog.

For example, I recently posted an article on SEO vs PPC: Which Digital Marketing Strategy Is Right For Your Business? On the Leap Clixx blog, we got a few shares here and there, but on the Business2Community blog, that same post got over 700 shares!

Look for authoritative websites that your ideal customers read and see if they’ll let you write original content or syndicate future content on their website. They get expertly written content and you get an audience! It’s really a win-win!

5. Outreach Email
   

When you write a blog post or content offer, you want it to be shared by experts. Most of the time these experts don’t just run into your content, so doing some outreach emails can be of benefit by getting it in front of the right influencers.

Now, having received several of these emails asking me to share content, I typically respond well to ones that ask my opinion on a certain topic, ask for a quote or have used one of my other articles in their post. You want to be able to give your influencer a reason to share your content and playing to their expertise or ego can carry some weight!

So craft a simple email, like the one below, and reach out to influencers that you respect to see if they will share your content or contribute to it:

Hey [First Name],

My company, Leap Clixx, is writing a blog post about how search engine marketing is changing in 2016. I really enjoyed the post you wrote on the subject on May 5 and I was wondering if I could possibly get an expert quote from you to put in my post?

Thank you!

6. Submit to a Content Community or Online Group

Another great way to get your content in front of interested readers is to submit it to a content community or online group. For inbound marketing, we like to share our content with Inbound.org and with our St. Louis HubSpot User Group on LinkedIn.

The individuals on Inbound.org love their inbound marketing. Created by Hubspot, Inbound.org has forums to share content, ask questions and discuss inbound marketing strategy with experts. Because inbound marketing is what I eat, sleep, breathe and write about, I can get quality feedback, start discussions and share my passion with others.

Find content communities, forums and online groups for your market. If you’re a roofer in St. Louis, join your community group on NextDoor.com and offer your content there! When there’s a storm, your blog post on “How to Know When to Call a Roofer for Storm Damage” can come in handy to the community’s residents!

Next Steps

Now that your content is where it can be found, see which methods are giving you the most conversions and qualified leads. Test the timing, messaging and context of your content promotion to find the right method for your business.

If you’re looking for more ways to bring leads to your business, start by turning your website into a lead generation machine!