There is a lot of debate in the marketing world about how much time should be spent creating content and how much time should be spent promoting it. In reality it comes down to each individual business – their preferences, and the amount of time and resources they have.

What there definitely isn’t a debate over, however, is whether or not to promote content once it has been produced – the answer is always yes and content promotion should be a regular activity for any business.

Producing content and hoping the right people will see it at the right time is a sure fire way of letting your hard work go to waste. Content should be waved in front of the smiling faces of your market on a regular basis.

This post gives you five top tips to get you started with content promotion to help get your brand ahead of the game.

1. Use an email list

All businesses should have an email list – building relationships with customers is vital and an email list used in the right way can be a great way to do this.

Customers on your email list are the best people to send content to because they’ve opted in, this means they want to hear from your organization, they’re actively expecting your business to communicate with them, and because they’ve opted-in, it means they like what they’ve seen so far.

When businesses use their email list to promote their content it’s highly likely that customers who click through will share the content with their own network.

Once you have your email list setup you will want to grow your audience.

Tips for growing your email subscriber list

• Tie in with someone who has a large audience – sometimes you will be able to do work for someone who has a large audience in exchange for a mention in their emails. You might write a handful of guest posts for their blog and they will then promote you to their audience.
• Try freebies – everyone likes free stuff, right? Having an awesome lead magnet can be a great way to get people opting in to your list. If the freebie provides great value you’ll see your list grow.
• Use opt-in forms – you should have opt-in forms in various places on your website. Don’t just stick a form on one page because your visitors might not click through to that page.
  Try placing the form on different pages and in different areas – this might be in the sidebar, at the bottom of a post or in your features box. You should try out different areas and see what performs well.
• Guest blog – guest blogging can be time consuming for sure but your hard work will pay off. When you guest blog you get your name out there and your brand gets seen by people that might not have ever come across you. The more corners of the Internet you can get yourself in, the better the chance you have of growing your own list.

2. Use social media

Social media platforms have the potential to get your content in front of thousands, even millions of people, so should most certainly be included in your content promotion plan.

You share your content, an engaged follower likes your content so they share it to their own network, someone in that network likes it so they connect with you and share it with their network and on and on it goes.

For content promotion social media is a no brainer, but you’ve got to do it the right way.

Tips for going social

• Use the right platforms – it’s no good having a Facebook page if your audience isn’t hanging out there. Research your target market, find out where they are, learn how to use those platforms and then share away.
• Create a promotion schedule – a schedule will keep you on target because it will tell you which content to promote on which platform and at which time. This will keep your brand consistent. You don’t want to tweet regularly for a few days and then not do anything for the next few weeks. Inconsistency can be a brand killer, when you have social followers it means they want to hear from you. Inconsistency gives room to competitors.
• Understand when to post – every social media site is different, for example, the lifetime of a tweet is about seven minutes whereas a LinkedIn post will last much longer. This means you might want to be tweeting multiple times a day to promote a piece of content.
  Don’t worry about fans seeing the same tweet over and over again – it’s actually more likely they won’t see it at all. Social media is fast and it requires some experimenting, try things out and see what works and what does not. Marketing requires the courage to fail so don’t worry about things going wrong; learn from them and move on.
• Customize – it’s no good sending a tweet and then mirroring that on Facebook because it will look out of place. Each share should be optimized for the platform you’re using at that time. There are rules and you need to follow them if you’re going to make an impact.

3. Encourage sharing –

When you produce content, you want your users to love it and share it. Nothing says “I love your content” like a customer sharing it with their own network. When customers share your content they’re marketing your brand for you. This can really help your business to stand out in a busy online world. To really encourage customers to share your content you need to make it easy for them do. A lot of awesome content online doesn’t get seen by enough people because it’s too much effort to share. When it’s more than a simple button click people are walking away.

Tips for sharing

• Use share icons – social media sharing icons are an absolute must for any business hoping to have their content shared. Share icons should be available on every piece of content across your site. With the click of a button your content is being viewed by hundreds more people than you’ve reached already.
• Display share counts – It’s great for other people to see how many shares your content has had, if others have shared it they’re more likely to do so too.
• Try content promotion tools like ‘Click To Tweet’. This allows you to choose quotes from your content and with a simple click your user can share the quote on their Twitter feed.
• Use a great header image – people are very visual and like to share content that looks good. A beautiful photo can help achieve this.

4. Try community sites

Community sites like Reddit can be wonderful places to share your content because these guys are your people.Becoming part of a community is not a quick win, this will take time but it’s time you’ll be glad you invested.

Tips for community involvement

• Find communities related to your niche – this is where your target market is hanging out. They’re literally waiting for you to find them. Once you have you’ll find they’ll share your content in the community too if it’s valuable.
• Don’t only self promote – the purpose of a community site is to help out like-minded people. Your time here should be spent sharing other brands’ content that you like and commenting to build relationships.
  You can share your own content as part of this if you have an article that could help someone but your primary focus here is to get to know people and let them get to know you.
• Answer questions – Quora is a great place to visit and answer questions that users are asking about your niche. Doing this you can position yourself as an industry leader and, when they like your answers, users are likely to remember you which can encourage them to visit your website the next time they want information.

5.Send outreach emails 

 When you promote another person, service or tool in your content you should reach out to them and let them know. It’s likely that they’ll be flattered you’ve recommended them and they’ll often share your post with their own audience. Be sure not to beg them for shares though, that will just make you look desperate.

Tips for sending outreach emails

• Don’t even ask for the share – the email is really more of a thank you to them for being awesome and letting them know you’ve mentioned them. They’re more likely to share it off their own back than if they think you’re only emailing them to get them to share your content.
• Make it personal – this one seems obvious but it’s surprising the amount of times people choose speed over quality. Sure, you can have a template that you’ve created for outreach emails to save you time but don’t skimp on making in personal. You’re far less likely to get that share if the receiver feels like you haven’t put any effort in.
• Use tools to get the contact – sometimes it can be difficult to get the email address you need. If you’ve searched social media and tried Google and you still can’t find the contact there are tools you can use to help you.
  Hunter is a great tool to use and it’s free for one hundred requests per month.

There are tons of ways to promote your content. These steps are just the beginning but they’re ones that you can start tackling today.

If you’d like more help with your content promotion strategy you can fill in our contact form and we’ll be sure to get back to you.