Effective Content Promotion: The Basics of Content Distribution
Your best pieces of content will be of little use if no one on the web gets to read them. This new blog article deals with the targeted promotion of content.
You’ve put a lot of work into creating great content, but your efforts will be of little use if no one ever sees it. In the meantime, your competition continues to grow, with countless providers offering blogs, videos, online seminars and guidebooks. In addition, an increasing number of businesses are investing heavily in content marketing, employing internal or external copywriters and other media experts to create professional content. Despite providing the same volume and quality of content, many of these companies still languish in the wake of their rivals. Why is that? Could it be that their competitors not only produce good content but also promote it in a targeted manner?
In the past, we have provided tips on topics such as social media content, blog articles and landing page content. Let’s move on to the next step: What happens after your content has been created? It’s not enough to create great texts or infographics and rely on them to reach a high search engine ranking that gets visitors flocking to your website. A Google search alone will not usually make enough users aware of your posts. If you want your online business to be successful, you must actively ensure that your content is properly distributed. So how can you generate more page views and prompt further user reaction?
Today, we want to deal with the targeted promotion of content. In addition, we will also take a look at different strategies, channels, media variants and experts who can help you with your content distribution.
What are the goals of content promotion?
Viral distribution is the content marketing ideal, but to create a post that so many users like they redistribute it and thus do the work for you, it’s essential that enough people are aware of it. The content has to match your target group and be published in the right channels at the optimal time in order to minimize your scattering loss. For example, you would have relatively little success with stories about dive trips on a portal covering mountaineering expeditions.
With the help of target group-optimized content, you will be able to collect fans and followers on social media networks and extend your reach to form an active community. The more users you can mobilize, the greater your chances of landing a viral hit. Users distribute content for various reasons, like to share an emotional experience with others or perhaps to alert like-minded people to useful information. Ideally, the information they share casts users in a positive light because they can cheer, inspire, or impress their friends.
But this is an ideal scenario – more often than not, you will have to distribute the content yourself and try to ensure that it is shared.
Sprinkle the seeds!
So-called “content seeding” refers to the targeted placement of your content on social networks, i.e. the virtual meeting places frequented by your target group. Prepare your content in different formats to achieve the widest possible distribution: Besides a blog and newsletters, these may include videos, infographics, e-books, Facebook and Twitter posts, and posts on specialist networks. Each shared post will be another backlink to your content, and these will influence your SEO ranking, attract more traffic and prompt more conversions.
In order to share content, you should offer some added value: A recipe, for example, is very useful if it’s easy to understand, written in comprehensive detail, and supported by vivid images or even video clips. Look after your users well and always keep an ear open to their problems and suggestions for improvement.
The Media Trio: Paid Media, Earned Media and Owned Media
For content seeding purposes, you can break down the appropriate channels and formats into three different categories. Ideally, your content strategy should link these elements together so they complement each other.
Paid Media: Paid Media should lead to more traffic for your own products and services. You can purchase paid media to extend your reach with advertising campaigns on search engines and social networks or via heavily frequented websites. Though CTR and visit data are easy to measure, not all formats are necessarily appropriate for your target group. For example, more people use ad blockers to suppress banner advertising or pop-up ads, and aggressive advertising is often perceived as intrusive on social networks. Therefore, Paid Media should be used very selectively. The formats best received by your target group can only be discovered through patient experimentation and analysis.
Owned Media: These are your company’s online assets, such as your company page, forums and blogs, plus your accounts on YouTube, Facebook, etc., as well as all your landing pages and newsletters. This is where you will publish most of your content, how, where and when you wish, and only at a time you think is right. You have full control over the publication and will incur nothing beyond your own costs. In addition, you can measure values such as click-through rates and length of stay with great accuracy. Your problem will be the limited reach of owned media, especially for new companies who are just starting out in content marketing. Much pioneering work will need to be done on social media to build the critical mass of followers. If enough users follow your offer, and if they like it, your own media can create a strong, trustful relationship. And if your content hits the nerve of your target group, you are entering the field of earned media.
Earned Media: This is the reach created by your users’ subsequent activity – which you “earn” by providing quality content. If users find your posts helpful, funny, or interesting, chances are they’ll click the Share button. Then, you won’t have to pay anything to increase your brand awareness. In addition, it feels much more authentic and inviting to potential customers when a friend or role model promotes this content. Depending on how active your followers are, this can result in a huge increase in your reach. However, it is difficult for you to influence which contributions are shared and whether they are associated with positive or negative criticism. In addition, it’s difficult to retrieve and measure data about this activity. Your user feedback will give you the best information about your success. Basically, it’s a good sign when your content is frequently shared.
Promote content using multipliers
In this case, multipliers mean influencers who have earned a reputation as a subject authority through their own content. They are most often bloggers who regularly reach a large number of people with their posts. To get such “gurus” to help you, you will need to carefully cultivate a good relationship with them. If, for example, you like a blogger and want to place a guest post on his or her page, don’t just rush into things. Comment and share some posts first, and then join the influencer’s community. As soon as you know him or her a little better, you should request some guest content or a content exchange. Keep in mind that your content must also be suitable for your influencer’s activities – so choose your contacts carefully. For more information about influencers, check out our series: “Successful Influencer Marketing”
Conclusion
At first glance, it may seem tedious to spend a lot of effort promoting content after the long content creation process. But a sustained effort across the various media platforms will pay off in the long term. If you deliver quality content for months on end, there is an increased chance that more users will share your content and help distribute it for free. Look at our advice as the groundwork for organically growing your content distribution, which can then be tailored to your needs as your experience grows.
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