The 5 Best Ways to Promote Your Content

Content marketing encompasses a whole lot more than just publishing a blog post and waiting to see what happens. Developing and publishing your content is only the beginning. Many digital marketers abide by the mantra that you should spend more time promoting your content than you did creating it. So what are some of the best ways to promote your content? Below are 5 methods of content promotion that will produce maximum impact for your business. 

1. Publish your content to your email list.

Email marketing is one of the cornerstone practices of successful brands, and it’s one of the most effective ways to reach a large portion of your fans and followers at one time. The subscribers on your email list have opted-in to receive your messages, which means they’re already willing to listen to whatever you have to say.

As soon as you publish a new piece of content on your blog or website, send that post to your email list as well. Just think about it: People are more likely to check their email on a daily basis than they would be to visit a website or blog every day. Your email showing up in their inbox is a great way to put your content in front of them at a time when they’re already looking to read content online.

2. Share your content on all of your social media channels.

Social media has become an inescapable reality for content marketers; you simply must have a presence on all of the major social networks if you plan to maintain an edge in today’s digitally-driven marketplace. Sharing your content with your audiences on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc., is a fantastic way to not only reach your your followers, but also as they begin to share what you’ve published with their friends and contacts, your content can experience exponential exposure.

Just remember to customize your content in a manner that best suits the social platform you’re using; in other words, try not to publish the same exact thing across all of your social media accounts, as this will appear generic and uninspired. Take advantage of the unique characteristics of each social platform and use them to your advantage; for example, create a quick 140-characters-or-less blurb that poses a question or makes a thought-provoking statement to grab your Twitter followers’ attention. Find an image that strongly connects with the theme of your content and post it on Pinterest, and include a text overlay with your post title on the image. Taking the time up front to tailor your content to the specific social channel you’re using will go a long way toward creating a more genuine experience for that particular audience.

3. Find influencers who are sharing similar content, and reach out to them.

Many times you’ll see influential voices on Twitter, Facebook, etc., sharing links to similar content from your competitors. Reach out to them and let them know that you’ve also written a post about the given topic that may provide additional insight for their audience. More often than not, they’ll agree to share what you’ve written.

4. Take advantage of blog aggregators.

You can leverage popular blog aggregator sites such as BlogEngage, Alltop and Triberr to get your content in front of a like-minded (and much larger) audience. All you have to do is create an account on each site and fill out the submission form that includes a link to your RSS feed. When filling out the form, be sure to select the topic category that is most relevant to your content, so that you’ll attract targeted traffic to your posts.

5. Don’t forget about video!

It’s no secret that video-based content is immensely popular (YouTube, anyone?), and when you utilize the platform of video, your content can take on an entirely new life. Not only can you repurpose your written content into a video-friendly presentation, but you can also publish video footage of a relevant event (e.g., trade show, speech, conference presentation, etc.) to major video outlets such as YouTube, Vimeo, etc.

If you want to take audience engagement to another level, try live-streaming one of your events on Meerkat or Periscope; you might be surprised at how strongly your audience will respond to this real-time form of interaction.

There are a myriad of ways to garner more exposure for your content; the important thing is to create a solid plan of execution, and then get busy doing it. Adding the above methods to your content promotion plan will help extend the lifespan of your content, and will enable you to add value to a much wider audience.