You’ve written your eBook, whitepaper, blog post, website home page… but where are your visitors? The old mindset of: “If we build it, they will come” no longer works. With more and more content appearing online, companies need a considered content promotion strategy to get their content in front of the right people – or in some cases, anyone at all!
The Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 annual survey revealed that 65% of companies don’t have a documented content marketing strategy, and of those that do, less than half said it closely informed their content promotion efforts.
Derek Halpern of SocialTriggers works on an 80/20 split, spending 80% of his time promoting content, compared to only 20% creating it. Other guidelines put it at 50/50. It’s very clear: there’s still work to be done!
Today I’m sharing five key content promotion tactics you can use to maximise content awareness as part of your SaaS marketing strategy.
1) Blogging
Your new whitepaper, eGuide or eBook can be repurposed into a series of blog posts. Breaking down your long-form content into individual topics will enable you to create posts focused around each one, adding extra value through additional opinions and deeper analysis. By using tailored CTAs at the end of each blog post, you direct engaged visitors to a landing page for your latest content offer, and begin the process of converting them into leads.
2) Social media
Sharing
Social media is a great way to widen the reach of your content by sharing engaging snippets along with a link to your landing page or content offer. It will be particularly successful if you already have an established following.
It’s also important to give website visitors the opportunity to share your content themselves. Adding social share buttons to a post or landing page provides a quick and easy method for readers to share your content with their networks.
Targeting the right platforms
“One key to success is to stop using platforms that aren't working for you.” – Gal Rimon, Hubspot
While it may feel like more is more, in reality you probably don’t need to use Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and Pinterest and Instagram and Snapchat and… The list goes on. Be selective!
Analytics tools tell you which posts and social networks are driving visitors to your website, and what content your network engages with most. Hubspot’s Social Media reporting tool goes beyond that, showing you which channels are generating leads, customers and revenue for your company. You can then use this data to inform your social media activity and focus your time on what works, rather than guessing.
3) Email marketing
With email still a primary method of communication for businesses, email marketing remains a valuable part of your content promotion strategy. While it lacks the broad reach of social media or blog posts, it provides a personal touch, delivering tailored content direct to your contacts.
You can send your latest content offer direct to your mailing list, resulting in reengagement. Email is the perfect way to share some of your old content with evergreen appeal – particularly as your mailing list grows over time.
Repurposing content
If you’ve repurposed long-form content into blog posts or infographics, and added further value, emails are a great way to get this content in front of the people who previously engaged. By providing your email contacts with a snippet of this content – perhaps a section of the infographic or extract of the blog post – you will encourage people to click through to your website and digest in full. Having downloaded the previous long-form content, you can be sure many will be interested in your new additions.
4) Outreach
Whenever you produce a piece of content, be sure to share it directly (by email or social media) with people it will be valuable to:
People mentioned in your content
We all like to read nice things about ourselves.
If you’ve quoted an industry influencer in your content, let them know about it! Mentioning someone in your post makes them look good, and for that reason alone, most of them will be happy to share your content on.
People who previously shared similar articles
Find other articles that are similar to yours (but not as good), or content you’ve referred to in yours. Using tools like Ahrefs, you can see who linked to individual pieces. Using this insight, you can reach out to the discovered authors, and let them know about the better, more in-depth, or more up-to-date content that you've created.
5) Paid for
When carefully managed, paid promotion strategies provide a solid return on investment. Pay per click (PPC) campaigns via social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter make it possible to put your content directly in front of target buyers. The more specific you can be with your social PPC targeting, the better, as broad targeting gets very expensive, very quickly!In addition, PPC campaigns via search engines like Google or Bing can be used to promote content to individuals making specific searches. Whilst these platforms provide less demographic targeting, search phrases are a big indicator of intent, proving a valuable content promotion channel.
To promote your content to people who have previously visited your website, a retargeting campaign (through Google Adwords, social media, or platforms like Adroll) can be incredibly effective.
Now you know how to attract more visitors to your website, download our eGuide to learn how to convert those visitors into leads for your SaaS business.
