Launching a new business and then marketing it online can be ecstatic and liberating. Waiting for your marketing efforts’ results can be anxiety-inducing, and not getting your desired results can be demotivating. The effectiveness of all the work you’ve put behind your launch comes down to one thing; how good was your content promotional strategy?
Your business idea could be the most genius one in the industry, your content could be created by the top professional ghostwriter, but nothing would guarantee success unless you appear in front of your target market, the leads, and the website visitors.
Ultimately, it all comes down to one question: how do I promote my content to skyrocket my sales?
Fortunately, we have a goldmine of data to learn from and numerous experts who share their experiences and insights. Here are the top 10 content promotion hacks that can help you get a solid ROI from your content:
Send New Content to Your Email List
As a business, you cannot survive without your email list. The people on your email list have allowed you to reach them and present your offering. This is the chance to prove that your offering will be of value to them. Go ahead and share top-notch content that demonstrates this value.
Pay attention to the word ‘top-notch.’ Out of the 4,000 recipients who’ll receive your promotional email, at least 1,000 will open it and click on the link to read the content. You can see this happen for your email campaigns when the content within them is of good quality. If it answers potential customers’ questions, piques readers’ curiosity, and is visually stunning, the reader will explore your offering further.
In that case, make sure you have included an amazing CTA to keep them interested.
Make Use of Other Platforms
Your business is in its infancy right now, and it needs a bigger and stronger counterpart to support its weight for now.
In addition to posting on your business’s website, reach out to a platform with a larger audience base, and write blog posts there. There are several options where you can avail this tactic, like Medium, HubPages, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, and Beam. These platforms have a larger reach, and they can help you target a specific audience. Unlike social media pages and your website, only people genuinely interested in your particular industry would approach your blog, which increases the chances of conversion.
Recognize the Influencers in Your Industry
In case you don’t know, influencers are pretty much self-made celebrities who have mastered the world of content creation and promotion. Some influencers are present on all popular platforms, but most master a particular niche.
You need to search for these influencers and reach out to them. The more massive the following, the greater the price. Have them market your product, so it reaches an audience already interested in the industry. With the influencer’s word backing you up, the sales will skyrocket instantly.
There are many ways to have influencers market your product, but the more genuine it feels, the better.
Send them your products. If you see them mentioning your product or, better yet, using it, retweet or repost. If you have contacted an eBook writing service to launch an eBook, make sure you namedrop the influencers in there and bring it to their attention. They’ll most likely mention it, and hence, bring attention to your business.
Work on Gripping Headlines
Part of content promotion is the content itself. Create gripping headlines because a lackluster, clichéd, and repetitive headline won’t make your visitors stay no matter how far your reach has expanded.
Here are some examples to prove our point:
- On Problogger, the headline “Where to Find Free Images Online” became viral on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
- On ChrisBrogan.com, a post titled “106 Excuses That Stop You From Ever Being Great” got 5k Facebook likes and over 3k retweets.
- A blog titled “21 Settings, Techniques, and Rules All New Camera Owners Should Know” got off-the-charts success with over 419,000 shares on Facebook and 22,000 pins on Pinterest.
Pay attention to these headlines. All three of them are answering questions that people usually have.
Get Experts Onboard
In a world where everyone likes to be an expert, it’s truly refreshing to hear a real expert for a change. If your business is dealing with a relatively new product that’s being misunderstood and stereotyped or has piqued the curiosity of many people, create content with information on your product. The post should answers what people are dying to know.
To drive the point home, get an expert to answer these questions. Not only will people read (or watch) what an expert had to say, it will also prove your authority and credibility on the subject. Sometimes, the said expert will also promote his interview, which, in turn, will benefit your business.
Use GIFS
Most startups are strapped for funds, which means they can’t invest in high-end videos and podcasts. However, what they can do is, share their written content on social media and emails and interspersing them with some attention-grabbing GIFs.
Be careful though, GIFs have to be inserted tastefully or else they just look spammy and insipid. Take a look at Paramount, DiGiorno Pizza, Adult Swim, Starbucks, and General Electrics to understand how successful businesses use GIFs for marketing.
GIFs can also be used for several purposes, such as story-telling, like Disney does on Tumblr, or for a quick summary, such as Buzzfeed.
Make Your Content Share-Friendly
People like to share content when they find it good, and this causes everyone following them get exposed to it and, in turn, the business being promoted in it. Now, all you need to do is entice your readers to share your content. Your reach will increase with the number of times your content gets shared.
How exactly do you make share-friendly content? The experts have answered.
Ann Smarty, the successful business blogger, believes, “Eye-catching visuals, tweetable and visual quotes, social sharing buttons!” make content share-friendly.
Dean Brady, the self-proclaimed Digital Forefather, suggests, “build it with sharing in mind. Short quotes, tweet-ready stuff. Make sure your nut graph is on-point and early.”
And lastly, copywriter Kelsey Ray Banerjee suggests, “strong visuals, great headline, social media prompts like ‘pin it’ or ‘share this.’ Make sure you have short sentences that can be shared easily on social. Even better: add a contest or UGC component.”
Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Infographics
The same content can be used repeatedly but in different ways. Sometimes, the current trends in the industry require you to bring up an old blog post back, while sometimes, you need to do it for SEO reasons. Sometimes, you just want the same content to reach your present audience. One of the best ways to use old content is to repurpose it into an infographic.
The visual appeal of infographics is a great way to increase traffic and expand your reach. It is also a very useful tool to explain some complicated processes involving your business.
Some businesses use infographics to explain the entire process of selecting and ordering their products. Check out the World Resources Institute’s infographics that not only introduce and educate the audience but also invites them at the end of their visually appealing pathway.
Invest in Paid Ads
Paid ads on social media platforms are much more impactful than paid Google ads. With a small fee, you can choose your custom audience who’ll be exposed to your posts. If you’re smart about it, you’ll only choose the audience who has shown prior interest in the same industry as your business. This also leads to higher conversion rates.
This is especially a great option for businesses starting from scratch with no followers. With paid ads, your business appears on your ideal audience’s newsfeed.
Promote Content before Publishing
People are curious by nature, and mysteries intrigue us. Trigger the response from your audience by asking mysterious questions or using visuals with lots of suspense. Create a gripping scenario in which your audience can’t help but click on the content when it is finally posted. Creating a following even before the question is answered is difficult but worth it. Use keywords and frequently asked questions in your favor, and once the content is published, make sure it was worth all the wait.
Find the Best Promotion Hacks for Your Business!
While you’re trying some (or all) of the aforementioned hacks, keep an eye out on the success rate. Not every trick will work for your business, but some will. You need to figure out which one is a perfect match for your niche and skyrockets your sales. Meanwhile, stay afloat with the current trends, and don’t hesitate to test new waters when it comes to promoting your content.
By Rob Davis