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7 Promotional Tactics to Market Your Content Like a Pro

7 Promotional Tactics to Market Your Content Like a Pro


7 Promotional Tactics to Market Your Content Like a Pro

Did you know that 77 percent of American adults go online every day? And, of that 77 percent, 26 percent spend almost all of their day online.

Americans are plugged in more often than not — that means you have a lot of opportunities to share content with them and market your business’s products and services. 

To generate more leads and see conversions from your content marketing efforts, you need to make sure you’re using the right promotional approach.

Read on to learn about some effective promotional tactics that will help you market your content and spread the word about your business.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing approach that involves creating a variety of online content (blog posts, social media posts, videos, etc.) with the intent of building and retaining an audience.

The goal is to provide your audience with useful, valuable content to build trust and increase the likelihood that they will purchase products or services from you in the future.

Importance of Content Marketing

There are a number of benefits that come with having a strong content marketing strategy, including the following:

  • Improve trust and build brand reputation
  • Improve website conversions
  • Improve search engine rankings
  • Bring in new leads in a cost-effective way

Content marketing also helps you to establish yourself as an expert or authority figure in your industry. This, in turn, increases your conversions and helps you to build a solid reputation for your business and brand.

Promotional Tactics Every Content Marketer Should Use

As you can see, good content marketing is essential if you want your business to succeed long-term. Here are seven promotional tactics that you ought to use when marketing your content.

1. Reach out to Influencers

Some people scoff at the idea of working with social media influencers. In reality, influencer marketing can lead to some incredibly high conversions.

Influencers who have spent time building a loyal following can be a great asset to your company and can really help to spread the word about your brand and the content you’re working hard to put out. 

Reach out to an influencer and ask for a quote to find out how much they’ll charge to share your content on their social media profiles.

2. Mention Your Sources

If you’re quoting professional sources in your online content — and, if you’re not already, you definitely should be — mention and tag those sources when you share your posts or videos on social media.

Often, your sources will see the mention and check out what you’ve created. They may even share your content on their own social media profiles.

This helps to expose you to a much wider audience and can increase the amount of engagement and the number of followers you get from a single post.

3. Email Your Sources

If you really want to ensure that a busy individual sees your content, try sending them an email.

Let them know that you’ve written a blog post or created a video in which you mention them or their research.

Many professionals have busy social media profiles, and there’s a possibility that they might miss your mention or tag.

If you email them directly, they’ll be more likely to be on the lookout for your post and may be more inclined to share it with their followers.

4. Submit to Content Communities

There are lots of websites on the internet dedicated to helping content creators grow their following and expose their content to a wider audience.

There’s a lot of competition on these websites, but they can be very helpful, especially if you’re putting out high-quality content. 

If you join one of these communities, it’s a good idea to do more than just self-promote. Share other people’s work and engage with others who are posting on the site — remember, this is a community.

It’s a good idea to share only your best content, too. You don’t necessarily want to use these sites for every piece of content you create.

5. Send Content to Your Email List

Don’t have an email list? Create one as soon as you can. An email list will provide you with direct access to people who are already interested in what your company has to offer. 

Once you have your email list, start sharing your content in regular email updates. Don’t spam the people on your list — limit yourself to a maximum of one email per day. 

6. Use Paid Ads Strategically

You can always go the paid route when you’re trying to promote your online content.

Be smart about the way you do this, though. Otherwise, you could end up spending a lot of money, and that’s money you might not necessarily get back.

Pay to promote specific pieces of content, the ones you really want to get out to a wider audience.

Make sure you label your content clearly as being sponsored, too. This helps to establish credibility and prevents you from being penalized by the platforms on which you’re advertising.

7. Hire a Professional

Finally, you might want to consider hiring a content marketing expert, like the ones available at this website, to help you get your content out to a wider audience.

There are lots of content marketing professionals out there who know the latest tricks and tools necessary to share your content with as many people as possible.

Just be sure to do your research before hiring one of these professionals to make sure they’re trustworthy and have a good online reputation.

Need More Content Marketing Help?

As you can see, there are a lot of different promotional tactics you can utilize as part of your business’s content marketing strategy. 

These seven tactics are great ones to start with when you’re first getting into the content marketing game.

Do you need additional help in establishing a content strategy, though? If so, we’ve got lots of articles for you.

Head to the Content Strategy section of our site today for a variety of resources that will teach you how to create great content, stick to a schedule, and increase your productivity.

Business

5 Ways to Diversify Your Marketing Tactics

5 Ways to Diversify Your Marketing Tactics


5 Ways to Diversify Your Marketing Tactics

marketing tactics

A diverse set of marketing tactics lets you cast a wide net over your target audience. This creates enough coverage to connect through their preferred channels and engagement funnels.

86% of marketers cite a customer journey is the up-most important business concept. This “journey” is the experience of an interested party to a verified customer.

Many will approach the journey only through digital marketing tactics.

But:

There’s a broad selection worth exploring if profits and ROI are your key metrics.

Let’s explore this broad selection.

A Diverse Customer Journey: 5 Harmonious Marketing Tactics

Consider the “big picture” of marketing.

There are several touch-points along the way, each building brand value and authority. This blog explains this concept in deeper detail. Let’s go beyond the concepts and focus on actions to create this customer journey.

This is how you should approach it:

Part 1: Face-to-Face and Relationship Marketing

Consider: Nielsen found 92% of people trust referrals from people they know.

Friends and family are the two largest influencers. But, imagine becoming part of the trust factor through your marketing efforts! This process begins on a local level through face-to-face interactions and relationship building.

How can you build locally and radiate your brand?

  1. Get your site listed in local search platforms like Google Business or Yelp
  2. Rapidly respond to reviews to show you care and display authority
  3. Create localize content highlighting your expertise and community

Attending local meetups and sponsoring local events are a priority, too.

These parties funnel through a CRM creating qualified local leads and touchpoints.

What else can you do locally?

  • Contribute to news articles and local industry thinktanks
  • Encourage word-of-mouth marketing through incentives
  • Host contests or provide tours of your facility

The point is being active in your local community. And, leveraging the connections to grow outward. This creates reviews and feedback needed to improve branding and marketing efforts.

Part 2: Print Advertising and Offline Efforts

Consider: 4/5 SBO’s find print effective with standing out.

The info gained through local efforts and existing business assets fuel your print marketing efforts. You likely have the data/materials else work with design talent to secure the following:

  • Business cards
  • Flyers
  • Brochures
  • Postcards
  • Mailers

What can you do with these?

  • Distribute business cards at local events, conferences, and meetings
  • Place flyers at relevant business locations and bulletin boards
  • Include brochures with each shipment or handed out at events
  • Send postcards to new prospects or customers to retain business
  • Mass distribute mailers (including coupons) to cold contact prospects

Each item should include contact details and site URL. This will funnel people through your marketing funnel. Or, drive them to targeted landing pages promoting offers and branded materials.

Part 3: Digital Assets and Distribution Channels

Much of the offline efforts and print materials morph into digital assets:

  • Website
  • Social Media Account
  • Display and PPC Advertising
  • Digital Media and Branding

There are hundreds of digital marketing strategies you could explore. Each provides unique challenges and ROI.

Where should you start?

1. Website + Content Marketing

Do this:

  1. Set up a website adhering to best practices and mobile-friendliness
  2. Populate the basic pages with killer content mixed with branding
  3. Brainstorm ideas and create a content schedule
  4. Produce amazing content based on keyword research and feedback
  5. Distribute the content through social channels and email newsletter

This will boost your search listings. And, provide entry-points for those searching for your business and/or its offers.

2. Social Media + Contests

Do this:

  1. Join the major social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
  2. Find, follow, and start discussions with your targeted audience
  3. Share your blog’s content and interesting industry-related pieces
  4. Use social for customer relations and brand reputation management
  5. Encourage backlinks, reviews, and mentions from passionate followers

This interaction builds trust and authority helping it reach more people. And, close more sales.

3. Display + Contextual Ads

Do this:

  1. Gather your business assets including offer photos and design elements
  2. Sign up, fund, and begin running Facebook and Google display ads
  3. Send visitors to targeted landing pages with sales pitches or opt-in forms
  4. Track and optimized campaigns through A/B testing and CRO efforts

This bypasses barriers by placing your ads and materials in-front of targeted prospects.

Part 4: Multi-Media Channels and Visual Engagement

The print materials become digital content:

  • Brochures become interactive landing pages
  • Business cards become microsites
  • Flyers (with added data) become infographics
  • Presentations become explainer videos

Consider: Cisco predicts video will be 80% of all online traffic.

How can you leverage this?

  1. Pull site data to find 10 – 20 popular search queries and pages
  2. Condense the page data into a script (50 words per 1-minute of video)
  3. Set up a camera & mic and record yourself (or team member)
  4. Edit the video while including titles and call-outs
  5. Publish the video to video sites and embedded in relevant blogs

This now gives you content for:

  • Social sharing
  • Blog media
  • Internal training
  • Email newsletters
  • Free or paid training
  • Landing page content

This diverse marketing effort gets content shared (and reshared) on platforms and channels.

Part 5: Social Outreach and Closed-Loop Marketing

Lastly:

  • Create a list of your most passionate followers
  • Create a list of potential industry influencers
  • Create a list of relevant industry blogs and sites

These are your three targets for social outreach.

Here’s how to work them:

  • Followers — Provide incentives to encourage shares/reviews to build your reputation and reach.
  • Influencers — Use their popularity to reach people while leveraging the association to build your authority.
  • Blogs/Sites — Contribute to get in front of audiences while building backlinks and business relationships.

Approach these efforts with closed-loop marketing in mind. This exchanges information between the sales and marketing team. Better data for optimization is the result of this closed-loop system.

Combining the Efforts and Moving Forward

There are hundreds of marketing tactics you could explore within each of these five main categories. Each will likely improve your effectiveness. But, it’s very typical to overwhelmed yourself (and team) by taking on too much.

Instead:

  1. Base your marketing strategy on top-tier, proven methods
  2. Test the major offline and digital marketing tactics
  3. Track data and feedback comparing them to key metrics
  4. Refine and double-down on those strategies showing a positive ROI

This combined strategy will ultimately cement your sales and marketing funnel.

Excited and ready to move forward? Explore more marketing tutorials on our blog to diversify and show positive returns!