So you've written some blog posts. Perhaps you've shared a handful via social media. But the views aren't rolling in as you'd expect. Why is that?
Promoting your content is almost as important as writing your posts (after all, you can't promote something that doesn't exist). If you want eyes on your work (and therefore more prospect conversions) you need to put in the effort of marketing it like any other aspect of your business. But, promoting something doesn't mean sharing it once on LinkedIn and calling it a day.
Like any other marketing strategy, content promotion requires patience, time, and a little planning. There are multiple ways you can promote your blog posts, some of which you might not have thought of. That's what this list is about.
If you're struggling to get more views, then here are eight places and methods you can use to promote your content:
8 Places to Promote Your Content
1. Social media
Let's start with the obvious route. Promoting your blog post on social media should be one of the first things you do once you have published it. However, this isn't a case of a quick share and that's it. You need to be efficient and creative, and understand where your audience is - it's no good sharing a post on Twitter when most of your target audience is on LinkedIn.
Social media is a minefield within the giant minefield of marketing. Common platforms include:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Each one has a different function and a different audience. For example, Pinterest has become a search engine where people can search for and save visual content that appeals to them. On a different note, LinkedIn is the place where people in business hang out (ranging from employees to CEOs). These two platforms require different tactics when posting content.
The point I'm making is that you need to be tactical when sharing your content. What is your target audience for your post? Is it a B2C or a B2B post? Share it on the platform that is relevant to your target audience.
I've written a post on writing copy for social media, including a section on writing for different social platforms. You can check that out below.
2. Email marketing and your subscriber base
The second common place to promote your blog content is via email to your existing subscriber base. This is a given. Your subscribers signed up for more content, exclusive content, and updates - you must fulfil that expectation by sharing your content the moment it gets published.
I usually share my new blog posts within minutes of publishing them, and at least a few hours before sharing them on social media. This way, my subscribers are the first to be notified and have access to my new content.
3. Paid advertising
If you're able to spend a little money on advertising your posts, it's arguably worth the investment. However, it's important to note that how you spend your money on ads matters.
Yes, you can use tools such as Google Ads to bid for top-ranking spots on the first page, but actually, you can rank well via conventional SEO methods anyway (see number eight on this list). Using Google Ads is just a quick way of getting those top spots on search results, and I would use it only for a handful of posts that have a high prospect conversion rate.
You can also use other paid advertising methods, such as Pinterest for business. I've said before that Pinterest acts as a search engine, and this is the same for advertisements. Create pins that are visually appealing and relevant to your blog post, link your blog post to them, and then promote by paying a little for advertising. The same goes for other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
One thing you need to understand before diving into paid advertisements is that you must come up with a clear ad strategy and measure your results. By measuring your results, you can identify what methods are working and which are dead weight, and cast aside the dead weight. Don't go into it blind, or else you will lose money.
4. Repurposing your content
A few months after publishing your blog post, you can repurpose your content into other formats and promote them (and your original post). Repurposing doesn't mean copying and pasting your content over and promoting it - it means adapting (and possibly rewriting) it into a new format.
Common repurposed formats for a blog post include:
eBooks
Infographics
Webinars and videos
Posts on other platforms (e.g. LinkedIn articles and Medium)
Guest posting (see number five in this list)
If your post has been also neglected for a while you can even go back to it, make some changes, and republish it. It's better to do that than leave your blog posts to collect dust. It not only shows you care about your content (which your audience and Google will love), but it also allows you to promote it again.
5. Guest posting
Did you know guest posting on other blogs is a great way to promote your existing material? Many blogs and businesses that offer guest posting opportunities allow you to have a brief bio accompanying your post.
While you won't be permitted to cite your posts in the actual guest post, the bio is your opportunity to promote yourself. If readers of your guest post are interested in what you have to say, they will learn more about you from your bio. Make sure your name, business, and email address are clear, with a link to your website homepage if the rules allow it.
6. Podcasts and videos
This is similar to repurposing your content, in that you can transform your blog posts into videos for your YouTube channel or your podcast. You can also talk about and link your relevant blog posts in the description of the video or podcast. But you can also take this a step further by featuring on other people's videos and podcasts (by invitation of course).
Similar to guest posting, featuring in other people's videos and podcasts is a great way to promote yourself and your content. It also allows you to talk about your business and content uniquely, while also engaging with other businesses and individuals. Combine this with guest posting and influencer marketing (see below) and your outreach will continue to grow.
7. Influencer Marketing
I've talked a little bit about influencer marketing before (you can read about it here). Influencer marketing is where a business connects with influencers in its industry. The term influencer doesn't just mean a popular figure on Instagram or TikTok - influencers are (as the name suggests) people of influence in their industry.
Influencers typically have a large following and outreach, which means connecting with them and getting them to share your content is a great tool for getting more eyes on your blog and business. Influencer marketing works as a collaborative process, so you'll need to do the groundwork to develop a relationship, such as sharing and commenting on their content, promoting their work, etc.
You can use tools such as BuzzSumo to search for and connect with influencers who are relevant to your business and who have a large following.
8. SEO and Google
Finally, we come to the classic SEO tactic of content promotion. This is the bread and butter of content marketing which, unlike paid advertising, costs nothing but time. The aim of the game is to get your blog posts on page one of search results.
How? There are three things I always make sure I do for each blog post:
Keywords: make sure they are engrained organically into your post; use them in your headings, subheadings, and alt-text; avoid "stuffing" (overusing them).
Headings: use H1, H2, and H3 headings and subheadings to divide up your content; this makes it easier for search engines to index them.
Images and alt-text: appropriate images make your content easier for readers and search engines to digest; make sure you add alt-text (for text readers) to your images and add relevant keywords where possible (but don't stuff them).
Once you've optimised your posts for SEO, this type of promotion tends to be passive. You're not actively looking to promote your content as you are with influencer marketing or sharing your content via social media. You don't need to do much follow-up work either, aside from monitoring your post's ranking on Google and checking your inbound leads.
Over to You
Promoting your content via different methods is vital for getting more views on your content, and therefore more prospect conversions. But promoting blog posts isn't as simple as sharing them once on social media; you need to treat it like any other marketing strategy.
There are several ways to promote your blog posts, eight of which I have covered in this list. They were:
Social media
Email marketing and your subscriber base
Paid advertising
Repurposing your content
Guest posting
Podcasts and videos
Influencer marketing
SEO and Google
The important takeaway here is to:
Use multiple methods of promoting your content
Measure you're results - throw away what doesn't work and keep what does work
Are there any other methods you use to promote your content? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to give a like if you enjoyed reading this list!