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Let’s face it; the internet is full of all kinds of content on any subject you can possibly imagine. It’s become quite a challenge for online marketers to attract readers, capture their attention and generate leads.

It’s clear that creating great content and simply marketing it just like you did last year is not even close to being enough these days. You need to be a lot more creative with your marketing strategy in order to get the results you want from your campaign.

I’m sure you’re wondering right now what exactly you should do to upgrade your strategy. How do you effectively promote content to increase conversions and make it outstanding?

Well, we’ve asked the opinion of 55 experts in content marketing and, if I were you, I would definitely read their thoughts on this hot subject. If you don’t have time to read, all the contributions scroll to the bottom of the article and download the conclusions in a nice PDF booklet.

Content Marketing Experts

Before writing and promoting any content we issue on our sites, the first thing we do is a little research to see what’s currently already out there, how to make it better, what’s actively getting shared, and also what our competition is doing as well.

This will all tie into the content promotion part, as it’s extremely important to make sure your content is worth sharing and provides real value.

Once all of this is done, and our content is live, we will then start off with a simple social media sharing campaign. If and when possible, we will push some ad dollars behind the post and run a social ad campaign through Quuu Promote, and maybe even paid ads on Facebook and Twitter to our newsletter and subscribers through the use of remarketing.

We will also take the time to promote the article with any visuals and submit them to infographic directories or sites that do well with visuals, such as Pinterest. The last part of the process is to do the manual outreach and backlink building yourself.

This entails contacting other websites to see if they would like to list your resource in place of others (if yours is better and more updated) or also including the link as a resource within any articles or guest blogging we do.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Zac Johnson” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Zac-Johnson.jpg” excerpt=”You will see much better results when your content is loaded up with visuals, accurate stats, and cited resources. @zacjohnson @mediadigicom”]”You will see much better results when your content is loaded up with visuals, accurate stats, and cited resources.”[/tweet_box]

In short, there is a lot that goes into the content promotion process. You will see much better results when your content is loaded up with visuals, accurate stats, cited resources and provides real value to the end-user.

Content promotion shouldn’t be an afterthought – it needs to be part of the original strategy for the article before you create it.

One tactic is to include people in the article that you can reach out to later. These can be influencers or companies that have a large social media following. Select a few targets based on relevance and influence and find natural ways to include them in the article.

When the article is published, you can reach out to them and let them know they’ve been featured and kindly request that they share it on their Twitter or other social media page.

Seeing as they’ve been featured in the article, and companies/influencers are often looking for material for their social media pages, there’s a reasonable chance that they’ll share it.

To promote content on any platform, you need to obviously have an audience first. In order to generate an audience that will engage with your content, you need to make sure within everything you put out, you mention some sort of asset that you control.

For instance, anyone who’s reading this tip, make sure you come to visit my White Hat SEO Network Facebook Group and interact with other SEOs like yourself.

[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Chase Reiner” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Chase-Reiner.jpg” inject=”By having multiple assets such as Facebook groups, email lists, you will be more likely to generate conversions by remarketing to your audience @SEO_Chase @mediadigicom”]”By having multiple assets such as Facebook groups, email lists, you will be more likely to generate conversions by remarketing to your audience”[/tweet_box]

By having multiple assets such as Facebook groups, email lists, etc., you will be more likely to generate conversions by remarketing to your audience, who already knows who you are.

One of our favorite techniques to promote newly published articles is finding high-value questions on Quora. Quora is a question and answer site that brings together experts to write in-depth responses about any industry you can imagine.

[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Pat Athern” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Pat-Ahern.jpg” excerpt=”One of our favorite techniques to promote newly published articles is finding high-value questions on Quora. @PatAhern1 @mediadigicom”]”One of our favorite techniques to promote newly published articles is finding high-value questions on Quora.”[/tweet_box]

Finding topics that relate to the contents of our article and writing thorough responses to each relevant topic has driven some of the most qualified leads to our site and client sites. To add to this, answers continue to drive qualified visitors years after your answer is posted.

We start by plugging Quora into SEMRush. We then use search filters to find pages on Quora that rank well for queries that relate to our newly published article. We write responses to each of those queries and include a link back to our article for those who are searching for a more comprehensive answer.

To increase conversions, the #1 rule?

Promote your content to the right audience.

I always sync my topics and distribution, aligning them both with the right people.
How else are conversions going to happen?
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Sam Hurley” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Sam-Hurley.jpg” excerpt=”I always sync my topics and distribution, aligning them both with the right people. @Sam___Hurley @mediadigicom”]”I always sync my topics and distribution, aligning them both with the right people.”[/tweet_box]

To demonstrate, here’s an example of different tweets promoting the same topic:

TWEET 1
#AI Technology Rapidly Permeates Enterprise Stacks In The Fight For Superior Customer Experience: LINK
Does that mean much to my audience? Probably not…

Here’s what I would really say:

TWEET 2
Artificial Intelligence Is Closer Than You Think! Discover How Big Brands are Already Using It for Awesome #CX: LINK
Key takeaway?

Above all (methods of promo, channels and allocated budget) — Keep your target audience firmly in mind.

The best way to promote content to increase conversions is to realize that content itself is only a step towards a conversion. Content marketing assets are bricks of a house, and together they make effective sales and growth.[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Harris Schachter” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Harris-Schachter.jpg” excerpt=”Content that tries to address the whole customer base risks sounding too promotional and limiting the scope of being promoted. @OptimizePrime @mediadigicom”]”Content that tries to address the whole customer base risks sounding too promotional and limiting the scope of being promoted.”[/tweet_box]
No single piece of content will solve all your problems. Instead, string them together in smart ways to build out personalized, relevant funnels over many sessions and channels.

Content promotion is one of THE most important aspects of SEO and marketing.

It’s also one of the most overlooked steps.

There are 3 key things that you must keep in mind when promoting your content.

1. It must be targeted. Getting your content in front of the ‘right’ type of people is extremely important.
2. It must be value-driven. Spammy link sharing generally doesn’t work.
3. You must use the right platforms. A scattergun approach and spreading yourself too thinly is a bad move.

There are many ways to effectively promote your content, but you must pick your platforms carefully.

Promote your content where your target audience hangs out most.

If you run a food or wedding blog, perhaps Pinterest and Instagram would be good choices to promote your content.

If you offer services to businesses, then LinkedIn would be a good bet. The point is, you must be focused and target the right people on the right platform at the right time.

Many people spend ages creating a piece of content only to throw it out willy-nilly across social and then move on.

This is a bad move. You should carefully target and promote your assets constantly and continually.

Don’t stop with a couple of Tweets or Facebook posts. Constantly promote your assets and test your copy, imagery, and video. Try new things and measure how successful it is.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Gareth Daine” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Gareth-Daine.jpg” excerpt=”Use Facebook ads to retarget people who’ve previously visited your website, or have watched videos you’ve posted on your Facebook page. @garethdaine @mediadigicom”]”Use Facebook ads to retarget people who’ve previously visited your website or have watched videos you’ve posted on your Facebook page.”[/tweet_box]
Here are 3 tips for promoting content across the web:

1. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to narrow down your targeting and then send personalized connection requests or 1st-degree messages to your network using automation tools such as LI Tools. Use this method with caution, though.
2. Use BuzzSumo to find similar content in your niche and find the people who have shared it, and then reach out on Twitter with your content. Personalize the outreach and let them know why it’s valuable to their audience. Ask for their expert feedback.
3. Use Facebook ads for retargeting people who’ve previously visited your website, or have watched videos you’ve posted on your Facebook page. Target them using some good copywriting and perhaps a quick video explaining why they’d love the piece.

There are absolutely tons of content promotion strategies available to you, and I share many of them with my subscribers at garethdaine.com.

Remember, targeting, the correct platforms, and consistency are KEY.

First, creating a piece of content that will stick around for a while, you should include some good information, a case study with good stats or something interesting.

There are so many articles out there saying the same old thing. So you need to stand out from the crowd first and foremost by creating something interesting.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Craig Campbell” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Craig-Campbell.jpg” excerpt=”You need to stand out from the crowd first and foremost by creating something interesting. @craigcampbell03 @mediadigicom”]”You need to stand out from the crowd first and foremost by creating something interesting.”[/tweet_box]
Then what you want to do is post the article on your website first and foremost and then follow that up with some hype on social media, get people sharing the article and creating a buzz around it.

People have no issues sharing good interesting content. This will, in turn drive traffic to the article. But you will also want to have some calls to action on the page too; this will help you get conversions.

I would always say do some testing around the calls to action and see what works best. This will help you increase conversions; you simply have to make the conversion easy for the readers.

Our company, SEO Hacker, started out as a knowledge-based blog where I published everything I knew about SEO. Even up to today, I still write and publish SEO-related news, updates, tips, etc.

Years of experience, reading authoritative blogs, and experimenting allowed me to hone my skills in content marketing, and these are just some of the ways we effectively promote our content:

Linking to Authority – Every one of our blog posts has a link to an authoritative website. This is to further improve our post’s accuracy and credibility. Another benefit that we get from this is to encourage other authoritative websites to link to our blog posts whenever they deem it relevant and useful to their own content.

Repurposing – Another content promotion tactic we make use of is repurposing. This is where we update our old blog posts and add an infographic or video (visual content) to increase our post’s reach and traffic. After repurposing our content, we market it through different channels where people that are interested in our niche will see it.

Email Marketing – The SEO Hacker blog has thousands of email marketing subscribers, and they always receive an email giving them the heads up regarding our latest blog post. This is a content promotion strategy to directly deliver your freshly published content to people who want to see it.

Social Media – All of our blog posts have social media sharing buttons which makes it easier for our visitors to share the posts that they like. This helps spread our brand name in different social media channels, and it also helps us reach new audiences through the help of loyal and long-time readers.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Sean Si” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Sean-Si.jpg” excerpt=”Every one of our blog posts has a link to an authoritative website to further improve our post’s accuracy and credibility. @SEO_Hacker @mediadigicom”]”Every one of our blog posts has a link to an authoritative website to further improve our post’s accuracy and credibility.”[/tweet_box]
Content promotion is definitely one of the best ways to bring large amounts of traffic to your website, but it is up to your capability as a writer to convert them into paying customers.

Your efforts will bear fruit if you are able to deliver what the users are looking for in an informative and useful body of content. Always remember that content is still king.

Most content marketers still think that if they write a creative piece of content, the magic will happen immediately. A new audience will come and swiftly share it through all possible social media channels. Your conversions will shoot up, everyone will start mentioning you, the external media will notice you and invite you to contribute.

Your content will get all the possible credits, and even Google will rank it first and bring you all the traffic you’ve ever dreamed of. But the reality is harsh. To create buzz and increase conversions, you have to make an effort and prepare the promotion of your content thoughtfully.

I’d like to share three easy steps I usually take to increase my content conversion, make it shareable and reach my content goals.

1. Have your promotional materials ready and to hand

Your promotional posts and pictures should be ready before the promotion. Three to five different texts and images would be great. Ideally, schedule these posts in advance so that during the promotion period, you won’t have to spend time doing this.

Use social media scheduling tools and find the tweets that received the most engagement and post them several times. Respond to all mentions and engage in conversation with people. Don’t leave any mention unanswered. Remember to always thank your audience for sharing your content-people will be grateful.

2. Set up your promotion campaign

How will your target audience find out about your content? Help people find it in an endless list of Google search results. To do this, set up an advertising campaign to promote your content. Try using different formats, texts, and pictures and follow the audience reactions.

Do not hesitate to stop the promotion if it gets just a few clicks and redistributes your budget. If it’s the case that you don’t have a budget at all, ask industry experts to give their feedback on your content and share it on their social media channels.

3. Keep an eye on your rankings

There is no point in writing content if you don’t let your target audience find it. In order to help them, make your content SEO-friendly. This is when you have to think about creativity and SEO equally.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Nadia Nazarova” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Nadia-Nazarova.jpg” excerpt=”There is no point in writing content if you don’t let your target audience find it. In order to help them, make your content SEO-friendly. @nadia_nenadia @mediadigicom”]”There is no point in writing content if you don’t let your target audience find it. In order to help them, make your content SEO-friendly.”[/tweet_box]
Start with a topic. What topic will resonate with your target audience? What will engage people in conversation? Use controversial and popular headlines. Next, think about your content length, structure, and keywords you want to target. And last but not least, spend some time collecting backlinks for your content when it’s published.

Don’t wait for the magic. Become the one who makes it happen — plan your promotion in advance, set up an advertising campaign and make your content rank organically!

Don’t just give people what they need – give them what they didn’t know they need, and then offer them an additional value-added solution on top of that.

For example, let’s say you want to install WordPress on your website so that you can start a blog. As you search on the web, most sites you will encounter pretty much just show the steps needed to get the software running.

However, you stumble across a site that not only shows you how to Install WordPress, but also what settings should be used to get the maximum benefit, plugins to install that can save you time and money, the best themes to use for the type of blog you want, resources you can access if you need extra help and support, what needs to be done if you want to sell products on your blog, and much more.

And not only that, there is an option to have a professional take care of this for you fast and efficiently for a nominal fee.

Not only did you get the information you needed, but you found a treasure trove of information you were not even aware of that can help you on your journey to creating your blog – and to top it all off, you also found someone who can do it for you if you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Andrew Lowen” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Andrew-Lowen.jpg” excerpt=”By providing more value in your content, you allow yourself a better opportunity to increase visitor traffic and conversions. @NxtLvlWeb @mediadigicom”]”By providing more value in your content, you allow yourself a better opportunity to increase visitor traffic and conversions.”[/tweet_box]
Content like this is very effective and has a great opportunity to go viral because people will share it with others because of the perceived value it provides.

By providing more value in your content, you allow yourself a better opportunity to increase visitor traffic, and ultimately conversions.

For me increasing conversions and making content outstanding is not about tools but about strategy and execution. My Most Important Content Tools are…

• My personality.
• My passion.
• My obsessiveness with being connected.

Content amplification strategies and the various sources that I use to promote…

SYNDICATE, SYNDICATE, SYNDICATE… share your content via all social channels, always including Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn, which also makes it easy for others to share.

And don’t be afraid to do it more than once, periodically sharing old posts via your social channels, especially those that were well received. Also, let others freely repost your content with a link back to the original post.

In addition, start publishing on LinkedIn and Medium and repost all your blog posts there, spreading out a couple/few weeks at a time to get it more life from each post. Every time you publish it, be sure to share via all your social channels again.

And… see if you can find other blogs that will allow you to do this there as well. I republish all my posts on TheSocialCMO.com and others, as well as TedRubin.com, LinkedIn Publishing, and Medium.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Ted Rubin” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ted-Rubin.jpg” excerpt=”Conversation is the best Content… Old marketing was dictation… new marketing is communication. @TedRubin @mediadigicom”]”Conversation is the best Content… Old marketing was dictation… new marketing is communication.”[/tweet_box]
And here are some basic content tips…

#1: User-Friendly Navigation: Keeping your blog easy to navigate with intuitive category labels will help people find the information they seek much faster. Also, make it easy for readers to leave comments and share your posts on various channels that will help lead others back to you.

#2: Commenting on Other Blogs: Look for other blogs in your industry that have a good amount of traffic and comments, and contribute a comment, but only if you think you can add value to the conversation. Be careful not to promote your blog here; just add some insight, and do it on a regular basis.

Make seeking out and commenting on other blogs a part of your daily activities. The more you contribute to the conversation happening around you, the more you’ll be seen as a thought-leader (and people will click on your link to check you out).

#3: Look for Holes in Your Competition: Take a look at your competition’s blogs and websites. Are there content holes they’ve missed that you can take advantage of?

Ways to add value not already available and help you stand out. Those consistently provide lots of content have a bigger chance of attracting people who are actively looking for information.

Most importantly, make certain the people you are trying to convert know there is a person behind the content… make it personable, engaging, and welcome outreach and conversation.

The conversation is the best Content… Old marketing was dictation… new marketing is communication. Change from Convince & Convert to Converse & Convert! #NoLetUp!

Over the years, we have created a lot of content marketing and business information on our sites. While many of these topics have been written about before, the difference between our content and the competition is that we like to provide unique visuals and infographics as well.

This definitely takes a lot more time, but it’s important for the visual and fast-paced online world we now live in.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Srish Agrawal” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Srish-Agrawal.jpg” excerpt=”Even if it takes a little more time and more effort, infographics and original visual content is a great way to gain more exposure and backlinks to your site content.
. @srishagrawal @mediadigicom”]”Even if it takes a little more time and more effort, infographics and original visual content is a great way to gain more exposure and backlinks to your site content.”[/tweet_box]
Infographics are great for all industries and markets as well. After going live with a post on our own sites, we will then take the time to write original articles for other sites within our niche and provide our infographic to them as well. This usually results in a backlink and more readers to our sites.

The takeaway here is to go above and beyond what your competition is doing. Even if it takes a little more time and more effort, infographics and original visual content is a great way to gain more exposure and backlinks to your site content.

At Mod Girl, we pump out a lot of great content. Because we’ve been in the “content marketing” game for so many years, we’ve learned how to get the most out of every piece of content we publish.

We do this by creating a strategic sharing calendar AND by repurposing content.

For example, if we post a blog, we have a posting schedule, we follow the first day, the first week, and then every week thereafter. We utilize different social media posts, different images, and different messaging in order to keep the content unique while still promoting the same blog post.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Mandy McEwen” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Mandy-McEwen.jpg” excerpt=”When it comes to repurposing content, we like to create videos and images from blog posts. @MandyModGirl @mediadigicom”]”When it comes to repurposing content, we like to create videos and images from blog posts.”[/tweet_box]
When it comes to repurposing content, we like to create videos and images from blog posts. We also take snippets from certain videos and make them standalone content pieces with new CTAs. We also turn blog posts into downloadable guides and worksheets.

When you have a strategy for promoting your content, and you stick to it, you will get 10X more eyeballs on every piece of content you publish!

The best way to make your content outstanding is to ensure you do ALL 6 of these things:

1. Make it valuable. Great content that is helpful ranks well on Google!

2. Make it grammatically perfect. Do NOT rely on editing tools such as Grammarly. Computerized tools CANNOT replace the skills of a human being who is trained in English! Instead, hire an editor!

3. Promote your content in various ways. Use influencer outreach (email your highly-regarded colleagues and ask them to share your post with their audience). Use different social media platforms (Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc.).

Email your list (sometimes, email them twice!). Use hashtags when sharing on social media (make sure they are relevant!). Tag your friends and colleagues on social media (most won’t mind).
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Lorraine Reguly” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Lorraine-Reguly.jpg” excerpt=”Google likes updated articles, and it’s a good idea to have a lot of internal links on your site so that you keep visitors on your site longer. @lorrainereguly @mediadigicom”]”Google likes updated articles, and it’s a good idea to have a lot of internal links on your site so that you keep visitors on your site longer.”[/tweet_box]
4. Ask for links from your friends. Some of your colleagues might link to you without you even asking them (that is how you know your content is exceptionally good), but most will link to you if you ask. Don’t be afraid to ask.

5. Link to your own content. Add links to previously published posts too. Take the time to do this because Google likes updated articles, and it’s always a good idea to have a lot of internal links on your site so that you keep visitors (readers) on your site longer (thereby reducing your bounce rate AND impressing them even more).

6. Continue promoting your content on a regular basis. You can use a scheduling tool (such as Buffer or Hootsuite) for most social media (and Tailwind for Pinterest).

If you do all of these, your post will be exceptional, you will help others, you will reach many more people, you will rank higher in the search engines, and you will, ultimately, get more business and/or make more sales!

Trust me, I speak from experience! I know!

How I promote content depends on what the content is.
I have blog posts, and I have an ebook.

How do I promote my blog post content?
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Janice Wald” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Janice-Wald.jpg” excerpt=”I use free social media management tools to help me promote my content, and the most amazing is Missinglettr. @MrsPaznanski @mediadigicom”]”I use free social media management tools to help me promote my content, and the most amazing is Missinglettr.”[/tweet_box]
I use free social media management tools to help me promote my content. The most amazing is Missinglettr.

I don’t say that just because I was recently a speaker at the Missinglettr Uppercase Conference. Missinglettr writes my social media content for me.

This is actually a free service. I don’t have to rack my brains wondering how to promote my post content on Twitter; Missinglettr writes it for me.

You choose the social media site, and Missinglettr provides the content.

Buffer: I schedule my Twitter posts (written by Missinglettr) using Buffer.
The Buffer app tells me which of my Twitter posts were the “Top Posts” of the day.

I use that content to promote on Facebook and Instagram.

Sometimes, it’s not just the content itself that attracts readers and drives engagement. Making sure you’re promoting the content frequently is another tactic that gets overlooked.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Nancy Rothman” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Nancy-Rothman.jpg” excerpt=”Creating a single post for your content isn’t enough anymore, post more frequently to capture more social impressions. @meetedgar @mediadigicom”]”Creating a single post for your content isn’t enough anymore, post more frequently to capture more social impressions.”[/tweet_box]
With the number of updates that get posted to each social network each day, it’s impossible to reach your entire follower-base in a single post. Creating a single post for your content isn’t enough anymore. Post more frequently to capture more social impressions.

There are many ways to promote content and make it outstanding. The two most outstanding strategies I deploy every now and then include creating a supporting copy and sharing it on social media and with my email list.

Inside this email or social media copy, I insert the URL of my blog post. This supporting copy must be crafted in such a way that your target audience will be anxious to know what the article is saying.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Emmanuel Emenike” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Emmanuel-Emenike.jpg” excerpt=”From time to time, I revisit an old post, add fresh ideas to it and promote the living hell out of it. @eBusinessRoom @mediadigicom”]”From time to time, I revisit an old post, add fresh ideas to it and promote the living hell out of it.”[/tweet_box]
The first action is to get them to click on it, and next is to ensure that your article is valuable enough to keep them reading. If you don’t get these two things, no conversion will take place.

Additionally, I do not stop promoting particular content even after the first year of its publication. From time to time, I revisit an old post, add fresh ideas to it and promote the living hell out of it.

This makes it start trending again on the first page, even if it was initially buried on the 3rd SERP before. As this continues, I’m super sure of selling more products and services.

There are many ways to promote content, but few of them make the content itself better…except when you add highly shareable visuals to the content. That obviously makes the content better, but it also helps to promote the content.

Consider your favourite social media platform: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter…let’s not even get into Pinterest. It’s the image that first catches people’s eyes.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”David Leonhardt” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/David-Leonhardt.jpg” excerpt=”Use an image that arouses curiosity, that most certainly will get people clicking through to find out more. @amabaie @mediadigicom”]”Use an image that arouses curiosity, that most certainly will get people clicking through to find out more.”[/tweet_box]
No image, no traffic.

Stock photography, no traffic.

An image that resonates with people, well, that might get people looking and even clicking through.

An image that arouses curiosity that most certainly will get people clicking through to find out more.

What does this mean in practical terms? When you create content, budget some time and/or money for original visuals.

I will be doing various tactics on on-page and off-page if my prime focus is to increase conversions with content marketing.

On the article, I will be adding more CTA’s and will be working on adding a strong headline or title to increase conversions. I will also be working on doing internal link building with other articles or may add a banner of the post in the sidebar of my homepage.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Ali Raza” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ali-Raza.jpg” excerpt=”I will be adding more CTA’s on the article, and will be working to add a strong headline or title to increase conversions. @creativeraza @mediadigicom”]”I will be adding more CTA’s on the article, and will be working on adding a strong headline or title to increase conversions.”[/tweet_box]
Off-page, firstly I will be trying to cash up my email subscribers and then my social media followers who are willing to buy almost any predict on my recommendation.

If required, I may also do a podcast, upload a video and may link a roundup post to it to increase sales.

I need to break this question down into 3 separate parts, promotion, conversions, and making it good.

How to promote

There are many ways to get content in front of peoples eyes, Facebook ads, Pinterest, forums, Instagram. The best one to use to promote depends entirely on the type of content you have and the aim that you have for the content.

I’m gonna go ahead and assume that you have a blog post, and the aim of it is to get people to sign up to your email list/Facebook bot/come back to your next post and eventually buy whatever you’re selling.

So we will concentrate on manual outreach, aimed at getting whatever content you have linked to from a site that already has your target audience visiting it.

What helps conversions

A lot of people will tell you what to change on your post based on data that you get once visitors see it, which is cool but I’m gonna talk about how to do that upfront before you’ve even made your content.

Conversions depend on a couple of key things:

1. Trust
2. Authority
3. A clear message
4. Understand your visitors intent

All of these things can be gained as a side effect of who links to your content. You can “borrow” authority and trust simply by getting a link. The page that links to you can often give you insight into where they are in the journey.

The message, that’s up to you. But don’t confuse people. Give them what they need and then give them a single action that will move them closer towards their goal.

Understanding upfront who you will target for links, how to appeal to them, and how to get their audience interested in what you have can cut out a lot of future A/B testing.

But most importantly, understanding the intent of the people visiting your page is the key to converting them, find out exactly what they want, and give it to them. Help them progress to the next stage of their journey.

It also depends on the way you want to convert. For me, I take a long-term approach, and I concentrate my entire content strategy on building trust, proving my concepts and being approachable. Those of you in my Facebook group will already know this.

Build yourself an audience, give them everything and convert them in the long term. And don’t try to sell an advanced guide to writing a novel to a person who doesn’t understand basic sentence structure.

So figure out who you want to see your stuff, what they want to see, what they are already looking at online, and how to appeal to the people who own the sites that they already look at.

Making your content outstanding

I have a philosophy with my own content. It should be the absolute best version of that thing that exists on the internet. If it isn’t, then what is the purpose of making it?

With my content, I give the reader absolutely everything for the stage that they are at, full transparency is key to the reputation I have built for myself. A good example of this is the link in my bio.

A detailed breakdown of exactly what I would do if you gave me money, it answers every possible question a prospect could have, so much so that they could implement it themselves if they desired, but if they don’t want to, they can give me money to do it for them.

It’s also a good example of knowing the intent of the visitor, anybody who sees this page is likely going to already know what link building is, and that it’s what their business needs. Otherwise the page does a great job of filtering these people.

So I am not trying to sell a link building service to a person who doesn’t already have some SEO knowledge.

It can be a fine line to do all of this but figure out who your targets are and their intent, what they need and give it to them. These are the keys to the content marketing kingdom.

Taking all of this into account, a few links on the right sites with the right content will send your conversions through the roof; see the image above.

The ultimate goal is to bring value to our users.

Whenever I pitch myself in front of buyers, that required great copywriting skills although, my first priority is to think about giving them an extremely valuable product or service that they should definitely buy.

Basically, whenever you are writing content it should have inside one gift that our users would love to get it for free. That’s where my sales funnel plan will be active.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Faiz Israili” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Faiz-Israili.jpg” excerpt=”My first priority is to think about giving users an extremely valuable product or service that they should definitely buy. @faiz_israili @mediadigicom”]”My first priority is to think about giving users an extremely valuable product or service that they should definitely buy.”[/tweet_box]
After successfully activating my sales funnel, I start doing my tracking and analysis process until I achieve my expected conversion ratio. The first few things I always do when optimizing content for conversions.

• What exactly customers are looking at the landing page, and how I can improve it.
• Customer’s reading, clicking and viewing area in the landing page.
• Competitor’s landing page and call to action.
• Perfectly inbound and outbound Search Engine Optimization.
• Discussion with the sales team, live chat team, and implementation.

My two best tips for effectively promoting content to increase conversions is to A/B Split Test and to understand your target audience. When it comes to A/B testing, it’s very hard to know exactly what will work better with your audience, so you have to test the best concepts you have in mind.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Jeet Banerjee” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Jeet-Banerjee.jpg” excerpt=”Spend time to understand who the most likely person to engage with your content is and find the best place to target them. @thejeetbanerjee @mediadigicom”]”Spend time to understand who the most likely person to engage with your content is and find the best place to target them.”[/tweet_box]
Secondly, if you don’t know who your audience is, it doesn’t matter how great your landing page or funnel may be. Spend time to understand who the most likely person to engage with your content is and find the best place to target them.

First, you need to think about your audience and cater your content to your target audience. Ask yourself – how and why is this content relevant for them? First of all, don´t forget about the value of truly interesting and shareable content, so your audience and influencers become your promoters.

Roundups (like this one) is a good example, as it combines valuable advice from credible sources and influencer marketing (and let´s be honest, we all like to promote ourselves – so I will be clicking like sharing, and tweeting this roundup). You also must remember about organic search – make sure to optimize your content for SEO.

Then you need to assess your promotion channels and see what has been working before and why. You don´t have to re-invent the bicycle every time, but you do need to optimize. For example, if a mailing list still works for you – use that, but A/B test your subject lines.

You also need to think about how to most effectively reach your target audience to promote your content and increase conversions. Choose the right channel to reach your target audience (the right content for each channel, the right timing, the right hashtags etc.).
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”iEva Zelca” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/iEva-Zelca.jpg” excerpt=”Don´t forget about the value of truly interesting and shareable content so your audience and influencers become your promoters. @ievazelcha @mediadigicom”]”Don´t forget about the value of truly interesting and shareable content so your audience and influencers become your promoters.”[/tweet_box]
When it comes to paid social media promotion, for a B2B company, like AccuRanker, we can narrow down our target audience very precisely on LinkedIn due to the possibility to target by country, industry, company, job title, skills etc.

While initial high costs of CPC might scare a lot of people away – when it comes to CTR and increase in conversions, LinkedIn has shown to be a great channel for promoting content for us as targeting can be very narrow and specific.

But there is no one-fits-all solution here. If you choose to promote your content via Social media, you have to research which channels your target audience engage most in, what type of content works best and test, test and test.

At Kraftblick, content is the king. Content marketing is the main source of qualified leads for our SaaS marketing agency and Software companies we are working with.

This is what helps us promote content in the most effective way:

#1. We try to create as valuable and relevant content as possible

Making your content valuable and interesting is the minimum that is necessary for a successful promotion.

Everyday, content makers release thousands of posts. For example, 91.8 million blog posts are published every month only on WordPress alone.
In order for your content to stand out among tons of other materials, it should be of high quality.

Also, the quality of content greatly affects its conversion rate, as potential leads should have a solid reason to engage.

To create exceptional content, you need two things: expertise and deep understanding of your target audience. These two things determine how we create content in our company.

Remember that high-quality, relevant content starts to promote itself from the very release.
The thing is that readers want to share valuable information with their friends and colleagues.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Irina Tsumarava” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Irina-Tsumarava.jpg” excerpt=”To create exceptional content, you need two things: expertise and deep understanding of your target audience. @ira_for_short @mediadigicom”]”To create exceptional content, you need two things: expertise and deep understanding of your target audience.”[/tweet_box]
Several years ago, Moz and Buzzsumo conducted a study and analyzed 1 million articles on the web. They concluded that research-backed content (and therefore the most specific and useful) achieves higher shares and more links.

So, after the article is ready, we begin the active phase of promotion.

#2. We include our new articles in email newsletters

Before we start distributing content among new readers, we inform our subscribers about recent blog release.

Each of our blog articles contains a CTA. It allows us hiding valuable information, which makes readers enter their emails to get access to the full text of the post.

#3. We share our posts across relevant Facebook communities

According to statistics, on average, Facebook has 1.23 billion active daily users.
That’s why any business may find its audience in this social network, and we are no exception.

In Kraftblick, we have a list of relevant Facebook communities, and our outreach specialists update it on a regular basis.
As soon as we publish a post and send it to our subscribers, we refer to it in relevant Facebook groups.

#4. We answer questions on Quora

We look for relevant questions on Quora and give answers that can be helpful to users.
Now and then, we may drop links to our blog content in our Quora responses.

#5. We turn our content into Slideshare presentations

We repurpose our content into presentations to reach a greater number of potential readers.
It may be convenient for some readers to digest information in this format. Or someone may want to download a PDF file to have constant access to it.

The best way to promote your content is to treat article/blog post as a landing page and build backlinks to it in order to rank on the first page of Google search. Your mission here is to drive people to that page, increase your traffic, conversions, and drive conversations on your comment section.

So, you will need to ensure the visibility of this content (well, a landing page) so people can find it on Google when they are researching the topic. After you publish it on your site, make sure you are tracking the keyword rankings on Google for that post in Google Search Console or Ahrefs.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Mike Khorev” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Mike-Khorev.jpg” excerpt=”The best way to promote your content is to treat the article as a landing page and build backlinks to it in order to rank on the first page of Google. @MikeKhorev @mediadigicom”]”The best way to promote your content is to treat the article as a landing page and build backlinks to it in order to rank on the first page of Google.”[/tweet_box]
For example, if you target keyword is “digital marketing best practices”, and you are currently on the fifth page of Google search with your post, you need to build backlinks to it: share on social media, share on different bookmarking platforms (do only 10-15 a month).

If you do this consistently for 2-3 months, the content will slowly climb up the search results page while also driving organic traffic to your site. On average, it takes 4-6 months for your content to start ranking on the first page for very competitive keywords.

This practice also helps you become a thought leader/expert in your industry as well as increase your brand awareness. Build backlinks to that post, and Google will do the rest.

First off, the content itself should be astounding and noteworthy. Something that will compel the audience to share and talk about it online. You cannot assume to win in promotion and conversions by putting together a half-assed content piece.

Heck, it will never be good enough. The content itself should convince you that you yourself will highly share it with your peers.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Fervil Von Tripoli” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Fervil-Von-Tripoli.jpg” excerpt=”Link to influencers – this is a very powerful strategy to bait links or initiate reciprocation of links. @FervilVon @mediadigicom”]”Link to influencers – this is a very powerful strategy to bait links or initiate reciprocation of links.”[/tweet_box]
But here are two important things you will likely need to integrate into your content to help you out in the promotion part later on:

• Focus on providing value in your content – the content topic should be aligned with your business goals i.e. answering some frequently asked questions in your niche or a how-to guide in the industry you are in.
• Mention/link to influencers – this is a very powerful strategy to bait links or initiate reciprocation of links.

Once you have laid a strong foundation in your content, here are some few smart promotion strategies you can do to amplify the reach of your content:

• CTA – strategically placing email subscribe forms, call-to-action buttons, and smart popovers.
• Paid promotion – what’s best about ads (may it be Google ads or Facebook) is that you can exclusively target those audiences who are keen to consume and take action on your content.
• SEO – when hunting for the keywords, it’s important to have a good strategy in finding the best keywords that rightly fit with your content. Repurposing your content into a video, audio, downloadable pdf file, and a slide deck is also an ideal way to reinforce your message to your audience.
• Content Marketing – this is where your links to influencers come into play. You will likely need to tap them for them to notice your content. You can use hunter.io if you are scouting for the email of the influencer. If you are active in Twitter, you can opt-in using followerwonk in prospecting influencers which will highly share your content.
• Social Media – use plugins such as Pin It and Click to Tweet to increase the shareability of your piece.

It starts by creating content that answers the questions or pain points of your target market. Then, you proactively seek out these people, contact them and genuinely provide value and answers.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Carlo Borja” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Carlo-Borja.jpg” excerpt=”It starts by creating content that answers the questions or pain points of your target market. @carloborja @mediadigicom”]”It starts by creating content that answers the questions or pain points of your target market.”[/tweet_box]
For some industries, this may not be the way to get the most “traffic.” But, I’d take more conversions over traffic any time.

I effectively promote all of my content by creating a good handful of different social updates for each platform so that post can be shared multiple times without being too repetitive.

I find the more I share my posts across my personal and business social platforms, the more engagement the content gets.

But you don’t want to share the same update everywhere. So make sure to craft updates with each outlet in mind, utilizing hashtags where appropriate, and in a few different ways so you can get those updates into circulation and that post widely shared!

When it comes to promoting content, firstly, you have to make sure that the content you’ve created is something that you believe in. There’s nothing worse than trying to sell something that you don’t believe in. The second step is identifying the channels which most effectively target, and reach your potential customers.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Aaron Watts” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Aaron-Watts.jpg” excerpt=”Once you know where to promote your content, it’s all about how your present it to ensure that it’s perceived in the right manner. @AWattsContent @mediadigicom”]”Once you know where to promote your content, it’s all about how your present it to ensure that it’s perceived in the right manner.”[/tweet_box]
Once you know where to promote your content, it’s all about how you present it to ensure that it’s perceived in the right manner. Over the years we have seen the most success by positioning content as something that can solve a specific problem.

Not only do we want to let people know that our content can answer a question, but we also want them to know that it offers them a solution.

For any content to be deemed outstanding, it should satisfy what the target audience is looking for from a page. That can be providing a product they want or need. It can be giving the answer to a question they have. It may just be a straightforward definition.

Understanding, then tailoring content around the browsing intent of your target audience is the first step to creating outstanding content.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Declan Reilly” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Declan-Reilly.jpg” excerpt=”For any content to be deemed outstanding, it should satisfy what the target audience is looking for from a page. @declanjreilly @mediadigicom”]”For any content to be deemed outstanding, it should satisfy what the target audience is looking for from a page.”[/tweet_box]
To ‘effectively promote’ that content is to get it in front users who would be satisfied by it. This can be done in a number of ways.

• Sharing (usually via Twitter or direct e-mail outreach) within circles/communities that would appreciate the content

• Optimizing to meet organic searchers’ intent

• Paid advertising on relevant websites or search terms

Having just a small percentage of the total users that ‘would’ find satisfaction [from the content] see your page can lead to a snowball effect, whereby these users naturally share the content with other users that may also find satisfaction, ultimately leading to increased conversions.

The title is important as it has to have the keywords you want to rank for, but also be clickable.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Rob Lloyd” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Rob-Lloyd.jpg” excerpt=”The title is important as it has to have the keywords you want to rank for but also be clickable. @bloggeries @mediadigicom”]”The title is important as it has to have the keywords you want to rank for but also be clickable.”[/tweet_box]
Other than that, keep paragraphs short, use lots of headers and make sure you share it in the right channels. If your content is good and it’s placed in the right channels, it will promote itself.

Your content is useless if it is not helping in conversion. In fact, most of the content on the web isn’t qualified enough to make a person take the desired action.

Content is your online salesperson who works for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Expert content marketers understand the power of content and they know how to promote it to the right audience.

For example – There are not benefits to promoting a sports-related content to the real estate audience.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Umesh Singh” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Umesh-Singh.jpg” excerpt=”One thing that marketers often forget their clients and their needs instead they focus only on their own product or services. @Iamumeshsingh @mediadigicom”]”One thing that marketers often forget their clients and their needs instead they focus only on their own product or services.”[/tweet_box]
Here are my two favorite content marketing tips that helped me with my content marketing goals as well as conversions.

#1. Understand Your Audience – Without saying a word – it should be the first that one should consider while making his/her content marketing strategy. He must know who are his target audience and customers. What are the problems they are struggling with and how you can help them to deal with that?

Here are some steps you can follow:

1. Collect demographic data of your core client base that includes their gender, marital status, age, income, geographic location, employment and other important information.
2. Try to find out what are their hobbies and habits by visiting their social media profiles. Moreover, collect information where do they hang out and what types of content they are sharing on their social media profiles?
3. Focus on their buying behaviors if they are a frequent buyer or occasional buyers. Once you’ll have enough data you’ll quickly understand who is the potential client.

You can test your idea against them to find out if the content you are providing them is helping in conversion or not. By doing this process you’ll eventually find the right type of content that your potential clients actually expect from you.

#2. Don’t write content about you only
Here is the harsh truth – your client doesn’t care about you or your brand unless you are offering something good to them whether it is a video, article, or podcast, etc.

Marketers often forget their clients and their needs instead they focus only on their own product or services. In fact, people find themselves hard to believe in the company which only publish content about themselves – and start ignoring them.

This is a pretty serious problem that marketers should think about when they are trying to increase their conversion rate. A true content marketing strategy helps build a strong connection between the brand and clients.

You need to produce content that visitors can relate to and feel like finally, I’ve got it!

Content Marketing is a War, where you fight for the audience’s attention and you cannot afford to lose any battle.

Your audience is flooded with information on the web and their mobiles. Every girl and her mom has a website that generates thousands of pages of information daily. As an internet marketer, your job is to cut through all this noise and present your case above all the others.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. But, there is a way.
And that is by adding developing unique content which adds value by solving your audience’s main concerns.

Seems like a very simple sentence but many struggle to implement what’s written in that sentence.

Let’s break that sentence down:

Unique content
With trillions of pages available on the internet, you need something unique to make your page stand out. Being longer than the previous content is no longer enough. Be unique and stand out from the crowd. Provide your own touch and differentiation.

Solving your audience’s concern
This is the biggest difference and many looking for the quick buck will not like it.
You need to solve your audience’s concern. Address their pain points. Provide solutions to what ails them the most.

Human beings are curious in nature, so you need to satisfy their curiosity. However, we only buy from people we trust. Hence, building trust is essential. You need to ‘give to get’.

Working on the above two points will help you to convert your audience.

Effective content management is achieved through more tactics than just writing high-quality posts. This is because you can have top quality content but it only reaches a few people.

Thus, you need to have the skills to promote the content. Content without promotion can be compared to a landing page without a call to action. That’s why content promotion is vital to any business’s success, and it’s of high importance to focus your attention on promo strategies.

From a personal perspective, I believe that the best way to market your content to people and companies who are interested in your business is through paid social promotion. The very first, and the most crucial, step to promote your business on any social media platform is by identifying and exploring your target audience.

It’s of high importance to understand your audience’ needs when it comes to establishing your business presence on social media. You should identify their preferences and have an idea of what they would be interested in reading and learning. This will help you to interact with your prospects on a more intimate level.

You can use Facebook for customer segmentation, and Albacross, the free lead generation tool, for collecting the data of your website visitors. This data will include crucial information such as the pages they have visited, their chief decision makers and their contact details.

Basically, knowing your customers will bring more relevant traffic to your website and generate more conversions by marketing to people with high purchasing intent.

Another proven method that will help your business stand out from all the noise on social media channels, is to include videos in your content. Statistics show that 65% of Internet users are visual learners, and that is why videos are considered to be the most powerful method of educating the website audience.

So, videos are a key component when it comes to developing educational content, such as ‘how to use Albacross tool’, ‘how to add the Albacross plugin to your WordPress website’, etc. From my experience, including a video on a landing page can significantly increase your conversion rate.

Spending some time to record a welcome video for your new visitors, current or prospective customers, is an excellent way to trigger better and tastier content. With the help of videos, you’ll create a more personal connection with your audience. Videos are a perfect tool to answer prospects’ questions and gather comments and feedbacks.

Thus, creating videos is one tactic that you don’t want to overlook since audiences are about 10 times more likely to engage, embed, share, and comment on video content than blogs or related social posts.

And finally, you should be open to sharing what you know with potential clients or customers. With the increased access to information on the internet, you can be sure that they can find just about anything they want online anyway, so why not be the one informing them.

This also helps with top-of-mind awareness. Plus, nowadays it’s extremely easy to share and plan ahead your content with the help of diverse tools such as Buffer, ContentCal, and Hootsuite, among others.

The true test to good content marketing is not only how well their known customers feel about the piece of content, but how the piece of content gets the attention of others.
Content is only great content when it does its job.

If the case for the content piece is for it to be promoted to reach an existing or new customer pool, it needs to follow the rules of any piece of content for outreach:

1. Content is a part of an overarching campaign – paired with other digital marketing verticals such as paid social, SEO and PPC. These will only compliment your work and increase conversion.

2. Content needs to resonate with a group (not entirely all) of the brand’s customers. Content that tries to address the whole customer base risks sounding too promotional and limiting the scope of being promoted.

3. It needs to be informative, newsworthy and spark debate or shareability. – Consider what type of content will be seen on other people’s social feeds with a debate in the comments section!

Once you follow these rules for content, the promotion to top domain authority sites should be straight forward. In my opinion, using outreach (or digital PR) is by far the most effective way to promote content.

Identifying where this target customer pool read is the secret to not only securing the piece of content but to drive like minded people who will be interested in the brand.
The great element of content is that is should involve a variety of information to tell a story.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Jodie Harris” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Jodie-Harris.jpg” excerpt=”In my opinion, using outreach (or digital PR) is by far the most effective way to promote content. @MsJodieHarris @mediadigicom”]”In my opinion, using outreach (or digital PR) is by far the most effective way to promote content.”[/tweet_box]
These elements should be segmented and then matched to a suitable audience, let’s say you have a lot of data on demographics. You could then segment this piece of data by age, region and sex and outreach to women’s, men’s, regional sites as well as young, middle age and sites for the elderly.

You can then change your pitch email accordingly, depending where you want your content promoted and what the strategy is!

For the content to be outstanding, it needs to be effective. Spending a large portion of the marketing budget on elaborate content doesn’t necessarily equate to outstanding work. Think about what matters most to them.

Being a little too on brand can limit the scope of the content marketing, so think a little out of the box.

Some of my favorite content promotion tactics include pinning the article on top of my Twitter feed for a while, mentioning it in some of the guest posts that I write for other blogs and reaching out to the people/brands that I’ve mentioned in the article and asking them to share it.

I also make sure to mention it in other articles that I publish on my blog (without overdoing it and only when it benefits the reader).
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Alex Bickov” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Alex-Bickov.jpg” excerpt=”If that piece of content is extremely important for my business, I do some link-building to ensure people can find it on search engines. @bickov @mediadigicom”]”If that piece of content is extremely important for my business, I do some link-building to ensure people can find it on search engines.”[/tweet_box]
If that piece of content is extremely important for my business, I do some link-building to ensure people can find it on search engines later on.

Put your content in front of a highly targeted audience.

In other words, make sure your content is relevant to the people who will be reading it.

If you write an article or do a video about how to be prepared in case of an energy blackout or a natural disaster… make sure that you are promoting to “preppers”.

Those are people who are very interested in that topic.

Preppers, in that case, would be your highly targeted audience.

If you’re trying to promote that same content to dog enthusiasts or movie buffs, you are not properly targeting your marketing campaign.

So, in that case, people won’t be interested in your topic.

That means you’ll have a harder time getting people to read or watch it.

But even if they do, they are not very likely to buy whatever products or services you attach to that content.

Now, that’s the other important part of your content marketing strategy.

Make sure your content is properly monetized.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Donna Merrill” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Donna-Merrill.jpg” excerpt=”So first, make sure your content is properly monetized… that it has a clear sales funnel in place. @donna_tribe @mediadigicom”]”So first, make sure your content is properly monetized… that it has a clear sales funnel in place.”[/tweet_box]
If your article gets a ton of readers, then great!

But, what if you are hoping to get all those consumers to buy freeze dried foods for emergency storage?

Unless those readers are likely prospects for that specific sales funnel (disaster preparation), then your conversions are likely to be dismal.

So first, make sure your content is properly monetized… that it has a clear sales funnel in place.

Second, make sure to promote it to people who are great prospects for that specific sales funnel.

That will give you the best chance to 1. Build and foster the right audience, and 2. Convert your readers into buyers, clients and email list subscribers.

The answer is really in the content, it needs to already be outstanding. If your content isn’t relevant to your focus topics and demographics or it just isn’t insightful enough it isn’t going to organically gain traction and drive traffic.

Focus on quality & value

Before we think about how you are going to market the content you need to make sure that your content brings value. Whether you are talking about SEO or bottling beer you need to bring valuable insight with your content.

Take a look at what others are successfully talking about and try and fill the gaps they miss and expand on the topic more. The first step to marketing content is simply creating great content.

Carefully choose your publishing channels

Publishing your content on your own blog is great if you already have a following. Many of us may not have a following so you need to put your content on channels that your readers already pay attention to.

Choosing channels that are relevant, already read by your target demographic and willing to accept your content is the real challenge. This is where you need to do your research.

Identify what your readers what and where they tend to go to find this kind of content. If you operate in a tiny niche and you can identify that people are searching for your topic then you may find success in placing your content on your own site and getting into search results.

Increasing Conversions

Again, identify what people are looking for and base your topic on that.

Promoting content to increase conversions is a 3 step process:

You need to create content that truly serves your audience.

You need to find a scale-able channel to reach your audience.

You need to prioritize what channels return the best ROI for your audience.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Jason Quey” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Jason-Quey.jpg” excerpt=”To create content that serves your audience, you need to understand the questions they have before buying your product or service. @jdquey @mediadigicom”]”To create content that serves your audience, you need to understand the questions they have before buying your product or service.”[/tweet_box]
To create content that serves your audience, you need to understand the questions they have before buying your product or service. I like to do this by emailing customers and asking them about the challenges they had before buying.

Once you have a list of questions, you should turn those questions into keyword phrases. This allows you to assist potential customers at scale through organic traffic. Here’s the process I use to turn a question into a keyword phrase.

Finally, you need to understand where your customers are and prioritize how best to reach them. How I promote my client PenielRanch.org is completely different from how I promote GrowthRamp.io, because they have different customers looking for different solutions.

A content strategy should start with a plan. The plan should cover everything from understanding the target audience to determining ways to reach them.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Nisha Pandey” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Nisha-Pandey.jpg” excerpt=”The content should be shared on as many platforms as possible to gain wider exposure. @nishapandey510 @mediadigicom”]”The content should be shared on as many platforms as possible to gain wider exposure.”[/tweet_box]
There are three important strategies to promote content and boost conversions:

• Optimize the content in a way that it becomes a natural part of the buying cycle. Each content piece should be appropriately positioned to take the potential customer to the next step of the sales funnel.
• Optimize the content for search engines
• Make it easy for your readers to easily share the content on social media
  The content should be shared on as many platforms as possible to gain wider exposure.

With the digital landscape, we have today, the distribution and promotion of content have been simplified and has become a commodity. No longer do marketers need million-dollar budgets to distribute their content, but instead, those possibilities are at their fingertips.

With the internet, platforms built upon the internet and social media, anyone can distribute content within a matter of minutes, compared to back in the days, when the distribution of content was limited to a fortunate few with large budgets.

The first step in effectively promoting content to increase conversions is obviously finding your target audience and understanding where these individuals spend time. This is the case for all marketing approaches.

It doesn’t matter how good your content is, or how great your content campaigns are if you aren’t reaching the right audience – your target audience – with your content since these individuals just aren’t relevant to your brand.

Digital marketing opens up a ton of opportunities, and there are so many places where you can distribute your content, so the real challenge is deciding and identifying the best places where you should distribute it.

The second most important thing you want to consider once you’ve identified the platforms to distribute your content on is the type of content you should create. The type of content you create is extremely important for your conversion rate.

Compare, for example, a bad piece of marketing content that you’ve seen with a good piece of marketing content that you’ve seen. The great piece of content probable engaged you to take action, inspired you, and made you excited about something.

The bad piece of content, however, probably did the opposite, and gave you a negative perception of the brand and product.

You probably know that no customers are convinced and appealed by content that is solely promotive and which the brand shoves in its audiences’ face. Customers don’t want to buy when brands are solely promotive, but instead, most customers are inspired to buy when they see content that doesn’t have the sole purpose of selling.

As such, for the highest possible conversion rate, avoid crafting content that is too promotive. This will only scare your customers away from you. Instead, ask yourself what your audience finds interesting, appealing, and engaging, and then incorporate that into your content to engage them and make them passionate about your brand.

Remember:

People don’t buy products because a brand has shoved promotional content in their face. They buy products because they have been inspired and engaged by an idea and a vision that engages them to buy.

The key to effective content promotion is a thorough research. You need to know exactly whom you are addressing your article to and where do those people hang out. The moment you know where the right crowd is, you are halfway there to ensure that your content is visible.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Aljaz Fajmut” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Aljaz-Fajmut.jpg” excerpt=”The moment you know where the right crowd is, you are halfway there to ensure that your content is visible. @aljazfajmut @mediadigicom”]”The moment you know where the right crowd is, you are halfway there to ensure that your content is visible.”[/tweet_box]
Don’t rely only on the “traditional” ways of content distribution – emails and social media, but look for alternatives – free submission websites such as zest.is, readory.com or triberr.com is a good start. Reach out to influencers and your followers creating a win-win collaboration. And of course – if you want to make it go viral, don’t forget about Facebook ads. Good luck!

Our approach has always been to maintain real relationships with local influencers. We not only “chat” with them regularly but we work with them respectfully (never send an email that starts with Gooday to you sir, myself is Steve) and always write content with their audience in mind.

I think that the biggest issue with content marketing is that brands and bloggers don’t take a truly empathetic view of each other’s positions – influencer outreach works best when nobody has an upper hand, it’s a purely symbiotic relationship.

Content is still one of the major ranking factors in 2018. Having great content is a key if you want it to do anything for your business whether it is generating leads, adding revenue or selling your products or services.

Low-quality content might rank at #1 spot for a few days but it is great content that will keep you there.

Always start with great content and everything else will become much easier.

Once you have a great piece of content you are proud to share with everyone, start off by sending it to your (or your page’s) friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter respectively.

You will get an initial burst of traffic from there but you have to make sure to keep the tone conversational. No one wants your content to be rubbed in their face.

Include Call to Actions inside both your promotional messages as well as the content itself. Your content should be highly relevant to the product or service you are promoting so that it can have the maximum impact.

All sales funnels begin with understanding your audience and what they’re looking for. In order to move potential customers through the funnel, great content writing can be a powerful tool.

We first explore the platforms or channels our audience is using and then create content targeted to that channel and the potential customers hanging out there. We always ensure our content provides something of value and stays relevant to our industry and business goals.

Specialising in all things SEO at 90 Digital, we optimise all of our content for search engines to increase organic traffic. The types of things we look at here are keyword optimisation, headings, meta descriptions, images and alt text, internal links and external links.

We also make sure that our content is easy to share across social media to promote interaction and new traffic channels. By offering our audience or our client audiences multiple traffic channels to access content and a website, we are able to attract more visitors and expand our reach.

One of the most important parts of content marketing is ensuring the user is given a call to action – by offering a next step, they have something to do other than to click away from your content or site.

This could be as simple as moving onto another piece of content or interacting with us on social media, or it could be download a resource, sign up to a newsletter, or contact us with details of a project.

This is a prime area for testing to ensure you get the correct combination with the highest engagement levels and conversion rates. Since audiences, technology, and interactions are always changing, it’s imperative to continue evolving your content marketing strategy and test, test, test.

Having amazing content published on your blog is definitely a great thing but it’s only the beginning of true content marketing. The challenge is to elicit attention and make the content go viral by using different social amplification tools and techniques. You have to find which social channels or groups your target readers are visiting and get active there.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Nadav Dakner” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Nadav-Dakner.jpg” excerpt=”You have to find which social channels or groups your target readers are visiting and get active there. @nadavdakner @mediadigicom”]”You have to find which social channels or groups your target readers are visiting and get active there.”[/tweet_box]
For example, if your content is blockchain focused, then popular subreddits like /r/cryptocurrency is your haven, while if its marketing related growthhackers.com and formerly inbound.org will do the trick. Focus on building strong accounts and be active so people will appreciate your opinion and content.

Next up, tools like ViralContentBuzz and Quuu (and literally dozens of others) will get your articled shared around and of course, it doesn’t hurt to be an influencer with a large social media following or an agency that is already connected with many of them.

There is this misconception that if you publish content, people will just find it. Unfortunately, you can’t leave the “marketing” out of content marketing and expect results.
If you want people to find your content, you must promote it.

Two of the best channels, that are also cost-effective, are email and social media. Write different plugs for each piece of your content (blogs, videos, landing pages, etc.) and share across your social media platform.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Jignesh Shah” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Jignesh-Shah.jpg” excerpt=”Write different plugs for each piece of your content (blogs, videos, landing pages, etc.) and share across your social media platform. @jshah1998 @mediadigicom”]”Write different plugs for each piece of your content (blogs, videos, landing pages, etc.) and share across your social media platform.”[/tweet_box]
Also, be sure to share your content via email; just make sure the content is targeted to the right audience. It is also important that you make sure you’re using a tool to track metrics, so you’ll understand what content resonates and drives more traffic, clicks, or sales — and then optimize and do more of that.

One tactic that some of Rybbon’s marketing clients use is to send a small e-gift, such as a $5 Starbucks gift card, to promote a premium piece of content or offer. Just sending it with a short simple note with an offer to enjoy coffee on you, while they read the content, is enough to grab your audience’s attention and increase conversions.

Another campaign we’ve seen is similar but is targeted to influencers, encouraging them to share your content. All of these tactics help put the “marketing” in content marketing and improve your results.

The best process of ensuring great content promotion is reciprocation. Of course, that means that you are getting promotional efforts BACK from others, which means you need to pro-actively be engaging with other bloggers, brands and entities and develop a relationship.

In some industries this is fairly straightforward, you’re going to find them on social media, and make it clear by consistently liking and sharing their posts that you’re an ally of theirs.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Jeremy Rivera” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Jeremy-Rivera.jpg” excerpt=”You need to pro-actively be engaging with other bloggers, brands and entities and develop a relationship. @jeremyriveraseo @mediadigicom”]”You need to pro-actively be engaging with other bloggers, brands and entities and develop a relationship.”[/tweet_box]
Be sure to strike up real conversations as well with their marketing people who are also on social channels. This report building takes time, but when the time comes it feels like a natural activity to ping them through direct messages letting them know you came up with awesome content would they mind checking it out.

You can further ensure their promotion by getting their input as a quote or image to give them even more reason to spread the content far and wide.

At Base Element, our recipe for success when creating and promoting content starts with the person to whom our content is addressing to (the end user of our content).
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Aris Pilitsopoulos” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Aris-Pilitsopoulos.jpg” excerpt=”By understanding our end users’ attention patterns, we can easily prepare a digital marketing mix containing the relevant channels. @ArisPilitsopoul @mediadigicom”]”By understanding our end users’ attention patterns, we can easily prepare a digital marketing mix containing the relevant channels.”[/tweet_box]
Our focus is:

• to understand where our end users are spending their time & attention
  and
• what are the trigger points that will urge them to view & share our content?

By understanding our end users’ attention patterns, we can easily prepare a digital marketing mix containing the relevant channels that will help us reach them more effectively & by understanding those trigger points, we can easily choose the content formats and the content elements that we should definitely include in content creation.

With these elements in mind, we create and promote effectively content that is unique, remarkable and relevant to the target audience.

Building an audience is now an important precursor to promoting content, especially since Facebook’s dreaded “newsfeed update” de-prioritized content from brands and businesses.

It’s an example that shows that the rules of social media can change anytime without warning, leaving publishers and businesses hanging out to dry—indeed, a bunch of upstart publications focussed on distribution via social media shuttered just a few months after the update was announced.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Vishveshwar Jatain” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Vishveshwar-Jatain.jpg” excerpt=”Experiment with different types of CTAs including exit intent pop-ups, page takeovers, sidebar widgets, and in-content placements. @eclecticV @mediadigicom”]”Experiment with different types of CTAs including exit intent pop ups, page takeovers, sidebar widgets, and in-content placements.”[/tweet_box]
So my advice is this: Focus on building your own audience. And there’s no better way to do that than an email list. Find out if you can increase your email subscription conversion rate; the instances where a user lands on your web page and exits without taking any action—that’s usually the bottleneck where most potential subscribers are lost.

Offer a content upgrade (such as a free eBook, guide or report) to your visitors so they have an incentive to subscribe.

Experiment with different types of CTAs including exit intent pop ups, page takeovers, sidebar widgets, and in-content placements to discover which combination gives you the highest conversion rate.

Our formula is veeery simple:

• Create good content.
• Use blogger outreach to tell interested folks about it.

And here is a real world example we just had with one of our clients in the CBD niche.

Legalization is a big topic in the niche with Canada legalizing cannabis very recently.
Needless to say, it was all over the news.

We decided to create a legalization map for Europe and shared it with the journalists that already wrote on the subject before.

Some of them loved what we did and featured it almost immediately!
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Artem Klimkin” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Artem-Klimkin.jpg” excerpt=”Create good content and use blogger outreach to tell interested folks about it. @imartemklimkin @mediadigicom”]”Create good content and use blogger outreach to tell interested folks about it.”[/tweet_box]
Some of the caveats:

• Content must be awesome. Our infographic is beautiful and the content inside is very valuable. People love it.
• Timing is crucial. If you are too early or too late, you don’t get it. This is why we used Newsjacking – it’s a good way to make sure we are on time.
• Prospects should be relevant. The journalists we found wrote about the subject and that’s how we know they are relevant. Pitching cannabis infographic to a construction niche journalist is kind of useless – don’t do it.

Does this approach get us results?

Absolutely.

We got the infographic featured on an extremely high traffic website (talking of 1,000,000+ uniques per month) without paying a single $ (this was just one very special link, but there more ordinary links of course).

Not bad for a bootstrap link building campaign!

In order to succeed in promoting content, the most important aspect is the starting point. Understanding the types of content and their impact on the user is the key to having a successful marketing content strategy.
Let’s break it down into the three types of content: Text, Images and Video.

1. Text
Your text content should rely on the keywords you want to rank for, according to your industry. The next thing to take into consideration is trending articles. Start by analyzing what kind of content is most read in your niche. Now you have the premise to craft a unique and high-quality article. After publishing your content on the blog, make sure you share it on all your social media accounts. Contact some influencers in your niche and ask their opinion on the article you’ve just written. If they appreciate it, kindly ask them to share it.

2. Images
It’s a known fact that images have a stronger impact on people. Don’t forget that most people are actually visual learners! Accordingly, a message sent through an image will be much better and faster received by people than the message in the text box below it. Infographics manage to do that perfectly.

3. Video
If possible, include some relevant video content in all your posts and articles. You’ll see a lot more engagement and your content has a lot more chances of being shared.
The digital era and today’s lifestyle are the things that make social platforms the best way to promote content. So, go ahead and share it on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram!

We all agree with the statement that “content is king”. Following the same metaphor, I believe that not promoting your content or failing to effectively promote it is like a king without his people. A king that stands alone. Your content may be outstanding and unique, but if nobody gets to read it, you might as well not write it at all.

Regarding content creation, one of the most important things is for it to answer a certain question of your audience. You must know your audience and make sure they are interested in that particular subject you plan to write about.

Another rule you should follow is to manage to create content that stands out. You can do this in a few different ways: by presenting other points of view, seeing the subject from a different and original angle, engaging your readers and even provoking them to add comments to your article.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Iulia Rosca” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Iulia-Rosca.jpg” excerpt=”Regarding content creation, one of the most important things is for it to answer a certain question of your audience. @mediadigicom @mediadigicom”]”Regarding content creation, one of the most important things is for it to answer a certain question of your audience.”[/tweet_box]
In order to make the best of your content, you must put it to good use exactly on the channels you know your audience is most likely to be present and read it.

This means publishing it on different social media platforms, sending personalized emails to your subscribers’ list, reaching influencers in your niche.

You can go one step further and do paid content promotion on Facebook, Twitter, and wherever else your audience spends time on the Internet.

In this process, don’t forget your final goal which is converting your visitors into customers. Keep in mind that content promotion is meant to boost website traffic, improve engagement from your audience and increase your ROI.

After the Google update from 1 August 2018, nicknamed by Barry Schwartz, Google Medic Update you should focus on E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trust) if you want your content to rank well. If you don’t know much about E-A-T check the Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines on page 18.

In short, you, as a content creator, need to proof your Expertise, Authority, and Trust. There are many ways you can do this but I will list here a few:

• Include Author name, biography and social profiles for all your content
• Link your CV and profiles on relevant websites
• Invest in personal branding and link contributions to expert roundups, conferences etc
• Post testimonials and reviews of your work
• Invite experts to edit and back your content
• Write for authority websites in your industry and link your contributions

While you create content you should consider the needs of your readers and focus on solving their problems.
[tweet_box design=”box_12_at” float=”left” width=”100%” author=”Daniel Stanica” pic_url=”https://competico.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Daniel-Stanica-e1539406932943.jpg” excerpt=”Back all your information with links to research papers, surveys, studies and articles from reputable sources. @stanica_daniel @mediadigicom”]”Back all your information with links to research papers, surveys, studies and articles from reputable sources.”[/tweet_box]
Also, back all your information with links to research papers, surveys, studies and articles from reputable sources that will prove to both the users and Google that you know what you’re talking about and your information should be trusted.

Now that you’ve created a nice piece of content you have to put it in front of your reader’s eyes.

Link it from your existing articles, post it on social media, send it to your email subscribers, inform the companies or people that you mentioned in the article so they can promote it too.

You should also find forums, Facebook groups and ask questions on sites like Quora where your topic is mentioned and link your article to help others.

Conclusions

So you read all the contributions. Perfect! I told you it will be worth it.

So what’s next ?!

1. I’d like to hear your thoughts on your favorite content marketing strategy. Feel free to share your answer in the comments form below.

2. Enter your name and email address in the form below to receive a PDF version with the conclusions of this roundup. It it’s a 5 pages checklist booklet that you can have and do content marketing as an expert.

3. There are many more great round-ups and tutorials coming up. Let’s keep in touch: Follow us on Twitter, Add us on Linkedin or like our Facebook page.

4. I invite you to check our blogger outreach tool: OutreachBuzz. We got great feedback so far and we continue to improve.