Stephanie Donelson

Now that you know why you need a content marketing strategy and how to think like a publisher when it comes to your content creation, now you have to make sure you get it delivered to the right audience across a variety of channels.

That’s where content promotion comes in to your content marketing strategy.

Content promotion is an important piece of your strategy as it delivers the right content on the right channel to the right customer. With almost half of B2B buyers needing to consume about three to five pieces of content before engaging with a salesperson, you can help get them the content they need to make a business decision faster.

Content promotion happens across two channel types: Organic and paid.

Organic promotion channels

• SEO
• Email marketing
• Social media
• Events
• Influencers
• Review sites

Paid promotion channels

• Search engine ads
• Remarketing ads
• Social media ads

For your content promotion, focus on reach, engagement, and conversions. Now that we know what types of channels we’ll be focusing on, let’s talk about strategy.

8 steps to creating a content promotion strategy

There are eight steps to outlining your content promotion strategy.

1. Create a strategy document: This document should outline your content’s topic, the targeted audience and their buying stage, any content goals, and promotion channels
2. Score your content: Score on content type, buying stage, and your buyer personas. How likely is this piece of content going to convert a user to the next stage or retain them as a customer? Does it meet the needs of the buyer persona you’re targeting?
3. Meet with stakeholders: Get buy-in from your leadership team on your content promotion plan to make sure it meets their goals and so they understand each content asset and how it’s being shared.
4. Create a promotion plan: Where are you promoting your content? How often? What days and times? Who are you targeting? What metrics are you hoping to see as a result of your efforts?
5. Double-check that the plan is multi-channel: You need to be where your customers are, whether that’s on social media, subscribing to your blog, or reading your email newsletters. Your content promotion plan should have multiple channels, both organic and paid, to reach your customers where they spend their time online.
6. Promote: Now it’s time to execute your strategy and share your content! Make sure you’re sharing the right type of content on the right channel and adapting your promotion message to each channel and customizing it for that audience.
7. Analyze: You won’t know if your content promotion strategy is working if you’re not tracking your results. Watch for new traffic, decreased bounce rates, more time on site, social media following growth, brand mentions and engagement, and conversions or sales leads.
8. Test tactics: Be like a scientist and test different promotion tactics and channels to optimize your efforts. Test your messaging, the distribution channel, day of the week, time of day, and paid vs. organic outlets. Track the results of your tests to replicate the wins in the future. You might be surprised what your target audience really responds to, and you’ll never know until you test!

Now that you’ve got your strategy figured out, I’ll cover some quick best practices for promoting your content on social media.

Best practices for content promotion on social media

1. Rely on the three ‘E’s: Entertaining, engaging, and educational
2. If you have an awesome post don’t be afraid to spend some money on boosting it to the right audience
3. Make your content valuable and worth your users’ time
4. Focus on your CTAs and telling your followers exactly what they need to do
5. Engage! Social media is a two-way street and requires you to engage with your audience, not just pushing content at them. Ask questions, ask for engagement, and do whatever it takes to get them involved.

Content promotion opportunities

Here are some good starting points for where to promote your content across both organic and paid channels!

Facebook

• Organic posts
• Promoted posts
• Facebook ads
• Cover photos
• Apps and tabs

Twitter

• Organic tweets
• Promoted tweets
• Promoted trends (#hashtags)
• Twitter lead gen cards

LinkedIn (B2B)

• LinkedIn updates
• Sponsored updates
• LinkedIn ads
• LinkedIn groups

SlideShare

• Visual content
• Lead gen forms
• Featured presentations

Pinterest

• Visual content (slides, infographics, blogs, videos)
• Share and engage
• Create boards and pins

PPC ads

• Search engine ads: Targeted by keywords and audience
• Banner ads: Appear on various websites and are targeted based on demographics
• Retargeting ads: Appear on a network of websites and are behavior-based

Email

• Send targeted email campaigns to segmented lists
• Include some teaser content
• Use a clear CTA
• Consider sending a sponsored email, using a third-party vendor to share your content. Only partner with trusted vendors and those who match your audience.

Content syndication and influencer marketing

Another option is syndicating your content or guest blogging, where another website hosts your content. You can either gate this content or have it show up as “native advertising.” Syndicating content can be a good move as you reach new audiences, improve your SEO, and build your authority in the industry.

Influencer marketing is similar, but you tend to have less control over how they present your content as they’re the ones with the influence over their audience. With influencer marketing you have to create value in a two-way relationship. By posting your content, it helps the influencer and yourself. Show the influencer how your content is valuable and relevant to their following.

Make sure to measure the performance of content syndication and influencer marketing by tracking specific elements.

How to measure content syndication performance

• Which type of content works best for which vendor? Think of ebooks, infographics, videos, interviews, or blogs.
• Where in the sales funnel is their audience?
• What vendor delivers the most qualified leads?
• What CTA works best with third-party content?

At the end of the day, have fun with your content promotion strategy and try new ways of sharing your content online! Use analytics tools like Google Analytics or social media insights to see how your efforts are paying off. Your promotion strategy will evolve as you learn what your audience likes and doesn’t like – this is not a set it and forget it tactic.

Embrace the changes and continue to learn from your audience on how best to share your content marketing assets.