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Promote Your Content
Unless you have a large and devoted following already, you need to get the viral process rolling by actively promoting your best content. As I've stated elsewhere in this series, there's no guarantee your content will go viral, but it's much less likely to get there without your help. Even if it doesn't go viral, it can still be a valuable asset, and promoting it will only make it a greater asset.Self-promotion can seem uncomfortable if you're not used to it, maybe even egotistical, but a good salesperson understands that an average product and a great marketing campaign will outperform a superior product and a poor marketing campaign nearly every time. Here's the thing, it's not egotistical if it's mutually beneficial. It's business. Attitude and perspective tell the story.
10 Free Ways to Promote Your Content
- 1. Share on Social Media
- Craft compelling posts using tidbits from your content. Use attention-grabbing headlines, engaging visuals if applicable, and relevant hashtags. Link to your full article and encourage your followers to share the content in their networks.
- 2. Email Marketing
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Leverage your email subscriber list to promote your content. Send out a well-crafted newsletter or dedicated email highlighting the key points of your content and include a call-to-action to read or share it.
Don't have a mailing list? Contact list owners with a joint venture offer. What can you offer them in exchange for promoting your content piece? Promoting their list or website on yours? A product endorsement, review, or testimonial? A service you offer? An article for their website? A mini-version of your article for their newsletter for a link to the full article? Think! - 3. Influencer Outreach
- Identify influencers or thought leaders in your niche and ask if they would be interested in sharing or collaborating on your content. Their endorsement can significantly boost the visibility of your piece. You never know until you try. I've been able to collaborate with individuals who were "above my pay grade" at the time, so to speak. See the next item for another way to reach out to these people.
- 4. Content Syndication
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Consider republishing your content on high-traffic platforms, such as Medium, LinkedIn Pulse, or
You can also reach out to the influencers mentioned in the previous item and offer them syndication rights to your article in exchange for a link back. - 5. Community Engagement
- Participate in relevant online communities, forums, and discussion groups where your target audience hangs out. Share your content when it adds value to the conversation but avoid being overly promotional. Establish yourself as a knowledgeable and helpful contributor, and people will be more likely to check out your content. Many of these communities allow you to havea signature file for your posts, which often allow you to include a link. Use it to link to your article.
- 6. Repurpose your Content
- Give your content greater reach by repurposing it into different formats for different platforms. For example, you can create infographics, videos, slide decks, or podcasts based on the key points of your content. This allows you to cater to different audience preferences and reach new segments on alternative platforms.
- 7. PDF Files
- Take the highlights from your post and compile them into a PDF. Publish that PDF for free on PDF sharing sites. Offer it to your mailing list for them to share if you have a list. Offer it to your website visitors to share as well. Maybe explain how sharing quality content with their followers and website visitor smakes them look good (social currency). Of course your PDF will have a link to the full article.
- 8. Autoresponder
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Set up a free email autoresponder sequence, linking back to your epic content and to other relevant content you’ve published. These emails can act like little messengers that keep pointing out your resources to new subscribers, driving them to your site again and again.
If your website host doesn't offer autoresponders, you can get started for free at many email list hosts. You can also start an email newsletter for free at several list hosts. - 9. Press Releases
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Press releases aren't just for news organizations. Anyone with a newworthy announcement can issue a press release, and "newsworthy" is often just in how you frame it. There are dozens of free and paid press release distribution sites online.
Don't underestimate the power of a press release. When my site was hacked and I issued a press release about it, I got over 2,000 links to my free PDF about it. That's just the links. It was read by tens of thousands of people. That's a lot of publicity for free. - 10. Rinse and Repeat
- Don’t just publish your post on Facebook once and consider yourself done. Less than 10% of your followers see any post you place. None of these ideas are a one-and-done path to success. That means repetition is needed for your content to reach the largest possible audience. I'd guess success online is a slow build for 99.9% of us, whether individuals or businesses.
The Last Word
Not every content piece has to be an attempt at epic status. Some topics just don't warrant the effort, but are needed content pieces just the same. Just make sure you're choosing enough topics that could become epic to give yourself ample opportunities to win epic status at least once, and hopefully much more than that.
Epic status probably won't come with your first several attempts, but it could. The point is, perseverance pays. Learn as you go, and keep at it until you win.
Remember that promoting content is an ongoing process, and it's important to track your results, analyze what works best for you and your audience, and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Now go get 'em!
Previous Article in this Series: Content Writing Process
