Do you remember the tagline from the movie "Field of Dreams"? That's right. "If you build it, they will come." While that statement may be true in Movieland, in the real world, it is just not so.
You have read all the experts on SEO say "content is the fuel" to your Inbound Marketing efforts. This inspires you to be the subject matter expert, the authority in your space, making sure your content is "remarkable".
So you go out and build the perfect blog, piling word upon word of beautiful, relevant, consistently excellent blog posts and still have very low traffic to your site. It can be disheartening. Worse yet, it is disastrous to your digital marketing strategies.
The simple truth is that, if you want people to find and read your content, you are going to have to promote it properly.
Good content and good promotion are necessary to get the attention you deserve.
Why Good Internet Marketing Strategies Involve Great Promotion
It is easy to think of the internet as a way to reach a truly global audience. However, the same thing that makes the internet so accessible can wreak havoc on your marketing strategies. Why? The simple reason is that, regardless of the high quality of your content, when you send it out into the world via the internet, it is entering a vast ocean of information. Without adequate promotion, your content is like a small raft on an infinite sea.
Good promotion, then, is like sending a flare up to alert passing ships of your location. Unlike a flare, however, marketing done at the right time and in the right way shines a light that may spark a chain reaction that keeps your content illuminated for a long time to come.
Internet Marketing Strategies that Work
There is no shortage of internet marketing strategies to help you get the word out about your content. Here, then, are three of the most tried and true methods of promotion you can employ to win traffic and drive conversions:
1) Promote your content on social media.
Social media marketing is a preferred method of marketing for bloggers. In fact, according to an Orbit Media survey of over 1,000 bloggers, 94 percent of respondents indicate that they use social media marketing to get the word out when they publish a blog post.
Social media gives you multiple platforms where content can be promoted. A mention on your Facebook page, a tweet about an upcoming blog, or even a comment on someone else's social media account can be used to broadcast your own content more widely.
Another advantage to social media promotion is that it can be done, not only across multiple platforms, but on the same platform multiple times. For instance, consider Twitter. Neil Patel notes in a Hubspot article: "Most bloggers tweet the same piece of content multiple times. The reason being is that not all of your followers will see your content so tweeting and sharing it multiple times helps increase your overall traffic."
Even if you do not currently have a lot of followers on social media platforms, you can work on that by joining niche groups and building relationships on social media. Patience is key with social media marketing because your results will build over time. As your social media followers increase, you can drive more and more traffic to your site.
2) Use email marketing to get the word out.
Sending a simple email when new content is available may be sufficient to drive traffic to your site. Neil Patel's "The Uncensored Guide to Promoting a Blog Post" offers this advice: "You don't need to over-complicate things here. My email updates are pretty simple and I often just take the first intro paragraph of the post and ask people to click through if they want to keep reading."
While there is no need to over-complicate things, there are a few things that will make your emails stand out. They are:
- a catchy subject line
- an easy-to-follow CTA
- a message targeted to the right segment of your audience to coincide with the content you are promoting
A quick email message can be a very effective way of coaxing traffic to your site.
3) Comment on other blogs.
Commenting on other blogs is a cost-effective way of promoting your content. The key to doing this effectively is to find content similar to your own that is receiving good traffic. Targeting readers of that blog makes sense, as they already have an interest in a topic related to the topic of your own content.
However, you must be careful to promote your content effectively without seeming like you are attempting to hijack the audience of the original blogger. Marketdoc.com's "21 Content Promotion Strategies That Will Triple Your List Growth" offers this advice to help you do this well: "Leave an epic comment where you thank the blog owner by highlighting an achievement you accomplished by implementing that person's advice. Not only are you going to make them look good for giving you such great advice, you're also going to get people interested in what you have to say. Those people often click through to your blog and turn into email subscribers."
Working with a Digital Marketing Agency
Of course, these three methods of promotion are merely the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many more ways to broadcast your marketing message through digital methods. To find an effective marketing strategy for your awesome content, contact us today. We will partner with you to assess your current content assets and find the best ways to promote them and drive more traffic to your site.
Written By: Doug Milnor
