Don't Just Create Content and Then Sit Back. Promote It! Here's How. Social media, retargeting and participation in forums should all be part of your promotion plan.
By Syed Balkhi Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When you're finished crafting an engaging blog post for your readers, you may be disappointed to see that no one is reading it. It would be nice if, as soon as you posted that content on the web, you got a ton of traffic; but that's not realistic. Some 63 percent of marketers in a Marketing Charts study said their biggest content challenge was driving traffic and generating leads. So, how do you promote your blog and get more traffic?
Related: 5 Smart Ways to Integrate Cross-Promotion With Online Marketing
You can't rely on SEO alone to drive traffic to your site; instead, you've got to work at bringing in more of your target audience, yourself. And the only way to do that is to promote your content.
Here are some great tips you may not have considered that will get your content in front of your audience. Check them out for how to promote your content like a pro.
Promote your blog in your email campaign.
You should know by now how important building an email list is. So, if you've already started building one, you're in a great position. The people who sign up for your email list are probably going to be the ones most interested in your content. That's why it makes sense for you to promote your new posts to them, first.
Related: A Guide to do Effective Content Marketing on LinkedIn
For example, fitness guru Chalene Johnson includes links to blog posts in her emails with a clear call to action like "click here."
Email newsletter, chalenejohnson.com
Choose a headline that sparks curiosity to make sure your email gets opened, and keep your email short and interesting. You can also promote your new posts in your monthly newsletter. Letting your email list members know about your new post first is an effective way to get early traction and encourage shares right away.
Participate in forums and aggregate sites.
You may not have considered promoting your blog posts in forums or aggregate sites, but this is actually a really easy and effective way to get your content noticed. An aggregate site is basically a place where you can find information from many different sources related to a specific topic.
Share your own content in these places to help other users with questions they might have. This is a great way to connect directly with your target audience members, provide them with some of your expertise and share a link back to your blog.
A popular choice for many is Reddit, where there's a community for almost anything under the sun; and many of those communities boast hundreds of thousands of members:
Reddit digital marketing posts, https://www.reddit.com/
Just do a quick search to find a community or topic that relates to your industry and join the conversation. Other popular forum and aggregate sites include Quora and Triberr. Just remember not to be spammy, and only promote your content when it's relevant.
Share on social media.
Sharing on social media is a given for promoting your content but there are a few tactics you might be missing. First, make sure to share your content on many different platforms. Also link to your blog in all your social media profiles to make sure it's one of the first thing visitors to your social media pages see.
Below, BloggingWizard.com is consistent in sharing its unique blog posts on social media; consistency attracts a larger following.
Tweet from BloggingWizard.com, https://twitter.com/bloggingwizard
In addition, repromote your older, most popular posts so that your new followers will be able to see your best content. Twitter and Facebook allow you to pin your most popular posts to your profile, so they're the first thing people see.
Share your new content on social media as soon as it's published, and share your brand's new content multiple times. You can use a tool like CoSchedule, to see how your posts are doing and to schedule more posts so you can get more of your content out there. Don't forget to thank readers who share your content too.
Use retargeting.
According to CrazyEgg, you can reach up to 84 percent of your visitors with retargeting. Retargeting is a great tool that allows you to entice your website visitors to return to you and check out more of your content.
Retargeting essentially involves a pixel that you install on your website; this allows you to "follow" your previous visitors around the web and show them ads for your website.
For example, if you visit your Pinterest business page, you may be retargeted on Facebook with the following ad:
Pinterest retargeting ad, https://www.facebook.com/
This is a low-cost tactic you can use to promote your most important content, whether it's your latest blog post or the paid course you offer. Retargeting allows you to engage with your visitors even after they've already left your website without checking out your content, making it a valuable tool to get your content seen.
Related: How to Use Content and Social to Promote Your Small Business
The more time you put into promoting your blog posts, the better results you'll see. These tactics for promoting your content will almost certainly boost your traffic and increase engagement.
