A few weeks ago, Taylor talked about the shift from production of content to promotion. In the presentation Taylor was referring to, speaker Chad Pollitt said that 40-60% of time spent on content creation should be spent promoting it. The topic covers some of the new ways to promote content, which are excellent if you have the budget to do it. However, if you’re a small business, you probably don’t have the funds for that.
Up until now, the easiest tool for promoting content was social media. It’s still one of the best ways to get eyes on your content for free. But if you haven’t had the time to gather a large social following or social media isn’t bringing in the results you want, you may want to explore ways of content marketing without social media. Some are old, some are new, but all are worth trying.
Email Newsletters
Email newsletters and content go hand-in-hand. Whenever you’ve updated your blog with a new post, an infographic or event, the newsletter is the perfect place to promote it. Emails are delivered right to the inbox of your customers, encouraging those who may not remember to visit your site to click through to it. Remember, whenever you provide a service to a customer, or give something away on your website, like a white paper, you should be collecting email addresses to build your list.
Read More…
When people finish reading a blog post on your site, they’re looking for what to do next. Maybe they aren’t quite ready to buy, but they would like to read more of your blogs. Make it easy for them by adding a section at the bottom of your posts that highlights similar blog topics or one showing your most popular content. Eventually, they may come to think of you as an authority in your industry and turn to you when they need a service or product.
Commenting
This step requires some interaction on the internet with your community, but it can really pay off. Browse Reddit to see if people are having problems that you have a solution to. Join an industry board and become a commenter. If you have content that’s relevant to share on either type of industry board, try it and see who you can help. Just make sure that you aren’t only dropping content and running. Board audiences don’t want to be sold to with links, they want to have a conversation with someone that can help them.
Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is still one of the best ways to get people to trust you and buy from you, that’s why we often include a testimonials page on websites. If you do a great job, your customers are likely to talk you up to their friends and on Yelp, Twitter or Facebook. Okay, so technically this tip uses social media, but it’s not your social media. If you have an especially loyal customer base, use it.
Press Releases
Journalism as an industry may be transforming, but press releases seem to have survived. Did you do something interesting or add a new employee with a new skillset? Write up a press release and send it to sites like PRNewswire and Business Wire. Make sure to add a link to your blog in the press release.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is a perfect way to “borrow” an audience. People who may never have come across your brand will now be exposed to it. There are plenty of other benefits to guest blogging, too. If you get published by a well-known brand, whether local or national, that lends you a bit of credibility. The links back to your website from a big website will give you a push up in SEO relevance. If you’re creating something great, it’s worth a guest blogging spot on a popular industry site.
Make the Rounds
Before social media, people still heard about new services and products through “old-fashioned” methods, like talking face-to-face. If you can take part in an industry meetup, trade show or event, get out there. Shaking hands and handing out your business card gives people a face to put with a brand name. If you participate in community events for free, customers can see that you care enough about the community to get involved in it.
If you’ve been having trouble getting your content to flourish on social media, try these non-social media methods to promote your content. You may even end up growing your social media presence, too.
Internet marketing has changed dramatically in the last few years. How do we stay ahead of the curve? We ask business owners like you to tell us about your marketing programs. We look for trends and changes in time spent, tools used and even who runs the program. We compile the data and create a FREE report every spring. You can help us by taking just a few minutes to answer the questions in our short Internet Marketing Survey.
