You have created an inspiring piece of content, spell-checked it, proof read it, allowed it to distill a day or two to ensure you are really happy with it, and pressed “Publish”. What next?
First, check the finished product on the site you have published to. Check it on more than one device just so you are sure it has arrived safely and looks exactly how you had hoped for your readers.
Now, it is marketing time!
1. Email your List
No matter what anyone may say, email marketing is not going away. It is still one of the most efficient and effective ways of reaching your target audience because these people have opted in to receive information from you. For B2B particularly, you should make regular efforts to keep growing your email list.
Do not reproduce the full content in the email, especially if it is a long piece. Instead, create a snippet to entice your audience into reading the full content on your destination site or blog. After all, this gives you another metric to judge how successful your content is and whether you are keeping your readers happy. Did they open the email? Did they click the link? How many shares from your site because of your email? These are all valuable metrics to measure.
Key Takeaway: Stagger your marketing efforts so you can relate spikes in traffic to particular content marketing activities.
2. Get Social
Find the social network(s) that work best for you, dependent on the content type of course, (YouTube for video, SlideShare and Scribd for presentations, etc.) and focus your efforts. This way, you are more likely to reap greater rewards than spreading yourself too thin across too many networks. Choices may include LinkedIn (B2B), Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Unseen, or another.
Create short, sharp, crisp snippets to post to your social accounts. Depending upon the audience you intend to reach, these snippets should be sufficiently different from each other to attract the widest readership and viewers possible. One may be a graphic from your content, or an excerpt from your video. You may post a quote from a white paper, or an attention-grabbing headline. Infographics and screenshots can work well on Twitter, now that images are embedded in Tweets directly, so let your imagination go!
You do not need to use them all at once. It may be that in a week´s time, your content is more topical than today. Always have a snippet ready to jump on that good ole’ bandwagon without boring your audience by repeating yourself.
3. Talk about it.
It is important to engage with others to develop relationships that can be mutually beneficial; this is an integral factor in marketing. Look around and see who else is posting on a similar topic as your content. Or who holds an opposing view to yours, or has further information on the subject your content covers. Start communicating with them.
You don’t need to spam your link at them, but you may find an opportunity to include a quote or image from your content to bolster a point you are making. If asked, then you can provide a link, especially if this helps put any discussion in context.
Any comments from your readers should also be replied to, politely and informatively, but that is no reason to agree with all that these commentators say—take a stand and expand on your point of view. There is nothing like an active discussion to encourage more people to share your content. Courtesy is no bad thing either, so thank people for commenting, for sharing, retweeting and so on.
4. And finally…
Do not waste that precious content by simply letting it sit there as it is. Can you distribute it in a different format? For example, as a slideshow or presentation, a white paper, an infographic? Will it break down into a series of tweets? Will it stand up as a video, even if only as a slide deck rather than a full Hollywood blockbuster? Could you turn it into an eBook and sell it on Amazon, or bundle it with other content you have created and give it away? Or sell it to generate leads or as a thank you to loyal customers? Does it hold any value as a webinar, or for a Google Hangout discussion?
Good quality content can be marketed over and over again with a little time, imagination and determination.
So, don´t hit “Publish” and sit back. Make your content work for you, and keep on working, with this simple Post-Publishing Checklist.
Is your content marketing strategy delivering the results you want? Does creating quality content remain a constant struggle? Talk to us at MintCopy. Call us at 888-646-8003 or send us an email.