If you’re reading this post, then most likely you haven’t cracked the code of making your articles go viral. Hence, this post is on super simple content marketing. I was in your same position 6 months ago, before I re-educated myself on how to come up with blog post topics influencers want to share. But say you’ve cracked the code on creating great content, it doesn’t stop there.
Even the best content in the world doesn’t mean anything unless you know how to promote it. Most bloggers, rightly so, are all about the creative process, promotion can often be an afterthought… or no thought at all. When this happened to me, I sought to find out all I could about blog post promotion. Through a series of trials and errors, I managed to come up with 11 super simple content marketing strategies that got me 589 shares and 97 backlinks in less than 30 days.
If you want to see what worked for me, and also learn how you can implement them for your own blog, I’m here to share my results.
Super simple content marketing tactics
Strategy #1: Reach out to influencers’ “top blogs” lists in your niche
There is a reason that some bloggers are “top” bloggers, whether it be because they have a proven method of success, they existed so long that they are a staple to the community, or they’re just damn good. If you want to be one of the best, you have to surround yourself with the best. There are few better ways to do that than to get one of the “top” bloggers involved in your article.
What I suggest you do is perform a Google search to find “top XX blogs” in your niche. If you’re a digital marketing blogger, you may want to search “top digital marketing blogs”. Often, people put together lists to help the readers sift the good from the mediocre. Once you have those lists, you want to grab as many names as possible. Every single “top” blogger mentioned deserves a spot. Create a spreadsheet with anywhere between 50 to 100 website links of “top” bloggers. After compiling your list, plug them all into Pitchbox, which helps you automate your email efforts both quickly and more efficiently.
Then it’s all about emailing your top bloggers with a short paragraph about how you hope they could provide a quote about XYZ (whatever your blog post is about), and that you hope they’ll get back to you soon. Chances are, with the number of people you reached out to, SOMEONE will respond and willingly offer a quote. When they do, input the quote into your article and send them the completed link both for their approval and so they can share it with their own readers. Because they are involved in the process, they just may share it with their readers. If they don’t, you still managed to improve the validity of your post just by having an “influential” name involved in it, so you come out a winner no matter what.
Strategy #2: Use Fiverr to have a $5 infographic created about your post
Humans are visual creatures. They’re also incredibly busy, constantly running from one place to another. Combine these two drivers and perhaps you figured out why infographics do so well as a content marketing strategy among bloggers. If you are unfamiliar with the concept (you probably never read a top blog), an infographic is a fully visual graphic that provides much of the important information in a particular post in an easily digestible image. Basically, you want to condense your blog post into facts: statistics, important points, etc along with images that represent the facts. From there, you can post your graphic across social media sites with a link to your full article. Heck, you can even use your infographic to complete mini guest spots on other people’s blogs, too.
Don’t worry if you’re not particularly graphic design savvy. Fiverr, an online marketplace for people to contact freelancers, just may answer your prayers. All you have to do is plug “infographic” into the search bar at the top of the screen to immediately find dozens upon dozens of graphic designers, all of whom will create an infographic for just $5. You can sift through their profiles and portfolios, read reviews, and decide for yourself which designer is best for the job. Once you choose one, pay the small fee, send them your information, and wait a few days for them to deliver your finished infographic. It’s that easy!
Or, to retain more control over the finished product, try something like Canva. This platform provides free templates and graphics to customize your infographic with many more options available by paying a small fee. Best of all, you only pay for assets once you finish the project so you can test out a great number of options before deciding on the final product and paying for the assets you used that didn’t fit in the free category. You can also upload your own graphics to enhance your infographic without charge.
Strategy #3: Join LinkedIn groups to promote your blog post as part of your content marketing strategy
When people think of LinkedIn, they think about those looking to connect with potential employers, collaborators, and business customers. While it’s true that the majority of Linkedin users are on the site for that very reason, it isn’t true for all users. Linkedin offers the unique option to join “groups” in all sorts of niches. These groups offer a great place to help others in your industry find your name and blog posts. Also, don’t forget to share your blog content on your profile and respond to folks who comment on the content.
To use this feature, type your niche into the search at the top of the page on the LinkedIn site, then filter so you only view relevant groups by clicking the icon to the left of the search bar. From there, you can find a large list of options. When I say large, I mean LARGE. For instance, entering “digital marketing” brought me over 4,500 groups in that niche. Now it’s up to you to sift through the groups, join a few that appear active, and see how they work for you. A few things to keep in mind so you join the best group possible are as follows:
- Join a group with a balanced number of posters and commenters. You want to take notice of whether or not people actually comment on the posts or if they go unnoticed while others post their own content.
- Join a group that isn’t too fast or too slow. A slow-moving group means no one pays attention to it. A fast-moving group means that you have to really fight for attention. You want a happy medium.
After you join the “right” group(s) for you, get to posting! A good content marketing strategy suggests a link and a short summary works best, and you can reel in the traffic with minimal effort on your part.
LinkedIn now allows posting long-form content directly to the platform. This feature allows you to position yourself as an expert in your topic area.
Strategy #4: Reach out to link roundups
Because there is so much competition out there on virtually every subject imaginable, it’s no surprise to absolutely anybody that some bloggers sought to cut out the negative articles and focus on the positive. Much to the benefit of the readers, “link roundups” are all the rage. Basically, certain bloggers sift through dozens and dozens of articles in a particular niche during a week or month to find the best of the best. They then take those “best” articles and include them in a link roundup post as part of their own content marketing strategy. The idea behind this super simple content marketing tactic is readers no longer waste their time reading mediocre articles and can get right to the good stuff. It is often extremely difficult for less popular bloggers to make their way onto these lists. That’s why I recommend reaching out to people who perform these link roundup posts and promoting your article to them.
Don’t feel the need to push bloggers to include your content, either! Just send out an email to let them know that you appreciate all of the hard work they do in putting these posts together and that you’d love for them to read your blog post and let you know what they think. Perhaps, if they think it’s up to par with the rest of the material they promote, they could include it in their next roundup.
These bloggers have no ulterior motive but to provide their readers with top content and, thus attract more attention to their blogs as a way to ensure their own success. For that reason, they normally have no qualms about putting your blog post on their list if it’s well-written, valuable, and informative. That’s why it’s so important for you to ensure you put your best foot forward here. If you supply them with a mediocre article, you make a bad first impression and you probably won’t get another chance to attract their attention.
But, if the article is well written and your email is polite in your email, there’s no reason they won’t say yes and give you a shot!
Strategy #5: Install the Yoast SEO plugin.
Yoast SEO, a WordPress marketplace plugin, not only guides bloggers on their journey for search engine optimization (SEO), but helps to improve their writing. It judges your blog post on countless criteria (title, link usage, keywords, readability, etc.) before you ever even click the “post” button. Its main goal is to help the blogger put out the best material possible while also providing you with the best SEO, which sends more organic traffic to your blog and forms a cycle that further improves your search rank. Yoast is a must for your content marketing strategy, although some prefer All-in-One SEO because it results in a score with recommendations for improvement.
My one and only gripe with the Yoast plugin is that it is extremely advanced and novices can quickly become overwhelmed and drown in the options available to them. It is for that reason that I always recommend SEO newbies take the time to become familiar with this program before they dive right in. Read a few tutorials, watch a few Youtube videos, and make sure that you use it to its fullest potential so you can get the most out of it as humanly possible! Both SEO plugins offer a free and professional version with more bells and whistles.
Trust me when I tell you that Yoast is the best and simplest option for promotion. All you have to do is install the plugin and add the requested elements such as keyword phrase and meta description to get recommendations to improve your SEO and writing style.
Strategy #6: Find people on Twitter with similar interests
Twitter’s Advanced Search option is a great place to find people who are interested in the niche or niches featured in your blog content. To get started, type those keywords into the search and find tweets that include chosen keywords. For example, if your post is on blog monetization and you search “blog monetization” in the advanced search, you can look through tweets from people who write about that topic. From there, it’s up to you to tweet to those you feel could or would benefit from reading your article with a link to your blog post and a short (under 280 characters, of course!) explanation of the main thesis. Don’t forget to follow them to encourage them to follow you back.
Most Twitter users receive a notification whenever their name is @’ed, which means that they are almost guaranteed to see your link. That’s why it’s beneficial to mention them versus sending a direct message. Public acknowledgment is a strong motivator to action. If nothing else, they probably are curious enough to click – at least I know I would!
What happens after that, of course, is up to the person themselves. But you can know that you did just about everything that you could in order to get your blog post seen by the people who want to see it.
Strategy #7: Become a guest contributor
I will never fully understand the negative connotation that follows guest posting around. There are so many bloggers – too many if you ask me – who see guest posting as some kind of cheap sellout. Although I heard the arguments, and the vast majority stem from those who say you never receive any long-term recognition, I can’t help but disagree. While it’s true that, as a guest poster, you receive more attention from your guest post than you do for your blog, it’s also true that ANY attention is important. Besides, a guest post normally comes with a backlink (do-follow) from the blog that improves your SEO as this is a major signal of high-quality content when posted on a blog with a good DA (domain authority). That makes guest posting a super simple content marketing tactic to consider.
If your post is good enough, people will follow your included link to find your blog, resulting in more visits that further improve SEO. They might read your content as well as the linked post, and they might become a dedicated reader, subscribe to your newsletter, or your SSS feed. A guest contribution post on a more successful blog is a way for you to show off your writing chops to a large audience and introduce yourself to them.
Strategy #8: Share your latest blog posts in your newsletter
Once you gain some sort of success with your blog, your natural next step is to start your own newsletter. Not only are subscribers a great way for you to connect to and remain relatable to your audience, but they also serve as an awesome way to promote your content to people you know who want to see it. Think of it this way: someone who takes the time out of their day to subscribe to your email list most likely wants to hear about your latest blog posts, right? Email marketing is a great tool and you should use this super simple content marketing tactic by sending monthly or weekly missives to develop your community.
All you have to do is provide a short sentence about what the post is about along with a link in your email message. You might even include a short paragraph to encourage subscribers to visit your website. Clean the list periodically to remove subscribers who don’t open or click to keep your list fresh.
If you’re not sure where to begin, get started by finding the best email software for you. From there, your main focus should involve growing your list organically.
Strategy #9: Join a forum in your niche
Before there was Facebook and Twitter, there were forums. Basically, a forum is a place for people with similar interests to get together and talk on various “threads” regarding their shared interests. You can comment around, teach, learn, and get comfortable with one another. The good news is that social media hasn’t slowed down forums much at all. They’re still out there and stronger than ever, so now is as good of a time as any to get in on the action and involve yourself.
Ensure the forum you choose is still relatively popular and contains recent posts. Once you introduce yourself and comment around a bit, you can start posting your articles. Medium is a good option, as its content appears in Google searches for a topic.
If you post relevant and valuable content, forum members will seek you out.
Strategy #10: Promote your posts on a subreddit.
Reddit is awesome. Not only are the people on the platform filled with information and sass, but there is a subreddit for basically every niche imaginable. This makes it the perfect place to promote your content. Just make sure that you do so wisely. Reddit is known for being a bit… brutally honest with people, so ensure you keep that in mind. If they don’t like your post, they will downvote you. If they think you only joined so you could shamelessly self-promote your content, they will downvote you. If they flat-out just don’t like you, they will downvote you.
If you join Reddit, I suggest familiarizing yourself with your niche’s subreddit. See how it works, read the rules, and comment around on a few posts to become acclimated. The more familiar you are with the platform, the easier you can gain attention to your posts and avoid the downvote. Once you do, don’t spam the page with all of your posts. It’s a surefire way to get them to hate you and for your plan to completely backfire.
Strategy #11: Pay social media to promote your content
There is nothing wrong with paying for promotion. Using paid promotion doesn’t mean you aren’t working hard – it simply means that you seek a wider audience to help on a platform that supports targeted reach.
Twitter, Facebook (including Instagram), TikTok, and LinkedIn (among others) offer highly targeted paid promotion promotions, making these a super simple content marketing tactic. Each platform offers a different advertising interface and metrics to track the performance of your advertising. My one and only word of warning on this advertising is that paid promotion costs money but far less than traditional advertising costs. Companies like Twitter and Facebook charge on a per-click basis, or PPC (as one option), so you don’t pay for reach unless it results in a click.
Another option is Google Ads, which is also PPC but focuses on search ads. However, you might find social media ads more effective as Google Ads primarily benefit companies seeking to sell products online since those make up the majority of searches. Make sure that you’ve set aside a specific budget for your paid promotion and you’ll be fine. There’s nothing worse than drowning in a sea of unexpected expenses!
Conclusion for super simple content marketing
Do you use any of these super simple content marketing tactics? Which do you find most effective?
Obviously, even with a post this length, I didn’t cover all the super simple content marketing tactics out there. Are there any you feel deserve inclusion in this post? Please add them to the comments below.
This is a guest post on Content Marketing Strategy by Andrew Wise at Wise Startup Blog
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