Do you spend time and effort creating content for your business?
Your content could include anything, from blogs, videos, PDFs, photographs, podcasts, webinars, to your carefully crafted social media posts.
Do you get a good return on investment from your content, or do you find that your content doesn’t get many views or that it isn’t generating business inquiries?
Read our top 10 tips on how you can easily market your content effectively to generate more business.
At Hedgerow Marketing, we use our industry expertise to create and market content for our clients. You see, our clients tend to offer a lot of valuable insight within their industry, but they don’t have the time or resources to make and market their content. If you’re reading, you probably feel the same way about your content.
Typically, when people make content, they post it on their social media once, but that’s about it. Sometimes, they might include it in an email newsletter. Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to get your content enough engagement. You need to market your content more effectively.
So, if you have spent hours creating content for your target audience, but only a handful of people actually saw it, then read on. We’re going to be sharing our top 10 tips on how to market your content and get more return on your investments.
With these content marketing tips up your sleeve, you’ll be able to impress your network and clients with your amazing content. Let’s get started.
- Rave about your content
It’s not enough to post about your content once. You need to post your content on all your marketing channels and social media platforms. You also need to post about your content more than once. For every piece of content you create, you should post about it 3 or more times on the platforms that work best for your business.
It sounds like a lot of effort, but it is worth it. If you make videos on YouTube or write blogs, share your content via email, your website, your social media. If you do this regularly, more people will see your content and will read it. It’s as simple as that.
To entice people to read your content, make sure the post linking to your content is interesting. Focus on what they will gain from viewing your content – after all, you’re asking them to commit their precious time. They need to know they will get something out of it.
2. Repurpose your content.
What works on some platforms might not work on others. For example, Twitter is very different to LinkedIn, and LinkedIn is very different to Reddit. You need to consider how each platform works and repurpose your content.
Reddit is a really good platform to start using – but you have to do it right. The people of Reddit, ‘Redditors’, are very fickle. They don’t like it when businesses self-promote. If you’re going to advertise your business in your Reddit content, do it subtly.
On the other hand, Twitter is a great platform for sharing lots of bite-sized information. Use hashtags to tap into specific audiences. Share facts, figures and quotes that are easy to read and understand. Create long ‘threads’ with a clear narrative.
Taking 10-15 minutes to understand a platform and adapt your content to it will help you get more out of your social media activity.
3. Narrate your content.
Some people simply don’t have time to sit down and read your blog piece, however interesting it is. Instead, they’d prefer it if it was a video or soundbite that they could listen to. But don’t worry – it’s not as much effort to make as it seems.
If you write blog pieces, you’re essentially writing a script. Buy a decent microphone, sit down at your desk, and record yourself narrating your blog piece. Upload it to Youtube with a catchy title, and suddenly you’re tapping into a completely new audience.
Sure, you might have to adapt your writing a little bit if it doesn’t sound right, but this shouldn’t take long. Your videos and soundbites don’t have to be Ted Talk quality, so don’t worry if you’re not super techy. It’ll just take a bit of time to learn how to use YouTube, Soundcloud, and other audio-visual platforms, but once you do, it will be completely worth it.
4. Put your content into people’s inboxes.
If you don’t have a mailing list for your business, there’s no other way to say it. You’re making a mistake.
Social Media platforms go in and out of fashion, and you’re competing with thousands of other people doing pretty much the same thing as you. Email, on the other hand, lets you directly communicate with your clients and your target audience. Email marketing has a great return on investment, probably the best of any digital marketing channel. That’s because when people give you their email address, they’re not just giving you permission to email them. They expect you to email them.
Share your content using your mailing list. Put it in an email, or in your email newsletter. You could even consider putting a link to your latest/most important content in your email signature.
For marketing tips straight to your inbox, you can join our mailing list here.
5. Advertise your content.
If you’re confident that your content is good enough to sell, it’s worth considering paid advertising. If you spend £10 to advertise your blog piece on Facebook or Google, and your blog piece goes on to generate you £100 of business, you’re laughing.
You have to be confident that your content will actually sell. If you recklessly spend lots of money advertising all your content, you may find yourself out of cash quickly. Think about your selling strategy, and pick your fights.
Advertising your content is a great way of reaching new audiences. It lets you communicate with people who are looking for the solutions and information that you provide. If your content is actually interesting and helpful, you might just find yourself a new client.
6. Recycle, re-use, re-post.
Content can go out of date in just a matter of months. To save yourself time, revisit your old content, and update it so that it is relevant. This shouldn’t take too long, depending on what the content is.
If you make evergreen content, content that stays relevant over time, then you will save yourself a lot of time and effort. For example, you might have content that is insightful and useful years after it was originally posted. Don’t be afraid to share it, months or years later.
Once you’ve generated lots of content, you can simply recycle your content without having to sit down and make new content.
7. Be direct.
Feel free to approach people on the internet and prompt them to look at your content. Just be considerate about how you do it. Let’s look at an example.
If you’ve written a blog piece about the best cat scratchers, and you notice that someone on social media has bought a new cat but it’s shredding their sitting room furniture, approach them and say something along these lines:
“Hi, your new cat is very sweet. I love cats. What’s its name? I couldn’t help but notice that your cat is shredding all your furniture. Have you considered getting a cat scratching post? I’ve written about the best cat scratching posts if you want to have a look. It could save you a lot of money on new furniture. No worries if you don’t want to read it!”
In this example, you’re being approachable and relatable, but you’re also being helpful and potentially saving them money. You don’t just care about them reading your blog, and you’re offering them the chance to say ‘no thanks’. Whilst you can’t do this for every single person on the internet, the chances of them engaging with your content is much higher, because they’re looking for the exact thing you’re writing about.
8. Cross-reference your content.
This is a really simple concept, but not enough people do it. Include links to your website and other pieces of content within your content. What this does is encourages people to engage with your other content. It proves you have lots to offer your audience, and that they can continue to come to you for answers and insights on a range of topics.
At the end of a blog, video, pdf or email, include a link to website pages or other content you’ve created where your audience can find out more information. Try this line:
“If you liked this blog piece about cat scratching posts, why not check out my video about cat collars”.
It’s simple, and there’s a strong chance they’re going to be interested.
9. Guest content.
If you’re making lots of great content, consider sharing it with other content creators who have a bigger audience. This means you can tap into new audiences without much effort.
All you need to do is identify several content creators who host guests’ content, pitch your content to them, and await their response.
Think about what unique value you offer to them, and why they should choose your content. If you make great videos, blogs, imagery, or PDFs, they’ll probably be more than happy to share your content with their audience.
10. It’s about your audience, not you.
A big mistake many content creators make is that they talk about themselves and the things they’re interested in. Sure, this might work for some people, but you’ll have more success engaging your audience if you make content that you know your audience will like.
At the end of the day, marketing is all about using the language of your audience. It’s about appreciating their problems and providing content that will help them solve their problems. You’re there to find a solution for them. Tailor your content to your audience.
If your content is directly related to your business, don’t be afraid to include a call to action at the end. You want to generate business, after all. First and foremost, you are offering free information. But, you do want to at least generate interest in what your business has to offer. Ask them to check out your website or include your contact details at the end. For an example, see below.
We hope you found our ‘top 10 tips on how to effectively market your content’ useful. It can seem like a lot of work, but it will really help you get more from your content. If you’ve read this and thought “wow, that’s a lot of work” then we can help. We provide content marketing for our clients, to help them generate business. Perhaps we can help you too!
Check out our website for more information, or contact us at Lesley@Hedgerowmarketing.co.uk so we can have a chat about getting more results from your content.
