Need more eyeballs on your content? In this post, we’re giving you five options to promote your content in just one hour a week.
After all, when it comes to content marketing, 20% of your time should be spent on content creation and 80% on promotion. That’s because your content needs to reach your target market for it to impact your lead generation and sales.
Here are a few ways to manage content promotion when you’re a solo business owner.
TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:
[01:14] Introduction
[03:49] Share on social media
[04:57] Productivity tips for sharing content on social media
[08:50] Cross posting
[10:57] Tips for productive cross posting
[11:45] Outreach
[12:52] Tips for outreach
[13:42] Email your list
[14:57] Email marketing tips
[16:25] Paid content promotion beyond ads
[18:05] Other ideas
[20:04] Bloopers
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
MissingLettr
HelloWoofy
Follow.it
Quuu Promote
MissingLettr Curate
Triberr Promote
Flipboard
[Meghan] Amazing content doesn’t matter much if no one consumes it!
For content to support your business goals, you’ve got to promote it. Amplifying your content means more people in your target market will see your content, and that means an increase in:
- Brand awareness
- Website visitors or traffic
- Lead generation
[Theresa] Promotion is a big chunk of content marketing. Getting the word out about your content—whether that be videos, podcast, blog posts, eBook…whatever!— is critical.
This is one of those tasks that businesses sometimes forget or avoid. And that’s a shame because after you’ve created all of that amazing content, you’ve got to let people know about it!
[Meghan] Sometimes I put content promotion on the back burner. My way around that is to:
1) use the tools that jive with my work style and
2) block time on my calendar.
That’s why I’m suggesting that you block off one hour a week to dedicate to content promotion. This step prioritizes promotion so that you get it done. And, it gets you into creating a habit of content promotion.
[Theresa] Everyone knows I love planning and time blocking!
This is especially important if you are a team of one. There are lots of tasks to juggle, so you must own your day or it owns you.
But even if you have a small marketing team, this is good advice. You’ve got to plan content promotion if you expect to accomplish it.
One hour is a good starting place to avoid overwhelm and keep this task manageable for now. Once you get into the swing of it, you can block off more time for promotion.
Don't overlook content promotion. Pick one tactic, block off an hour a week, and start! These suggestions can help.Click To Tweet
Choose One of These Five Ideas to Make Content Promotion Easier
[Meghan] Ok, so the next question is: what are you going to do in that hour? How will you maximize those 60 minutes?
Today we’re giving you five ways you can use that hour to promote your content. These may not be new to you, but it’s still worth a listen since we’ve shared productivity tips for each.
[Theresa] And I’ll mention here that you’re not doing ALL of these five things in that one hour!
You’re choosing one suggestion—maybe two tops—and focusing your effort.
After you choose one, add it to your calendar and use a timer to stick to the 60 minutes.
You may not get as far as you’d like the first few times. But don’t give up! You’ll get faster and more efficient at it as time goes on.
1) Share Content on Social Media
[Meghan] The most obvious way to promote your content is to share your content on social media.
We all know this. Whether or not we do it—and do it consistently—is another story!
But, this isn’t news to you.
[Theresa] I think everyone at this point has been advised to share content on social media.
Fair warning though! Since this is a common and popular way to promote content, there’s a lot of competition for attention. As a result, many platforms have limited reach, which makes using social media for organic content promotion more challenging.
[Meghan] Although the landscape is competitive, sharing your content on social platforms is worth it if social media is your thing.
Here’s why. Even though reach is down, a portion of people will still see your social posts. Plus, people check out businesses on social media.
And, there’s the whole search aspect. Content from social media often appears on search engine results pages. And some experts claim that social media gives you a little boost in search.
Tips for Using Social Media for Content Promotion
[Theresa] So, if you decide that you want to spend an hour a week promoting your content using social media, here are a few pro tips.
- Use an app to schedule your posts like Buffer, HootSuite or eClincher. There are tons of tools out there, so do your homework. Of course, you can always hit up AppSumo to see if there are any deals on new social sharing tools.
- Create blog post images that you can re-use on social media and batch your work for image creation for speed and ease.
- Focus on the platforms where your target market hangs out. This will differ depending on where your demographic hangs out. For example, if you’re trying to reach 20-somethings, they aren’t on Facebook!
- On that note, don’t try to post on all platforms as each one requires different size graphics. Trying to create all the graphics in all the sizes will diminish your productivity. So start with one and incorporate other platforms over time.
- Add social sharing buttons on your website to make it easy for others to share your content.
- Outsource the work to a virtual assistant or contractor.
- A bonus tip would be to use a scheduling app that supports teams so that you don’t have to give out your account information. Or, if you don’t want to share any level of access, you can always outsource just the content creation aspect – meaning the creation of visuals, video, and text.
[Meghan] And I’ll add that there are some really cool AI-powered apps that make social media content management far easier.
MissingLettr
I’ve mentioned MissingLettr before because it’s such a time saver. Every time you publish a blog post, this app creates social media content for you. It pulls images from your post and makes the whole content creation and social media publishing possible within the app. It’s $20 a month, which is highly affordable.
HelloWoofy
HelloWoofy is another app that utilizes AI to help write and publish your social media posts faster. I’ve never used HelloWoofy, but there is a demo on the website so check it out.
By the way, out of the five suggestions on this list, this is the one I’ve chosen to do. And I’ve chosen social media since it’s what I can support doing for now. It works with my expertise, my schedule, and our podcast’s content plan.
Now, the MissingLettr app has helped a ton, but I’m still sharing content on Twitter only. I really need to add Pinterest and LinkedIn and increase my posting frequency!
[Theresa] I know what you mean. It helps to outsource your social media management. But look, you’ve made a commitment, and you’re actively promoting content, so count it as a win.
2) Publish the Same Content on Other Platforms
[Meghan] Another way to promote your content is to publish it on other websites in addition to your own online real estate. This is often called cross posting or syndication. I’m sort of lumping these into one category, but they’re a bit different.
You can cross post an entire piece of content if you want. But one strategic way to leverage cross posting is to publish a blog post on your website then post it in part on other sites with a link back to the full article. This is a good way to drive traffic to your own domain.
[Theresa] That’s a good plan for sure!
Since you put all of this time and effort into creation, you may as well use your content more than once! That’s one of the big advantages of content marketing.
Also, when it comes to productivity, publishing your existing content on other platforms is an effective use of time. You’re multiplying the impact of your content for a little extra work. This is so smart! It’s a no-brainer.
[Meghan] So, where can you cross post your blog posts? Some ideas are:
- LinkedIn articles
- Medium
- GrowthHackers
- BlogEngage
- Business2Community
These are just a few examples. Where you cross post depends on your industry, niche, and the topics you talk about. There are other communities and websites out there where you can cross post. A simple online search can point you in the right direction.
GOOD TO KNOW: How Does Content Syndication Impact SEO by Shane Barker
[Theresa] By the way, you can also cross post video, audio, and even PDFs and infographics to other platforms. There are a lot of options.
For instance, if you publish a video on YouTube or Vimeo, then be sure to add it to your website. Consider publishing your videos on other video sites like Rumble.
[Meghan] And, don’t forget that you can upload videos directly to social media platforms, which is better than posting a link to your videos. Links on social media don’t perform as well as they used to since social media companies want to keep you on their platforms.
Tips for Productive Cross Posting
[Theresa] Let’s talk about how you’re going to manage cross posting so you get it done in one hour a week. The first thing you must do is create a plan.
- Block out an hour to do some pre-work. During this block you’ll want to choose one or two places to cross post. Familiarize yourself with their terms, guidelines and any other information that is pertinent.
- Block out one hour every week on your calendar because what gets scheduled gets done. And a pro tip here, make it the same day and time every week.
- Set up a repeatable process with a checklist to follow each time. This helps to save time and ensure that you don’t miss any steps.
3) Reach Out to Interested Parties
[Meghan] Another way to promote your content is to perform outreach, usually via email but messaging may be an option too.
Outreach means that you contact specific people who may have a reason to help you get more traction on your content.
For example, if you’ve featured a person or a product in your content, that brand may want to spread the word about your content to increase their own social proof, awareness, and visibility.
Or, if your content benefits another brand’s community, then that brand may share your content to boost its perceived authority.
With outreach, it’s really all about what’s in it for the other person. Focus on that aspect when reaching out.
[Theresa] Outreach can lead to people sharing your content in various ways, like on social media or in email. This increases your visibility and website traffic. Outreach also helps you acquire backlinks to your website.
[Meghan] And these benefits mean you reach different audiences, raise your authority, increase your brand’s awareness, and boost your SEO.
Outreach can really help your content’s performance!
Tips to Manage Your Outreach Efforts
[Theresa] So, here are a few productivity tips for managing your outreach.
- Schedule on your calendar as a recurring event.
- Break up your hour into two parts. For example, you may spend 30 minutes researching and the remaining 30 minutes contacting people.
- Create a few email templates to maximize the time you have. Keep them in a Word doc in a folder on your computer or in Google Docs. Instead of wondering what to say, you can simply copy, paste and then make a few edits to the template. Templating is an easy strategy to make writing faster.
- Outsource the research part of the task so that you can spend the full hour on outreach.
4) Email Your List
[Meghan] Another way to get the word out about your content is to notify your email subscribers.
Don’t be afraid to communicate with them. After all, these are the folks that have opted in to hear from you, so don’t overlook them!
[Theresa] Your subscribers are one of your biggest assets. They are the people most likely to consume and share your content.
[Meghan] Your subscribers’ views of your content on your website combined with social media shares from them boost your content’s reach and ranking. That means more people will see your content.
Here’s a pro tip if you’re blogging. Some email marketing providers let you set up automated campaigns that will convert the first few lines of your latest blog post into email content. This is done using your site’s RSS feed. I’ve noticed that Neil Patel frequently uses this option. So, you may be able to automate some of your emails, which can save time.
[Theresa] That’s potentially a great feature for some! It’s definitely a good productivity hack as long as you’ve set up your blog post content to be email friendly.
Tips for Managing Your Email Marketing
[Theresa] Here are some other ideas for making email marketing possible in one hour a week.
- Create a system for creating and publishing content. It can be as simple as having a checklist that you run through that makes the process easier.
- Develop a content and publishing calendar for your emails. Knowing what you’re sending your list in advance saves heaps of time and effort.
- Design your own email templates. Format one and then make a copy to edit.
- Get done-for-you templates and scripts. Using scripts save so much time, particularly if you’re someone who struggles with what to say. (Examples: Happy Subscribers Toolkit, DigitalMarketer)
And if you’re really not comfortable with email marketing yet, consider an app like Follow.it. People can follow you and get notified via email when you publish a new post.
We use Follow.it for our podcast’s blog so that Meghan and I don’t have to manage a joint email list. So, our followers hear from us weekly via email—without us having to send emails. This is a major time save, and we’re still promoting our content!
5) Paid Content Promotion on Social Media (Other than Ads)
[Meghan] Finally, the last method to promote your content is to pay to have other people promote it on social media.
Besides ads, you can invest in content promotion through apps like Quuu Promote, MissingLettr Curate, and Triberr Promote. These apps are based on other people sharing your content through social networks.
With MissingLettr Curate and Triberr Promote, I think there’s more of a community aspect. As in, the idea is that people share your content and ideally you participate in sharing content too.
Quuu Promote, on the other hand, is more about paying to have other people share your content. Basically you supply your RSS feed, and the app takes care of promoting your new blog posts.
A disadvantage of these apps is that you don’t have as much control over who is sharing your content or who is seeing your content. The question then becomes, is your content actually getting in front of the right people?
I think there are a lot of factors at play—including your industry, subject matter, and your goals. So, carefully consider this option.
[Theresa] Also, there’s a monthly fee for these apps, so your budget may determine which you choose if you go this route.
But for the most part, these apps don’t require too much oversight. So, you can check in once a week to review your analytics and approve content if necessary.
A Few Extra Content Promotion Ideas
[Meghan] There are other ways to get more visibility on your content. We haven’t reviewed all of them! This isn’t an exhaustive list.
But hopefully one of the ideas we’ve shared in this episode works with your style, budget, and schedule. Promotion is a super important step since it puts the “marketing” into your content, right?
[Theresa] Right! After all, there needs to be some actual marketing taking place.
Don’t forget that you can always take the opportunity to mention your blog, eBook, podcast, or YouTube channel when you’re networking or a guest speaker. You can even put a link to your content in your email signature.
[Meghan] Use your imagination and get creative! There are even online niche directories and aggregation sites like Flipboard that can display your content via RSS feed. So, you could dedicate an hour each week to finding directory websites and setting up your profile.
No matter what method you choose for promotion, always prioritize relevance and quality over quantity. It’s more effective to get your content in front of 100 people who are interested in your subject rather than 10,000 people who really don’t care about your content.
Pay attention to targeting and be intentional about your promotional efforts.
[Theresa] Good points to remember!
That’s it for this episode. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast, and follow us to get notified when a new episode and blog post launch.
