You may devote a lot of time and effort to selecting topics for your new posts, repurposing your content, researching and thoroughly analyzing each subject you choose – but it all won’t matter if the content does not get read.
When you first start out as a content marketer, you may have a pretty vague idea of how to get people to find and read your content. There is a lot to do before you acquire a devoted audience that follows your blog updates with interest – and if you don’t do it right, you might never succeed in building that audience. So, here are the essential things you should and shouldn’t do if you want to popularize your content and build a solid blog following.
Do Produce Quality Content
The Internet is overcrowded with content, and not all of it is worth even clicking the link. The first step you should take is create the kind of content that deserves reading and sharing. If you succeed in that, there is a good chance other people will be willing to recommend the piece to their friends and readers, so the content starts ‘popularizing itself’.
Do Come Up with a Promotion Checklist
Before you start promoting your very first post, think about the ways you can reach your target reader. Do they communicate on industry forums? Are they active users of Facebook? Do your research and prepare a checklist of channels, which may include (depending on the specifics of your industry):
- your brand’s social media pages
- social media communities (LinkedIn groups, Google+ communities, etc.)
- niche social platforms
- industry forums and discussion boards
- your mailing list
- paid online ads (Google Adwords, Facebook ads, etc.)
Run each of your posts through the checklist and make sure your content gets as much exposure as possible.
Do Promote Each Post
You may be tempted to ignore some of your posts because their topics are not that exciting or they are guest posts you don’t care much about. This is a mistake: attracting traffic always matters, and even if this particular post won’t get as popular as the other ones, it may still generate some new subscribers. Plus, more incoming links never hurt.
Do Connect with Industry Influencers
Some people and brands in your industry already have an established following, and they might share your content with their audience. How do you do that? Try mentioning them in your post in a positive light, and connect with them via social media or email, asking them to share that piece of content. They might as well do it: for them it’s additional proof of their authority; for you it’s additional exposure to an engaged audience.
Don’t Underestimate Content Promotion
Remember it is as important to promote your content actively as it is to actually create it. If you have spent several hours on creating a post, invest a few more into getting it the exposure it deserves. The mistake many beginner content creators make is just publishing the post and expecting traffic to come naturally. You need to work on it yourself before you acquire a sufficient subscribers base and good positions in search results.
Don’t Be a Spammer
What some marketers do in social media communities is just drop the link to the article and leave it there. Your goal is getting people interested, so make your social media posts ‘human’: add your comment to the link, ask a question, and be sure to participate in the discussion that may arise in the comments.
Promoting your content is not that difficult. It is pretty much like selling a product: if you have a great product and know whom to offer it and how, you will seal the deal! Now, how do you popularize the content you create? Does it work? Feel free to share in the comments.
