7 Ways to Get More Out Of Your Content Marketing Strategy

You’ve decided to pursue a content marketing strategy. You have an outstanding piece of content you’ve spent hours creating, putting your heart and mind into the piece and that is great.

Then, you published it. Yet after sometime, you begin to get the feeling, “Maybe I could have gotten more out of my outstanding piece of content.” What could you have done?

Sometimes it is hard to realize that content you like and have created with care and thoughtfulness will not get the attention you think it deserves. This might be due to the fact that your own blog is not yet as widely known as you want it to be, or your content is not speaking to the correct target group. Whatever the problem, there are ways to help your content get the attention it deserves.

1. Publish where your audience is

Whatever outlet you choose – your own blog, a guest blog, a publishing platform – you must be aware of the audience present in that space and choose accordingly. A large audience might not give you the results you are looking for if the audience has no interest in or relationship to your content. Let your decision be influenced by facts like these: Are you allowed to republish content or do you promise unique content?  Does the outlet help you spread your content via other social media channels? Is the audience professional or casual? Focus on the intention of your content.

2. Republish

There are multiple opportunities to reuse content you have already published (be careful if you published as a guest post and promised unique content).

News aggregate sites allow you to repost already published articles; sites like Business2Community have an established audience and good content gets shared through social media channels such as Twitter.

A content-based publishing platform allows you to republish, link back, or publish directly to an industry or topic related audience. You can build a professional content-based profile, establish yourself as an expert for a chosen topic, and connect to relevant people.

3. Re-Purpose

If you have already published more than one piece of content which received attention, but you believe your content is still relevant: collect some of your older related pieces, add some fresh ideas of your own or from other thought leaders, and make a new piece of content combining the old and new information.

Refurbishing the old and combining it with the new, you have an original piece of content without having invested too much time.

4. Share

Good content shared through social media channels is the foundation for building a following. On Twitter and Google+, strong content shared with your followers and people who circled you, inspires re-tweets, shares and gives your more visibility, and helps you to get on the radar of even more people. You are allowed to (and should) include outstanding content from thought leaders in your field to prove that you are familiar with developing issues and have more to offer than self-promotion.

Note: If you publish on your own blog, make sure it is easy for readers to share your content through various social media channels. Sharing it yourself is the first step, but the big impact usually comes if other people join your force and distribute your content for you. If you publish on another outlet, make sure, content is share-able.

5. Discuss

Simply providing information (posting an article, a status, a tweet, an infographic) is not enough to establish you as an expert and build a reputation. Encouraging and maintain dialogue is an important part of the equation; how you manage comments and questions influences your ability to stand out from the masses.

Social media is crowded. One of the major problems is information overflow. To garner attention and a positive reputation, you have to be unique, helpful, responsive and knowledgeable. If you get reactions on Twitter and Google+ after sharing content – answer.

An active discussion always gets much more attention than just a post. For this reason, entice discussions on all of your social media outlets, including your blog and/or publishing platform. Your content will live longer and you will be a happier marketer.

6. Ask and Connect

If you have a really interesting and outstanding piece of content, you can use it to directly approach thought leaders in your field. Ask them for a comment, opinion or statement on your content. Not everyone will be responsive, but if you get the attention of one thought leader, you have already achieved several things. You get on the radar of an already established expert and respected thought leader within your field.

If you do it in a thoughtful and unobtrusive way, he or she might be willing to help you spread the word about your content. This then allows you to tap into the audience of a thought leader from your professional niche. It is a great way to gain visibility within your target group.

7. Optimize for Search

I am no SEO specialist, but the truth is that if you can make your content be found through Google with the right keywords, you will gain a lot of visibility for your content. For valuable content optimization advice, I recommend the real experts in the interview series, Debunking SEO.

Don’t forget…

Content Marketing does not end with content creation. If you have great content and want your content to achieve the best possible results for you and your business, you have to work on enhancing its value and visibility. I’ll leave you with a quote from an interview with one of our favorite marketing experts, Lee Odden:

“Content marketing isn’t just about adding more content; it’s about creating information for a target audience that has a particular purpose and intended outcome. Content drives awareness, but also social interaction, customer engagement and sales.”

Guest Author: Susanna Gebauer is one of the founders of the social publishing and content marketing platform exploreB2B.  You can also find Susanna on Twitter.

Image by Leo Reynolds