You’ve been working tirelessly on your content for days (maybe even weeks – it happens). It’s finally edited to perfection and ready to be published. With the click of a button, you send your content into the world wide web, certain you’ll receive so much traffic it will crash your website. After all, it was one of your best blogs yet! After a few hours you check your analytics and … nothing. You’ve had maybe a few people read your post, but that’s it. No social shares, no comments. Where is everybody and why is no one reading your kick-ass article? What went wrong?
The answer is simple: you didn’t amplify your content.
What is Content Amplification?
Basically, content amplification is the practice of helping your content reach a much larger audience.
Content amplification is a powerful technique that can provide you with incredible results. If done correctly, it can expand your audience, establish your business as one of the best in the industry and create new opportunities to drive leads and sales. Sounds good, right? The great news is – it’s relatively easy to master. When it comes to promoting your content and getting it seen by the right people, it really does all come back to your content strategy. In this article, we are going to discuss all things content amplification and the best practices for getting your content seen.
The Best Content Amplification Practices
Build your social media following
To build an audience for your content to reach new readers, a good place to start is on social media. The important thing to remember is that while you want to promote your content to social media users, you want to avoid ‘salesy’ language. Instead, you want to talk about the benefits the content will provide readers. Also, don’t worry about trying to be everywhere on social media all at once. Try and remain active on one or two social media platforms, the ones your audience is active on. You can also join groups your target audience are in, and join in conversations to share your expertise in the topics you write about.
Host guest authors on your blog
In the blogging world, sharing is caring and if you’re just starting out, having authoritative bloggers to write for your blog can be just what you need. It’s a win-win situation for you and your guest author. They get to share their expertise with your audience, and in turn, they will share that article with their followers, which will send more traffic to your website. When it comes to content amplification, it’s all about sharing links. It’s good for SEO, and it’s good for encouraging positive participation and contribution from other bloggers and authority figures in your field.
In the same manner, you can also reach out to people who post similar content and ask if you can write an article on their blog. This is a great way to promote your brand and expertise to a new audience. As a guest blogger you’ll have the opportunity to add your bio with links to your website and blog at the bottom (or side) of their blog which will introduce new people to your blog and drive more traffic to your site, helping to boost your search ranking.
Post your content on relevant LinkedIn groups
If the content you’re writing about contains information that will be relevant and insightful to a specific group, chances are there’s a LinkedIn group for this audience. Search for these groups on LinkedIn, join and engage in current conversations. Offer helpful advice to establish yourself as a trusted resource so when it comes to promoting your blog article in the group people are likely to want to read it. Tip, don’t just promote your content without engaging and building a rapport with the group first.
Take advantage of email marketing
Did you know email remains a successful marketing tactic, driving more conversions? The key is to get permission first before sending. Make sure you have an email subscribe option on your blog with a positioning statement that tells people why they should subscribe, what they can expect and how it will benefit them. Another effective tactic for getting people to sign up for your blog is to have an option to sign up on other forms on your website. For example, if you have a form on your website to download an ebook, or sign up for a webinar, include an option to sign up for your blog too.
Use paid media to amplify your content
Although there are ways you can amplify your content for free (like the ones mentioned above), don’t forget about paid media to promote your content. Paying to boost your post to a relevant audience on Facebook or LinkedIn is a great way to take your content amplification to a whole new level. And, these platforms don’t always require a massive investment for you to start seeing results.
These social media platforms use a special algorithm that control the content users see in their newsfeeds. Unfortunately, this means your followers won’t always see the organic content you post. So, in order to reach your followers and new audiences, it can be worthwhile investing in paid social media, you can target your audience based on location, demographics, behaviours and their interests.
Pay-per-click ads through Google AdWords is another popular way to use paid media to amplify your content, however, it is more expensive than paid social media. PPC ads are targeted towards certain keywords, so when people search these keywords into a search engine, they will see your ad content at the top of the search engine results page. PPC ads are especially good for new businesses who are still working on their SEO strategy and need a helping hand getting their content seen by new and relevant audiences.
So there you have it – some of our top tips for amplifying your content. These are just a few ways to help you get started and help get your content seen.
