Developing creative, engaging, and effective marketing content is challenging, but it’s also fun. In fact, as you start producing better and better material, it can almost become addicting. That’s the point where you run the risk of forgetting one very important thing: your content is the means to an end. You’ve got to get it in front of the right people in the right ways for the “marketing” part to happen!
Here are some things to keep in mind as you share your content:
- Promote to the right personas — A great piece covering issues pertinent to a CFO will likely be completely ignored (and quickly deleted) by a mid-level manager if it ends up in their inbox. Proper segmentation of your prospects is critical.
- Test new channels — It makes sense that if you know your prospects are frequently on Twitter, you promote your content there. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment with Instagram or Slideshare or any other platform that seems like it has potential. Maybe your content will lure more prospect there and then you’ll benefit not only from their interest in your content but also from their enthusiasm for the new channel.
- Think series not singles — It’s well known that it takes multiple “touches” with a prospect to begin to shape their opinion of your products or services. If you are considering writing and promoting a case study, consider writing and promoting three of them, or five of them. People find consistency and repetition reassuring.
- Stop steering — Are you the type of bowler that after you release the ball, you lean and bend and gesture to try to guide the ball to exactly the right spot? News flash—it doesn’t work. (Though we like to believe it does!) Once the ball hits the alley, its fate is out of your hands (literally). It’s the same with your content. Once you make it available to the public, you no longer control where it goes. Get comfortable with that idea. If it’s getting views, you’ve done your job.
- Don’t force feed — The best piece of content ever produced is going to create a backlash if you try too hard to get it in front of people. Give serious thought to when, where, and how often you promote your material. And, of course, you need to understand what spam is and the trouble you can find yourself in if you are labeled a spammer.
- Ask for the business — While amazing content isn't blanketed in self-promotion, it is important to have a clear call-to-action with each new piece of content. If you don't ask for the business, it will be rare that the prospect will give it to you, rather, they will begin to think of you as another Wikipedia.
Keep producing incredible content. Just be sure you put as much effort into crafting the distribution plan as you do into crafting the piece itself.
