Optimizing Content Promotion Channels To Increase Conversion Rates

Content marketing is a powerful tool for driving brand awareness, leads, and sales.

However, creating high quality content is only half the battle. In order to see real results, you need to effectively promote that content to your target audience.

There are countless channels available for promoting your content, from social media and email marketing to paid advertising and influencer partnerships. But with so many options, it can be difficult to know where to focus your efforts.

In this post, we’ll explore some of the most effective ways to promote your content and provide actionable tips for optimizing each channel.

Quick Takeaways:

• Integrating your efforts across paid, owned and earned channels is the most effective approach to optimizing content promotion
• Testing and picking the best content to promote is significantly more effective than pushing content manually chosen
• Search and email provide the best reach and conversion for most brands
• But testing what works for you is the most important takeaway from our research

Integrated (or Converged) Marketing Channels

We’ve been talking about the term integrated marketing for a very long time. But what dies it really mean?

For many brands integrated marketing has meant making someone or some team responsible for the distribution of content vs creation. In some organizations, this included campaign content. In others, it really just refers to paid media.

So the execution and promise of the promise of integrated marketing often falls short because of this lack of clarity. So let’s set the record straight:

Integrated marketing means looking across the various elements of paid, owned and earned media, to ensure the most efficient and effective creation and distribution of content to achieve reach, engagement and conversion of new customers.

In more simple terms, I have said that integrated marketing should allow you to:

• Get found
• Get shared
• Get leads

Converged media, then is really just another name for an effective content marketing strategy that leverages all paid, earned and owned media to achieve the best results across the buyer journey or marketing funnel.

Methods For Optimizing Content for Promotion

Before we look at the best channels for content promotion, we need to consider the best practices in content promotion:

1. Identify your best performing content: Before you begin promoting your content, take some time to analyze which pieces are already performing well. Look at metrics such as website traffic, engagement, and conversions to determine which content is resonating with your audience. Once you have a sense of what is working, you can focus your promotion efforts on those pieces.

2. Pick the right time to promote: Timing is everything when it comes to content promotion. Consider the best time to post on social media, send out emails, or run paid advertising campaigns based on when your audience is most active and engaged. Use tools such as Google Analytics to understand your audience’s behavior, and schedule your promotion accordingly.

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3. Repurpose and republish content: Don’t let your older content go to waste. Repurpose and republish your best-performing content on different platforms to reach new audiences. You can also update old content with new information, images, or videos to give it a fresh look and make it relevant again.

4. Use visuals: Visuals can help your content stand out on social media and other platforms. Use images, GIFs, and videos to make your content more engaging and shareable.

5. Create a content calendar: To ensure that your content promotion efforts are consistent and effective, create a content promotion calendar. This will help you plan and schedule your content promotion in advance, so you can stay organized and on track.

6. Use paid promotion selectively: While paid promotion can be a great way to boost visibility, it’s important to use it selectively. Not all content will perform well with paid promotion, so be sure to test different pieces to see which ones are most effective.

7. Track and measure your results: Finally, it’s important to track and measure your results to understand what is working and what isn’t. Use tools such as Google Analytics, social media analytics, and email marketing software to measure the success of your content promotion efforts.

By following these tips, you can effectively promote your content and reach your target audience. Remember to be consistent, test and measure your results, and optimize your content over time for maximum reach and engagement.

Which Content Promotion Channels Are Most Effective?

So which channels are most effective at promoting your content. Well of course the answer is “it depends” on many factors. For the majority of companies, focusing on your own website seems to be a good first place to start, followed by email.

Let’s take a look at some of these channels in a bit more depth:

1. Your Website: In my definition of content marketing, it doesn’t count if you don’t publish it on your website. The main reason is because this is where you want to attract new prospects through organic search and SEO. It is also more measurable than most channels. (It’s also why we exist!) So don’t forget to optimize your content for search engines. Use keywords in your content, meta tags and descriptions, and internal and external links to boost your content’s visibility on search engine results pages.

2. Email Marketing: Email marketing is a highly effective way to reach your existing audience and promote your content. Personalize your subject lines to increase open rates and segment your email list to ensure that your content is reaching the right people. Use A/B testing to determine the most effective subject lines, calls to action and sending time for your audience.

3. Social Media: Social media is a great way to reach a large, engaged audience. However, it’s important to choose the right platforms for your brand and target audience. For example, if your target audience is primarily B2B, LinkedIn may be a better choice than Instagram. Once you’ve identified the right platforms, make sure to optimize your content for each channel by using the appropriate format and hashtags.

4. Paid Advertising: Paid advertising can be a great way to quickly boost visibility for your content. Consider using platforms like Facebook Ads, Google AdWords, and LinkedIn Ads to reach your target audience. Be sure to set clear goals and track your results to optimize your campaigns over time.

5. Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing can be a great way to reach a new audience and boost credibility for your brand by tapping into the influence of others. Identify influencers in your industry who have a following that aligns with your target audience (we use Buzzsumo), and work with them to create sponsored content that features your brand and products.

6. Employee Advocacy: Ok so this is my secret weapon tip and it’s the main reason why we were so successful at building success at SAP. We built an army of writers and employees willing to promote our content on their own social platforms. Our first 100 or so email subscribers were sales people who used our content to sell on LinkedIn.

Which Sources Actually Deliver The Most Impact?

I have looked for this data for hours! Turns out no matter which source you find (Hubspot, Alexa, etc) the answer is pretty clear:

80-90% of website traffic comes from organic search and people finding their way to your website directly.

Social only accounts for 4-6% on average and less than 5% in most B2B Companies. And paid traffic accounts for less than 0.5% of traffic!

All the more reason to focus on content marketing to generate the most traffic and leads!

Some Other Promotion Channels

While the aforementioned channels are the main staples of your promotion strategy, there are some different, more niche places for you to post your content. Try them out and note which ones work and which don’t:

• Post a thread on www.inbound.org
• Find a relevant Reddit thread
• Look for a Slack community about your topic or industry
• Post your product/tool on Product Hunt
• Create a Snapchat story with tips about your content, then include a link for viewers to screenshot (we recommend a bit.ly!)
• Post on Instagram with a link to your content in your bio

Once you get your engine up and running, you can optimize for conversion and increase leads without creating any new content!

In conclusion, promoting your content is just as important as creating it. By using a variety of channels, you can reach your target audience and drive engagement. Remember to track your results and optimize your campaigns over time for maximum reach and engagement.

Need Engaging Content To Promote on Your Channels?

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content that’s consistently published, check out our Content Builder Service. Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business.