You know you have amazing content, but how do you drive traffic to it? How do you amplify its reach?
I interviewed several top B2B marketers to see how they’re doing it, and learned it starts before the content is created and doesn’t end when you hit “publish.”
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1. Be your content’s PR team
The sheer amount of content getting shared online is one of the biggest distribution hurdles marketers face. As Perri Robinson, head of marketing at Meltwater, says, “No matter how good (your content) is, it matters how you are distributing it.”
No matter how good your #content is, what matters is how it’s distributed, says @Meltwater’s Perri Robinson. Click To Tweet
Instead of ramping up the same old approaches, Perri and her team use a distribution strategy focused on building meaningful relationships with journalists and influencers:
We do this by monitoring which social media channels people are engaging with, as well as the themes and messaging that is resonating the best. Sometimes this differs depending on the channel.
Developing a relationship requires more than an email that says, “Check out this content,” Perri says. “I create a dialogue. For example, I’d say, ‘I found tip five really useful, have you thought about doing this as well?’
If they’re interested, she offers or suggests another blog piece going into more detail about that one tip. This approach has resulted in a 16% increase in blog traffic month over month.
2. Advertise your best content
If you’ve got the budget, the fastest way to drive instant traffic to your content is more likely through paid social media, from promoted posts on Twitter to ads on Facebook. For the biggest effect, you need to spend wisely.
The fastest way to drive traffic to your #content is through paid #socialmedia, but spend wisely. @TheTomWhatley Click To Tweet
Gaetano Di Nardi, director of demand generation at Nextiva, shares his experience:
Facebook Ads have really moved the needle for us, but we choose to only spend on high-value initiatives like e-books, webinars, and conferences. These are the things that tie back directly to lead generation, growth, and attendees at our events.
For those who have the budget, paid promotion through Twitter, LinkedIn, and other channels is great if you promote the right content. The key is promoting it to individuals. Dominik Elmiger, a digital marketer and teacher at Chartered Institute of Marketing, explains that social allows brands to blur the line between person and company. He says he’s seen great results for B2B brands adopting this individualized approach.
Pay to promote your #B2B #content to individuals, not just businesses, says @DominikElmiger. Click To Tweet
TIP: Don’t forget to ensure that each piece of content being promoted is optimized to collect subscribers and leads.
3. Own an industry topic
David Fallarme, head of marketing at HubSpot, advocates doubling down on a singular topic. Which topic? “Let your personas drive your target ‘topic clusters’ based on search volume estimates and competitiveness of those clusters,” he says.
To drive more traffic to your #content, double down on a singular topic, says @davelocity. Click To Tweet
TIP: Make sure your personas are up to date. And pick the most desirable persona based on your brand’s operational or content marketing goals.
Focus your time on a topic where you can add the most value to the largest relevant audience.
For example, HubSpot, which targets marketing and sales professionals, partnered with Facebook to create a Four Days of Facebook content campaign. A digital summit acted as the central hub:
The summit, which focused on live video, included video interviews with influencers:
The summit hub’s reach was expanded not only through promotion by the influencers, but also a HubSpot promotion through Facebook Messenger bots. The Messenger content led subscribers and other readers through the event’s content.
4. Curate into multiple formats
A blog article is good. But using the same research and insight included in the blog article in other formats offers more opportunities for your audience to see and engage with your content.
Video is a good example of this. Repurpose your highest performing blog content into high-quality videos. Post them to channels like YouTube, optimizing for relevant keywords to ensure maximum exposure like Brian Dean does:
Repurpose your highest performing blog #content into high-quality videos, says @TheTomWhatley. Click To Tweet
TIP: Customize your call to action based on the format, not just the topic.
5. Trigger your content
Marketing automation offers another way to get your content into the hands of your audience. Dominik sees triggering content based on the life stage of a prospect or customer as a great opportunity.
“It is about getting the right message to the right person at the right time – this is contextual marketing,” Dominik explains. “The technology is now capable of truly delivering relevant and personalized user experiences.”
Triggering could happen through dynamic content modules on your site, promoting content to those who need it the most, or through emails, tailoring content to people who have expressed an interest or to a persona or industry sub-segment, Dominik says.
Trigger #content based on dynamic modules on your site or through email campaigns, says @DominikElmiger. Click To Tweet
TIP: Make sure to have sufficient dynamic content covering the buyer journey to be able to successfully use triggering, according to Mark Colgan, SaaS marketing consultant and founder of Yellow O.
TIP: Repurpose your content into an automated lead-nurturing campaign. Identify how your existing content could work in multiple stages. Perri says Meltwater has found that leads from this nurtured campaign closed more quickly than non-nurtured revenue sources.
Grow your content’s reach
As you expand your view of how to get more from your content – and how to get more people to see or view your content – think about your content as an agency does its clients. What can you do to make sure your client gets the recognition it deserves from the right audiences?
Your solution can involve thinking more about how to use public relations and advertising, but it also can include identifying a topic to own, automating triggers, and using the content in multiple formats.
The key to amplifying your content’s reach is to make sure the audience’s needs always come first.
Marketing automation is a hot topic in content marketing. Learn more about how to decipher the maze as well as many other technology topics at ContentTECH this April in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100.
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute