I have a confession to make: I produce too much content, so I often feel like I’m not doing enough to promote it. Therefore I’ve come up with an efficient system of how to market my content productively and on a budget (too much content doesn’t mean you need a fortune to promote it.)
Here’s my system, from start to finish:
Step 1: Come up with a good title
Let’s face it: Unless your title is captivating enough, your article won’t spread. It’s the social media world we live in – many people don’t have time to read past the headline, and most of them won’t click a link in their social media feeds unless they are intrigued by the title.
I start with keyword research to find topics which are in high demand and then try to discover related questions to word my title better.
Serpstat helps with both: The tool lets you use lots of filters and sorting options which always help me find topics for a few months ahead (here’s a more in-depth guide on picking keywords for your content marketing).
You can also find which keywords your competitors and peers are focusing on, and which ones you also have something unique to say about:
You can check any of the chosen keywords in Serpstat “Questions” section to generate the list of related questions to put into my article title:
.png)
Other tools I use at this point are:
- Buzzsumo to see other popular articles which were recently published on this topic
- Bloomberry and AnswerThePublic to find more related questions on this topic
- MyBlogU to get the outside perspective on the topic from the platform users
Here are also plenty of catchy headlines to get you inspired.
Step 2: Add quotes from niche peers & influencers
While doing the topic research I described above, I usually come across popular authors who’ve already covered some of the angles. Buzzsumo and MyBlogU are two tools that help me find those writers.
I’ll quote some of those authors in the article I’m working on, which will help me in two ways:
- Those quotes and links will give my articles more depth
- Those quotes will draw those mentioned influencers to my site (they’ll most likely comment and/or share my article once I publish it).
To make those quotes more effective, I’ll use tweetable quotes, so my readers will also tag those authors in their tweets (bringing even more engagement for my mentioned influencers).
With MyBlogU-assisted quotes, those authors will also get an email notifying them that their words were included in the published piece:
Step 3: Create engaging social media graphics
Budget: $7 a month or free
Visuals are very important for the success of your published articles. I use all kinds of graphics (featuring takeaways, screenshots, mentioned influencers, etc.)
Bannersnack is the tool I primarily use to create all of those. It’s a freemium tool and its biggest benefit is that you can mass-edit images in different sizes.
Step 4: Publish and share
Budget: Free
As soon as I publish the article, I share it all over my social media accounts and schedule at least 10 tweets into the upcoming months with varying hashtags, tweet text, images I created (see the above tip), etc.
For Twitter, here are a few ideas how you can make each one unique:
- Tweet title + the link
- Tweet a short title + the link + tag mentioned users or tools
- Start with the popular hashtag – that makes sense (example: #HowTo)
- Ask a question or a contribution
- Tweet a quote from the page (+ Tag the influencer who said that)
- Tweet a Pin from that blog post
- Retweet someone who tweeted your blog post
I use Tweetdeck to schedule those tweets. You can also use Mavsocial (which is the only free platform for managing multiple social media accounts).
Step 5: Add to Viral Content Bee
Budget: $20 or free
Viral Content Bee powers the promotion of all the articles I’ve written. It brings my content in front of social media users I’m not directly connected to which greatly increases my reach.
Step 6: Boost your article on Facebook
Budget: $5-$10
Boosting content on Facebook won’t give you an overwhelming amount of clicks, but it will send you some traffic, while also increasing social media engagement on your business page. It isn’t too expensive either – here’s a good guide on making the most of Facebook boost (although I seldom have time for playing too much there).
Step 7: Pay for content promotion at Drumup.io
Budget: $10
Finally, the newest tool in my arsenal, I’ve just recently discovered the “Content promotion” feature at one of my favorite social media management platforms, Drumup.io
What it does is it pushes your URL on top of curated social media feeds of those who are tracking URLs on your topic. It drives better results than Twitter ads in terms of the quantity and quality of natural social media shares, and it’s very affordable.
For all shares, be it Viral Content Bee or Drumup.io, make sure to engage with them and add those promoters to friends. If you don’t have time for that, hire a virtual assistant to manage your business social media accounts. I can understand not having enough time, but social media marketing just doesn’t make sense without regular and genuine engagement.
What are you doing to promote your articles? Share in the comments below.