Content is king, as they say, but content promotion might be queen. It’s the next step in the process of increasing your web traffic.

If you’re interested in another cliche, let’s look at an oldie but a goodie: “If you build it, they will come.” It sounds nice, but it’s not true.

At least, it’s not true when it comes to website content.

If you want to boost web traffic, you have to put a content promotion strategy in place.

What is content promotion?

Content promotion is the process of exposing your content to as many people as possible. The content could be a blog post, a sales page, an optin page, or something else entirely.

Whatever the case, your job is to broadcast that content far and wide. Your goal is to get as many eyeballs on the content as possible.

Two degrees of content promotion exist.

First-degree content promotion involves actively sharing content with your existing audience. You link to it in emails, social media posts, SMSs, and more.

Second-degree content promotion occurs when others pick up the baton. They share your content with their own audiences because they appreciate its value.

How do you promote a product?

Product promotion typically revolves around informative or entertaining content. You’re drawing more people into your brand culture.

Once you get that traffic, though, you need a way to convert it into leads and customers.

A Hello Bar can help you do just that.

Let’s say, for example, that a visitor reads your blog content. You want them to check out your products, too.

Create a Hello Bar that promotes your latest sale.

The link is always there to entice visitors.

What are the best methods of promotion?

The best content promotion methods vary depending on your audience. Business owners and marketers have to experiment with different offers and CTAs.

That’s why A/B testing has become so imperative in marketing. If you don’t test different strategies, you’ll never know you could do better.

Some of the best methods of promotion include the following:

• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Video marketing
• Cross promotion

8 proven formulas to create a content promotion strategy

Let’s look at eight simple but effective ways to formulate an effective content promotion strategy.

1. Email marketing content promotion channels

As mentioned above, email marketing is extremely useful for content promotion. Whether you send out emails once a week or once a month, promote your most valuable or popular blog posts inside.

Create and grow a email list to increase content promotion

Content promotion only helps with lead generation and sales when you have an audience. Start collecting email addresses from your website visitors using a Hello Bar.

Select the “Grow Your Mailing List” goal in your Hello Bar account. In the first field, make a convincing offer; in the second, add a compelling CTA to subscribe.

How to email your list about your new content

The easiest way to deliver content is to use an email service provider, or ESP. The service keeps tabs on your subscriber list and allows you to send personalized, pre-scheduled emails to your audience.

You can also segment your audience. For instance, you might highlight one piece of content for people at the top of the sales funnel, but mention a completely different article for people at the bottom of the funnel.

Send an “in case you missed it” followup email

Emails get rerouted, accidentally deleted, and diverted into the wrong folders all the time. Keep tabs on your subscribers by sending a follow up email with a subject line along the lines of “In case you missed it…”

Resend the link to your favored piece of content for those who might not have seen it the first time around.

Email it to high-value contacts to increase the chances of content promotion

You can also send individual emails to people who have large audiences. Invite them to share your piece of content with their social media followers, blog readers, or other visitors.

This might get you a backlink to your content, which is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only will it help your SEO, but it will also send lots of people your way.

Include other people in your content to increase content promotion

Consider mentioning movers and shakers in your industry in the content. Quote them from an interview, promote their services, or name them as mentors.

People love to see their names “in print.” They might link to you or promote your content in gratitude.

2. SEO content promotion plan

Another way to promote your content is through search engines like Google. Search engine optimization (SEO) enables you to make your content more discoverable.

SEO takes time and effort, but it’s well worth the extra attention. If your content ranks for desirable keywords, you don’t have to do as much work in the future to make your website more accessible for your target audience.

Align the content with a keyword or key phrase

Every piece of content you produce should have a focus or primary keyword or key phrase. For instance, if you sell kitchen gadgets, you might want to rank for a keyword like “best food processor.” In SEO, keywords can have multiple words.

Use related keywords or key phrases

Related keywords, or semantic keywords, help Google and other search engines understand your content. If you’re trying to rank for “best food processor,” you might want to use words like “cuisinart,” “food processor capacity,” and “chopping” in the content.

Link newer posts to popular posts to increase content promotion

Interlinking your content makes it more search engine-friendly. Ideally, you want to link your newer posts to the posts that have proved most popular over the years so you pass the “SEO juice” from one piece of content to another.

Additionally, link your content to your oldest pieces of content. Not only does interlinking improve your SEO, but it also helps keep visitors on your website for longer periods of time.

Contact people who have linked to similar content

Email outreach can improve your big and small business SEO and enable content promotion. Use a tool like Ahrefs to figure out what pages focused on a specific keyword have received the most backlinks and social shares.

Based on that information, email the owners of websites that have linked to those pieces of content. Explain that you have written a longer, more in-depth piece, and that you’d appreciate a link if the site owner finds the content valuable.

3. Use social media content promotion tools

Social media can become a pivotal part of your content promotion strategy. It’s a great way to get the word out about your content and to increase your following.

Twitter content promotion

Twitter is a fast-moving social channel. Tweeting more frequently can help increase your following and boost your content promotion.

Consider using a tool like Buffer to schedule your tweets in advance. That way, you’re not constantly visiting Twitter to add links and other content to your account.

Tweet about your content

Tweeting about your content can increase its readership. Use compelling headlines and hashtags to make your tweets discoverable.

Adding one or two hashtags per tweet can prove effective. You don’t want to overdo it and make your tweets look like spam. Consider testing different tweeting times to figure out when your audience is most active on the platform.

Mention people who will like the article to increase content promotion

You can also @mention people on Twitter when you link to specific types of content. If you know those people will appreciate the content, you increase their chances of sharing it with their audiences. Just make sure any mentions are relevant.

Tweeting a good quote from your new content is a great content promotion tool

Twitter has increased its allowable character count, so use it to your advantage. Include a relevant quote from your content to increase click-through rates and tease the valuable information you’ve provided.

Make sharing easy with click-to-tweet buttons

A click-to-tweet button highlights a sentence or two from your content and encourages readers to tweet it. Punchy, valuable, or insightful passages from your content can go viral with the right content promotion tactics, so don’t hesitate to deploy these on your website with a plugin.

Pin tweets to the top of your twitter feed to increase content promotion

Twitter allows you to pin certain tweets to the top of your feed. If you’ve shared a particularly valuable or popular piece of content, pin it to the top of your feed so more people see it. As mentioned above, Twitter moves extremely quickly. Pinning tweets makes them more discoverable.

Facebook content promotion

Just like Twitter, Facebook can become extremely valuable for content promotion. People often share content they find valuable, even if they don’t actively follow your account.

Additionally, Facebook gives you more space than Twitter. You can include longer excerpts of content to intrigue your audience and convince them to click through.

Share your content with your Facebook page fans to increase content promotion

Never forget to share your content on Facebook after it goes live. Make this part of your daily content-promotion strategy.

Include the featured image on your post as well as a CTA, such as “Click to continue reading.” You can post an excerpt from the content or a summary, depending on what works best for your audience.

Share your content on Facebook niche groups

Consider joining Facebook groups and posting your content when it’s applicable. You don’t want to spam Facebook groups — that can get you kicked out — but if you’re a valuable part of the community, you can gain significant website traffic from these links.

Comment on related posts and link your new article to get more content promotion

Remember that social media is all about interaction. If you don’t visit pages other than your own, you’ll miss out on significant content promotion opportunities.

Visit other people’s pages in your industry, comment with valuable contributions, and link to you own content when appropriate. Those people might reciprocate by sharing your link on a separate post.

LinkedIn content promotion

When it comes to B2B lead generation, you won’t find a better platform than LinkedIn. This social channel can also prove valuable in B2C content promotion.

Think of LinkedIn as a massive professional conversation. It’s a way for people to connect based on their interests, professions, and job choices.

Direct message influencers on LinkedIn to increase your content promotion

The direct message feature on LinkedIn can help you connect with people who might want to share your content. Sending DMs when appropriate can help spread your content more effectively.

Just keep in mind that you don’t want to spam people. That will have the opposite effect. Any DMs you send should have a specific, valuable purpose.

Share content on LinkedIn groups

Just like Facebook, LinkedIn allows users to form groups based on common interests, professions, and goals. Join these groups related to your industry and share content there.

You can publish excerpts of your content through the LinkedIn publishing system. This is a great way to increase its visibility and boost click-throughs to your own website.

Reddit content promotion

Millions of people use Reddit, but you have to realize that Redditors are extremely averse to overt marketing. You need to establish yourself as a valuable member of the community before you start content promotion efforts.

Find good subreddits to promote your content on reddit

Start by following specific subreddits based on your industry and niche. Post valuable responses to user questions, then link to your content only when it’s helpful in a given situation.

Pinterest is a great content promotion tool if your content is highly visual

Visual content can perform extremely well on Pinterest. Some of the industries that are highly Pinterest-worthy include fashion, fitness, food, home goods, architecture, interior design, and travel.

However, any piece of content can find a home on Pinterest if you find a way to express it visually.

Automate your main social media posts to keep consistency and increase content promotion

As mentioned above, Buffer (or Buffer alternatives) can prove extremely valuable for content promotion. Use it to schedule your social media posts days or even weeks in advance.

If you post consistently, you’ll gain more attention.

Reach out to social media influencers to get better content promotion

Social media influencers can make just about any content go viral. You’ll likely have to pay an influencer to share your content, but the return on investment often far outweighs the initial expense.

Consider focusing on micro influencers. These professionals have smaller but more engaged followings. They regularly interact with their audience, and their recommendations often carry more weight.

4. Reformatting your content and republishing it is a great content promotion strategy

A piece of content doesn’t have to remain exclusively in its original form. You can repurpose it in a different medium to appeal to people who learn in different ways.

A blog post can become a marketing video; a video can become an infographic; an infographic can become a podcast. Consider availing yourself of new mediums to maximize your content promotion efforts, ensuring visibility and reach through strategies like podcast SEO.

Video content promotion

A video might appeal to people who learn best through visual and audio content. Reiterate the main points of your latest blog post in a video, for instance.

You can post the video anywhere you want. I recommend starting with YouTube so you can use the share link to embed it elsewhere.

Infographic content promotion

Infographics are highly shareable, which is why they’ve become so popular. Create your own infographic using a tool like Canva or hire a professional to do it. Use an embed code to encourage others to share it in their own content.

Slideshow content promotion

Consider repurposing your content in a slideshow. SlideShare is very popular because it’s searchable on the web and because of its incredible userbase.

E-book content promotion

An e-book makes a great lead magnet. Use it to collect email addresses from your audience and begin marketing to them directly.

Consider creating a Hello Bar that advertises your e-book. Let people know they can download it for free if they sign up for your email newsletter.

You can also use other incentives along with the free download. Do you send out coupons or promotional codes via email? Tell your potential subscribers so they know they can save money on your products or services.

Podcast content promotion

Podcasts work great for consumers who prefer to listen to content than read it. They can consume your podcast while they’re driving to work, exercising, or getting ready for bed.

Repurpose a blog post or other piece of content into a podcast episode. Add new details or information to spruce it up and to ensure your listeners get maximum value.

5. Syndicate your content to get content promotion by more authoritative sites

Content syndication involves publishing your best-performing content on other sites. You can do this through self publishing, such as on LinkedIn or Medium, or as guest posts.

Use the rel=”canonical” tag on the original post so Google knows to index it first. You can then publish your content on other sites without fear of penalties for duplicate content.

The rel=”canonical” tag is an HTML tag that lets Google know which version of a piece of duplicate content should be indexed. Ideally, you want the one on your own site, which is owned property, to appear in Google search results.

The canonical tag goes in your post’s HTML. You can use a plugin like Yoast to include it automatically.

6. Guest posting is a great content promotion channel

You can also create original content for other sites. Many industry blogs accept guest posts as long as they’re well-written and informative.

Use a Hello Bar to welcome people who visit your website via a guest post. You can use the referral source rule to target a Hello Bar to people who visit from a specific URL. It’s a unique personalization feature that can make people feel more welcome on your site.

7. Paid promoted content will boost your content promotion

Sometimes, you have to spend some cash to boost your presence on the web. Paid promoted content can perform very well if you use the right platform and strategy.

Facebook Ads content promotion

Facebook Ads are easy to create. You can also use the same ads for Instagram if you want to utilize both platforms.

Choose an amount you want to spend, then whittle down your target audience based on demographics and other factors. You want people who see your ads to belong to your pool of target customers.

Twitter ads content promotion

In some industries, ads perform better on Twitter than on Facebook. The ads become part of users’ regular feeds, so they seem more like friendly suggestions than ads.

SEM ads content promotion

Alternatively, advertise you content in search engines, such as Google and Bing. You have multiple options for SEM ads, so investigate them all. In addition to advertising on the search engines themselves, you can also join their ad networks so your ads appear on partner sites.

Retargeting ads content promotion

Ad retargeting is an extremely beneficial strategy when you want to lure people back to your own website. You’ll target your ads to people who have already visited your website, and are therefore brand-aware.

Facebook and other social platforms support retargeting. You’ll install a pixel or other piece of code on your website so the ad network can recognize visitors who have already been exposed to your site.

8. Use your own website as a powerful content promotion tool

Don’t discount your own website as a valuable tool for content promotion. Listing related posts at the end of an article, for instance, can increase the amount of time visitors spend on your site.

Make your website as visually pleasing and as easy to navigate as possible. Invite visitors to subscribe to your email list, visit your social profiles, and comment on your content.

A Hello Bar can help you acquire more loyal visitors. Create a Hello Bar that promotes your most popular piece of content so you’re constantly funneling traffic to that specific page.

Conclusion

Content promotion is an invaluable part of marketing your products or services. People love good content because it helps them solve a problem, reach a goal, or fill a few minutes with entertainment.

This guide has given you numerous ways to promote your content effectively. Test them all to figure out which works best for your specific audience.

What’s your favorite content promotion strategy?