In today’s B2B marketing world, things are moving fast.
Tweets fly through streams …
Buyers mass-delete emails …
And your last blog post was yesterday’s news.
If you want customers to see your message, you can’t schedule a few tweets and hope for the best.
Since it’s the end of the year, you’re likely planning your 2015 editorial calendar. This is also the ideal time to plan your 2015 content promotional strategy. Here are three tips that will help you systematize your content promotion, so you can get your content in front of a wider audience.
1. Re-evaluate your promotional channels
Review your 2014 content analytics and determine what worked and what didn’t work. Here are some questions that you can ask:
- What are you doing now that you’d like to improve in 2015?
- Are you wasting money on expensive ads that your customers never click?
- Do your customers expect to interact with you on their mobile devices?
- Where do your customers hang out?
- Has your audience moved from one social network to another?
- What new channels will matter to your customers in 2015?
- What types of content worked for you? Are there new types of content worth experimenting with? White papers, case studies, infographics, blog posts or videos?
Once you have a list of channels that will drive the most engagement, add them to your promotional calendar. Whenever you plan a new piece of content, decide how you will promote it or repurpose it across these channels.
2. Give readers next steps
Every piece of content should lead readers to your next piece of content, drawing them deeper into your sales cycle. One way to track your next steps is to include a “call to action” column in your editorial calendar. Every time you add a piece of content to your editorial calendar, note its call to action.
For example, if you add a blog post to your editorial calendar, your content team will see that they should direct readers to register for a webinar after they read the post. Then, they can create the appropriate calls to action, banner ads, etc., to get people excited about your webinar.
3. Make a list of your promotional steps
When you’re busy, it’s easy to forget where and when to promote your content. That’s why it’s useful to create a list of “promotional steps” for your content assets. Here’s a promotion template for a blog post. It outlines 20 steps you can take to promote a blog post – from emailing it to your list to sharing it across your social networks.
You can create similar templates for your major content assets (white papers, webinars, case studies, etc.). When you follow these steps, you’ll get in the habit of consistently promoting your content.
Tools for Systematizing Your Promotions
Keeping up with your content promotions can become overwhelming. One tool that I recommend is Kapost. It includes a workflow that allows you to track your promotions. Here’s a screenshot:
I also like Oktopost for scheduling your social promotions. It allows you to tie all your social posts to specific campaigns and schedule them in a calendar. Here’s a screenshot of a week in my calendar. Each colour represents a different campaign:
Now is the time to plan your content promotions. Systematizing your promotions now will help you reach a wider audience, so you can attract more leads and turn them into customers in 2015.
3 Ways to Apply This Information Now
- Download the editorial calendar template to plan your 2015 content.
- Read “21 Places to Share Your B2B Case Studies” for ideas that you can add to your content promotion schedule.
- Click to share this article on LinkedIn. Sharing quality content increases your visibility and credibility with your existing contacts, creating conversations and potentially new business.