It’s rare for a manuscript to “be discovered” and turned into a bestseller all on its own. Even the most profound manuscripts, books or screenplays require a marketing boost to be found. The same is true for the content created on a website or blog.
While 93% of B2B marketers and 90% of B2C marketers are producing content, only 42% of B2B and 34% of B2C feel they are receiving value from it. This indicates two things. First, almost all marketers are creating content, resulting in intense competition for visibility in search engines. Second, merely producing blog posts, web pages, and digital assets is no longer sufficient for a competitive edge. You must also promote your content to attract an audience.
The next time you’re ready to publish a piece of content, try this step-by-step guide that Keiran Flanagan (@searchbrat) suggested during his HubSpot’s #INBOUND14 session to give your content a chance to prove its value:
1. Define Success
The most substantial way for content to prove its value is to tie it back to your sales goals. Here is an example scenario:
- Say you want to generate 200 qualified leads for the sales team.
- You know 10% of leads you generate are qualified. (You can get this number by looking at how many leads turns into customers).
- This means you need to generate 2000 leads to reach your goal.
- Because you know your average conversion rate is 50%, you need 4000 views for this piece of content.
2. Create a Promotion Plan
- Choose the distribution channels that make the most sense (Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Calculate available audience. Look at how many Facebook fans or Twitter followers you currently have to quantify how many people will see the content.
- Look at engagement click through rate to see the number of people that typically click through one channel.
- Total up the engaged audience to determine how many people could possibly view this content.
3. Optimize the Conversion Path
If your total engaged audience is 4,000 in this scenario, then you are in good shape to distribute the content to the audience you already have. But if your engaged audience falls short, you’ll have to optimize the conversion path to make up the difference in views. A few ideas to create more opportunity for views are:
- Send to a targeted email list.
- Reach out to industry bloggers.
- Paid ads on social channels.
- Repromotion after the initial launch.
Kieran recommends spending an equal amount of time creating and promoting content. So if you spend 10 hours developing an ebook, plan to spend 10 additional hours promoting it prior to launch, the week of launch ad ongoing over time.