If a brilliant infographic is created and never shared, does it really exist?
The world is likely filled with thousands of pieces of wonderful content that will never reach their marketing potential because minimal attention was paid to making them discoverable.
It’s not enough to write an eloquent white paper or create an engaging video. If no one sees your content, no one shares it, and no one will be inspired to get a demo of the product it supports.
So how can you make sure your content gets noticed? The secret to discoverability is public relations.
Public relations is the practice of communicating messages and creating connections. It’s about sharing stories. And what better story to share than that of your content?
A piece of great content is an asset that has value; the sharing of it should be given appropriate attention and care.
Strong content deserves a strong PR plan.
Never thought about it that way? Not convinced your content is worthy of a PR campaign? Ask yourself the following question: Is your content marketing as worthy as your last strategic partnership or personnel announcement?
Don’t make the mistake of under-estimating your content. Content connects and content converts.
Content marketing has real value and is worthy of a well-crafted PR campaign to share those assets. Make your content discoverable by using a multi-channel, synchronized approach of paid, earned and owned media.
Send a press release: We use this tactic a lot in the marketing department at PR Newswire and it works. Although there are different approaches you can take when writing a content press release, the most common approach (and the one that works for our content) is writing a brief description of the ebook, white paper, infographic or blog post we’re sharing, and then directing readers to that asset with a trackable link that will help gauge results.
Distribute your content release through a newswire service and the release and link to your content will live on hundreds of websites, driving discoverability. Include a photo or graphic and you’ll see even better outcomes.
Bonus: media pickup of your press release can send positive signals about your content to search engines.
Blog about it: Write a blog post that doesn’t repeat or summarize your content, but touches on the same topic. For instance, if you’re promoting an ebook, you could write a blog post that focuses on one specific aspect of the larger topic your ebook is about. Then include clear calls to action that take people to your content.
Of course, if the content you’re promoting is a blog post, this suggestion may not seem like a good fit. But hear me out. In those cases, don’t write a blog post about your fantastic blog post, but do create opportunities to reference and link back to it from other blog posts.
Tailor your social media: Promote your content on all your social channels, but customize the messaging to fit the platform. Your Facebook messaging can be a little more relaxed than your LinkedIn message and your Twitter post has to be succinct and include an appropriate hashtag.
Do include an image with all. We see especially good results when a unique graphic is created with a quote from the content.
Don’t stop at just posting to your brand’s social accounts; tap your internal and external advocates to help promote your best content. And remember that social sharing should be used to not only direct readers to your piece of content, but also to cross-promote the aforementioned press releases and blog posts.
Every piece of content you produce is an ambassador for your brand. To learn more about PR’s impact on your discoverability and how to write a news release that drives engagement, read my recently published paper PR & SEO: Still Driving Discovery.
And remember, once you accept that your content is worthy and treat it as such, then others will also.