Quick quiz: What’s the first thing you should do after you publish a blog post?
Send it to Twitter? Post it on Facebook? Email it out to your list?
Answer: Letter D – you should do all of the above!
Content marketing can be one of the most effective ways to grow your subscriber list, if it’s done according to a strategic plan. A list built from content marketing will be highly targeted, more responsive and genuinely interested in what you have to say. However, an action plan for each and every blog post is an essential part of marketing success. Just publishing blog posts and sending them out to your social networks is not enough to build your list.
Every action should extend your reach.
How to get active with content marketing
A plan for your content revolves around developing a network that distributes your content every time you publish something new. Here is a step by step guide on what to do to further your content network:
- Start with a targeted blog post for generating subscribers. If building a list is the goal, then a solid post that is designed to get readers to subscribe is the first place to start. Lead your readers to your optin form and give them lots of great information that compels them to subscribe.
- Link back to your previously published content. In every new blog post you publish, link back to another post. By linking back to a previous post, you rekindle the interest in your previous work and increase the time readers spend on your blog.
- Share your post on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. You can use your blog settings and have each post automatically sent out each time you publish something new. But don’t stop there, send it out manually a few hours later with a compelling message attached.
- Create a traffic web. Send your Twitter followers over to your Facebook page and vice versa. Use LinkedIn to send readers over to your Facebook page, which then leads to your blog. Think strategically about the flow you want visitors to take.
- Notify your content syndication network that you have a new post. Don’t know how to find your published work? Use Google Alerts. Simply search a line out of your post in quotes and if it’s been published elsewhere, it will show. Once you find who has published your work, you can reach out to them and see if they’d like to publish your latest post.
- Share your new post on Triberr.com. Triberr is a great site for sharing incredible content. If it’s quality, then it will get shared at rapid speed on Triberr. Triberr is a community, so you give and receive.
- Submit your link on Digg.com and stumble it on StumbleUpon.
- And, optimize your images. Including your URL in each image is not only good for your own internal linking, but when the image gets shared, your URL will be included.
The Network Grows and Grows
Understanding and engaging your readers is what will entice your visitors to join your email list. As you publish more and more content, your web of sharing will grow and grow. The idea with a content network lies in the fact that it’s not just who you know, it’s who they know and who their network knows and so on.
Soon, the ultimate goal of a content network is accomplished – one blog post goes viral and earns you hundreds of email subscribers.
What content marketing methods have worked for you?
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Great idea to set up Google alerts for quotes in your posts! It’s way better than waiting for those sometimes cryptic pingbacks. And definitely share on every social channel you’re on. I have a couple of IFTTT actions set up to send my blog posts out to social channels once they go live so it’s done automatically and saves me time doing to same thing over and over. Links in URLs is good too – it’s also a good idea to tag your photos with keywords that relate to your post so when people do a Google image search they’re more likely to pop up. I actually “watermark” min with my blog url, just a small note in the corner of the photo so I figure it’s super obvious and if someone wants to “borrow” my photo for their blog it’s not quite as easy
All super tips here!
Carol Lynn recently posted..Is Your Email Template Killing Your Email Marketing Campaign? 5 Ways To Whip It Into Shape.
Hi Carol Lynn,
Thanks – glad you enjoyed them!
I do like the watermark on the photo – great way to further your brand too!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Christine
I was going to say “Proofread again!” before I saw where this post was going.
I definitely think your posts should be shared on the Social Media sites that make sense for your business. I don’t do Digg, Stumbled Upon, Tumbler (or a host of others) because they don’t drive traffic to my particular site. Got any tips on how to check which social networks are working for you?
Michelle Mahoney recently posted..Networking Monday (Organization Tip)
Hi Michelle,
Ah, good question!
You know I was explaining FB and Twitter to my young son today and he asked, well are there any other social networks and I replied probably thousands. But I went on to think about that question and, ultimately, you want to stay where you can be the most active and, in turn, reach your customers.
Anyway, as far as checking out which ones work for your business, I would test a few out and check the results against Analytics. For instance, I was pretty active on a Woman’s forum, but it was not bringing me any targeted traffic. So, I had to stop and shift my energy to another method. Because all the traffic in the world isn’t worth 2 cents, if it’s not targeted for your business.
The one thing that may or may not be a good thing is that I am always up for trying something new – I get invitations to new groups and forums and I am there!
Monitoring and tracking helps weed out the ones that aren’t working.
Does this answer your question? I think I’m rambling!
~Christine
Very, very useful tips in this post! I try to follow each of your tips each week as I create and add content to my site. Thank you for sharing Triberr I’ve never heard of it before it now!
Summer Alexander recently posted..Simple Strategic Planning for Small Business
Hi Summer,
So glad you enjoyed it!
Triberr is great – lots of great stuff in there. I’ll “see” you there!
~Christine
Worth doing *all* these things after publishing! 2 other things I recommend..?
- Using something like pingomatic to get the link to the post out there – this really helps getting search engines to come visit!
- Putting the link in any forum signatures. Some people like to stick with one signature, but what you can do is use one line for the ‘constant’ link, and a second line for a link to your latest post, if this has changing headlines, it can get forum readers to see your name and wonder if there’s a new link to check out!
Hope those 2 make a good addition to the list!
Cheers, Gordon
The Great Gordino recently posted..The Great Gordino Newsletter – Olympic Life Is A Beach!
Hi Gordon,
Two great suggestions! I do forget about pingomatic – thanks for the reminder!
And forum signatures are wonderful for sending targeted readers back to your blog.
Thanks for stopping by Gordon!
~Christine
Hi Christine,
you are totally right – sending traffic from one platform to another (for example Twitter>>FB>>Your site) is great and very smart way to building Your Network of readers. And Triberr is great of course!
BTW – tomorrow I’ll publish some info about social networks I participate in (some stats, what works and what doesn’t work for me). And I’ll be very glad to have you and your experience with social networks in the comments
BTW2 – you have an old Twitter account in sidebar…
Chris
Chris recently posted..5 Ways to Get More Newsletter Subscribers
Hi Chris,
I jumped and commented on your post before I read your comment here!
Traffic is that never-ending learning curve. There will always be something new to discover and implement with it.
Glad you stopped by!
~Christine
Christine,
What more can I say?
Great stuff, really!
I have always know about Google Alert but never related it to a tracking component for content distribution. That one is my takeaway from this post.
Triberr is A+ for targeted traffic of people with something to say. It I have found it quite useful in establishing social connections. There, the secret is out of the bag
~Yeremi
Yeremi Akpan recently posted..Building Blogging Relationships – Make Each Connection Count
Hi Yeremi,
That’s funny – I think it is kind of a secret little hotspot too!
Here comes the flood…
Thanks!
~Christine
This really helps a lot if you link to your old posts, but they should be relevant, because I usually click relevant links when I was reading a posts.
Sharing on social networks is definitely an important thing too
Carlos recently posted..How to easily and securely move your data from one-host-to-another
Hi Carlos,
Exactly! Great point – relevance is key!
Thanks for stopping by!
Enjoy your weekend!
~Christine