We have talked quite a bit in previous blog posts about the importance of creating high-quality content that provides real value for your audience and that is also optimised for search engines. The thing is though, even the best content is not going to be of much use if target audiences don’t get to see it.
So just how do you get your content noticed? In this post we will provide some tips for ‘amplifying’ content up a notch or two, in order to increase its chances of getting more attention amongst all the noise out there in web-land.
What does amplification mean when talking about content?
In a nutshell, it refers to distributing content in the right places and in the right ways so that it gets noticed by the right people. There is no one-size or quick-fix for this, so it’s something that is likely to involve a bit of trial and error to see what works in each case.
What does happen in so many cases with content marketing material is that it is created, optimised, promoted on certain channels in the hope that people will notice, and then the creator is off and onto the next project. Even if the post gets attention and people engage with it, in many cases it might only last a few hours at best, and may not produce any real results.
Tips for amplifying content
Headlines are important:
Give your content great headlines that will grab readers’ attention. In one of our previous posts we provide some tips on how to write headlines to get more fans. You could always try A/B testing different headlines to see what works best for your audience as well, using metrics to measure engagement.
Share on social – but be savvy:
This is an interesting step because it involves more than just post-and-forget before rushing off to your next thing. It needs to be handled with a bit of wisdom and with a commitment to engage. Some tips include:
- Share on the channels that are relevant to your audience. For instance if your content targets business clients LinkedIn may be more relevant than Facebook. In any case find out where your audience is most likely to hang out and promote your content there.
- Make use of ‘Share-buttons’ to make it easy for people to share your content. However do be sure they work properly and don’t take the user to the wrong place!
- Segment your audience by demographics so that you can share the right content with the right people – Google+ circles and LinkedIn groups for example.
- If using Facebook make use of Open-Graph tags. With these tags you get to write your own description or snippet that gets displayed when your content is shared.
- Use Twitter cards to add photos or other visual media to make your post more noticeable and attractive.
- Time your social shares wisely. Get to know when your targeted audiences are on social sites and to time your posts accordingly. Be careful not to overdo it of course – you don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too much information!
- Take some time to engage with your users. People can be less than impressed when a post is shared and their comments are ignored.
- When sharing on social, add a line or two that will grab users’ attention – for example a quote from your post, a statistic, or a ‘how to’.
- Optimise for mobile. Content that isn’t optimised for mobile is likely to put users off – for instance if the text is too small or crammed or just hard to read. Make it easy for your audience to access your content on mobile. You could also consider developing an App.
Other tips:
- Add a clearly visible ‘call-to-action’ button on your content where appropriate to make it easy for people to take the next step.
- Promote your content more than once. As long as it is still relevant, there is no reason not to re-share just because it was created a while ago.
- Promote content through e-newsletters – considered by many Australian marketers to be the most effective method of reach according to recent research.
- Make sure you use metrics tools to test which tactics are working best for you, so you can refine them as you go.
- Consider paid ads. If organic sharing is not reaping the results you want, there is always the paid option! Paid ads can help you target your promotions and content more effectively. As an example, tools such as Outbrain help you to get your content to the people you want while setting your own maximum budget.
- If time is short or skills lacking, there are professional content writing services that can do the work on your behalf, so consider this option if it’s likely to make your content marketing more effective.
