Content Marketing: How America was Made!

You’ve heard it repeated time and time again: you need great content on your website. But having great content on your site is just the beginning.

Sure, you might be rocking the blogging game, pumping out valuable information that engages and entertains your readers. But… what if you don’t have any readers?

If no one knows your content is out there, you’re missing a big piece of the puzzle. Content development is only half of the job. Beyond that, you have to develop a content marketing strategy that will get your content out to the masses and help you build a group of quality readers, followers and sharers.

Since the 4th of July is here once more (and I love explaining with analogies), let’s put today’s content marketing in a historical context.

Learn From Our Founding Fathers

Even way back in 1776, our Founding Fathers understood the importance of sharing their content. It never got tweeted, or picked up on Huffpost, or went viral, but you may have heard of a little document they wrote way back when… something called the Declaration of Independence?

When the document was finalized and the ink was dry, the Founding Fathers knew their job wasn’t done. They knew what they had written was important, and of value to more than just ol’ King George III. So they had copies made, handed them out across the Colonies, and held public readings to make sure the message was delivered. Imagine writing the most epic breakup letter of all time and CC’ing the entire eastern seaboard.

So this 4th of July, don’t just scarf hot dogs, chug beer, and light off fireworks. I mean, definitely do those things, but also take a note from the Founding Fathers and start putting a plan together to share your blog content!

Here are a few tips to get you started:

Share It

When you are putting your content out there, you need to share it on multiple platforms. Depending on what the content is, consider email and the different social channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. If you choose to only share on one platform, you’ll be missing a large group of potential readers on others.

Find out where your audience hangs out, what their interests are, and what they care about. Then, go to those places and get your content in front of your audience, instead of waiting for them to come to you.

Share It Again

In addition to sharing your content in more than one place, it’s also important that you share it more than once. This way you can reach people in multiple time zones, and those who check social media at different times of the day.

Use Images

Especially when it comes to sharing on social media, an associated image can help your content catch the attention of potential readers. Day by day, our social feeds are becoming increasingly visual, and posts with images consistently outperform those without.

We all know they saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and let’s be honest: you probably didn’t write that much in your actual post. So give it a boost with a great image! It won’t actually change your word count, but it can help you deliver your message.

Make It Easy To Share

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s too often overlooked. If you don’t make your content easy to share, then people aren’t going to spend the time to find out how.

Make sure you have accessible social media share icons that aren’t hidden in the design of your website. Also, on content that you really want to get out there, consider adding a prominently-placed call-to-action encouraging the reader to share it.

Find Your Community

If you want to build a group of followers that will share your content on a regular basis, then you need to look for like-minded people in your niche. This will ensure that you are getting your amazing content to the right people.

You can also find a blog or website that is similar to yours and try to guest post for them. This will grow the traffic to your website, and give you some fresh people to check out your site.

Most Importantly: Have A Plan

Just like the Founding Fathers made a marketing plan for the Declaration of Independence, you need a plan for successfully distributing your content.

If you don’t have one, then all of the time and hard work you put into your blog and brand will go unnoticed. Have a sharing strategy and follow it consistently.

If you can build a readership and begin to monetize that traffic, you may just score some independence of your own in the form of some well-earned rest.