Quality content creation is not an easy process. Writers and other content creators could slave away in front of their screens for hours doing meticulous research, writing, and rewriting content that they hope their target readers would come to appreciate and find value in.
Imagine having worked for hours or days developing great content that you are banking on to motivate your readers to call your business, subscribe to your newsletter, or to make a purchase. Moreover, so, there you are on the edge of your seat anxiously waiting for results after you hit publish. You expected and waited for hours … days … a full week or two!
However, then … nothing happened.
Your great content was a dud; no one is visiting the page or reading your article.
What happened?
The most likely reason is that you did not amplify your content.
In this post, we are going to discuss what content amplification is, how to execute this strategy correctly, and which platforms you can use for this purpose.
What is Content Amplification?
Content amplification or content promotion is a crucial component of content marketing. It is an entire process by which you extend the “reach” of your content allowing it to be accessed, read, or viewed by more people from different referral points. The goal here, mostly, is to create as many streams of traffic sources to get the most results out of your content.
Content amplification can be done through free and paid platforms, and we will discuss the merits and best practices of both channels below.
Of course, if you choose to do nothing and leave your content to its fate, so to speak, it can still generate traffic over time. The operational phrase here is “over time.”
Google and the other search engines regularly crawl websites to index content. Your well-written content could even rank for specific keywords and receive traffic referred by Google in due time. This is called organic traffic, and most established websites receive well over fifty percent of their traffic this way.
However, getting indexed and receiving traffic from the search engines is not a quick process. Remember, your new content is competing with millions of other pages out there for ranking, and it could take months to get a steady stream of organic traffic from the search engines.
Obviously, generating organic traffic should be a part of your content marketing goals, but if you want quicker results and immediate attention to your content, you will need to develop a good content amplification strategy.
How To Execute Your Content Amplification Strategy Properly
Appropriately done, your content amplification strategy can bring considerable benefits to your business. With an adequately promoted content that truly brings much value to your readers, you can increase brand recognition, generate significant traffic, expand your subscriber base, or bag more sales, for example.
Here are the necessary steps on how to conduct content amplification effectively:
- Define Goals. Be clear about what you want to achieve with your content and amplification efforts. Do you want to improve brand recognition, build up your email list, drive up sales? With clearly defined goals, it is easier to identify which key performance indicators (KPIs) you can measure to determine success. For example, if your goal is improved brand recognition or increased traffic, you will want to regularly check your unique views on Google Analytics to see how your campaign is doing.
- Review Your Content. Is your content structured correctly so that it is clear to the readers what kind of action you would like them to take afterward? Are you using calls to action to move readers through your funnel? If you are promoting old content, be sure to pick the very best only. Don’t make the mistake of promoting all your content (including inferior and poorly written pieces) because that would blunt the impact of your amplification efforts.
- Create High-Quality Content. This should go unsaid, but quite frankly, an overwhelming majority of the hundreds of thousands of blog posts being published out there daily will never pass muster and don’t deserve to see the light of day. Content that moves readers to action is those that are finely-written and address their pain points.
- Amplify Content. Content promotion is part and parcel of the whole process. You should plan and provide for it every time you produce content. Otherwise, your content will never reach its full potential in accomplishing whatever goals you may have defined for it.
Platforms Where You Can Amplify Content
There are several channels and platform that you can employ for content amplification. Here are some of the most commonly used ones that you might want to start with:
Social Media Promotion. If you have access to large following on social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc., your content amplification is off to a good start. Promoting to your followers on these sites is practically free and can bring in massive traffic to your content reasonably quickly after you hit the post. However, if you are starting to develop your follower base on these sites, it might be a good idea to look at paid amplification options to maximize the impact of your content.
Facebook Ads. Running ads successfully on Facebook targeted to your specific audience can be a game-changer for your business. For best results, take the time to learn how to do it correctly or hire a professional to shorten the learning curve. Results are not guaranteed so keep testing which ads work best for you and then boost your winners.
Paid Search. Another effective paid method would be advertising through search platforms like Google Adwords or Bing Ads. Be sure that you know what you are doing when advertising through these channels because this can be a potential cash drain if you are not running well-structured and optimized campaigns.
Instagram. This amplification platform will do well for businesses that regularly produce attractive graphics or images alongside their text or video content. It is visual-oriented, and users resent being marketed to so plan your approach accordingly.
Twitter. Not all people use the microblogging site Twitter, but there are plenty of businesses who have found success in content amplification by focusing on this site. For the most part, a broad swath of Twitter users consider the site as a social conversation platform; it is best to approach promotion through influencers and unobtrusive ads if you do not have a significant number of followers on the site yet.
Placements. Website placements or native advertising is an effective content amplification strategy and can generate a great deal of targeted traffic when done correctly. Choose the most respected and high traffic websites that cater to your niche and find out if they are displaying ads on their pages. You can either approach the owners directly for ad placement or work through whatever ad network they are working with (Google Adwords, Bing, etc.).
Influencer Marketing. Amplifying content through social media rock stars or influencers in your niche can be a cost-effective method for massive traffic generation. Depending on the platform, influencers can help promote your content to their followers and instantly produce results because their opinions and recommendations are respected and valued by their followers.
Conclusion
As we have seen above, content amplification or promotion in today’s marketing environment is no longer an option that you can omit doing when creating and marketing content. It is an essential part of the process, and if you are not doing it, you are permanently depriving your content of crucial lifeblood with which it can thrive and create an impact.
Hopefully, with a clearer understanding of what content amplification is, how to conduct it correctly, and which platforms to use, you can now start cranking up your content amplification efforts to great success.