Content Amplification: The Ultimate Free AND Paid Tactics Guide

Content amplification may be the single most underestimated conversion tactic in inbound marketing history.

We?re not talking about sharing your blog post to your Facebook page or sending a tweet to your followers. We?re talking about something that can produce dramatic results in the short term (for all you instant gratification junkies).

We have an extremely simple content amplification concept that, when deployed with a bit of strategy and finesse, can supercharge your conversion funnel like you?ve always wanted your content marketing to do.

Additionally, we?ll be covering a TON of proven tactics that you need to be testing in order to give your content a fighting chance.

Think about something for a moment:

Between now and this time tomorrow, over 2 million posts will be published on WordPress hosted sites.

(That?s not even including third-party hosted sites!)

Think that?s nuts?

In that same time, Facebook will receive 4 billion (with a B) new posts.

If you still think that sharing your posts with your network is enough, it?s time to think again. That?s why we?re about to lay out everything you need to know about content amplification and promotion in this incredibly thorough guide!

In just a moment I?ll show you:

• An incredibly powerful paid content amplification strategy that will supercharge your conversion funnel.
• The tactical breakdown to deploy the strategy properly, as well as the most important things to avoid.
• PLUS, the secret sauce that makes this tactic so effective.

Then, because we want you and your content to succeed, I?ll outline:

• A bunch of free promotion tactics that will help you make the most of your amazing content.
• AND some super helpful paid resources that will help you get the word out and drive guaranteed traffic.

So let?s not waste any time! The content amplification conversion supercharger awaits you in the following sections…

The Content Amplification Conversion Supercharger

Because your time is valuable and we know you want to know all about this tactic, we?re going to do you a favor and start this guide by showing you exactly how it’s done. That doesn?t mean you should bail out halfway through and skip the rest of what we?re including here.

This entire guide is full of extremely valuable information on content amplification and how to make the most of your content promotion strategy. So do yourself a favor and don’t skip over the important stuff!

How This Killer Content Amplification Strategy Works

This strategy can be broken down into 5 key steps. Before we get into the nitty gritty of how each of them work, let?s look at the system as a whole.

DISCLAIMER: This strategy is only effective if you already participate in lead generation and have an active content conversion funnel in place. I?m assuming you have blog posts to promote and content offers to build your list. If you don?t, you may want to check out this guide and start creating yours (like, today).

Step 1: Implement Facebook Retargeting on Your Website

If you?re not already aware of the benefits of retargeting, you should be. Lucky for you, we have what is probably the best guide available on Facebook Retargeting to help you make the most of this powerful marketing tool.

Step 2: Promote an Amazing Piece of Content

Make sure it?s something AMAZING, one of your best pieces. You want to capture the interest of new leads, so give them something awesome to consume and make the best first impression possible.

Step 3: Retarget Content to Consumers with Ads for a Downloadable Offer

Now that you?ve got their attention, put something even more valuable in their face. Target them with an offer (something related to the article you promoted) to drive them back to your landing page.

Step 4: Hit Them with a Killer Landing Page

As you well know, your landing pages can make or break your conversion rates, so create and optimize a landing page for the offer being promoted (if you haven?t already done so).

Step 5: Let the Lead Nurturing Begin

You understand your customers better than anyone, so nurture your new leads toward a conversion. Try creating a specific email sequence specifically for those drawn to the content and offer you?ve promoted to enhance the efficacy of your lead nurturing.

This all seems simple enough right?

However, there are a few key components that can make or break this amazing content amplification strategy. Let?s look at each piece of the puzzle more closely to make sure you can skip most of the learning curve.

Step 1: Implement Facebook Retargeting on Your Website

As I stated above, the concept of Facebook Retargeting is well beyond the scope of this guide. If you?re not already aware, retargeting is simply marketing to people who have visited your website. It?s an insanely powerful paid advertising technique and should definitely represent a key component of your paid strategy.

As far as content amplification is concerned, retargeting is the backbone of this strategy. Without retargeting, you lose the ability to reach the third step of the strategy. Without the final steps, this is just plain old one-dimensional, pay-per-click marketing to promote a blog post.

Now that we have that out of the way, let?s look at step two.

Step 2: Promote an Amazing Piece of Content

This next step may seem simple, but it?s important that we cover these two key points to ensure that you make the most of this strategy.

A. It?s imperative that you select a piece of content to promote that will make an excellent first impression of your brand. The remainder of the steps rely on your ability to grab the attention of those who view this post.

Content amplification is not simply about random amplification, it?s about showing off your ?best of the best? posts. Do you have any ?Ultimate Guides,? ?Proven Ways,? or ?Top 10 Lists? that you?re especially proud of?

B. Also, the posts should be on a topic that is valuable to those who don?t know your brand.

For example: If you were the marketing director of a pet food brand, you would do better to promote a post on ?The Top 10 Reasons Your Dog Is Overweight? than ?Why Good Choice Dog Food Is the Right Food for Your Overweight Dog.?

You want someone who has little to no understanding of your brand to be drawn into the funnel, and it takes low pressure/high value (read: awareness stage) piece of content to get them interested.

Step 3: Retarget Content to Consumers with Ads for a Downloadable Offer

The third step is where things really get good. Before, you were simply promoting a piece of content like you may have done in the past. Paying to promote content and not following the next steps leaves so many conversions on the table that it?s just silly!

Let?s look at how this step is done:

• With your Facebook retargeting in place, create a custom audience around visits to your content page (URL) in the last 30 days.
• Retarget to that audience with ads for an exceptionally valuable downloadable content offer related to the originally promoted post.For example: If you promoted ?The Top 10 Reasons Your Dog is Overweight,? you might want to target your new audience with ads for ?The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Dog in Shape.?

Step 4: Hit Them with a Killer Landing Page

When those ads are clicked, where do you want that traffic directed?

To a killer landing page, of course!

Content amplification is a supercharging process, and it?s easy for that process to get backed up if there are sticking points that don?t flow as well as they should.

Once again, we?re not here to teach you how to make the perfect landing page. That said, I can point you in the right direction.

• For a good starting point to optimize your landing page design, look here.
• It?s vital that you understand how your landing page is affecting your conversion rate. As such, you must optimize your landing pages by A/B testing them. Check out our guide on how and what to A/B test to improve your conversion rate.

The whole point of your content amplification is to get them to this point, where they convert, give you an email address in exchange for your content offer, and become a lead to be nurtured.

Step 5: Let the Lead Nurturing Begin

At this point, your lead nurturing campaign should be off and running.

For starters, make sure your content offer shows up ASAP!

Then it?s up to you to make the most of each email and nurture your new leads toward a conversion. Obviously, you can?t convert everyone, but the following tips will help you reach a conversion rate you can smile about.

A. Create a custom email sequence that pertains to the content covered in your post and content offer. Content amplification works because people care about the subject matter in those two pieces of content.

B. Continue to overdeliver in value with each email you send. Yes, it?s important to maintain regular communication with your leads, but don?t send emails just to send them. Instead, each time you reach out to them, seek to provide more and more value.

C. Don?t come on too strong, but don?t forget to make the ask. People do business with brands that they know and trust, and that can take time. Depending on what you sell, it can take a lot of time. That said, you can provide value and make low-pressure asks at the same time. Emails are great places to talk about the results of your current clients or customers, providing social proof, as well as a contextual example of how your lead may be able to use their product to meet their own need.

Email Marketer?s Top Tip: You might want to try selling a low-cost item to give your leads a taste of what doing business with you is like. The lower barrier of entry of this item will help to establish trust more quickly, and those who buy from you are far more likely to buy from you again in the future.

Now for a couple amazing resources…

• For info on how often to send your email, look here.
• For tips on how to make the most of your email marketing, don?t miss this post on email best practices.

Content Amplification at It?s Finest

There you have it!

Now doesn?t that make you want to go out and try this strategy for yourself? I wouldn?t blame you if you did, but hold your horses.

We have a bunch of great tips and resources for you in the next sections, so don?t go anywhere just yet.

12 Super Powerful Content Amplification Tactics and Tips

Yes, social media is an obvious promotional outlet, but there are ways to make it far more effective. Pay close attention to the following 12 tactics and tips to make the most of your content amplification strategy.

#1 – Test new distribution outlets

Social Media is a great place to start sharing your content, but it?s far from the only place. Share on places like Quibb, Medium, and LinkedIn Pulse to reach entirely new audiences. Respond to questions on Quora and link to your (relevant) content that helps readers to understand the answers you provide.

The point is to looks for new ways to reach new audiences. Don?t assume you know all the places where you might find the audience that your content suits perfectly, so keep looking and always be testing new channels.

#2 – Social sharing buttons

Social sharing buttons are a must-have for almost all brands that are serious about content marketing. You want to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to share pieces they enjoyed, but there is a bit of finesse involved in using share buttons appropriately.

What happens when you click on them?

Lots of companies have share buttons integrated into their blog that might as well not be there.

Why?

Because when a person clicks on them, they end up sharing a random image with a generic title tag and a meaningless description. Take the time to include a relevant and engaging featured image, an attention-grabbing title tag, and a description that makes people want to read what your visitor has shared.

Pro Tip: Make sure to debug your articles so that Facebook is pulling the correct information.

The content isn?t relevant on the networks for which you are displaying share buttons.

If you?re a B2B marketer, your audience may not be sharing your content on Pinterest in the same way a B2C?s audience won?t likely be sharing to LinkedIn, so why clutter your space by including them?

Moreover, you don?t necessarily want people sharing to the wrong social networks because your content won?t resonate with that audience. Give your sharers the ideal options of where you want them to share.

#3 – Frequency and timing

Don?t just assume a singular promotion is enough. Is your content still relevant a week, two weeks, a month later?

If it is, stagger your promotion and share it a few times in order to amplify its reach, especially if you’re the type to create fewer pieces of epic quality content (pat yourself on the back). Try switching up your message with each post to see what resonates with your audience.

For example, the first post could have an engaging headline, the second could share a key takeaway, and the third could have a statistic from the post or include some relevant commentary around the topic

Take what you learn from the response from each and use it to optimize your message on future posts.

#4 – Link to influencers/thought leaders and?

If you mention an influencer, industry expert, or thought leader that your readers know and trust, try linking to their social profiles. Then go ahead and share the piece with them to ask what they think of your valuable content. They may just share it with their audience.

(We?ll cover more on influencer outreach in the next section.)

#5 – Don?t share exactly the same way on each channel

For starters, some members of your audience may follow you on multiple channels. If they didn?t like your message on one, they may on another based on the title or headline change.

Also, using hashtags (#) and at (@) symbols to communicate on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook work, but they won’t translate to LinkedIn. Consider the platform when optimizing your message.

#6 – Target your distribution channel based on your content type

This tips ties into the previous one quite a bit. Throwing every piece of content at every distribution outlet isn?t the best way to earn shares and links. Instead, determine which outlet/audience is is most aligned with the message of each particular piece of content. Then focus on sharing with the one or two best suited to receive value from it.

Always be working to develop relationships. That?s true of influencers, syndication outlets, and especially your own social following. You may find yourself writing a piece of content with an outlet or two in mind, allowing you to tweak the voice of that piece to suit that audience. The most valuable content is worthless if it falls upon deaf ears, so be sure to speak to your audience in a way that resonates with them and connects them as deeply with the issue as possible.

B2B Business Top Tip: While it?s no secret that LinkedIn is a B2B powerhouse, the fact is that it drives more traffic to B2B blogs/content than any other social media platform. Focus your efforts where they?ll be most effective and track your traffic to see what?s working and what isn?t. Always be optimizing your content amplification approach as the results you?re getting from a single outlets can shift quickly.

#7 – Content amplification is for your best work

There?s no sense in working hard to promote mediocre content. Less than stellar content will be met with indifference and, no matter how much you spend to promote it, will never engage your audience the way a thorough and thoughtfully created post will.

In fact, if you?re creating anything less than stellar content, you may be getting ahead of yourself by reading this post. Everything you publish should be amazing or, I?m sorry to say, you?re wasting your time.

#8 – Recreate older popular posts

You can use tools like Buzzsumo to find older posts that were very popular (recieved a lot of shares, etc.), and create your content around the same concept. In this way you?ve determined that people like what you?re writing about and, if you can create an updated and improved piece, should be able to expect similar results if you can put it in front of a similar audience.

#9 – Show some love in return

Don?t forget to show some appreciation to those that share and engage with your content. Even if they have a small following, show them some love with a thank you. Reply to their comments. Their influence may be small, but it?s also FREE!

#10 – Invest in paid promotion

Even if you’re not ready to deploy the (amazing and effective) strategy outlined above, invest in paid promotion. It?s a great way to boost the reach of your content and give it a head start right out of the chute.

Spend some time defining who you?re targeting with each post and use the following outlets to promote them:

• Promoted Tweets
• Paid Facebook Ads
• Targeted LinkedIn Posts
• Paid StumbleUpon Traffic
• Reddit Ads
• Content Placement Services (like Outbrain)

Be sure to test the efficacy of every channel you choose to promote through, optimize, and decide which to pursue or avoid.

#11 – Start creating videos

If you haven?t already, start moving toward video. While written content still has plenty of value in today’s world, imagine this?

Facebook estimates that by 2020, every single piece of content shared on the juggernaut platform will be a video.

It?s always better to be ahead of the curve than trying to keep up, so move toward video now and master your skills as you learn to create more valuable content in an entirely new medium.

Video Creator?s Top Tip: Facebook posts that link out get less interaction than those with content that displays automatically. Create videos that you can upload directly to Facebook and watch your views and engagement climb!

#12 – Always test what works for YOU!

Every business is different, and so is your content. As such, your content amplification should be customized to what works for you and your content. Always follow your traffic and put more energy behind the ones that you find most effective.

If an outlet isn?t delivering the results you?re after, change your strategy. If it still doesn?t deliver, pull the resources from it and put them into something new. Always be testing and optimizing your content amplification strategy!

Bonus! – Building a Community of Cross-Promoters

You may also find value in creating a community of peers who come together to share and give feedback on one another?s content (when they appreciate and feel like it?s something that would resonate with their audience).

Try connecting in Facebook Groups, Reddit and like communities, or finding existing groups to join. Their shares may not be as valuable as those of a major influencer, but they?ll be consistant and the feedback provided by the group will help you to optimize your future content.

Earning Shares and Links – How to Do Influencer Outreach Right

We may have saved the best for last. Earned links and shares from influencers can get your content in front of huge audiences, boost your organic rankings, and help solidify your content?s placement on the first page.

But first you have to earn them.

Earned media comes from individual and organizational blogs, media outlets, and social media accounts with a deeply connected (and hopefully sizeable) following. When the few marketers who choose to go this route reach out to these channels of influence, most of them are doing it in the wrong way.

So, let?s go over the RIGHT WAY to reach out to these promotional powerhouses.

Note: The keys to successful outreach is beyond the scope of this post. I?ve outlined a basic strategy to help you reach influencers more effectively, but I highly suggest doing some serious research into the topic and developing a format that works best for you.

Make contact well before you make the ask.

?You need something last minute? A share of your latest infographic? And I?ve never heard of or from you? Sure thing!? ? SAID NO INFLUENCER EVER

Influencers are inundated with ?must-see content? on a daily basis. Even low-level influencers have an inbox full of spammy requests every morning. So what do you do?

Build quality relationships for one. But how do you reach these people, organizations, and communities?

• For starters, it?s usually easier to develop strong relationships with a smaller network of influencers than to attempt to reach everyone in your space. Select those that represent a good match for the kind of content you produce and start to engage with them on their level.
• You may want to start out by forming a deep relationship with just one or two major influencers. The potential to reach them on a deeper level is greater and the payout from a single relationship with a larger following could be greater than attempting to form a lower level relationship with a dozen influencers (unless you have the time to devote to building a multiple relationships).
• Follow their social accounts and subscribe to their blog. Comment on their posts, like and share their content on social media, bring attention to yourself in a good way. You may even want to write them an email (or two or three) telling them how much you liked their recent post and what you learned/gained from it. Get to know them first so that you can speak (write) to them on a similar wavelength and in a way that connects more deeply.
• Eventually, you can start to make subtle requests for more feedback. For example, you can write an email telling them how much you liked their post and explain that you just wrote a post that you?d appreciate some feedback on.
• The rest should unfold naturally. If you?ve laid the groundwork properly, many of your relationships will start to pay off with social shares, offers to guest post, etc.

Again, this is an oversimplified version of the process. Please take the time to conduct thorough research on the topic before you start reaching out to influencers. Content amplification can be challenging for beginners, so learn from those who have mastered it and continue to do it right! The time it saves you will be well worth the investment.

Remember to keep your emails:

• Brief – Your emails should get to the point if you?re to have any hope of a reply.
• Personal – Make your email about them and, secondly, you.

And after a few exchanges:

• Positioned – Be sure there is a point to your message.
• Persuasive (but not pushy) – Make the ask in the right way.

How do I find influencers?

Use tools like followerwonk by Moz, Twellow or Buzzsumo to find influencers with large social media followings. You?ll be able to determine which your content is best suited for and begin to build relationships from there.

Focus on Creating Share-Worthy, Promotable Content

Content amplification is only as good as the content you?re promoting. I know I touched on this point earlier, but there is no point in learning how to promote your content if it?s not worthy of the audience engagement you?re after.

Let?s take a deeper look at what I?m talking about. Your content should be:

• Relevant (solves/meets) to the need/problem of your customer.
• Thorough, clear, and valuable.
• Easy to read, engaging, and helpful.
• Better than anything else available on the topic.
• Positioned as exciting and groundbreaking – ?Revolutionize the way you do (insert your topic).?
• Formatted, designed, and visually stunning.
• Representative of your audience, niche, buyer personas, etc.

Create killer content that makes people say ?wow? and you?ll have a much easier time getting them to share and promote it for you.

Don?t Cheat Yourself, Promote Your Freaking Content

Too many content creators assume their job is done when they hit the publish button, but you?re here today because you know that?s simply not true! Unfortunately, many content marketers, even great content marketers around the world, don?t put enough emphasis on promoting their work once they?ve completed it.

Larry Kim (WordStream) recommends spending 20 percent of your time creating excellent content and the other 80 percent promoting it.

Even if you can?t bring yourself to promote your content with that fervor, the content amplification strategies and tactics outlined in this guide will get help you make the most out of every promotional activity.

So get to it!

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Guest Post By: Peter Lang

?Business Growth & Digital Marketing Strategist with over $10 Million Bottom Line Growth for Clients. At Uhuru, a Digital Marketing Agency, Peter is uniquely bridging business strategy and targeted lead and sales objectives with marketing.?

Categories: Marketing

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