This article is intended as a practical exercise. Because? Chances are, you already know that you need to get more content out to market to grow your business, but this thought is overwhelming. So I have a challenge for you, here today. Take a piece of content you’ve already created (this could be statistics in your industry, a newsletter article, a blog post, a case study, etc.) and ACTION each step below as you read through it.
Step one – Let’s start with an easy one. Put it on your website. Make sure you have some common search terms so that Google can index them and increase your relevance for these terms.
Second step – Send it in your newsletter. Don’t have a newsletter? Set one up now. Constant Contact offers a 30-day free trial and has pre-built templates.
Step three – Post it on your blog. Don’t have a blog? Set one up now. WordPress is by far the leading blog software and it will allow you to set up one for free in 5 minutes. You can also get help and have it embed directly into your site.
Step four – Send it to your industry or regional publications and the media. Don’t have a list of relevant publications or media contacts? Call your library and ask if they have a recent copy of the Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media or if they have a local listing of such publications (if your focus is the local market). Gale’s directories cover media listings and publications from around the world. See if the library can create a list; if not, make time now in your calendar to go there and compile the list yourself.
step five – Submit it to online article sites like http://www.ezinearticles.com. It’s free to sign up and it doesn’t take long to submit and link to your site.
step six – Pull out 5-10 small snippets of a sentence and create small posts. Post these snippets on Facebook and/or on your Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and Google+ business page. If you don’t have any of these profiles, set them up. If you want to make it easy to post to these sites, set up a tool like HootSuite (again free) to send posts to all your social media sites with one click.
step seven – Insert it into a Word file titled “MY Book” or “MY eBook” or “Another Great Free Report”. Place it in the chapter where it would belong so that over time you have created a larger post and also start to put topics around future content (fill in the blanks).
step eight – Create an online announcement: this could be in an online newsletter from the Chamber, Google, Linked In or Facebook. Relink to the article on your site and have a CTA at the top and bottom, like signing up for your Free Tips or a Free Trial or trial product or service. Set it up for just a week and put a small budget on it like $40 – $50 and then watch the traffic to your site and measure the results.
step nine – Mail it to prospects. Include a good cover letter describing your interest in serving businesses like theirs, a special offer, and this very helpful article. Don’t have a mailing list? Try InfoCanada or InfoUSA and create one today. Dun and Bradstreet also has great listings.
step ten – Use it at your next live event (networking, trade shows, sales presentations). Think of it like a great business card and include your contact details and a call to action on the back.
Content is valuable. It takes time to create and is designed to help your current and future customers. Be sure to take advantage of ALL avenues available to you or you won’t be marketing as effectively as possible.