You already know that when you create and post content, you should share it on your social media platforms (and any other outlets you have access to).

This guide goes beyond the basics of posting and marketing content.

The following tips aren’t as well known as others that are shared over and over again, which is exactly why they should boost the traffic to your website.

Giveaways

Everyone loves something for free, and having some sort of giveaway is one of the best ways to get people to your website, on your mailing list and potentially buying your products or services.

Often, though, brands make the mistake of offering a giveaway via a website pop-up on their homepage, and the giveaway is fairly general, so it’s not at all targeted to the visitor. A better way to encourage people to visit other website pages and take advantage of your giveaways is to put targeted giveaways on specific pages.

For example, if you have a blog post about how to create Facebook ads, the giveaway for that page can be a step-by-step checklist for creating an ad.

By targeting the giveaway to the content the person is already reading, there’s a better chance they’ll take advantage of it (and become part of your mailing list).

Guest Publishing

First, it’s important to realize that guest publishing is different from guest posting.

Guest posting is, ultimately, for the purpose of building links back to your content. When you guest post, you’re probably not too concerned with where you’re posting, so long as you’re link building.

Guest publishing, on the other hand, is when you aim to get your content, website name and byline in highly regarded publications – the ones that are considered influential in your field.

When these respected, niche publications pick up your content, audiences will realize that you know what you’re talking about and that you’re an expert in your field.

Yes, this will increase traffic to your content, but it will do something even greater: improve your online reputation. Your content, as well as your brand, will be discussed over and over.

Not only will you get direct traffic by guest publishing, but you’ll get referrals, too.

Lookalike Audiences

You already have your audience. You know what they like, what they want to read, and how they’ll respond to your content.

You’re happy with them and they’re happy with you. Great. No need to branch out, right?

Well, sort of.

You don’t have to change your content in order to increase your audience – having a dedicated niche audience is better than having a larger but unfocused audience.

However, there are probably a lot of people who belong in your audience who just don’t know about you yet.

This is where lookalike audiences come in.

The concept was introduced by Facebook, and now other big players, like Google and Twitter, are utilizing the algorithm.

In a nutshell, lookalike audience matching, also called Customer Match Marketing, uses data from your current audience, like their email addresses, to find similar audience members based on taste and preferences.

You’ll be able to source new audience members who have the same traits as your current audience, which targets your marketing efforts.

Since these people have already been vetted, they have a better chance of becoming loyal audience members.

Long-Form Content

As easy as it is to knock out a 400-word blog post, audiences today want more complete content.

This allows them to go to one place for all the answers surrounding a particular subject, if you’re able to deliver what they want, they’ll trust you and come back for more.

While daily blog posts are excellent, you should also be creating more in-depth content, like ultimate guides. Make sure your content is filled with actionable tips, too – people want to learn, but they also want to know that your content made an actual difference in their career or life.

In order to improve reader or customer loyalty, you have to provide true value.

This means helping your audience do the things they need to do. For example, having a blog post about why Google Analytics is great may be a good start, but your audience will want to know how to actually setup and use Google Analytics.

If you don’t provide them with the guidance they need, they’ll go elsewhere for all of their information.

Carefully go through the content you have and uncover any opportunities for creating actionable add-on content. Do you have a blog post about the benefits of using LinkedIn for a job search?

Create content about setting up a LinkedIn profile from scratch or writing a summary.

Do you have a white paper with information about getting started with a keto diet? Create a series of blog posts that have actual recipes or insider cooking tips.

Question and Answer SEO

Often, when you aim to get SEO into your content, you do it in a way that fits naturally.

For example, if you’re creating content for people who follow a Paleo diet, you may include SEO like “Paleo recipes” and “tips for Paleo cooking.”

However, you’re missing out on a huge SEO draw here, because people often Google questions instead of straightforward phrases.

Aim to include these questions in your content – the easiest way is to use them as section headers – and use them to guide the topics you should be writing about.

Then, go on to answer them.

Not only are you going to attract people because your content will be optimized for popular searches, but by actually answering those questions, you’ll set yourself up as an expert in the niche.

This is also a great approach to designing your FAQ page, which has a lot of opportunities for SEO.

Recycle Old Content

Go through your website and blog to see which pages and posts ranked highly. Use that older content to attract your audience again, renew their interest in your topic and drive traffic to your website.

You don’t want to just republish the content as-is, though. Read through it thoroughly, update information to make it relevant, check that the links still work, and consider using fresh images.

You’ll also want to update the meta information including current SEO. You can also link to these popular posts in your other published content.

You can continue to create new, excellent content while still getting traction out of your older stuff. If people are still reading, enjoying and sharing your content, then it’s definitely not time to retire it yet.

This is also the content that you should be including in your “recommended reading” sections of your website or blog.

Re-purpose Your Content

Re-purposing your content isn’t the same as republishing it (although you can do both simultaneously for the same blog post, if you want). Re-purposing your content means taking the original medium and turning it into something new.

The goal here is to deliver information in a way that your audience, or a segment of your audience, may better digest.

For example, let’s say you have a blog post that covers a topic – Instagram marketing, we’ll say. The blog post is 1,500 words and has a lot of bullet points, photos, examples and links. Great – you’ve created a well-researched and useful piece of content.

However, some people don’t want to read 1,500 words, so they’re never going to experience what you created.

What can you do? Kiss that part of your audience “goodbye,” at least when it comes to that one piece of content? No way.

You can re-purpose it:

• Turn it into an infographic.
• Create a video.
• Split up your suggestions into simple checklists that you bundle together.
• Record a podcast on the topic.
• Use the sections of the article to create chapters in an e-book.

Re-purposed content transforms your hard work into new mediums so that everyone can experience it the way they want to.

It also gives you the opportunity to experiment with new delivery methods.

Plus, you’ll learn which type of content lends itself well to other mediums. For example, some types of content will be better suited for visual slideshows than podcasts.

When you re-purpose content, you also have to think about where that type of content will perform best.

Infographics are great on social media, like Pinterest. Long-form blog posts, especially if they’re backed by data, perform well on LinkedIn.

E-books are great for your website or email newsletters.

User Journey

When you create content, you should be thinking about what your audience needs and when they need it.

Yes, your content should always be relevant and timely, but we want you to think more deeply about your specific audience.

This will help you fine tune your content even further, and it’s the best way to make content that your audience won’t be able to resist.

To start, do a Google search for your niche’s primary keywords.

Instead of looking at the top search results, though, scroll to the bottom of the page. You’ll see a section with related searches.

This is where you’ll find additional questions and queries that are closely related to your original search, and it’s where you can begin a huge chunk of audience discovery.

Create content that addresses these additional searches, and make sure it reflects where your audience is in their journey – build upon the content you already have using these related search terms as a guide.

Your content is important. It’s interesting, relevant and timely. That’s exactly why it should be seen. Continue testing techniques to ensure that your content and website get the traffic they deserve.

Feel free to post your comment below. An email address is required but it will not be shared with anyone, put on any list, or used for any kind of marketing, just to alert you if there are any replies. Thanks and happy hunting!

PlanetBizOp.com

->Steven

Updated: Originally published April 20th 2018