Content Amplification Strategies

The key to success is publishing lots of content, right? Wrong!

If you’re creating content, it’s likely you have a couple of objectives:

• Increase organic traffic from Google
• Capture leads for remarketing and email marketing

To do so effectively, writing short, fluffy, 500 word articles simply won’t cut it anymore. With the amount of content being produced leading to content shock, your content needs to be truly outstanding. So first and foremost, you can’t amplify worth content that’s not worth amplifying.

Before we get into the specifics of content amplification, it’s important to discuss what types of content can be amplified.

So What is Worthy of Being Amplified?

Before you even start writing, you need to do some research to identify the content gaps in your industry. Here’s a methodology that you can use in the process of ideation:

• Identify shoulder niches: Start by brainstorming some core ideas for content. Then, research stems for those core ideas. From those stems, create should ideas.

• What are your influencers talking about? Create a list of topical influencers, and figure out what they’re interested in and talking about. What type of content do they share? What resonates with them? Determine a theme that will resonate with influencers, and create the content – better.
• Pay Attention to the News Cycle: Newsjacking is a powerful way to piggyback your products/services with what’s happening in the media. Learn how to search social media to identify trending topics that can help you find powerful content to create.

Now that you have some thoughts about the topics that would be interesting, relevant, and worth being amplified, let’s talk about the content itself.

Finding the Content Gaps

What is the “missing content” in your industry? What content can you contribute that’s unique and newsworthy?

According to Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media Studios, “there are missing stats in every industry.”. Conventional wisdom is common, but factual information supported by statistics is rare and offers an opportunity for powerful content creation.

Researching the ideas you’ve developed, where can you fill a content gap by finding relevant stats? How can you share common wisdom with an interesting angle, supported by facts and statistics?

If the stats don’t exist, create them! Using platforms like SurveyMonkey, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, and Google Consumer Surveys, you can create your own studies and gather your own statistics. Content created by surveys can then be amplified as people will love to share your findings, quote your statistics, and more. Creating effective surveys may take a little bit of time and resources, but it’s an investment worth pursuing.

Make sure your ideas bridge the gap between what you do and what’s interesting to your audience. If you hyperfocus on your audience, the content may not be interesting/relevant to others. If it’s too similar to Buzzfeed type content, people may not see you as an authority. Find that balance, and make sure your content lives in the middle.

How do you promote this powerful content?

Now that you’ve created content that is interesting, relevant, newsworthy, and worth being shared, let’s talk about ways to promote your content. Here are 30 ways to amp up its success across all channels.

1. 1. Sponsor the content on Facebook. Using Facebook ads for content amplification is a powerful way to use targeted audiences to acquire inexpensive clicks.
   2. Create a press release about your content and share it through more traditional channels.
   3. Email your consumers. Make sure your content gets out to your email list, and ask them to share as well!
   4. Share on social media. Don’t just post it and walk away. Create custom images for your posts. Mention influencers or other people who might be interested in reading your content.
   5. Include social share buttons with the content itself.
   6. Encourage an active comments section. There’s no better way to generate interest than to get people talking and sharing your content.
   7. Share the custom photos on image sharing sites. Pinterest and Instagram are a great way to generate interest by using visual imagery.
   8. Create a hashtag for the content.
   9. Sponsor the content on Twitter. Twitter ads can be expensive when measured by conversion rate, but if you use Twitter for content amplification using relevant audiences, you can quickly maximize the audience for your content.
   10. Ask customers to share it.
   11. Share on Reddit and encourage friends and family to upvote
   12. Make a LinkedIn discussion about your perspectives regarding the content.

1. 13. Add the article to your email signature
   14. Announce the publication in industry forums.
   15. Repost content in company newsletters
   16. Seek out guest blog opportunities to discuss your new content, linking in to your target article.
   17. Create an infographic based on your content and share it. Your infographics can then be distributed to sites that accept infographics, like visual.ly
   18. Pay for targeted social ads that advertise the content on platforms like Outbrain and Taboola. With the right kind of content, this can generate a high volume of visitors.
   19. Create a Powerpoint presentation and upload it to Slideshare.
   20. Create a brief video about your major content points and post on YouTube.
   21. Identify pages on your site with high traffic, and see if it’s viable to link to your new content.
   22. For more complex content like whitepapers, offer PDF downloads or ebooks.
   23. Ask a leading expert for a quote that you can share about your content and @mention in social (hoping for a retweet).
   24. Use apps like Flipboard and Storify to create a new version of your content for users.
   25. Email the content to all your employees and ask them to share on their own social profiles.

How much will all of this cost?

When faced with the possibility of such an extensive promotion strategy, most companies balk at the potential costs involved. Sponsoring content on Facebook, Twitter, etc can be expensive! How can you promote your content without breaking the bank?

First of all, remember that these are foundational pieces. You wouldn’t organize an event without inviting guests, would you? Or invite guests and not offer them food or snacks? You need to set aside a promotional budget for your foundational pieces, understanding that these go hand in hand.

Your budget doesn’t have to be extensive. With as little as $200 you can get a significant amount of traffic from Facebook and Twitter ads. The most expensive part of the amplification process is the budget required to pay for ads. Make sure you use this wisely so you can get the lowest CPC possible.

Don’t have interns? This should be your first step! Find interns looking to acquire work experience to help you with the amplification process. From sending out emails to influencers to posting on forums, interns can play a crucial role in getting your content seen. Devote some time and energy now to finding interns who can become an integral part of the process.

Now What?

You’ve created amazing content and went through substantial efforts to promote it..now what? Track, rinse, lather, and repeat! Create a Google Analytics dashboard that can help you evaluate the performance of your content. How many visitors went to that page on your site? Did your email sign ups increase? How many links and social shares were achieved? How many conversions resulted from this hero piece?

Tracking carefully can help you determine what worked and what didn’t. Once you have a winning formula, you can apply everything you learned with every piece to keep improving your content strategy. For digital marketing success, getting well acquainted with this process is the key to future growth!

Nick Rojas is a business consultant and journalist who lives in Chicago and his hometown Los Angeles with his wife. His work often discusses social media, marketing, and branding in regards to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).