Frustrating, isn’t it?

You write an awesome post, hit publish, then sit back and wait for the hordes of adoring fans to leave hundreds of comments on your site.

Except…

Crickets.

Sound familiar?

Chances are, this has happened to you at least once because this is how most people go around promoting their content - by spending the vast majority of their time writing it.

The promotion part ends up being a mere afterthought.

And the thing is, this is exactly the opposite of what most big bloggers that have seen success are doing.

As Derek Halpern of Social Triggers is always quick to say:

“It’s smarter to find another 10,000 people to consume what you’ve already created as opposed to creating more. Or, in other words, create content 20% of the time. Spend the other 80% of the time promoting what you’ve created.”

You see, it doesn’t matter how great your content is if no one even knows it’s there to begin with.

The good news?

We’re gonna change all that, right now.

As you have probably guessed from the headline, I’ve invited 13 experts to share their tips and insights on promoting your next piece of content more effectively and help it reach more eyes.

I asked them the following question:

Name one tip that bloggers and content marketers can follow in order to promote their content more effectively.

Just before you dive in though, grab this free content promotion checklist. It’s packed with all the essential stuff you need to do after hitting publish on your next piece of content. Also, it’s completely free, so why not get it now?

Without further ado, here are the experts!

(Click on the links below to go directly to the experts.)

Tim Bourqin | Jason Acidre | Michael Pozdnev | Larry Kim | Cendrine Marrouat | Peter Sandeen | Charli Day | Rick Ramos | Tor Refsland | Mike Allton | Andréa Jones | Adam Connell | Allison Boyer

Tim Bourquin from AfterOffers

The common myth out there these days is that every single blog post you write must be an epic 6,000 word tome.

That pressure ends up overwhelming many new bloggers who feel like they never have the time to do the research, let alone write, that amount of content. They end up doing nothing and the blog never gets off the ground.

Certainly, if you have the time and passion to write the end-all, be-all post of the century - go for it.

But it’s not necessary - focus on the quality, not the quantity of your content. Quit worrying about “writing to rank” and instead write to help the reader.

Also, every blog post you write should double as one of your autoresponders for your email list.

Write a few sentences introducing your blog post and give it some context about why it should be important to your subscriber and worth their time to read.

Then link to the post.

The more content your write for your blog, the more you’ll have in your autoresponder series too.

Milk that cow for as much as you can!

Jason Acidre from KaiserTheSage

Target sites/people who have already linked to or shared a content that covers the same topic as yours in the past. There’ll be a higher likelihood of getting them to share or link to your content as well based on their historical activities, and this approach will mostly be effective if your content appears to be more valuable than the ones they’ve previously linked to or shared via social media. For a more detailed instruction to this approach for outreach, you can also check out a post I’ve written a few years back on linker outreach.

Michael Pozdnev from iWannaBeABlogger

Friends, nowadays, if you’re not an influencer, to promote your content you’re gonna need support from your online friends: links, shares, comments, upvotes, etc. As for me, blogger outreach is the most effective and efficient way, but unlike other people who shared related articles on Twitter, I don’t use Buzzsumo to search for target bloggers. I search them thru commenters. Those who leave their comments on any topic are the most engaged audience. And then I start building relationships. The results have always been amazing. I only have three blog posts, but I’ve already received comments, shares, and visitors more than some experts of online marketing.

Larry Kim from Wordstream

In paid content promotion on Facebook and Twitter, the reach and cost of your promoted post will be inversely proportional to the post engagement. So the worst thing you can ever do is waste money promoting garbage because it will generate very few ad impressions at a very high cost. Instead, go all-in on your unicorns – your very best, most engaging content which will generate tons of impressions and clicks for much less cost.

Cendrine Marrouat from Social Media Slant

I see a dangerous focus on follower numbers and virality these days. Bloggers and content marketers tend to create clickbaity and empty posts rather than really helpful stuff.

Writing content with a view to attracting attention from new readers is important, of course. However, there is something right in front of you that matters even more: Those who already read and engage with your blog. Cementing your relationship with them will do more for your bottom line than any other trick in the book.

So, stop begging for RTs on Twitter. Instead, provide your current readers with consistently great answers to their questions. The promotion will then happen naturally.

Peter Sandeen from PeterSandeen

People usually forget that it’s not hard to get huge numbers of people to a piece of content…if the traffic leads to predictable revenue. When each article leads visitors to a funnel (that converts people to customers), you have plenty of effective options to choose from. Advertising is the most obvious, but joint ventures etc. are also relatively easy to use. But all that only happens if you have a funnel in place that does its job ;)

Charli Day from CharliSays

If I feel that a particular piece did not get the exposure it deserves the first time around, I will try reshuffling the text, changing the headline and swapping the image for a new one. This will usually yield a stronger wave of exposure the second time around. Your article headline and image are the two factors that will gain traction so if these are combined with good hashtags then you should get the content exposure you deserve. This technique also allows you to recycle evergreen content… great for busy marketers!

Rick Ramos from HealthJoy

Their are two things that will really get your content shared above all else; your headline and featured image. When your creating content, spend time to create several headlines and pick the one that you feel is most irresistible to click. Your headline shouldn’t be misleading nor fall into the realm of clickbait but it should speak about the pain points or hook your covering. I’ll usually write 8-10 headlines quickly and slowly weed them down. If your website already has a decent level of traffic, you can also test an A/B headline testing plugin to narrow it down scientifically. Your featured image is the second most important thing for your content. Just think, when you share something on social media, the featured image takes 2/3 of the space for your social shares. You need something eye catching and that captures someones imagination. Stay away from cheesy royalty free images and try to find something more authentic. Please, no group of business people jumping up with a white background.

Tor Refsland from Time Management Chef

My number one tip in order to promote your content more effectively is…

build genuine relationship with peers and influencers.

Not because you want them to share your stuff, but because you want to get to know them.

In the future, when you have an awesome post that is a GREAT fit for the influencer and their audience, send them a polite and mail and let them know about it.

That is what Neil Patel did in the start to get influencers to promote his content…

and Jon Morrow…

and myself.

Trust me, done right. It works like a charm :)

What is easiest:

Build a Twitter following of one million people…

…or get two influencers with a million Twitter followers combined to share your content that is a great fit for their audience?

The right answer: the latter one.

Mike Allton from The Social Media Hat

While I’ve written extensively on how to promote blog posts, the one major tip that I have to give bloggers is make sure that you’re promoting your content more than once. It’s OK, it’s not your fault you’ve been told you need to spend more time writing than promoting.

But the truth is, tweeting out one link to your latest blog post simply isn’t going to cut it. Most of your audience won’t see that update. Instead, you need to share to social and email many times in many different ways. You need to make sure that you’re reaching new audience members - people who might not have been following you the first time you shared, or people who might have seen the share but not have needed the information initially.

Ideally, your best pieces of content will be in a queue for you to routinely re-share to social media. And autoresponders are a great way to ensure that you best pieces of content are shared with new email subscribers.

Just make sure that you don’t stop promoting your blog posts!

Andréa Jones from OnlineDrea

I find that simply focusing on promoting blog content is where many hopeful online marketers make a huge mistake. In today’s world, there are so many people promoting their latest content online through social media, ads, webinars, etc. It’s tough to stand out.

My tip for not looking like the next guy is to focus on building relationships. Those relationships can be with others in similar niches or potential readers. Once you start using your personality to attract users, then you’ve got the chance to build trust with them. Those who trust and like you will be more likely to not only read your new content, but also share it with a friend.

Adam Connell from AdamConnell.me

For most, promoting a piece of content is an after thought. And that’s how I treated it for a long time.

But the moment where I started to gain more traction is when I started thinking about how I can promote a piece of content, during the planning stages.

So when you’re planning your next post, ask yourself - “how can I promote this post?”

Are there influencers you can mention? or hit up for a quick quote? what about building anticipation for the post on social media? or can you think of something more creative?

The bottom line: bake content promotion right into your content creation process and you’ll gain far more traction.

Allison Boyer from AllisonBoyer.com

Network with other bloggers so they will promote your content for you. Facebook groups are great for connecting with like-minded bloggers who are looking for content to promote. Search for engagement groups and link-sharing groups, then become an active member of the community. Don’t just drop your link and leave! Share others’ links, answer questions, and be helpful. Then, it is as easy as writing great content and ask others in the group to promote it.

Conclusion

Finished going through this post? Great!

I would strongly advise you to bookmark this page for future reference, because these simple pieces of advice can help you promote your content more effectively and gain more traction for your blog.

However, as Napoleon Hill said: “Knowledge is not power. Application of knowledge is power.”

It doesn’t matter if you know all the best content promotion tips, if you don’t implement them and use them on your blog.

Try picking 1 promotion tip that you aren’t already using on your blog and implement it today, then let me know how it worked out by shooting me an email - I would be stoked to know about your progress!

Next Steps

Don’t forget to grab my free content promotion checklist that’s packed with all the essential stuff you need to do after hitting publish.

If you enjoyed this post, please do share it with your followers on social media. Thanks a bunch for your help!