Promoting Your Blog Posts for Maximum Reach

Creating a high-quality blog post is a huge accomplishment. But your work isn't done when you hit the "publish" button. In fact, some of the most important work is just beginning.

In today's crowded content landscape, you can't just publish your content and hope that people will find it. You need a proactive content promotion and distribution strategy to ensure that your valuable content gets in front of the right audience.

A good rule of thumb is to spend 20% of your time creating the content and 80% of your time promoting it. Here are some of the most effective ways to promote your blog posts for maximum reach.

1. Share it on Your Social Media Channels

This is the most obvious first step.

• Share it Multiple Times: Don't just share your post once. You can share it several times over the next few weeks and months.
• Tailor the Post for Each Platform: Don't just copy and paste the same message. On LinkedIn, you might use a more professional tone. On Instagram, you'll need a compelling visual.
• Pull Out "Snackable" Pieces: Create multiple different social media posts from a single blog post. You can share a key statistic, a compelling quote, or a single tip from the article, each with a link back to the full post.

2. Send it to Your Email List

Your email list is one of your most valuable marketing assets. These are people who have already opted in to hear from you.

• Send a Dedicated Newsletter: Let your subscribers know that you've published a new post. Explain why it's valuable and include a clear link to read it.
• Include it in Your Regular Newsletter: If you have a weekly or monthly newsletter, you can feature your latest blog posts in it.

3. Leverage Internal Linking

Your own website is a powerful promotion tool.

• Link from Your Homepage: If it's a particularly important piece of content, you can feature it on your homepage.
• Link from Other Relevant Posts: Go back to some of your older, popular blog posts and find opportunities to add an internal link to your new article. This helps both users and search engines to discover it.

4. Engage in Relevant Online Communities

Go to where your target audience is already having conversations.

• Find Relevant Groups: Look for relevant Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, subreddits, or online forums in your niche.
• Provide Value, Don't Just Spam: Don't just drop a link to your post and leave. This is a quick way to get banned. Instead, participate in the conversation, provide a helpful answer to someone's question, and then, where it's relevant and genuinely helpful, you can share a link to your blog post for more information.

5. Reach Out to People You Mentioned

If you mentioned or quoted an influencer, a tool, or another company in your article, you should let them know.

• Send a Friendly Email or Social Media Message: Let them know that you featured them in your latest post.
• The Result: They will often be happy to share the article with their own audience, which can give you a huge boost in reach.

6. Consider Paid Promotion

If you have a particularly important, high-value piece of content, you can use paid ads to amplify its reach.

• Facebook or Instagram Ads: You can run a campaign to promote your blog post to a highly targeted audience based on their interests and demographics.
• LinkedIn Ads: This is a great option for B2B content.

7. Repurpose Your Content

Repurposing your blog post into different formats is a great way to promote its core ideas on different platforms. For example, you can turn a blog post into a short video for YouTube, an infographic for Pinterest, or a presentation for SlideShare.

Conclusion

Creating great content is the first step, but a smart promotion strategy is what will make it successful. You don't have to use every single one of these tactics for every post. Choose the 2-3 strategies that are most relevant to your business and your audience, and make them a consistent part of your publishing workflow. By being as strategic about your content promotion as you are about your content creation, you can dramatically increase your reach, drive more traffic, and get a much better return on your content marketing efforts.