Content Marketing Today

15 Secrets to Getting the Most Bang for Your Content Marketing Buck

Whether you have already developed and deployed a content marketing strategy or whether you are still in the planning stage, you should seriously consider how to extend the reach of your core content product.

For example, let’s suppose you have decided to create a quarterly print magazine that targets an important audience segment.  You will need to spend a significant amount of time and effort in generating the content that will make this magazine relevant and valuable to its readers.  That is obviously critical.  But you can do even more.

After all, the print magazine has a finite reach.  Think beyond print.  Think beyond the magazine.  You can dramatically increase the impact of your content marketing by thoughtful repurposing of the information and resources you developed in order to create the magazine itself.

Here are 15 great ways to extend the reach of your content far beyond the circulation of that print publication.  Many of these involve little or no incremental expense while offering dramatically improved incremental impact.

1. Record audio and video of interviews for the magazine or newsletter
for later repurposing (we’ll use magazine for the rest of this example).

2. Develop a news release schedule before the magazine comes out. Target three or four key topics that affect your customers and the industry (based on the magazine content). The release link should take them to the magazine subscription or digital magazine subscription
page. An incentive could be a free subscription to the print magazine or newsletter.

3. Discuss the magazine on your corporate blog. Get your editor to post some of the key findings/issues. If you don’t have a corporate blog, create one on your magazine microsite.

4. Sent out news releases through a keyword-optimized service such as PRWeb.

5. Post videos of interviews to YouTube and other targeted video portals
specific to your industry. Upload audio to microsites. Research podcast directories that may be relevant to your industry.

6. Print and mail glossy 32+ page magazine to your targeted database.

7. Send digital magazine version to the international audience or domestic audience you didn’t want to spend printing and postage on (possibly a secondary customer target).

8. Make sure all articles have their own HTML pages on your microsite. Be sure each article has social media capabilities such as letting people add it to Facebook, Digg, or StumbleUpon, to name a few.

9. Be sure to Stumble! noteworthy articles and choose the proper category for the article. Say, for example, the article goes best in agriculture; those people who have tagged agriculture as a keyword may see your article when they use StumbleUpon.

10. Provide something remarkable and different on your microsite for download. This does two things: 1) continues the conversation with your current customers, or 2) gives you information on prospects so you can begin a conversation with them. Something remarkable may be a free eBook about the 10 trends in your industry, or a free white paper on a new, cutting-edge technology. Keep the sales pitch out. Seek only to educate at this point.

11. Use PPC, targeting specific keywords to drive people to your downloadable content offering.

12. Be sure to make RSS feeds available for your web content.

13. Continue the news release program, pushing the audience to the videos, an eBook, or key articles. Remember, news releases aren’t for getting press; they are for building key links and for helping bloggers and influencers find your site. Industry bloggers can be key to your magazine effort.

14. Upload articles to key vertical and social bookmarking sites such as SmallBusinessBrief.com for small business, Sphinn for SEO/SEM, or Digg.com for wider exposure.

15. And if you are really on the cutting edge, create a Facebook fan page around your magazine or your company and promote within that vehicle. Invite your key customers to join the Facebook group.