I think we’ve talked about this 3 times already in this newsletter, but that’s how important content marketing distribution is. What’s the point of spending time, money and energy into creating new content if you’re not distributing it. I’ve seen agencies get quick SEO wins, but those are few and far between, without all an effective distribution strategy.
Where do I start with getting my content out there to the right people?
If you have customers already, you’ve got a giant advantage here. These people are already buying from you, so it makes sense to start there! What I tell most agents is to use a third party email tool like sendfox, mailchimp or active campaign to send out email blasts. The first email you send to that list should be simple like “Hey we’re going to be sending you an email every (frequency) and we just wanted to give you an opportunity to unsubscribe in a way that won’t impact our ability to communicate with you in our normal systems.”
That way if they do unsubscribe you can still communicate with your customers in your CRM.
Next add your new prospects to your email list. Just make sure you put it in your opt-in forms! I watched one agency do this and they grew their email list by 300 new subscribers in 6 months.
The other thing you should be doing is sharing your content on social media, using your business page AND your personal feed. You’d be surprised how many people will see the content but won’t interact with it. But I promise you they’re seeing it. Below is the format I recommend. Write a summary of the article, use a catchy image, then post the link to the article in the comments.
I do this across the three primary channels where I know my ideal customers hang out, but feel free to get started with just one channel. Facebook is probably where I would start if I were just getting started.
How can I make sure people actually open and read my emails?
Everyone says the subject line is where you should spend the majority of your energy. I think that’s like 3rd in the order of operations here. First and second, my belief is people open emails from people they know, or they’re expecting emails from. So always send your emails from a person! Don’t send your emails from a role based email like sales, service, or nonsense like that. Send it from a human they should know!
Next up is consistency. If you send emails regularly, people are more likely to open them. Now that doesn’t email them every single day! And value is a huge part of this too. If they find them valuable, and it comes at a regular schedule, people will open your emails more often. Here’s the last few emails I’ve sent out. I’ll take an average of 56% opens and just under 6% click through.
Why are my opens and clicks so high? I follow those basic rules, I always send from my email, and I send at the same time every week. The bonus, when I have something special off my normal routine I still maintain pretty high open rates.
Now don’t get that subject line statement get you twisted. You still should write good subject lines. But the above rules drive more impact than a perfectly crafted subject line. But remember, we’re doing all of this in the name of content marketing distribution. So don’t forget to test out different subject lines.
How do I know if my content marketing distribution efforts are actually bringing in business?
Before you start any marketing strategy you need to measure your current baseline. Now content marketing distribution isn’t going to drive leads right away. We’re here to build trust after other interactions with your brand! At least in the sense of how you’re going to be using content marketing, until you’re ready to get started running ads.
Google Analytics is your best friend here. I know GA4 is a dumpster fire, but you can still get basic reports to look at your traffic sources, landing pages. Followed closely by Google Search Console. This tool will show you what content is being indexed by google!
So what you should do is make sure you grab this spreadsheet (make a copy) and start recording your organic search traffic. The next thing to do is to simply ask your prospects how did you hear about us? Keep records of those things, when you ask that above question people are more likely to give you specifics, not a general oh I googled insurance.
What should I not do when sharing my content?
Simply put, don’t be salesy! Nobody wants to read a sales pitch in their inbox or their social media feed. But if you’re providing value, people are pretty forgiving. If it looks and feels like an ad people are just going to ignore it.
Education is probably your best value proposition in your content. So stick to teaching people the things you’re an expert at. Or at least more knowledgeable than them.
How can I talk about my services without turning people off?
Go read or listen to the book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. GaryVee lays this out perfectly, but the gist of it is give and give and give and give and give and give some more, then give even more. Then make an ask! In your emails and social media posts, don’t ask for the quote, drive them to your site. Get them to trust you, and they will call or fill out your quote form.
That’s the entire point of content marketing. Providing value before ever expecting or asking for a sale. Take my newsletter for example. I sent 36 emails before I ever introduced an offer or tried to sell you anything. Now after over a year I can tell you about things I am selling. That was my strategy all along. Now I’ve got an awesome audience of people that trust me, take my advice, and even hire me to work with them.