One of the hardest tasks facing people in the blogging world is promoting their content. With so much competition, it’s no wonder attracting an audience is so difficult. Over the years, I’ve been doing a lot of research on marketing strategies, trying to narrow down the different channels we have available. I’ve explored banner advertising, organic search, social media, guest blogging, etc. The good news is, over the years, I learned some very amazing things about NOT only writing content, but also marketing. Did you know you can utilize some cool strategies to create content that pretty much promotes itself? Implementing this strategy isn’t difficult at all because you just have to be creative.
The next time you sit down to write content, focus on writing content that promotes itself.
Let’s get started…
Finding the Right Idea
I’ve mentioned this several times before, that all content writing should start with an effective research process. Through research, you can find trending topics that will create a buzz instantaneously. If you want content to self-promote itself, then it’s important to write content people want. I always suggest finding a common problem within your niche then finding competitor content on that topic. Why? You’re going to want to create content better than your competitors, so you have higher engagement than them on social channels and organic search engines. Here’s an example,
I write on link building and learned readers have a hard time finding a solid list of article directories. I checked other competitor blogs that provided a list and created something better for my readers. Search engines loved it because I’m ranking #1 for the keyword and it’s gone viral with over 6,000 shares. To help you with this step, use tools like Buzzsumo.com and Topsy.com to find keyword related content with the highest shares. After, skim through each site’s writing adding the elements other content is missing.
Improve Content
Once you’ve found the content you’re going to be writing to outshine your competition, it’s important you implement these tweaking elements. I check for the following and if I don’t see it within my competitor’s content, I’ll add them to mine.
- Images – if I don’t see images, then I’ll add it to my content because it helps people understand my content better. Some people who visit my blog won’t speak English well, so images help with getting the point across.
- Video – YouTube.com has blown up in recent years because they provide an effective channel to make learning easy. Think about how easy it is to follow videos when learning how to do something.
- Length – Neil Patel published an interesting graph, showing how the top 10 results on Google’s first page have an average word count of 2,000+. The longer the content, the more in-depth and value it provides.
- Infographics – Tell a complete story without any text by creating an infographic. A quick way to get the point across.
Social Images for Sharing
If you want to create self-promoting content, then it’s important you add elements perfect for social marketing. Many people will share your content so it’s important your content displays well on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Google +. Here’s something to pay close attention to…
It’s been proven Twitter and Facebook users love images and tend to click-through when an image is displayed with the text. There are many factors that contribute to the increase in CTR and “sharesâ€. For example,
- Images attract users more than plain text
- Images provide a quick way to understand content
- They don’t easily get lost in the stream
- Images look good when shared on “picture†driven platforms like Pinterest, etc.
There are a few WordPress plug-ins you can install to your blog to customize what image is displayed when your content is shared. The one I’m currently using is SEOPressor.
Some More Tips…
Here are a few more tips to help you with your content writing. The style you choose will depend on your niche but consider the following…
Headlines – Write attractive headlines because these are what helps you stand apart from your competition. When you do a quick search in Google and skim through the results, think about what attracts you to click through on a link. For example, it’s the title and description compared to all the others…right? The same applies to social media marketing, too, so make sure you write engaging titles and/or headlines.
Quotes – Including creative quotes in your content is a great way to get your point across and motivate at the same time. Not to mention, bloggers rarely practice adding quotes so it’s a great way to stand out.
Automate – If you want your content to self-promote, then it’s a great idea to have a system in place to “tweet†and “share†your content. Bufferapp.com is a cool tool that allows you to automate your sharing, getting it in front of people. With high quality content, effective headlines, images, and being automated, it’s a great way to get your content to go viral quickly without too much effort on your end afterward.