Over 60% of marketers agree that generating leads and traffic is their biggest challenge. It can be frustrating, especially when it takes time and effort to create content.
However, content engagement depends not only on the content quality but its promotion methods.
Marketers shouldn’t rely on organic traffic only. After the content marketing process is complete, perform content amplification approaches to ensure more people will find and read it.
This article will explain the definition and advantages of content amplification. We also provide an in-depth guide to amplifying content, including the top strategies, tools, and examples.
What Is Content Amplification?
Content amplification describes digital marketing strategies for promoting content to a broader audience. This content includes a new blog post, an eBook, or a video.
There are three main content amplification platforms:
- Owned media. Amplify your content organically with existing channels, such as the official website, email marketing, and social media platforms.
- Earned media. This refers to publishing and sharing content outside the brand’s platform, including press releases and business partners’ websites.
- Paid media. It’s a content promotion strategy that requires businesses to pay, like native advertising and paid influencer marketing.
A robust content amplification strategy generally combines those content distribution channels.
Why Content Amplification Is Important
Now that we know the definition of content amplification, let’s discuss why it’s crucial to your marketing strategy, aside from driving more traffic.
Stay in the Competition
More than four million blog posts are published every day. With such a competition, it’s hard to rely on organic content only.
A solid content promotion strategy helps stand out and reach the target audience. For example, amplifying content with pay-per-click (PPC) ads instantly pushes content at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).
Build Brand Awareness
Content amplification strategies will bring the content in front of the target audience. The more people see your content, the more likely they will memorize your brand.
Various digital marketing tactics also enable you to show your content on different platforms, increasing brand awareness. Remember that it takes five to seven impressions for people to recognize a brand.
Maintain Existing Customers
Some content amplification techniques may require engaging with existing customers, like advocacy programs and email marketing. These approaches can increase their loyalty, especially if you target the Gen Z audience since they want to contribute to their favorite brands actively.
Reengaging with them can also bring more purchases in the future. In fact, a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profit up to 95%.
Drive Sales
Most content amplification efforts play an essential role at the top of the sales funnel.
Once people enter the funnel, they get to know your brand and may be interested in purchasing the products and services. In that case, you will bring more qualified leads because 59% of people prefer buying products from familiar brands.
Pulling people to the top of the funnel also helps you better understand them as they may enter email addresses and personal details. As a result, it’s possible to plan strategies for the following funnels and turn them into potential customers.
12 Content Amplification Strategies
This section will explain 12 methods to amplify content effectively. We’ll also show you some tools useful for the content amplification process and several real-life examples from famous brands.
1. Sort Out the Best Content
Although content advertising is cost-effective, it doesn’t mean you should pay and promote all posts – choose only the most valuable content.
To pick high-quality content, understand E-A-T, which stands for:
- Expertise. The content creator has knowledge and skill in a particular field. Some topics may need formal education, like medical advice and information. However, some are considered everyday expertise, like sharing personal experiences living with liver cancer.
- Authoritativeness. It refers to the website or creator’s reputation, especially among other experts in the industry.
- Trustworthiness. This point is about the transparency and accuracy of the site and its content.
Moreover, consider the content purpose when choosing the best content. For example, high-quality information pages should be comprehensive and backed up by data, while valuable shopping content lets users easily find and purchase products.
You can also promote content that receives the highest web traffic. Go to your Google Analytics account and click Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages to find the most popular pages on your website.
2. Display Promotion Messages on Your Website
After selecting the best content, start promoting it on your own website. One way to do it is by using a pop-up. It has high view rates as people have to see it first before closing it.
Tim Ferris’s pop-up banner follows best practices, including:
- Making the pop-up easy to quit by clearly displaying the X on the banner.
- Showing the pop-up after the audiences scrolls a certain length, giving them time to enjoy the actual content.
- Not integrating a lot of visible form fields as they can lower conversion rates.
- Giving the pop-up personality by using his photo.
Alternatively, create a sidebar banner to promote the content. Although the view rates may not be as high as pop-ups, showing the best content on the sidebar encourages visitors to see it.
Make the banner stand out by using bright colors, imagery, or animations to attract readers’ attention. Don’t forget to include a call to action (CTA) and contrast the button to make it the focal point of the banner.
3. Include Social Share Buttons
Social media share buttons are an effective strategy to amplify your content using owned media. They enable visitors to share content easily to their platforms, expanding the content reach.
Here are some tips on including social share buttons to your pages:
- Limit the options. It can be tempting to include all social media buttons and let readers choose. However, too many options usually cause the paradox of choice. Pick the most popular social platform like Facebook or find what your audience uses the most.
- Place them strategically. Generally, a prominent position is near the top of the page because readers don’t need to scroll to find the buttons. Another option is to use floating share buttons that stick to the bottom or side of the screen.
For WordPress users, we recommend installing a social sharing plugin like AddThis or Sassy Social Share.
Alternatively, navigate to the social media settings, then copy and paste the HTML code to your website. For instance, go to developers.facebook.com to add Facebook likes and share buttons.
4. Integrate Your Social Media Platforms
Creating relevant content helps increase organic traffic. However, you need to promote it to other platforms to expand the content reach.
Social media marketing is an excellent starting point. With over 4.2 billion users, social media marketing is an excellent starting point. Also, more than 90% of the users follow a brand on social media and visit its website.
Take a look at how Penguin Books promotes its blog post on the social media platform. It uses an appealing image, summarizes the content, and directs the audience to read the full content by providing a link.
Make sure to pick suitable social media channels for your target audience. For example, use Linkedin to target businesses and professionals. Meanwhile, Pinterest is an excellent option to target women since they account for 77.1% of the platform’s demographics.
Moreover, use relevant hashtags to reach more people interested in your content. A tool like Hopper helps find suitable hashtags and analyze the performance.
5. Optimize Email Marketing
Another great channel to amplify content is through email marketing. In fact, 87% of marketers use emails as their content distribution channel.
There are some tips to use emails to amplify content:
- Curate relevant content. Check current events and subscribers’ preferences.
- Experiment with subject lines. Personalize subject lines with a recipient’s first name, and keep them short to avoid getting cut off.
- Design engaging newsletters. Include appealing visuals to attract recipients’ attention and a clear CTA button to direct them to the content.
- Ensure the emails are mobile-friendly. Over 80% of people access their emails via smartphones. Therefore, consider using a responsive email template and keep it concise.
Skillshare is an excellent example of this content amplification strategy. At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, it sent email newsletters containing blog posts and courses to help subscribers adapt to the new living conditions.
6. Use Paid Ads
Paid advertising enables businesses to show ads on a specific platform by paying on slots or keywords. This strategy ensures a faster way to reach the target audience than organic methods.
Here are some top paid distribution channels to promote your content:
- Paid social media ads. Display ads on a specific social media platform. For example, Instagram ads let businesses use their Stories, feeds, and Reels to advertise their products or services.
- Search engine advertising. Search engines show ads on the paid or sponsored sections of the SERPs and websites under their ad networks.
- Content promotion networks. Feature your content in a related articles section of top sites. For example, Outbrain shows recommended articles on CNN’s Paid Content section via RSS feed.
Many of them are PPC ads, meaning advertisers will pay a fee every time a person clicks on their ads. Therefore, make irresistible headlines or ad banners to maximize the results.
7. Create an Advocate Marketing Program
Advocacy marketing invites loyal customers to market brands and content. You can amplify your content through social mentions, reviews, and user-generated content on multiple channels.
This word-of-mouth marketing strategy is powerful as 76% of people trust content shared by individuals rather than brands.
To start, create a branded hashtag that customers can include in their social media when sharing your content. Make the content shareable by providing pre-written quotes, like click-to-tweet links.
Next, plan a campaign to search customer advocates, such as a social media challenge or contest. Offer incentives for those who spread your content online to reward their loyalty.
For example, if you own a publishing company, encourage customers to share your content and give a voucher or free books for the ones with the most likes.
8. Collaborate With Influencers
Influencers have a following that listens and trusts them due to their knowledge or authority. They include bloggers, social media influencers, and experts in your field.
More than 85% of marketers agree that influencer marketing has as good or better ROI than other channels.
Sponsored posts are one of the most common collaborating formats with influencers. Here, companies pay them to place links or mention the brands on their websites or social media channels that point to the business websites.
Alternatively, invite influencers to your content creation process.
For example, The Home Depot collaborated with Rachel Metz, a DIY content creator, for a backyard makeover on their YouTube channel. After creating the content, Metz promoted the video on her Instagram and tagged The Home Depot’s account.
If the influencers have a huge email list, consider asking them to include your content in their email newsletters.
9. Guest Posting on Relevant Websites
Guest posting means you create content for another website, providing you with a different platform to showcase expertise. Many site owners also let the writers link to their websites, helping them build backlinks and drive traffic.
Common websites for guest posting include magazines and news sites. You can also find other platforms by:
- Looking for sites that interest your audience.
- Searching for sites similar to your ideal guest posting websites.
- Checking where competitors post.
Tools like Alexa and Ahrefs help find guest posting opportunities by displaying sites relevant to a specific category and checking competitors’ backlinks.
After deciding on specific sites, it’s time to create a guest post pitch. Go to their About pages to find the contact information and send proof of your quality, like social metrics or links to other guest posts you have written.
Then, write the post once the website owner accepts the request. Follow the guest post guidelines and link to your site in the post if possible. Consider writing a bio and promoting your content in it.
10. Join Niche Communities
Joining communities offers many benefits, including a sense of belonging and networking. It’s also possible to gain opportunities to be a speaker in other members’ events, find link-building opportunities, and collaborate for creating your next content.
Popular online communities for entrepreneurs are Start-Up Nation, The Small Business Hub, and The Small Business Bonfire. You can also join a local business community via Facebook or LinkedIn groups.
Online forums like Reddit and Quora also help amplify your content effectively as their user bases are huge. For example, Reddit has around 48 million users with 1.7 billion monthly visits. Moreover, these online forums offer paid content to promote answers.
However, don’t just post your content’s links. Instead, provide in-depth answers to questions about your industry. Microsoft and Google are great examples as their employees often answer questions about their workplaces and product features.
11. Practice Content Syndication
Content syndication refers to republishing content to a third-party website, such as LinkedIn, Medium, or a news site. This content amplification strategy helps you reach the third-party website’s audience members and boost brand awareness.
However, Google will show the version it thinks is the most relevant for users, which may not be your own website. Therefore, consider asking the syndicated site to use a noindex tag to avoid Google indexing its version.
Also, ensure that you include the original article’s link in the syndicated content to let search engines and readers know and avoid duplicate issues.
Alternatively, ask your content marketers to create slightly different content from the original one. For example, the syndicated content only mentions the big picture and directs the visitors to read a more comprehensive explanation in the original content.
12. Use Content Amplification Tools
When amplifying content, it often takes time to find the right content, time, and platform.
Therefore, consider using these content amplification tools to run your strategy effectively:
- Social Animal. It helps content marketers discover trending and best content in specific topics, find influencers, and analyze competitors.
- Buffer. This content amplification tool helps social media managers schedule their posts, discover people’s comments on multiple channels, and repurpose older content to gain more traction.
- Viral Content Bee. It works similarly to popular blog share groups. You have to share other users’ posts on social media to get the point and share your posts with others.
Using all of them may need an ample budget, so it’s better to have specific goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) before choosing one. For instance, pick Buffer as your content amplification tool if you want to focus on social media marketing.
Conclusion
Content amplification encompasses multiple techniques and online channels to promote content.
It’s essential to the success of your content marketing strategy because content amplification can drive more traffic, develop brand awareness, and stand out from the competition.
The three main platforms to amplify your content are owned, earned, and paid media.
Content amplification tactics we have discussed in this article include:
- Choosing the best content to promote.
- Promoting relevant content on social media.
- Leveraging paid advertising.
- Partnering with influencers.
- Publishing content on other websites.
- Getting involved in niche communities.
We hope this article has helped you create your own content amplification strategy. Feel free to check out our articles on how to write an advertisement or marketing checklists to guide you during the creation process.