Content Outreach: It’s one of the most critical and most uncomfortable aspects of content marketing.
Content outreach serves two essential purposes. First and foremost, it helps you become more familiar the people who respond best to your content and appreciate the material you offer. Secondly, content outreach can enhance brand awareness and lead more people to your products.
If you’re not familiar with the content outreach process, it can be tough to figure out where to start. Luckily, the process isn’t as complicated as it might seem, and this post is here to help shine a light on the path.
Why Content Outreach?
Picture this scenario: You started an ecommerce business. Great! Good for you. You’ve heard that having a blog is important, so you start one of those, as well. You spend hours writing and editing posts, and you put them up on your blog. And then, nothing happens.
This is the danger of content creation without content outreach. As it turns out, the world of online material is not “if you build it they will come.”
If you want your content to shine, you’ve got to alert people to the fact that it exists. This is where content outreach comes in. You’ll drive more success for your brand by using your content wisely and taking proactive steps to build links back to your website, drive readers to your original content and post content on reputable, third-party sites that can help you gain readers.
When you approach content and blogger outreach intelligently, it has the potential to overhaul your monthly traffic, and make your website the place to be.
The Different Kinds of Content Outreach
Content outreach comes in many shapes and sizes. Here are some of the most popular and effective content outreach strategies that you can consider adding into your marketing arsenal.
1. Social Media Outreach
Social media outreach is a great way to expand your personal and professional influence, and raise engagement with your readers.
Social media outreach works essentially like this:
You write something great and share it on your social platforms. If you’ve mentioned an influencer in your new content, or you happen to know of an influencer or platform that might be interested in what you’ve written, you may want to reach out to them and ask them to link the post for their audience. This puts you in touch with a much larger group of people and is a great way to gain readers for your content.
When you get the shares you ask for, you create a chain link effect, which broadens the reach of your content and increases its chances of going viral. You also stand a good chance of earning organic back links to your content, which boosts your SEO and helps your pages rank more prominently.
2. Infographics
Did you know that infographics are “liked” and shared on social media 3x more frequently than any other type of content?
Infographics are highly valuable pieces of content that can take your content outreach to the next level. While they can be expensive to create, infographics are endlessly valuable and will make it possible to spread your content near and far, gaining lots of notoriety and readership for our blog or other online content.
They’re also a great supporting piece of content if you’re selling ecommerce products and need another way to get people to bite.
Need a real-life example? Check out how reality television personality Kaitlyn Bristowe gives bedding company Ploom a shoutout in a paid partnership post on her blog:
3. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a type of outreach that you can use to expand your reach and tap into new markets. Used by dozens of major brands across various industries, influencer marketing is one of the more effective types of content outreach out there.
By tapping into the power of the social influencer, you can earn an entirely new audience, expand your market to new consumers and enjoy higher sales on your products.
4. Niche-Specific Platforms
If you’ve never considered guest blogging or posting on niche-specific platforms, now is a great time to start.
A very popular form of content outreach, guest blogging is the act of posting your content on third-party sites with readers and customers who may appreciate you and your offerings. While guest blogging can be a bit intimidating to begin, it’s a great move for your content and can help your store grow quickly.
Posting on niche-specific sites is a bit different than guest blogging, but achieves the same essential purpose. With a niche-specific site, you publish content directly and can use that content to educate and inform readers.
If you’re interested in either of these approaches, here are a few smart places to consider posting:
- Experts and influencers with a large audience. Neil Patel is one example. The ideal influencer for you will depend on your industry and content.
- Authoritative bloggers with a moderate audience. These platforms don’t have to get millions of visits a month; they should just be authoritative and high-quality.
- New Influencers. These influencers are just working to establish themselves in the community, and they can be a great way to gain publicity for your content and drive people to your website.
- General sites. A good example is Elephant Journal, which accepts direct author posts on a variety of topics. While this may or may not be a valid platform for you, there are plenty of others that work in a similar way.
The Case for Content Outreach
If you’re looking for a smart way to spread the word about your online company, content outreach is a great option. Designed to help you reach a larger audience of readers, content outreach will put you in touch with influencers, new customers and new connections across the board.
While lots of content marketing tactics are rigid and inflexible, there are many ways to do content outreach. This makes it ideal for a wide variety of companies, and means it’s easy to adjust to your needs and preferences.
While content isn’t always an “if you build it they will come” game, content outreach can help you spread the word about your online material and earn the eyes it deserves.