Content Promotion is a term that is sometimes used synonymously with Content Distribution and sometimes it is used as an independent term.
Separating these two terms can be useful, and if we consider content promotion as an independent activity from content production and content distribution, this way of looking at the content field can be idea-generating and inspiring for us.
We ourselves review the distribution strategy and the promotion strategy completely independently and even define their effectiveness evaluation indicators in a completely separate way and consider them for review.
Definition of content promotion
Those who use the term content promotion have borrowed the term from marketing management .
This can be very useful and valuable. Because if we look at content as a conventional product, like physical goods or everyday services, we can take advantage of the knowledge that has been used for marketing goods and selling products over the last century and not reinvent all the wheels from scratch.
We know that one of the classic concepts in marketing management is the marketing mix, which in its most traditional form is defined in terms of the famous four P’s:
- Product
- Price
- Place and distribution channels
- Promotion
In this division, a distinction is made between distribution and promotion, and the same distinction can be used in the field of content in the form of a simple analogy. Therefore, on the same basis, any kind of effort, planning, advertising and action for better visibility of the content, more awareness of the audience about the existence of the content and finally persuading the audience to buy or consume the content, is included in the content promotion subcategory.
The difference between content promotion and content distribution
Before going to content promotion techniques, it is better to point out the difference between content promotion and content distribution.
This difference is the same as the promotion and distribution of goods and physical products.
In content distribution, like the distribution of any other product, you are looking for channels to get the content to the audience after production. For example, you may use a blog, active pages in social networks or email to deliver content to the audience.
But in promotion , your concern is not to reach the audience. Rather, it is to inform the audience and encourage him to use the content.
It often happens that you see an advertisement of a product somewhere like a billboard or television; But to buy it, you have to visit another place like a store.
In other words, you might be promoting your content where the content itself doesn’t actually exist.
There is another important difference between these two concepts and that is the difference between distribution and promotion audiences.
Distribution is done to the audience or current customers. For example, you know that rancher’s yogurt is good and you go to the supermarket to buy it. The farmers must have done the distribution well so that when you want, buying yogurt is possible and available for you.
But in promotion, the main target is those who are not the audience or customers ; Or if they are, we think they haven’t bought and consumed our product or content as much as they had the capacity.
In the example of Domdaran yogurt, the promotion is for someone who either does not know Domdaran yogurt, or if he does know and buys it, Domdaran company believes that he can be encouraged to consume more yogurt.
Content promotion techniques
Content promotion techniques are unlimited like promoting any other product and with a little ideation and creativity, many techniques can be designed and implemented.
Therefore, what follows are just a few examples of promotion techniques to better explain the concept of Content Promotion and prepare your mind for ideation and designing more techniques.
1- Promotion in social networks
One of the most well-known methods of content promotion is the use of social networks and social platforms .
Of course, note that the function of social networks and platforms is dual; This means that the content producer can use them as a content distribution channel.
When you produce content for consumption on social networks from the beginning, the social network will act as a distribution channel. But for someone who supposedly presented a content on his site or Telegram channel and now uses Instagram or LinkedIn to introduce and promote it, the social network has been used as a promotion tool.
Keep in mind that the nature of techniques such as hashtagging and in general content optimization for social networks (SMO) can also be considered a subset of promotion in social networks.
2- Optimizing and recreating content
The choice between optimization and regeneration is related to the content strategy as well as the capabilities and capacities of your infrastructure.
It is important to note that unlike optimization, the method of reproducing content and publishing it on many platforms is possible. In this case, you are actually using the distribution channel as a tool to promote the content.
3- Sending email
Sending emails to your audience and asking them to view content is one of the traditional methods of content promotion that still has its fans.
But with the amount of information that is showered on your audience, you shouldn’t expect that just listing a few links and sending them to your audience will do much in promoting your content.
However, traditional tools can also be usefully and efficiently defined in creative ways.
4- Using influencers
The use of influencers and so-called marketing with the help of influential people is a well-known method that has been used in our society in various forms and a variety of ideas in recent years.
Therefore, it is not necessary to provide much explanation in this field, except that influencers can be useful for promoting content, usually in the form of a project and for a certain period.
5- Banner and click ads
This type of advertising is one of the oldest methods of content promotion that is still widely used.
Services such as Google Adsense in the world and Yektan in Iran are among the providers of content promotion services in this way and have based their income model on receiving money from content producers to promote their content.
6- SEO
SEO or site optimization for search engines is another tool for content promotion.
SEO is not usually thought of as a distribution channel; Because you cannot, for example, tell your audience to wait and when a new article comes, find out about it by searching!
But you can work on the SEO of your content so that others can find it in search and increase awareness of your brand .
7- Freemium model
Collections whose product is content and in fact must have content marketing to sell their content, can also go for the freemium model to promote content .
This model can be implemented in different ways, including the following methods:
- Some free content and then an offer to buy a collection of content or access to the content
- Free access to parts of a content and selling access to the entire content
- Free access for a few hours or days and then selling more access or selling the possibility to download and print and so on
Freemium types can be compared to sampling in physical space. We know that sampling is one of the most well-known promotion techniques in many consumer goods, especially in food .
8- Physical promotion
It is true that today the concept of content immediately evokes the word digital, but it still means physical promotion for some businesses.
Suppose an educational group prepares a project management e-learning course and sells it for a few million tomans.
It is perfectly defensible for such a group to rent a booth at a project management conference and advertise or sell their product there.
9- Content package supply
Offering a product package is one of the common methods in physical promotion, and by the way, the same method can also be useful in providing content.
We all know that businesses whose content is in the form of a digital good can sell a mix of these products at different prices.
But another form of bundling or content package supply is also conceivable. When you offer a lot of content about the same topic on your website or blog or social networks, creating a cornerstone page can be an example of a content package.
One of the advantages of offering a content package is that lower-selling products or products that attract less attention for any reason are promoted and placed before the eyes of customers or audiences, so in such situations, root pages can also have such a function.
10- Changing the type of content
For any content, you can design a different type of content and use it as a promotion tool.
For example, you can use a set of slides to promote an e-book and distribute the slides in different channels. Or to promote an audio file, adjust and distribute a part of its text. Even a small and simple infographic can be useful to promote a long article.
Do you have other content promotion methods in mind to suggest to us? We are happy to share your comments with us.
