In today’s ever-expanding digital economy, it seems that reaching consumers is easier than ever. Nearly everyone has a smartphone or a laptop, both of which connect businesses and consumers through the internet. The conditions for effective digital advertising are almost too perfect, so why are some companies failing to successfully promote content?

It all comes down to one thing: distribution. Most companies maintain consumer engagement through blogging and a constant flow of new content on their websites. This has been shown to improve websites’ success in search engines. Blogs can encourage audiences to explore other parts of the website and potentially purchase products and services. However, content creation alone is not enough to increase traffic. Promotional blogging requires strategic distribution.

Content without strategic distribution is like publishing into a vacuum. People can’t read a blog they don’t know about. Blogs that lack traffic are lost in the vastness of the web, essentially making them an untapped resource. If consumers are going to read blogs, the blogs themselves must be promoted. Here’s how:

Paid Social Advertising

Since its inception, content promoters have understood the capacity for social media to spread content to consumers. However, recent reports show that it’s harder than ever to organically reach users through traditional social media sharing. This means that paid social advertisements are growing in popularity among content promoters. Kelly Campbell, Alabama Media Group’s social media manager, recognizes the weight of paid social ads today. “If your company is putting money and/or time into creating content like blogs, that content should be seen,” explains Campbell. “An affordable way to get a lot of views and traffic to your blog is via paid social advertising.”

Sharing on Social Accounts

While it is more challenging to reach audiences without paid ads, it is both free and engaging to share content directly from social media accounts. Promoters can use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to create pages from which content can be shared. This method of distribution enables consumers to directly engage with the content and even share it. New followers and customers can be reached, expanding the audience of content consumers and increasing traffic. Considering it’s both engaging and readily available, sharing on social media is an accessible way to strategically distribute content.

Take Advantage of Emailing

While social media is an effective means of reaching new audiences, making use of email newsletter subscribers is a way to promote content to a current customer base that may be unaware of the content. Emailing is an incredibly versatile form of telecommunication, so companies can get creative with promotional activity. Here are a few examples of how to take advantage of emailing to promote content:

• Send subscribers alerts when new content is published
• Create a newsletter dedicated to maintaining consumer engagement
• Encourage subscribers to forward emails and content

Promote to Niche Communities

Niche communities exist all over the web. Platforms like Reddit have boards for anything you can imagine, ranging from memes to astrophysics. It takes an analytical eye to find niche communities to promote content on. If done right, however, these hyper-focused communities can be one of the best places to share content and blogs. The specificity of niche groups allows for content promoters to find even the most particular kinds of consumers. They may also be more willing to share the content themselves and show more enthusiasm about it. Overall, niche communities can be a prime way to target a distinct audience and access a new group of consumers.

How We Distribute at Alabama Media Group

At AMG, one of our favorite forms of distribution is paid social advertising. “The best part of promoting your blog on social media is that you can target it to a particular audience that fits the subject matter of each blog,” Kelly Campbell says. “The sky’s the limit when it comes to social.” Considering their growing use among content promoters, paid social ads are becoming more essential to distribution every day.

Our team of creative marketing aficionados can not only help write blog content designed to bolster your SEO while giving potential customers some seriously useful info, we can also make sure your blogs are read by the right people! Reach out to Alabama Media Group today to up the ante on your blog strategy.