How to market a blog post

The most common mistake bloggers make is not doing enough marketing after launching a new blog post. A good rule of thumb to remember about content marketing is to multiply the amount of time it took you to write the blog post by three. That’s how long you should spend marketing your blog post.

Here are the first 10 things every blogger should do after launching a new blog post in order to help that content go viral.

1. Tweet Different Titles of Your Article

After sharing your article on Twitter, try tweeting that article again using a different headlines. Steve Rayson recently shared an article on Buzzsumo called, “We Analyzed 100 Million Headlines. Here’s What We Learned (New Research)“. I highly suggest reading the article to make sure you’re using the most effective headlines, based on science and data.

Here are some of the headline data highlights:

1. “will make you…” was the top phrase on Facebook
2. “X reasons why….” was the top beginning phrase of headlines on Facebook
3. “…the world” was the top ending phrase of headlines on Facebook
4. “This” was the top first word on Facebook
5. “10” Was the most engaging number on Facebook
6. Using 15 words in your headline got the most engagement on Facebook
7. “this is what” got the most engagement on Twitter
8. “the age of” got the most B2B engagement on Twitter

There’s so much more data in this research. Take your time and give it a read…and a re-read. It’s a must read and a must save.

2. Try Sharing Different Images with Your Article

Nothing is more effective than visual content. Try sharing your article on different social media channels using different images. Find out what works best, and swap your featured image out with your most effective image.

I hate paying for stock photos, and the good news is, you don’t have to. Here are 21 websites with totally free stock photos for bloggers. Save this little gem of a list and use it with all of your content marketing efforts.

3. Share Different Quotes From Your Article

Find some of the different highlights in your article and share each one of them in different tweets, with a link to your article. Don’t Tweet them all back-to-back. Spread it out over time. Once you know what works, keep retweeting it as time goes by.

4. Tweet Your Article Using Different Hashtags

People often search the same topics on Twitter using different hashtags. Share your article on Twitter multiple times using different hashtags. Try combining different quotes, images, and headlines with your different hashtags.

5. Link to Your New Article from Previous Popular Posts

Search through older articles and find relevant places to link to your new content. This is a simple but big win that most people simply don’t do. Yet, it only takes minutes and is super effective. Especially if you’re linking from your more popular articles.

6. Repurpose Your Content

Don’t rely on just your blog post. Reach new audiences by sharing your amazing content in different ways. Here are a few ideas to get started with.

1. Publish a Checklist on Checkli
2. Record a Podcast about your content
3. Make an infographic about your content using Canva
4. Make a slideshare
5. Hold a webinar

7. Email, Tag, or Mention Influencers from Your Article

Ego Bait is insanely effective. Hopefully you quoted or interviewed some big influencers in your post so you can tag, mention, or email them about your post. If you did a good job, hopefully they’ll share your post with all of their followers.

8. Find Broken Links to Similar Content

Content disappears all the time. Hosting expires, websites expire, and people stop caring. Find broken links to similar content and email the author. Hopefully they’ll be so thankful, they’ll link to your content in place of that broken link.

Hive Digital Inc posted something on Moz called The Broken Link Bible. It’s worth a quick read. It’s filled with lots of great resources on how to find broken links.

9. Ask Co-Workers to Share

Here’s a simple one. Email everyone at work and ask them to share your new post. Not everyone will do this, but many will.

You might want to have a company wide meeting about this so you can prepare your team in the future. If members of your team don’t want to share your content on their personal accounts, maybe they can create new accounts just to support the company.

10. Quickly Respond to all Mentions and Comments

Social media is a two-way street. Conversation should go back-and-forth between you and your target market. Look out for comments and mentions about your article so you can respond accordingly. Once they hear from you, the people you respond to will be much more likely to share and comment on more of your content in the future.

Final Thoughts…

Write less, market more. Content needs a launching platform to help it go viral. If it takes you two hours to write a blog post, spend 6 hours over the next week marketing it. You’ll get more views, more shares, and you’ll have a much higher chance of your content going viral.

Good luck!