How “saturated” do you think your niche is with content?

Many are overwhelmed. And much of it covers the same topic again and again…

So today, promotion’s become a big part of any content plan. You have to actively reach out and work to get your content in front of your target audience.

It’s tough, down-and-dirty work.

How do you do it effectively in 2016?

Some thoughts:

1. Build Relationships with Influencers Before You Ask Them to Share Your Content

Many companies promoting content make the same old mistake: creating content and then contacting influencers by email or social media.

It’s too late in the process to get your content promoted. These influencers don’t know you. They don’t know the quality of your content. And they don’t know if they want to share it with their audience.

So, you get a low response when telling a number of them about your content.

Instead, build relationships with influencers immediately, before you even create your content. Tag them on Twitter, as they watch their social media mentions like hawks. Mention them in your content, and email them to let them know about it, without asking for the share.

Send them an email about a piece they wrote telling them what you liked about their content and how you got results by applying the advice.

2. Send Your Content Directly to Your Prospective Buyer

Manual promotion like this doesn’t get enough attention. To make it work, you need a “content library,” which is a searchable directory of all the content you’ve created. This includes all your blog posts, case studies, white papers – everything.

Your sales and support teams know exactly where your customer’s at in the sales cycle. So, they can send them appropriate content that helps them out.

And if they’re already a customer, they may need a tutorial or guide. Current customers also like provoking thought leadership content.

Case studies can be sent to leads who went dead for whatever reason. Well-written ones can close sales for you now.

3. Consider Paid Social Media and Paid Search

According to a survey of 1,521 B2B companies by Content Marketing Institute (reported by Social Media Examiner), PPC is the most effective paid marketing tactic. 93% of respondents use paid social media advertising, with 52% using promoted posts and 51% using sponsored ads. 48% of promoted posts users and 45% of sponsored ads users rate paid social media a 4 or 5 on a 1-5 scale of effectiveness.

So, marketers do see some effectiveness with these paid promotion techniques.

Not surprisingly, they find LinkedIn the most effective social network for paid social promotion. Twitter comes in second, followed closely by YouTube. And, just 29% find online traditional banner ads effective.

Is promoting your content easy?

No.

But today, it’s a core component of nearly every company’s content strategy.

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