How to Self-Promote Through Content Marketing

If you sell a product, a service, or run any kind of business, you should know that Marketing is the key for people to get to know you. Promoting yourself can be done in different ways, however, none of them is as effective as Content Marketing is.

If done well, it’s the best way to show your work, knowledge, expertise and professionalism. It’s not only good professionally, but it’s also an overwhelming feeling to help people and teach what you know.

The proper way to promote your business

We are all familiar with the classic boring marketeer. Yes, exactly the one you’re thinking now and I know you hate. Just like marketing, that we also got tired of, we see self-promotion as a bad act in both online and offline world.

The truth is that there’s a better way of doing it with your online content. The gist of a good self-promotion is simple: Create, Curate and Share. You can even go deeper and add Listen and Connect to the list.

A good self-promotion don’t talk about yourself. You talk and teach others. It let your work promote you.

Create

This is really important for both you and your audience. The more you create, the better you get at it. If you are doing your work or if you are writing about your work, either way, you’ll see how practice can improve your skills daily and open your mind to new possibilities.

Create content in a variety of mediums. If you sell a product, write about its benefits. Write about topics that are interesting to your target audience. Do a podcast around the theme. Record a video about. Etc. There’s no limit to what you can create.

Curate

One of the most important things here is curation. For example, it’s easier to grab an audience when you have 4 subjects that are related, instead of 4 distinctive subjects.

Even though you can share more than one subject, you need to have a focus subject as a curation directive. Curation helps to:

• Focus your researches and writing skills.
• Build an audience, as people like to see consistency in a source of content.
• Build a content that will be enjoyed by all your audience.
• Become a reference in the field, since you’ll be doing your best to create good and shareable content.

Extract what is the most relevant topic around your business and what most relates to the people you want to reach. Create, and curate only content relates to that topic.

Listen

Listening is the extra mile many people forget about. If you listen to your readers, you’ll be able to create better content and show yourself in a more intimate and friendly way.

When you listen to what people are saying or commenting, you’re able to go deeper into subjects that people want to see answered.

Listening is almost like receiving the recipe for success.

You can listen in many different ways. Read the comments on your posts and social media profiles. Do a search on twitter around the topic you talk about and see what people are asking. Define well who your audience is and start to think as you were in their shoes. All that helps you to create ”you read my mind” content.

Connect

Connecting is vital for success too. When your readers know that you listen to them, you show yourself as a more reachable and human person. It improves the emotional connection with your audience and builds trust on them.

If a person trusts in your work and connects emotionally with you, they are more prone to hire you or buy your products.

Emotional Connection means more convertions.

Reply the comments you receive, show appreciation to what people are saying about you, or even try to chat one-on-one with your customer and learn what he has to say about your business.

Bring value to the table

The most important thing to a good promotion is to bring valuable content. I’m not talking about sharing a bulk of others people articles about “X ways of doing this”, I’m talking about creating value.

How are you able to do that? It’s indeed simple. You can start with a small formula:

1. Every article must bring a reward for the reader.
   I’m not talking about a digital product, file or anything like that. Every article must reward your reader with more knowledge, ideas or self-awareness.
2. Try to make simple articles
   It’s better to go with one or two points that describe your main theme than to make it into an article of 15 minutes that no one will read. Don’t ramble too much, make it easy to read.
3. Bring your own story into the article, if possible.
   If you are writing, it’s because you lived it or because you learned it by someone’s story. Telling a story is great because a real example is always the best way to immerse your reader and to validate your content. Be open to share your story so your audience can share their struggles with you.
4. Show the results of what you’re teaching them.
   It helps to validate the power of the content you are sharing with your audience.
5. Suggest an action to be taken after reading
   By asking your reader to do something, you’ll encourage his learning and improve the way he does things.

Don’t let it all be about yourself.

Stop saying me! me! me! Even if you’re the most interesting people in the world, no one wants to hear you only talking about yourself. It’s about giving! giving! giving! Even if it’s a personal experience, express it in a way that is direct to your audience.

Why? It’s the law of reciprocity. Once someone received something valuable, they feel in debt with that person and wants to give something in return. If you’re able to give value more than ask for something, your audience will certainly feel in debt and willing to give you back somehow. It can be buying one of your products or even spreading your word so more people can find you.

Self-promotion through content marketing is a long road that can build some loyal fans to your business.

Originally published at mowestudio.com on October 18, 2015.

Did you enjoy the article?

1. Recommend it by clicking on the ♥︎ below so more people can read it.
2. Subscribe to our newsletter and receive not only our articles but many other content before everyone else.

Do you have any question or opinion?

Share it! Let’s make this a starting point for more meaningful discussions.