Yesterday we had a nice conversation about how to get on the first page of Google results using good ol’ fashioned media relations.
I showed you how to Google your keywords and do a little sleuthing to build a very targeted media list for contributed content.
This kind of work—and asking politely for a link back to your website—is what will get you on the coveted first page of Google results for your keywords.
It’s not scalable—you can’t do hundreds of them at once—but is, by far, the most effective way to do both earned and owned media with some SEO thrown in.
Now that you have that in your plan, let’s talk about offsite content marketing—or promoting the content you create in other places around the web.
Offsite Content Marketing
Offsite content marketing is necessary for three reasons:
- It helps you build new audiences. From that stems new subscribers. And from that stems new leads (which can turn into sales).
- It builds your authority in the eyes of Google, which is very, very important for search engine rankings.
- It builds your expertise among those who haven’t worked with you yet.
Even if you work in a very niche, business-to-business organization, offsite content marketing is necessary. It’s like being at a trade show and talking to people about what it is that you do.
We all know sales people love trade shows because of the leads they can generate.
Think about offsite content marketing in the same way…but you can do it behind your computer screen without any pants on, if you want.
Here’s how.
Guest Blogging
Contrary to some beliefs, guest blogging is not dead. Heck, we accept two or three guest bloggers here every week.
Other sites, such as PR Daily, aggregate content, which opens your content to new audiences (particularly because they always provide the valuable link to your site).
Which is the whole point of guest blogging: reaching new audiences.
Using this as the number one tactic for offsite content marketing will be worth your time in gold.
Create a list of the influential blogs, trade publications, and other media outlets for your industry.
Then turn on your moz toolbar and visit each of the sites. Jot down what their domain authority is so you can quickly get to work.
If the domain authority of the sites on your media list is higher than your own, you want to prioritize those.
If their domain authority is lower than your own, push them to the bottom of the list. You’ll still work with them, but they’re not as big as a priority right now.
Once you do this, you not only have reached new audiences, you have gained a link from a high domain authority site and have begun to establish trust with the influencers in your industry.
Comments! Comments! Comments!
Sure, some bloggers and news sites have turned off comments so this tactic makes it hard to do offsite content marketing.
But, for those that haven’t, this is a great way to begin to build relationships with influencers and readers.
Using the same list as above, start commenting on their content.
The goal here is relationship building.
That’s it.
Expect you are building relationships so you can pitch and contribute content later.
Content Amplification
Unfortunately, we are at a point in the digital world’s life that we have to pay for some offsite content marketing.
Facebook sponsored content and both Facebook and LinkedIn ads work really well.
Not only do they help you reach the people who’ve already liked or followed your pages, you gain new followers from the efforts.
If, however, you want to do some paid amplification through sites such as Outbrain, be very, very careful.
We ran a test for ourselves and, on the surface, it was fantastic! We had tons of new traffic and lots of new pageviews.
We even had a blog post on the front page of Yahoo!
Super, super exciting.
But when we dug into it, the traffic was crap.
No new subscribers, the bounce rate was incredibly high, and those visitors spent less than five seconds with our content.
Not the people we want to reach.
So be careful where you spend your money. It’d be really good for a consumer product. Not so great for B2B or anything that has a niche.
External Content Hubs
There are lots of places you can do some offsite content marketing without relying on building relationships with human beings.
- SlideShare. Built for PowerPoint or Keynote decks, SlideShare enables you to reach new audiences via the presentations you give. I’m always amazed at how many people use the decks I’ve created because they’re just images. Without the context of my speech, it’s impossible to tell what it’s about. But people love ’em and keep coming back for more.
- YouTube. Look, Google owns YouTube. Google decides your authority on a topic. Google wants you to use their products. If you create video, get them on YouTube (not Vimeo!) and then embed from there on your website or blog. Trust me. You will get an extra gold star in search engine rankings because of it.
The End
So there you have it!
Content distribution and offsite content marketing will help you reach new audiences. They both will help you grow your domain authority. They both will help you generate new leads.
Now it’s time to stop spending time here (after you leave a comment about what works for you) and get to work!
Photo by Emily Rudolph on Unsplash
