Hey everyone! Brian Dean here and welcome to Module 3. First off, let me just say that it’s great that you made it this far in the training. If you think about it, we already covered a LOT of ground in the first 2 modules. In Module 1 we laid the foundation for an SEO campaign that works.
You found your Linkreators and discovered topics that they already link to and share. That way, when these influential people see your content, they’ll actually WANT to spread the word. In Module 2 you built on that foundation by creating your first Power Page. I showed you exactly, step-by-step, how to create content that’s primed for backlinks and first page rankings.
And in this Module I’m going to show you the foolproof way to get people to link to your site and share your content with their audience. That’s right: Module 3 is all about promotion. I’m really excited to share my most powerful link building strategies with you in this module. As you may know, most people take the “publish and pray” approach to content marketing.
They publish content and HOPE that it goes viral, HOPE that people share and HOPE that people link to it. I was guilty of this with my first site, a blog in the weight loss space. I published a ton of high-quality content. But I didn’t promote it. Which is why that site never ranked for anything. Flash forward to when I launched Backinko, and I made promotion a top priority.
Instead of the publish and pray approach, I promoted every single piece of content that I published. Along the way I learned A LOT about content promotion, link building, email outreach psychology, and more. And in this module I’m going to share everything that I’ve learned with you about content promotion and link building. Specifically, in this lesson, I’ll show you my favorite content promotion strategies. These strategies are designed to get people to SEE your content and share it on social media.
Then, in later lessons, I’ll show you how to get people to actually link to your site. I’ll share specific link building strategies including exact search strings, tested email scripts and more. Before we dive into the techniques, let me quickly show you how content promotion and link building work together. There are two steps, or phases, to getting the word out about your content. First, we have the eyeball phase, then, we have the link building phase. I’ll explain. The eyeball phase is just what it sounds like. Your goal is to get as many eyeballs on your content as possible. Obviously, you’re aiming for Linkreator eyeballs. But at this stage, any eyeballs will do.
The main goal of the eyeball phase is to get people sharing, commenting and talking about your content. Here’s where you’ll use the content promotion strategies I’m going to share with you in this lesson. Fortunately, because your Power Page has Share Triggers built right into it, when people do see it, they’ll be super likely to share your content.
Sure, you may get a backlink here and there during the eyeball phase. If so? Great. But that’s not the primary goal. The goal here is simply to generate traffic, social shares and awareness for your content and brand. And once you’ve finished with content promotion, it’s time to build links to your content. No surprise, this is called the link building phase.
Like I mentioned, I’ll show you exactly how to get people to link to your site later in this module. But for now, we want to focus on the eyeball phase. That’s because the social proof you build up here will make the link building that you do later, much easier and more effective.
With that, let’s cover 4 of my favorite advanced content promotion strategies. Our first outreach strategy is the F to S Method. Now I should point something out. The F to S Method works best BEFORE you publish your Power Page. That said, if you already published your Power Page, no worries. You can still use the F to S Method.
And then, before you publish your next Power Page, you can use it then too. And it should work even better. Now, before I break this strategy down for you, let me show you a quick example of how NOT to promote your content. Here’s an example of a BAD outreach email I got a while back. What’s wrong with this email?
Well, a lot. But there are two specific issues with this email that I want to point out. Because these are two issues that you’ll specifically AVOID with the F to S method. First, the post isn’t aligned with my interests. I’ve never written once about marketing for nonprofits. I’ve never worked with non-profit clients. So I don’t know much about marketing for nonprofits.
So it’s clear this person didn’t do his homework. He’s just blasting out emails to random people. That’s fail #1. Second, he asks me to share his post from an ice cold email. That’s way too pushy. Especially coming from someone I’ve never heard of before. Fail #2. Here’s the deal. The Linkreators in your industry (especially big names), love to get their egos stroked.
In fact, because they’re used to being in the limelight, influencers usually need more ego stroking more than your average blogger. And one of the best ways to stroke their ego? Recognize their expertise. As you saw with the bad outreach email I just showed you, there was ZERO ego stroking. It was a straight pitch. So how Is the F to S Method Different?
With the F to S Method, instead of begging for a share or link, you ask for quick feedback on your Power Page. Yes, you’re technically asking for something. But instead of asking someone to publicly endorse you, you’re stroking their ego first. That’s actually what the F and S in The F to S Method Stands for. The F is for “feedback” and the S stands for “share”.
Let’s break the process down, step-by-step. Step ons is to identify 5-10 Linkreators that are a great fit for your power page. This is an important first step. As you saw, I get pitches from people to check out their content every single day. Most of which I instantly delete. And the number one reason that I delete them is that I’m just not that interested in their content.
Needless to say, I’m much more likely to check out a piece of content on something that I’m interested in (link building, SEO, email marketing) than content that I’m only sorta interested in (social media, mobile apps, analytics). So take a look at the Linkreator list that you developed in Module 1. And identify 5-10 people that would be a great fit for your Power Page.
If you’re not able to find 5, no worries. Just Google keywords that describe your Power Page topic and see which Linkreators come up. Add any that seem to be genuinely interested or passionate about your Power Page topic to your F to S list. Repeat until you have at least 5 targets. For example, let’s say your Power Page was about Paleo Diet desserts. You’d Google keywords like “paleo diet desserts”, “paleo desserts”, “paleo diet recipes” etc. When I searched for “paleo diet desserts”, I found this post. On the surface, this might seem like a great fit.
But if you look at the site, it’s clear that this site covers all sorts of different topics. So I know that the author probably doesn’t have a genuine interest in the paleo diet. So I wouldn’t add the author of this post to my list of outreach targets. On the other hand, I also found this post written by a specific person. They obviously love writing about the paleo diet (and, specifically, Paleo Diet desserts) considering that their site is largely about that topic. That means that this blogger would be a GREAT target for the F to S Method. Step two is to warm up your targets.
Now, you can sometimes send cold outreach emails to the people on your list. And that can work sometimes. But you’ll have much more success if you warm people up and get on their radar screen first. So here’s a little “warming up” checklist that only takes a few minutes to execute. Follow them on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook or LinkedIn, share one of their latest posts/videos and leave an in-depth blog comment.
Yes, this takes a little more work than firing off an email. But it can make a HUGE difference in how these influencers respond to you. Step three is to get permission. At this point, you’re on your influencer’s radar screen. So it’s time to reach out and let them know about your upcoming content. I’ll have the full script in the worksheet, but here’s the summary. Notice the subtle but massively important difference between that email and most needy emails. You asked them permission. This shows that you respect their time. When they get back to you and say, “sure”, send them this.
Now it’s a matter of listening to and executing on their feedback. And then move onto step four, which is “we are live”. At this point you’ve already done most of the heavy lifting. You’ve reached out to people that write about your topic (or a related topic). You incorporated the feedback that these people sent over. And now it’s time to share your Power Page with the people that helped you out.
Again, I’ll have the full script for you in the worksheet, but here’s a quick overview. Again, there’s no pitch here. And that’s because there’s no need. They’re already invested in your content and feel like they’re a part of it (because they are). For example, Alex from GrooveHQ.com used the F to S Method to get over 1k email subscribers (in 24 hours) to a brand new blog.
First, he found a handful of influencers that would be interested in his content about growing a software business. Then, Alex reached out to them and asked permission to send them a link and get their feedback. Finally, he sent them an email that his content was live. And because Alex followed this exact process, he got big names like Gary Vaynerchuk and Oli Gardner to comment on and share his post. Next up, we have strategy number two, The Evangelist Technique.
So, what Is The Evangelist Technique and Why Is It Important? Like the F to S Method, you can use this strategy before you publish your Power Page. But it also works great if your Power Page is already live. The Evangelist Technique is different from how most people do email outreach mainly because you’re selecting laser-targeted Linkreators and you’re not being pushy.
Remember, the best targets for outreach are pe As you saw with the F to S Method, some simple Googling plus the Linkreator list you developed in Module 1 both work great. But the Evangelist Technique uses a different strategy to find people that want to share your content: we’re going to target people that recently shared similar content on social media.
Here’s why. When someone shares something on social media, they’re clearly interested in it. And more important than that, they have a proven track record of sharing content on that topic with their audience. So once you find those people, all you need to do is get your content in front of them and they’ll likely share it. With that, let me show you how to do it.
Your first step is to find people that recently shared content on your Power Page’s topic. How? You have two options. You can simply head over to a social network that your Linkreators hang out on. And search for a keyword in your niche. That will show you people that recently shared content on that topic. There are also tools like Buzzsumo that show you popular content in your industry. And who shared that piece of content on Twitter. Either way works.
Step two is to give your sharers a heads up. Remember, when someone shares a piece of content, you know a few things about them. They’re interested in content about that topic, their audience likes to read content on that topic and hey like to share content on that topic. So when you make your pitch, it’s an easy sell.
Even so, just like with the F to S Method, you still want to ask for permission before sending them a link. I’ll have the full word-for-word email script in the worksheet. But for now, let’s look at a real example of an Evangelist Technique email that I used to promote one of my Power Pages. And when they get back to you saying “sure”, you send them a link. And many people will be happy to share it on social media and (sometimes) link to it from their blog.
Our third strategy is promoting in online communities. When I say “online communities”, I’m talking about forums like this. Or specific subreddits, like this. Step one is to find a community. here are communities on EVERY topic under the sun. There are communities about marketing, health and personal finance. I’ll give you a few different strategies that you can use to find forums in the worksheet. But basically you want to see if there’s a subreddit on your topic first.
If not, search for a specific forum on that topic. Step two is to add value as a member. Here’s the deal, most online communities are very sensitive about self-promotion. In fact, communities usually quickly ban anyone that signs up just to promote their stuff. But that doesn’t mean they’re 100% anti self-promotion. Quite the contrary. But they only accept self-promotion from one of their own. That’s why this step is important: it establishes you as a community member before you share your content. Here’s a simple checklist you can use to quickly become a respected member of the community.
Create an account, post 2 high-quality posts and post five quickie posts. Let’s break these down. First, you want to create an account and make sure that you don’t have a signature link or anything that links back to your site. That way, you fly under the radar. Then, you want to post 2 high-quality posts. These can be threads that you start or in-depth responses to people’s questions.
Don’t worry too much about word count. Just focus on helping the other people in the forum. For example, I used Forum Marketing to get the word out about my content in the early days of Backlinko. Here’s an example of a high-quality post that I published on The Warrior Forum. To pad your post count, also post 5 quickie posts, like this. Step number three, time to share.
Remember, people on forums are actively looking for great new content to read. (That’s one of the main reasons that they spend time on the forum in the first place). So as long as you add value, your content will be accepted with open arms. Here’s exactly what to do. Start a new thread with the title of your Power Page. So if your Power Page is “50 Low-Carb Desserts” your thread title would be something like this. Next, include a summary of your content. And position it in a way that’s specific to that community. Make it so people don’t have to click over to your site to get the gist.
But, leave out the details so they have an incentive to read your actual Power Page. For example, Josh Howarth was able to get 80 email subscribers and 1000 visitors from this Reddit thread. As you can see, Josh included lots of original content. But it wasn’t really fully functional. It was just a list without any numbers or stats. But it was enough original content to pass by the mods. And get upvoted hundreds of times. In fact, members of the community specifically pointed out that they’re OK with promotion as long as it comes along with some original content. Finally, add a quick link to the end of your post. For example, Josh added a link at the very end of his long post along with a low pressure CTA.
That’s how it’s done. Last up, we have The Content Roadshow. What Is The Content Roadshow and How Does it Work? Before I answer that, let me tell you a quick story that inspired this technique. Back in the early days of the movie industry, studios had a problem. They didn’t know how to get nationwide attention for their big budget movies. Remember, back in the 20’s and 30’s TV wasn’t around and having a radio was a luxury. So what did the studios do? They took their movies on a national roadshow. They’d show the movie in big cities like Chicago, New York and LA.
Then, people in those big cities would tell other people about the movie via word-of-mouth. And word spread like wildfire. And you can do the same thing with your content. Take it on a little roadshow and spread the word about it.
Here’s the exact step-by-step process. Step one is to find 10-20 people that are interested in your content. The easiest way to do that? Google search. For example, if your Power Page was about gardening, you’d Google things like “gardening tips”, “backyard garden”, “gardening guide” etc. This is similar to how you found targets for the F to S method. But here, you don’t need to be as picky. As long as they show SOME interest in your topic, you’re all set.
For example, let’s look at this post from the early days of the Backlinko blog. I took this piece of content on a Content Roadshow right after I published it (and it’s one of the reasons it was so successful). I just Googled keywords like “backlinks”, “link building”. And created a quick list of anyone that seemed like they were interested in the topic. Step two is to send a “permission” email. Again, this is a non-pushy email simply to gauge interest.
The other benefit of this email is that it starts the process off with a tiny, micro-commitment (unlike asking them to share on social media in the first email). And then, when you DO send your Linkreators a link to your content, they’ll be much more likely to share and link to it.
As you might expect, I have an example email script for you in the worksheet. OK, so to quickly recap, you learned that Power Page content promotion is split up into two distinct phases, the eyeball phase and the link building phase. This lesson was all about the eyeball phase. Specifically, I showed you the 4 content promotion strategies that make up the Eyeball Phase. And how to execute each one. In the next lesson, Lesson 2, I’m going to show you how to get started with the second (and most important) phase, the link building phase.
Specifically, you’re going to learn how to use Content Curator Link Building to build authority links to your site. But for now, it’s time to download and fill out the worksheet. And I’ll see you in the next lesson.
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