There are two basic schools of thought when it comes to what to do with your best content - put it on your own site and use it to attract customers and leads, or get it out there in the hope of building authority and increasing brand exposure.
As a content writer and SEO consultant, I see no reason why you can't do both, but that's a topic for another post.
Regardless of whether you're hosting the content on your own site, or pushing it via an outreach campaign, you can create accompanying content, small pieces of text, typically around 120 characters in length, that are taken directly from your content or that use your content as inspiration.
Strap lines, tag lines, soundbites, breadcrumbs... call them what you will, but there is a multitude of beneficial ways that you can use them.
- Enhance them with researched hashtags and use them as Tweets
- Stick one or two of them in quotes alongside the content that you've written
- Add them to images and create graphics and memes
- Use them as headlines when sharing on Facebook and other social media profiles
- Incorporate them in your tier 2 link building
- Use them as a subject line for your email updates
- Create double the amount and split test social media and email marketing campaign
Creating your quotables while writing the content means that the idea is fresh in your mind. You can directly lift quotes, and you can rewrite some sections. Some content - such as lists of tips - are naturally easier to work with. You can quickly and easily turn a "Top Ten" piece into ten separate Tweets using each of the tips.
Replace pronouns like "them" with nouns like "quotables" to turn list items into Tweets that work independently.
Turning Text Into Tweets
Twitter allows for 140 characters, however, research suggests that the ideal length for a tweet is 100 characters (or 120 characters if it includes a link). You can also use the graphics that you've created to help further enhance the effectiveness of your tweet. Tweets with images enjoy double the engagement levels of those without. Hashtags, when properly researched, are equally as effective.
100 characters not only allows enough room for the RT but also a small amount of space for a Retweet message. If you're hoping to have influencers effectively share your tweets, then you want this personalized message added. It will encourage their own readers to look at the tweet and click any links.
Of course, you don't want to be littering every tweet with links, as it can put your followers off. A link every 4 or 5 tweets is generally considered best, but you can test the numbers with your own Twitter audience.
140 characters may not seem a lot, but compared to the restrictions and best practices on other social platforms it's actually quite generous.
You should aim for 60 characters with Google+ headlines, while just 40 is the optimum number for a Facebook post. If you regularly re-purpose content (and you should) then 60 is the absolute maximum page title length, with a few less than this proving to be the sweet spot.
Subject Lines
Another great use for your quotables is in email marketing.
The subject line of your email is the hook, it's often what will determine whether your recipients open your email or not. As well as factors like avoiding the use of emoji and non-textual characters, and leaving out any content that might mean the email gets caught in the spam filter, you should deliver your message quickly and efficiently. It can be tricky to hit the numbers, but 30 to 35 characters has been shown to drive the greatest open rates.
Also bear in mind that the email subject line is not an opportunity to use keywords. There's no benefit to it, and it will come across as being spammy.
Page Titles
Ideally, your website and blog have their own narrative voice and style. You should continue to use the voice and format that has proven effective with your readers in the past - and if you do regularly post content but don't have a loose format to follow, conduct your own testing.
While website and blog content need to be natural, there's nothing wrong with knowing what your readers like and then aiming the content you publish at your readers.
However, from a blogging and SEO standpoint, page titles shouldn't exceed 60 characters, because this is the length where search engines cut the title off. Anything after the 61st character is unlikely to ever see the light of day.
Expose Your Content
Conducting effective content marketing means creating high quality content and then generating maximum exposure for it. Tweet, guest post, and blog about the content. Create podcasts and videos, slideshows, and even infographics, if the content justifies it. Look for ways in which to re-purpose your content too, and incorporate your new pieces of content into your content marketing strategy.
Optimizing Your Strategy
Always test the content you publish on your own site and on other platforms.
Ensure that you're using the most appealing title lengths, that you publish the length of blog post that your audience want to read. It can be difficult to come up with fresh and unique content ideas every day, but a top quality piece of content can be rewritten, re-purposed, and re-marketed for days, or even weeks, after the event.
Hootsuite, for example, will post 45 Tweets related to a single piece of content - and while this might seem a bit much, it works for them, and that should provide you with enough reason to try experimenting with all of the elements of a content marketing strategy.