Content Promotion Strategy For Small Businesses

Here’s What We’ll Cover
I. How To Win Friends And Work With Influencers
II. Paid Traffic
III. How to Attract Raving Fans From Online Communities
IV. Guest Posting
V. Interviewing Your Idols

How To Win Friends And
Work With Influencers

Influencer Marketing
What’s the point?
● As you begin to build your influence, there are key individuals that already
hold sway over your audience.
● On average, businesses generate $6.50 in revenue for each $1 invested in
influencer marketing.*
● 70% of influencer marketing campaigns made $2 or more for every $1
invested. Only 18% failed to generate any revenue.*
* Source: http://blog.tomoson.com/influencer-marketing-study/

Influencer Marketing (Cont’d)
Let’s take a look at how to connect with key influencers in your industry.
Step 1: Know who you want to target and why.
● What is your goal for this campaign? This changes what to check before engaging them.
○ If you want more traffic, check their social influence scores on Klout and Followerwonk and
their engagement per post.
○ If you want more links, check their domain authority using MozBar.
○ If you want press mentions, make sure they write on your exact topic.
● What can you do to help the influencer and make it easy for them to say, “Yes”?
○ Are they interested in a mention in your article to increase their influence and authority?
○ Can you provide advice on something they are working on?
○ Are they seeking links to their site?
○ Are they interested in traffic to their site?

Step 2: Know the type of influencer you want to work with.
● Celebrities: The Oprah Winfreys of your industry. They have a very high reach and influence, but
many people reaching out to them.
They are often bestselling authors, public speakers, and known by everyone in your industry. They
have a large team that does the work for them.
Unless you have a strong follow-up game and can move mountains for them, I’d recommend
starting with another category.
If you insist on going after a celebrity, you have to think really long-term.

Step 2: Know the type of influencer you want to work with (Cont’d).
● Authorities: Authorities hold a large sway over their audience, but often not as big and tend to be
easier to connect with than a celebrity.
You will often see them speaking at conferences, writing books, and blogging. Figure out what
projects they are involved with and what you can do to help them out and move the needle.
You can connect with authorities by cold email, but you need to be concise.

● Journalists: People who write for media publications.
They often want traffic to their article and exclusive information (which leads to more traffic). Why do
they value traffic? Because that’s often what the publication is paid on.
Keep your messages short and punchy. If they need details, let them ask in a follow up message.
Journalists can also be anything from a celebrity to the everyday blogger.

● Connectors: The networkers of the world. They find value in bringing people together.
They can be difficult to find because you can’t see their work explicitly. But they often are a huge
boom to your bottom line when you do.
Podcasters tend to fit into this category, as they enjoy personal, 1-on-1 conversations.
You can win their heart by connecting them to others they’d find valuable to connect with.

● Bloggers: While they still hold sway, their impact is often limited to their blog audience. However,
they are usually the easiest to connect with.
Want to win their advice? Implement their advice and share the results.
They spend a lot of time writing, speaking and sharing ideas with people. But they get little feedback
from their audience.
If you share this message with them, I almost guarantee you'll get a response from them.

Step 3: Finding influencers to connect with.
1. Look for influencer lists in Google. Use search parameters like “top [niche] influencers” or “best
[niche] bloggers to follow.”

Step 3: Finding influencers to connect with (Cont’d).
2. Use Buzzsumo.
Type in a few keywords to see who has shared an article similar to one you are about to write.

2. Use Buzzsumo (Cont’d).
...Then filter out the type of influencers you like to work with.
Note: Buzzsumo’s type of influencers is different than the 5 types of influencers suggest in this
course.

3. Use FollowerWonk.
Followerwonk is best to find influencers based on the influencers you already know. Head to the
“Compare Users” tab on FollowerWonk.

3. Use FollowerWonk (Cont’d).
Plug in the Twitter handle of 3 of your favorite influencers.

3. Use FollowerWonk (Cont’d).
Click on each of the links of the followers shared by 2 or 3 of the influencers.

Step 4: Find the influencer’s email address.
90% of influencer’s I connect with begin with an email. In order to connect with them, you need their email
address. Here are 3 simple ways to find someone’s email address.
1. Subscribe to their blog - Many influencers run a blog. Often, the email they send from is the email
to connect with them.

Step 4: Find the influencer’s email address (Cont’d).
2. EmailHunter.co - Simply by entering a website of a company, Email Hunter immediately spits out
the emails of anyone who works at that company.

3. Use our email permutator spreadsheet.

To make sure that the email is correct, you can either pay with BriteVerify
or Rapportive.
When you place an email in Gmail, you will see the following picture on the
right, if your target’s email address is associated with her LinkedIn profile.

Alternatively, if the email is associated with a Google+ account, you can see a picture of them by hovering
your mouse over their email.

Step 5: Reaching out to influencers with an email.
Influencers are busy people. Here are 10 tips to improve your odds for getting a response:
1. Personalize your email.
Don’t say, “Dear sir” or “Dear madam.”
Don’t address your message, “To Whom it May Concern.”
Definitely avoid addressing them as “Department of X.”
Simply start with “Hi Janet,” and continue into your email.

Step 5: Reaching out to influencers with an email (Cont’d).
2. Keep it short.
If you can say something in less words, do so. This shows respect to your reader and makes it less
likely to skip important information.
As a rule of thumb, I keep the first email under 150 words and make only one request at a time.
The key is to say what is absolutely needed in the first email and the leave rest for follow up.

3. Don’t be greedy.
Requesting for too many things in your email often results in no response at all.
What is the one thing you want to achieve when sending out your email?
As you develop your relationship, then you can make other requests.

4. Ask permission first.
People don’t like to be told what to do. Instead, they desire the freedom of choice.
When you craft an email, start by asking for someone’s permission to pitch them.
Although this takes more time, by making an ask first, I have been able to have response rates more
than triple (15.4%) the industry rates (4.5%).

5. Proofread your emails.
Having a typo may not be a major issue. But having too many spelling and grammar errors will
appear very unprofessional.
Like writing, I find it useful to create the email and revisit it later with a fresh pair of eyes.

6. What to know when using email templates.
You can Google for just about any type of email template you need.
However, email templates are meant to be a foundation to build off of, not a final solution.
An email template cannot fit every solution. Additionally, influencers often see the same templates
come up again and again.
Instead, find an email template that works and customize it to fit your solution.

7. Be yourself.
Trying to be someone you are not, will get noticed by the influencer.
I have a hard time making a joke when I’ve never met someone. However, I tend to use smiley faces
in my emails.
The influencer may not be able to express why, but if it feels “off” to them, it won’t stop them from
hitting “delete” and moving on.

8. Offer something of value.
Frame your emails in a way that adds value to the influencer.
Do they want a link to their site? Mention that you will do so

9. Be clear what you are asking for.
Looking to write a guest post for them? State it in your email.
Want them to share your article? Tell them in your email.
Hoping for them to link to your article? Ask them in your email.
People are too busy to read your mind. Help them out by making your ask clear and to-the-point.

10. Give a specific deadline.
Have you noticed how hard it is to finish items on your to-do list?
Part of the problem may be from not having a specific deadline.
Giving a deadline is a useful part of giving clear communication. If they can’t make the deadline,
they’ll let you know, making it easier to move on.
If they are able to help, but don’t respond back when you need them to, you can give friendly
reminders without pestering them.

Here is an example of an email template you can use:
Subject: Kirk, willing to give me a quote on big data?
Hi Kirk,
I love the stuff you tweet about!
I’m writing an article on the importance of investing in big data. Any chance I could get a quote from you
on why you feel it’s important for businesses to invest in big data?
More than happy to link to your site, if you choose to participate.
Cheers,
Jason

Paid Traffic
What’s the point?
● You can use paid traffic to drive more visitors to your content or to get visitors
who read your content to opt-in to your email list
● Only use paid traffic if you have a sales funnel in place that you know will
convert people from visitors to email subscribers and nurture them into
customers
● Paid traffic is only scalable if your ROI is consistently positive

● The structure of paid traffic
campaigns are pretty
consistent across each ad
platform
● You want to pay close
attention to your relevance
by targeting the right
people with the right
message at the right time
in the right locations
Paid Traffic (Cont’d)

● Key to achieving high ad rank and below average cost per clicks on any ad
network is a function of choosing the right ad types, ad extensions, using high
enough cost-per-action bids and achieving high quality scores with the right
ad messaging

● The only type of paid traffic I recommend for your blog or content is
retargeting
● Retargeting will have a lower cost per click than all other forms of paid traffic
and will drive the highest profit margins if setup correctly
● The retargeting platforms I recommend which allow you to target past visitors
via Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads and Web Banner Ads is AdRoll and Perfect
Audience.
○ These two networks usually provide the highest return on investment and require the least
amount of technical know-how about paid advertising

● Retarget visitors to your website or blog posts by placing a conversion
tracking pixel on your site that you obtain through your ad platform, such as
AdRoll or Perfect Audience

● Make sure that you retarget past visitors with a DIFFERENT OFFER, don’t
just send them back to your website again
● Many people don’t realize this or don’t bother to retarget with a different offer
and so their click-through and conversion rates from their retargeting ads are
naturally much lower than they could be

● The most important thing to keep in mind is that your ad quality scores for each
ad network ultimately determine and set the impression share (viewability and
reach) of your ads
● Create compelling, brilliant ad images with 1 or 2 colors, a simple headline,
compelling copy and a clear call to action that get people clicking on your ads

How to Attract Raving Fans From
Online Communities

Community Marketing
What’s the point?
● Your fans already spend time connecting with others in their industry online.
● These platforms are a great opportunity to connect with your audience and be
seen as one of them.

Community Marketing (Cont’d)
● Think of every community like a country, which has different rules, language, and customs that
control how they interact with one another.
● People within the community are critical about outsiders who do not fit in.
● Like a virus, they will remove those who are only self-serving. But, once you become one of them,
they will accept you and even promote your work for you.
● Often the larger the group, the more moderation is required to keep the quality high. These groups
are harder to crack, but can drive a ton of traffic.

Here are 5 common community types:
● Forums
● Quora
● LinkedIn Groups
● Facebook Groups
● Reddit
Let’s look at how to find relevant communities for each of these sites.

Here’s how to find relevant forums in your niche:
● Go to Google and type in “niche” + “forum.”
● Alternatively, you can search for “niche” + “powered by vBulletin.” vBulletin is the name of a
common forum interface (like WordPress is for blogs).
● Once you’ve found a forum, you want to see if it’s worth your time. Look at the latest post and look
for the date when it was posted to make sure the forum is active.

Quora is a large site where people ask questions and looking for answers from the community. Here’s
how to find relevant and engaging questions to answer on Quora:
1. Start by searching for your niche in Quora:

How to find relevant and engaging Quora questions to answer (Cont’d):
2. Find the most viewed writers in the right column:
Note: These are potential influencers you should connect with!

How to find relevant and engaging Quora questions to answer (Cont’d):
3. Check out their answers to Quora questions and look for answers with over 100 upvotes. These
questions have many people interested in the topic, and would be interested in your answer too.

Here is how to find relevant LinkedIn Groups:
1. Start by looking up an influencer in your niche.
Note: Even if they do not have the LinkedIn Influencer tag, they still may be an influencer! If you
need help finding the right influencers, go back to the influencer marketing section in this module.

Here is how to find relevant LinkedIn Groups (Cont’d):
2. Scroll down in their profile until you see their LinkedIn Groups. Add yourself to any relevant group
with at least 10,000 members:
Note: You are limited to joining 50 LinkedIn Groups.

Here is how to find relevant LinkedIn Groups (Cont’d):
3. Share your article using the LinkedIn share button (1) and click “Post to groups” (2).
a. Fill in each relevant group in the groups box (3)
b. For the title, you can simply use the title of your article.

Here is how to find relevant Facebook Groups:
1. Start by typing in your niche in the Facebook search bar.
Sometimes you will find groups right away (1).
Other times, you may need to click “See all results for…” at
the bottom of the search results (2).

Here is how to find relevant Facebook Groups (Cont’d):
2. Click on “Groups” at the top of the search.
3. Add yourself to groups with over 1,000 members.

Reddit is like a hive of multiple forums, called subreddits, rolled into one site. Here’s how to find relevant
subreddits to join:
1. Search for a keyword that is very broad, related to your niche.
2. Click “limit to subreddit.” This will show a list of subreddits you can join.

Here’s how to find relevant subreddits to join (Cont’d):
3. Look for subreddits with at least 10,000 members (1). If there are, click on the name of the subreddit
to see the most recent threads (2).

4. Next, you can either choose to submit a new link, which is an easy way to submit your article, or you
can submit a text post, which is a similar to a blog article.
Tip: I would recommend downloading Reddit Enhancement Suite, a free extension that makes it
easier to write posts and navigate reddit.

5. Alternatively, you can also comment on other submissions, which can also lead to more traffic.
a. I would recommend filtering by hot (1), rising (2), or controversial (3) submissions to get the
best traffic results.
b. Click on the “comment” button to share your thoughts on the submission.

For every community, you will want to follow this 4-step process:
1. Find relevant and active communities.
2. Next, read the rules.
○ What is allowed? What will result in people being banned?
○ What do they do that is unique to their community?
○ Does the community consist of your target audience?
○ You may think this is a waste of time. But failing to read the rules will result in little-to-no traffic.
3. Become an active member of the community.
○ Comment and share thoughtful insights that DON'T include links to your content.
○ As crazy as it sounds, many people will look at your profile to see how often you share links to
your site. If you want to be accepted into the community, don’t make every comment
self-promotional.

For every community, you will want to follow this 4-step process:
4. As you build relationships, you will find opportunities to submit your content.
○ Begin by commenting on the topic.
○ Then, make a connection between the topic and your article.
○ As you are sharing your article, be sure you provide enough context so that others know why
they should read your content.

Guest Posting
What’s the point?
● You contribute articles to other high authority websites to get traffic, backlinks
and leads by positioning yourself as the go-to thought leader on the topic
you’re talking about

● To pitch your first guest post, first make a list of three mid-tier industry-specific
blogs you want to pitch.
● Unless you’re a New York Times bestselling author, I recommend building
momentum for higher profile guest posts by first writing for a few lower tier
(with less authority) blogs that accept contributions from guest authors.
● High Average Blog Comments = High Visitor Engagement
● You can sum up a blog’s engagement by looking at the number of comments
it receives on average per post.
Guest Posting (Cont’d)

● Step #1: Use BuzzSumo or a similar tool to search by URL for the most
shared posts for each of your target blogs.
○ Write down or add to Google Sheets the top 3 to 5 blog posts for each blog.
○ If you subscribe to BuzzSumo Pro, you can use their Content Analysis tool to see at a glance
the top 10 best performing topics for each target blog and the average shares by content type.
○ BuzzSumo can save you an immense amount of time trying to figure out what the most
popular posts and headlines are for your target blogs.
○ You can sum up how many shares on average each type of blog post receives based on the
words included in the content and headlines.

● Step #1: Use BuzzSumo or a similar tool to search by URL for the most
shared posts for each of your target blogs.
○ Write down or add to Google Sheets the top 3 to 5 blog posts for each blog.
○ If you subscribe to BuzzSumo Pro, you can use their Content Analysis tool to see at a glance
the top 10 best performing topics for each target blog and the average shares by content type.
○ BuzzSumo can save you an immense amount of time trying to figure out what the most
popular posts and headlines are for your target blogs.
○ You can sum up how many shares on average each type of blog post receives based on the
words included in the content and headlines.
○ Your goal as a guest blogger is to blend in with the surroundings of your target blog just like a
chameleon.

● Step #2: Come up with a good post headline to include with your pitch to your
target blog’s editor
○ The easiest part of the guest post pitch process is writing your pitch ideas. Although many
people struggle with hitting the send button.
○ Don’t be intimidated by the editors. They’re humans just like you and me.
○ Some blogs require a full post submission, while others only expect three headline ideas or a
headline and outline with introduction and conclusion.
○ Remember that editors and influential bloggers are extremely busy people. Many of them get
dozens to hundreds of guest post submissions per week.
○ At least 95% of guest post submissions never see the light of day.
○ It’s imperative that you read and follow each blog’s guidelines to a tee.

○ To write an engaging headline, you need to focus on what that blog’s audience cares about.
What is important to them? What do they aspire to achieve? What causes them angst, dread
or fear?
● Headlines (or blog post topics) charged with either negative or positive
emotion will outperform neutral sentiment headlines every time.
● When you fail to grab the attention of your reader and entice them to click the
headline of your post, you lose the chance to serve them, possibly forever.
● Not only that, but editors will reject your guest post pitches without a great
headline.

● For other headline power words, check out CoSchedule’s list of emotional
power words for headlines. I also recommended running your headlines
through their headline analyzer tool and iterating your headline until you get a
score above 68 (70+ is ideal).
● For every blog post you write, you should get in the habit of writing 5 unique
headlines that describe the topic you’re writing about.

● Step #3: Come up with a good post headline to include with your pitch to your
target blog’s editor
○ You can’t be boring with your headlines. You need to stand out in a positive or negative way if
you want people to read your blog posts. You need to strike a chord with your audience.
○ Here are a series of power words you can use in your headlines to evoke emotional from your
audience:
■ Improve, Trust, Immediately, Discover, Profit, Learn, Know, Understand, Powerful, Best,
Win, Hot Special, More, Bonus, Exclusive, Extra, You, Free, Health, Guarantee, New,
Proven, Safety, Money, Now, Today, Results, Protect, Help, Easy, Amazing, Latest,
Extraordinary, How to, Worst, Ultimate, Hot, First, Big, Anniversary, Premiere, Basic,
Complete, Save, Plus!, Create

● Use this template for a single headline idea:
Hey [First Name],
I’ve read your guidelines and I am submitting a guest post for [Blog Name] on the following
topic:
[Headline]
Cheers,
[First Name]

● Use this template for multiple headline ideas:
Hey [First Name],
I’ve read your guidelines and I would like to submit a guest post for [Blog Name] on one of the
following topics:
● [Headline 1]
● [Headline 2]
● [Headline 3]
Let me know what you think.
Cheers,
[First Name]

● Use this template when you go to pitch a full post (which I don’t recommend)
Hey [First Name],
I’ve read your guidelines and I am submitting a guest post for [Blog Name] on the following
topics:
[Headline]
Cheers,
[First Name]
Attachment: Article Title.docx

● Once your pitch gets approved, it’s time to write your outline.
● Your outline should consist of an introduction, conclusion and all body subheads.
● The best posts are ones that offer practical step-by-step advice about how to do something.
● Each subhead in your outline should be weaved like beautiful fabric. The goal is to ensure
each body paragraph lends itself to the next.
● Good subheads consist of four key ingredients:
○ Curiosity
○ Surprise
○ Personality
○ Emotion
● The purpose of your subheads is to get your audience to keep reading and not cause them to
leave your post out of boredom or because of drab copy.

● Once you’ve written your outline, introduction and conclusion, write your epic
guest post.
● Review and edit your draft post.
● Add relevant images and screenshots every 250 to 350 words.
● Cite sources where necessary.
● Submit your final draft to the blog owner or editor and update the guest post
pitch tracking spreadsheet.

Analyzing those posts can help you understand the style, voice and type of article
that would appeal to their audience.
● First, copy 3 of their most popular posts into a Google Doc or Word file.
● Then separately highlight in yellow their introduction, main body text and
conclusion.
Now try to see the similarities between those 3 articles. How do they begin? With
a story, fact, or description?
How have they formatted their main body? How many subheads have they used?
How short are their sentences and paragraphs? Write down your answers.

Final Thoughts
1. There are many ways to build traffic. It is best to focus on what you already
know and go from there.
2. If something doesn’t go according to plan, don’t just get upset or angry.
Instead, use it as a learning opportunity to make adjustments.
3. If you need help, feel free to ask us in the community!

Content Promotion Strategy For Small Businesses

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