So, you’ve created a fresh new blog post.
If you’re anything like me you’ve probably spent hours on it.
Brainstorming around the topic. Whacking the first draft down. Going back to edit. Finding a good thumbnail. Adding the metadata and snippet info.
Then you press publish.
Hurray!
Only this isn’t your first rodeo and you know that just publishing a blog post on your website isn’t going to entice the hoards to read it.
You have to promote it.
And here’s the kicker…
You really need to do it more than once!
I know. It’s annoying isn’t it?
This blog post is as much about telling myself that I need to repurpose my wealth of blog content as it is about giving you ideas. Let’s call it a win-win!
The ideal scenario is that once you’ve read this blog post you’ll be able to pick out the ideas you like and then form a repeatable plan. And then the more you do it, the easier repurposing and resharing your content will be.
For instance, commit to repurposing one old blog post per month by using four of the ideas from this article at a time and batch them. That’d be one post a week sorted! All leading beautifully back to your website.
So without further ado, here are all the ideas I could come up with on how to promote a blog post so you’re making the most of that lovely rich asset of yours.
- Simple share + thumbnail
- The Problem Solver
- Benefit-led
- Step by step
- Quote yourself
- Go controversial
- Your learning journey
- Mix Up The Format
- Straight Re-Post
I’ll be using the term ‘promo post’ throughout. By this I just mean the social media post (or email for that matter) that you’re writing to re-promote your wonderful blog post.
Let’s go!
1. Simple share + thumbnail
I include this one because it’s usually every one’s go-to. You’ve done a new blog post, so you just share it on your fave social media platform with a ‘Hey, I wrote a new blog post! Here it is *link*.’ And then for a bit of extra flavour you use the featured image from the blog post to go along with it.
The problem with this is that it is about as compelling as watching all the High School Musical films with your 11yo. (They. Are. BAD.)
Even if you write the best blog post that ever existed, people won’t realise unless they read it.
So even in a straight ‘here’s my new blog post’ you need to start the post with some sort of ‘hook’ e.g. ‘Did you ever wonder why…?’ ‘That time I figured out the secret to…’ or ‘If you’re trying to do X then you need to read this.’
Even as I type those, I realise I’ve strayed into some of the other categories. So let’s delve into some more creative options shall we?
2. The Problem Solver
Essentially, the remaining titles of this blog post describe a way to ‘hook’ people’s attention in a way that’s relevant to your ideal reader.
The Problem Solver starts with a sentence that lays out the problem that your blog post helps solve.
For example, a career coach focusing on helping jobseekers might start a post with ‘Not been asked back for the last three jobs you’ve applied for?’ then the rest of the post gives a taste of what is in the blog post.
You can either summarise the contents, hint at it, or just share one of the insights that you cover.
3. Benefit-led
The Benefit-led post type is similar to the Problem Solver only it focuses more on a benefit.
Using that same example, an alternative first line of a promo post could be ‘Want to know how to guarantee to be asked for an interview?’
Another way to spin the benefit-led post is to literally lay out the benefits they’ll get from reading your blog post.
For instance:
‘Read this blog post and you’ll find out:
- The one thing that makes the most difference to my jobseeking clients
- The five-stop process that I use in my one-to-one programmes to make you a highly desirable interviewee
- How I learned the hard way, the one thing you must never do on a CV.’
Don’t feel like your blog posts include this sort of soundbite-able snippets? You’d be surprised! It takes a bit of practice, but there’s always something that you can reframe into an enticing morsel that they’ll want to find out more about.
4. Step by Step
This one is easier if the blog post in question is a listicle e.g. ‘10 signs that you’re heading for burn out’.
You can either list the 10 things out in a text post, or create a carousel or infographic to visually illustrate the points.
I’d be tempted to act out the steps in an OTT fashion on video. That’s very on brand for me. 🥸
N.B. Obviously your blog post doesn’t have to be about 10 things! It could be 3 or 24 or 12. That’s obvious right..?
5. Quote Yourself
Written a really rich blog post where you’ve dropped some golden knowledge nuggets? Or found a really effective and simple way to explain a concept your audience gets stuck on?
Quote yo’self.
(Can I pull that off? I’m thinking no…)
Start your promo post with your punchiest most scroll-stopping phrase, sentence or paragraph from your blog post.
Equally, you could quote someone else if you’ve referenced someone else in your blog post. Or quote someone who has a similar or dissimilar viewpoint as a way to open up the conversation online.
6. Go controversial
Is there anything at all that could be considered controversial in your blog post that you could capitalise on? Is anything you say going against the grain? For instance you might be a leadership coach who thinks corporate culture is overrated.
Another example from my blog banks; for a marketer I’m quite anti-niche. So I wrote a blog post called Why you DON’T have to niche (but what you do need to do instead).
This is an example from an email I wrote but you could easily adapt this to a blog, the email subject line I wrote was ‘I disagree with Amy Porterfield’. The long and the short of it was that I’d seen Amy say that you need to start an email list as early as possible even if you haven’t decided what your business is yet. Nonsense! What on earth would you email them about?!
Anyway, the point is, if there’s any prominent figure who you disagree with, it can be a good way to position your article as controversial.
7. Your Learning Journey
This is quite a nice one to try because this is basically story telling. And humans love stories!
You can come up with many ways to re-promote a blog post just with this method.
For instance, you could share how you came to learn the things that you based your blog post on.
Or you could tell people about a client who went through the process that you’re going to cover.
Or an anecdote about one aspect of the information your blog post is on.
Or you could use a metaphor or analogy for your concepts.
You can really let the creative juices flow on this one!
8. Mix up the format
And let’s not forget that you could simply use a different format! If you wrote one post as a text post plus photo, then did it as a video, then did it as a carousel, then reposted it with some sort of infographic, I bet no-one would notice it was essentially the same info. If they did- congratulations because you have a mega-fan!
Here are some ideas to kick you off on that front:
- Graphics and photos e.g. share the thumbnail, use a photo of you, or a graphical representation of what you cover in the blog post
- Infographic
- Carousel
- Live video- this could be you on your own running through the concepts that you cover in the blog post or listing the benefits of why they should read it. OR you could invite someone else to talk about it. A heated debate perhaps!
- A pre-recorded video
- Podcast- if you’ve ever touched on the topic that the blog post is about in a podcast interview (either on your own podcast or as a guest on someone else’s) you could reshare a snippet of it.
- Repurpose as a LinkedIn newsletter, long form email or other article e.g. guest article
- Rewrite the blog post from a different angle
And it would be remiss of me not to point out that you could equally use any of these sources to come up with blog ideas. I once did a LinkedIn live with Suman Randhawa and then turned it into a blog post. It was such a fab, insight-filled chat, I wanted to make the most of it!
Check it out here: The 5 myths that are stopping coaches from earning more
9. Straight Re-Post
And last but absolutely no means least- just re-post the exact same promo post as many times as you like! No one is reading every post of yours. NO ONE.
In fact, social media posts are the same as blog posts. It’s such a waste to write a good one and then never ever use it again.
Would a big corporate spending a tonne of time and money creating an advert or strapline and only use it once? Never!
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve shared this post which features a silly video of mine. I just tweak the call to action and republish it.
What next?
Well what do you think? Has this given you lots of wonderful ways to repromote a blog post?
Or are you now wondering how to write more wonderful blogs to be able to re-promote them?
If it’s the latter, then you’ll enjoy my free Email Content Generator tool. Yes, I created it to help clients with their emails to their subscribers, but it can be used for social media and blog posts too.