These methods work when you are trying to promote a specific thing:
--Your content (a specific article, video, podcast episode, an image)
--Your event (a webinar, workshop)
--Your services
The following are 3 ways to promote that you can use more consistently, to have greater effect. Keep them in your back pocket whenever you need something to be shared more widely!
One more thing before I share the 3 ways -- Repetition is Key.
It often takes people 3-7 times of seeing something before making a decision.
WAY #1. Social Media.
Every 5 posts, promote the one thing (article, event, services) that you're currently wishing to emphasize to your audience. Let's call it your "Current Promotion"
Example: if you make 1 posting on social media 5 days a week, then your audience should see your Current Promotion once a week for 3-7 weeks. Remember that repetition is key.
WAY #2. Email Subscribers.
When was the last time you sent a message to your email subscribers (your "email list") about your Current Promotion?
Again, repetition is key. If you've only sent your Current Promotion once, chances are your audience saw it briefly then forgot about it. If they see it over 3 emails, even 7 emails, then they will remember and have had the time to think about it enough to make a decision.
How often should those emails be sent? Generally one email every 2-7 days is acceptable. I err on the side of being gentler, so I send an email to my list once every 30 days, although I also have a more "secret" weekly email list that gets my content once every 7 days. (Subscribers to my monthly email newsletter receive the link to that weekly email list.)
When I'm in a launch mode -- every half year -- when I am opening my services up to more clients, I send 3 promotional emails about my services during a 2-4 week window, and that's to my whole list that usually gets email once a month. My list doesn't seem to mind this, because the rest of the year I am offering them inspiring, helpful content, all for free. So it is up to your relationship to your email subscriber audience.
I have a short video showing you the anatomy of a good email newsletter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS3MjsBTbPE
UPDATE: a viewer mentioned that it can feel salesy to repeat a promotion multiple times. Here's my response:
I agree with you that the repetition of promotion can feel icky. When it comes to free content, it is much more acceptable, if you are offering it from a place of service (the feeling of "I hope you all see this and that it helps you...") When it comes to a paid offer, and we ourselves are really excited about it and believe the right people are in our audience who would love to know about it, then it can come from a place of service as well. When you share it multiple times, let the message each time be authentic and original, rather than the same message.
Summary:
Send 3-7 emails, over 1-4 weeks with your Current Promotion.
WAY #3. Your Promotional Partners.
These are friends and colleagues whose relationship with their audience would make it appropriate to share your thing. And if you have a choice of promotional partners, choose the ones who have a larger influence / network.
Ask them humbly, and offer to help them in return.
What you help them with doesn't necessarily have to be a reciprocal promotion of *their* thing to your list, if your list isn't used to receiving messages about that kind of thing.
For example when I ask my promotional partners for help, I am clear with them that I cannot do a "reciprocal mailing" for them (promoting their thing to my audience) but what I am very happy to offer in return is a private 1-1 thirty or sixty minute coaching session on any aspect of *their* marketing or business.
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So remember these 3 simple methods next time you want to promote something important!
And don't lose practice -- aim to promote something in such a way at least once every 3-6 months.
The best of these articles, sent once a month:http://georgekao.com/e