Eager to get published in CMO.com? Or Forbes? CNN.com? The HubSpot blog? Chief Marketer?
Landing a writing gig with any of these publications would make any marketer do a monster fist pump, right?
We’re humbled to report that we’ve actually authored bylined articles in each of these well-respected websites, along with dozens of others. These websites are where many in our target audience come to catch up on industry news and advice, and so we appreciate the opportunity to engage with readers on these sites.
After all, what’s more valuable than engaging with your audience?
In addition, the sites provide links back to our own website, and we get to share them on social media. So, there is SEO and promotional value with the bylined articles, as well.
But here’s the big problem.
This is where many companies end their use of bylined articles… and unfortunately miss the boat on maximizing the ROI from their content placements.
The Many Benefits of Bylined Articles
If you’re going to include bylined articles in your marketing mix, then it behooves you to get as much marketing value out of them as you can. You’re spending your time and resources on them. To simply secure the content placements, promote them a few times on social media and call it a day means you’re leaving money on the table.
A lot of money.
Read on, and uncover various ways to get more bang for the buck from each of your bylined articles.
Your Website
Are you sharing your bylined articles on your website? This adds valuable content to your site, but also fulfills the role of delivering social proof to your site visitors. Building trust with your prospective clients is one of the most effective ways to persuade them to convert while on your site.
And it’s not just the article that should be shared on your website. Are you displaying the publication name or logo in your site? If visitors to your blog or other online content are not seeing these, you’re losing an opportunity to build trust precisely at the time they are eager to learn.
Offering a white paper or other downloadable asset on your landing page? List the publications in which you’re published there, as well. If they are eager for your expertise, it only makes sense to reinforce your authoritativeness by listing where you’ve been published. As reference, in certain cases Stratabeat has listed the logos of 13 publications on a single landing page – aim to build trust fast for higher conversion rates.
ROI: The specific ROI you achieve by including your bylined articles and publication names in your site and landing pages is difficult to measure. Yet even if it influences merely half of one percent of your site visitors to take action while on your site, you can credit the articles with assisting your lead and revenue generation. For example, if you bring in 100 leads during a certain time span and each lead is worth $50,000 over the initial 12 months on average, then your bylined articles delivered $25,000 worth of pipeline. If the lifetime value of your clients is actually 3X their first-year value, then you’re talking $100,000 or $150,000. Not too shabby for a number of bylined articles.
Another great use of bylined articles is to email them or to include them in your email newsletter to your database. In this way, even if they don’t see it in your website, you’re still getting value out of it. Plus, you’re reaching your database of contacts with value-added content, which is valuable in and of itself.
You can also share the article with clients, delivering value to them while reinforcing your position as an expert on the topics at hand. It’s also one more positive touchpoint with them, strengthening the relationship.
ROI: All it would take is one article to resonate with someone in your mailing list to potentially spur them into contacting you and engaging with your sales team. This would mean that the article assist in the sales process was far higher than half of one percent, as in the example presented above. Even with just one new sale, you’d potentially be looking at thousands of dollars in value, depending on your sales price point and expected revenue for the initial year.
Slice and Dice Them
Another great way to make use of your bylined articles is to slice and dice the content (content atomization) and repurpose them. For example, maybe you can create a few complementary blog posts. Or a SlideShare. Or a video. Or, perhaps you might want to create a downloadable asset like a checklist.
In this way, one great article becomes a small library of useful content, giving you more opportunities to reach and engage with your audience.
ROI: Content atomization is an effective way of reaching far more people with the same source of information.
Secure More Bylined Articles
Hire Stratabeat to secure more bylined articles for you and to translate them into higher marketing ROI for your business. Let’s Talk!
Sales
When you’re engaged with prospects, be sure to share the articles when they are relevant to the issues and challenges they are trying to solve.
In an important pitch for new business? Include a slide that showcases all the publications in which you’re being published. Delivering social proof during a meeting is powerful, and helps to strengthen your pitch.
ROI: There’s little that delivers a greater ROI than something that helps you move a prospect towards hiring your firm. And when you consider the lifetime value of a new client, this is even more true. This, along with sharing relevant articles with prospects during the sales process can deliver not only 3X ROI, but much, much more.
Social Media
You may have shared your latest bylined article on social media, but are you sharing it multiple times? Only a small fraction of your audience is likely to see it the first time (or the second or third time). Make good use of the article and share it again and again and again over time.
Is the article still 100% relevant three months following its publication? Then share it again.
I’m not suggesting that you post it in the same exact way every time. By promoting different aspects of the post and/or using different imagery, you can keep your feed fresh and get more bang for your promotional buck.
ROI: Using social media to amplify your bylined articles is a great way to expand your reach to a broader audience, and to reach them even when they are not on your website.
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Parlay Your Bylined Articles into Columns
If a particular publication is very popular with your audience, strive to parlay your bylined article into an ongoing authorship commitment. See if you can have your own ongoing column, or if there are other types of writing opportunities.
For one of our clients, this is precisely how we secured 48 bylined article gigs within just one month!
ROI: It’s one thing to get a bylined article published in a top target. It’s quite another to turn that into dozens and dozens of additional opportunities for exposure to your target audience.
Parlay Them into Additional Writing Gigs
Once you’ve been published in one high-quality media outlet, look for similar opportunities with other reputable sites. This is how you can translate one placement into dozens of additional PR opportunities for your brand.
ROI: If you find value from bylined articles in one website, imagine how much more value you’ll get out of multiple sites. Greater reach with your target audience, with a greater chance of driving qualified traffic to your site. And all with added social proof.
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Parlay Them into Speaking Gigs
Speaking at industry conferences is a uniquely valuable opportunity in that you get to shine right in front of your living, breathing, real-life target audience.
To secure speaking gigs, make sure that the event organizers and those evaluating your speaker applications know of all the different publications in which you’ve been published. It’s important for the evaluators to have confidence that you know your stuff and carry a certain level of authority with respect to your topic. Bylined articles help you communicate quickly and directly that you’re regarded as an expert and can be counted on for a high-quality session at their event.
ROI: Securing speaking gigs at industry events is valuable in that it gets you in front of new audiences positioned as an expert. From experience we can tell you that speaking at conferences has been one of the most effective ways for Stratabeat to meet new leads (and eventual clients) through the years. And speaking at conferences is similar to how you can translate one writing gig into many others – the same holds true with conferences. The more you speak, the easier it is to secure additional speaking gigs, putting you in front of ever more prospective leads. The ROI? Ridiculously good.
Summary
If you capitalize on all of these opportunities to increase the value from your bylined articles, can you 3X the ROI?
I think it would actually be difficult to not achieve this type of ROI.
Influence one new conversion? Influence one new sale? Your articles have just helped you secure thousands if not tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for your business.
Of course the bylined articles were not the only contributing factor, but by diversifying the methods you use to get value out of your published content pieces as outlined above, that can translate into not only 3X your ROI, but actually 8X, 9X or even 10X.
Happy writing!
The post How to 3X the ROI of Your Bylined Articles appeared first on Stratabeat.