The 80/20 Rule: Why You Need to Spend More Time on Content Amplification

Consider your approach to writing a stellar piece of content. 

You spend time researching the topic, gathering resources, organizing your ideas, drafting an outline, transforming your outline into a rich first draft, passing it off for a review, making final tweaks... Phew! 

Hours later— probably at least two hours, according to Hubspot— your final product is informative, resource-rich and memorable. You’ve invested a great deal of time to ensure that your audience consumes the best piece of content you can create. 

After all that effort, you’re doing yourself a disservice to only spend 45 seconds sharing it on your social media profiles and moving on to the next project. It’s time to make your content work harder.

Spend Less Time Creating Content and More Time Distributing It 

Shannen Laur (@slaur9) put it best in this blog post:

“When it comes to content distribution, PR 20/20 follows the 80/20 distribution approach, which states that 80% of your time and efforts should go to promotion, while the other 20% should be spent creating it. In other words, if you spent less time on the quantity of content and more on the quality of distribution, you gain the opportunity to connect with more online audiences and increase overall reach.”

And, marketer Derek Halpern (@derekhalpern) supports this idea: 

“It’s smarter to find another 10,000 people to consume what you’ve already created as opposed to creating more.”

We’ve already gone over all the time and effort required to create excellent content that informs your target audience. Why bother if nobody will see the end result? 

9 Quick-Win Ways to Better Amplify Your Content

You understand the logic behind the 80/20 Rule, but how do you put it into action? Below, we’ve outlined nine tactics to cast a wider content net.

1. Build That Subscription List 

Blog subscribers have indicated to you that they’re interested in what you post. Send your content to your loyal readers directly and work on ways to continuously grow your subscription list. This is a simple way to bump up the number of eyes on your content.

>>> Related resource: 12 Ways to Quickly Grow Your Blog Subscribers

2. Pitch the Media 

Is your topic newsworthy? Does it share tips that could be valuable to your target audience? Determine the appropriate news outlets (think: what are the top industry publications among a desired vertical of yours?), forge relationships with editors and reporters, and gain traction on your next piece of content.

3. Repurpose Old Posts

Consider evergreen content you’ve published in the last year or two. Odds are, it’s still relevant to your readers and can be updated with recent stats and shared again. Likewise, timely content (such as, “A Checklist for New Year’s Marketing Strategy”) can be re-published with an editor’s note.

Remember, when you repurpose old posts, strategically optimize them for organic search to get even more reach.

4. Update Your Website’s CTAs 

Every time you publish a new blog post or premium content asset, update your website’s drop-down or slide-in CTAs to direct web viewers to it. Also, consider eye-catching CTAs on relevant pages like the one below from PR 20/20’s website.

5. Break Down Premium Content Into Smaller Pieces 

Premium content, like an e-book or downloadable guide, is incredibly valuable and represents a great deal of your time spent creating it. To promote it, break down one section from the asset into a short, digestible blog post, infographic or SlideShare. Or, consider the opportunity to republish your post to Medium or LinkedIn to reach new audiences. 

At the end of each repurposed resource, include a CTA to download the larger asset.

6. Make It Shareable 

Does your blog make it easy to share and link to important snippets? If not, you’re limiting the opportunity for others to quickly and easily distribute your content on their own networks. Incorporate a widget to your blog that allows readers to highlight key phrases and immediately share them on their social media platforms. Likewise, there should always be quick links at the bottom of each post for readers to create an update.

To encourage your internal team to share content, draft template social shares members can easily copy, paste and personalize to their own profiles. Additionally, use social management tools to schedule out your own promotional shares in advance.

7. Invest in Paid Advertising 

For your most impactful content, don’t discount the possibilities that paid promotion provides you—especially on social media. For example, set up lookalike audiences on Facebook to make a splash with an audience you know your content resonates with.

8. Update Your Interlinks

Check out the most-viewed or most-shared blog posts on your website. Is there an opportunity to build in new interlinks to those older posts? Add a “Related Reading” CTA or link out some relevant text to your latest piece of content, grabbing readers from other areas in your blog.

9. Reach Out to Influencers

Influencer marketing is a tried-and-true method to building brand awareness and gaining credibility among your target audience. Be strategic about building relationships with influencers, understanding their readers and aligning your “ask” with their goals. When you nail your influencer strategy, you can reach a whole new level of performance. 

Organized Content Production is BETTER Content Production 

Now that you know exactly how to amplify the content you have, consider the content you’ve yet to create. Are you being as strategic as possible when planning content?

Download the free content calendar template to receive a Content Production Pipeline, Content Publishing Calendar, and Persona Buying Cycle Map. Happy writing! 

Image credit: Pixabay