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Growing your professional profile is one of the best ways to build your reputation and gather supporters, boost your networks, and market yourself to attract new sales or career opportunities.
To understand how to decide on your professional profile or ‘fame agenda’ – what you what to be known for and how – and plan content for it, read our previous blog ‘How to plan and build your professional profile’ and use our free downloadable profile planner.
Once you’ve decided on your fame agenda, your ‘voice’, audience and niche, your next challenge is how to best campaign your professional profile content.
Perhaps your comms department doesn’t have the resources to support, or perhaps you are a marketer charged with building spokespeople profiles. Maybe you want to build up your profile independently to your current organisation. This blog will give you the 7 primary ways to target your content and maximise your audience reach. Download the checklist here to help you get started.
Read on for our top tips on making your content go further and giving yourself the best chance of attracting your target persona (that’s your ideal audience member in your mind’s eye – more on this in our fame agenda tutorial).
1. Plan out your content
As the saying goes ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’. Here are the aspects of campaigning your profile you need to consider:
Frequency: Decide how often you can realistically create and post content and then stick to this rhythm – consistency is key.
Think about the time needed to create content – do you have the time? If not, think about working with a copywriter. Alternatively, it might work best for you to dedicate one day to creating all your content for the six months ahead rather than finding the time to regularly write posts – this also removes the possibility of life getting in the way.
Automation: If you opt to draft your posts out in advance, on many sites you have the option to schedule them to automatically post – this way your content rhythm takes care of itself.
Atomisation: Atomise your content as much as you can – by which we mean, recut and repurpose to turn it into parts for different formats, audiences, and angles. You might turn a blog post into an infographic, turn a webinar into a blog post, turn a podcast spot into a LinkedIn live topic, etc. You have already put the work in to create the interesting content – so push it out in more mediums and on more platforms.
2. Boost SEO so your content works harder for you
You’ve already developed your content plan based on your target audience, so take this one step further and optimise your content for search engines for this same audience.
Brainstorm a list of keywords and key terms your target persona searches for. Use variations of these throughout your content – appropriately and organically – to increase your chances of appearing on search engines.
Promote your content across all your platforms – that means social posts, blog posts and even paid promotion if you really want to give it a push. But always direct the audience back to your website – this builds your domain authority and directs your audience towards more of your content.
Another way to boost SEO on your blog or website is to earn backlinks. Backlinks are created when an external site links to your website. These backlinks have the most impact when coming from trusted and popular websites – even just having your name mentioned without a link on a highly reputable site (e.g. The Sydney Morning Herald) will give your own website a boost.
3. Leverage your existing contacts
Send regular (but not too many) emails to share your content with your existing contacts, employees, and any sales leads. Keeping yourself in their inbox keeps you top of mind for your area of expertise. You can also invite these contacts to share your content with their personal and professional networks if they think they it will be relevant and interesting. If you are connected with any industry influencers, why not reach out to them and ask if they would share your content too? Make sure that your content is value-adding for their audience before you consider this.
Check that your settings on LinkedIn notify your connections when you post – any engagement from your network will push your content in front of more eyes.
Add social sharing buttons on all your content so that it’s easy for your audience to share with their networks on social media or via email.
Bonus tip: add a link to your most recent content in your email signature.4. Stand out on the socials
What platforms is your target audience using to get their information and connect with other professionals? Decide whether LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or other blogging or forum-based sites is worth investing your time into.
Groups on social media can be a great way to network and extend your reach – research groups and hashtags relevant to your target persona and then engage in those online communities.
Finally, leverage video content to stand out, as it’s much more engaging than text or image alone. Video is favoured by social media algorithms and is therefore more likely to reach more people. You can pre-record and upload a video of yourself discussing new developments in your sector to mix things up, or schedule and host a live event for your connections.
5. Run an effective live event
To move from short-form video into longer-form video content, consider hosting a webinar. Webinars are much-loved by marketers for being simple to run, accessible to a wide audience, and a great lead capture tool – so why not market yourself with a webinar?
Make sure your topic is specific enough that people know exactly what they will get out of it, but meaty enough that you really can showcase your expertise. There are many webinar hosting platforms available and they usually let your audience ask questions live. Webinars can also be pre-recorded and scheduled if you would rather not have the pressure of doing it live.
Another way to boost your profile and push out your messaging is live events. Whether at a conference or an industry event, this is a great way to get your thought leadership in front of many people at once.
6. PR yourself
As an expert in your field with something interesting to speak about, consider pitching this idea as a story to a journalist. Getting your name into reputable publications bolsters your public profile and has the added benefit of improving the SEO of your website and/or personal brand.
If a media interview is an intimidating thought, you could also write an editorial piece and offer it to a relevant magazine or website.
Submit existing content on your website to external publishing sites like Medium or Inc. – the content is already written so if you can get it syndicated that’s another win without more work.
Alternatively, pitch yourself as a guest on an industry podcast to reach a new audience outside of your network.
7. Pay to promote your content
If your target persona isn’t in your existing network, you might consider paying to promote your content. You can very accurately target your content to people in particular job roles, locations, or a huge variety of other demographic and psychographic groups.
Introducing a paid spend allows you to fast-track building your reach. You’ll find that you’re able to grow your audience far quicker.
For specifics on the different paid options, download our free Campaign your Fame Agenda checklist below.
Try it for yourself
This is not an exhaustive list, and it is not necessary to do all (or even most) of these in order to successfully begin campaigning your thought leadership, educational materials, or other content.
The key is to ensure your content is both original and useful. Beyond that, experiment to find what delivers results – test things out, don’t be afraid to take risks and make mistakes, and adjust as you go.
Many businesses are facing the challenge of creating a digital experience that is equally as engaging as a physical one. To learn more about how you can run an online event that will have people coming back for more, watch our free webinar and download your free downloadable guide here.
If you’d like to discuss adjusting your communication strategy for the current times, please call us or fill out our contact form here.
