When you own a small business, you have to (figuratively) wear a lot of hats.

You’re the CEO.

The primary content creator.

The manager.

The product designer.

The marketer.

The social media manager.

It’s enough to overwhelm even the most organized and productive entrepreneurs.

Especially with marketing. It can seem like marketing itself is intentionally designed to add more to your already-full plate.

Derek Halpern says you should spend 20% of your time creating, and the remaining 80% promoting.

In days, that means you should spend Monday building something, and the entire rest of your week — Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday — promoting it!

Most people can’t stomach that much promotion.

Creating and promoting content are two entirely separate animals, and as such, require different parts of the brain to handle.

So if you’re anything like the entrepreneurs we work with, you spend all your time creating, and the bare minimum time on promotion.

If that describes you, read on!

10 ways to promote your paid content (even when you don’t want to!)

1. Send emails to your list

Chances are, your paid content was crafted with your audience in mind. So, it stands to reason, your audience will appreciate, and buy, the thing you just created!

So tell your audience about it. Be open. Write in your own voice. You don’t have to turn into the peanut vendor at the baseball field in order to get your message seen by your audience. The most valuable members of your audience, the ones who will purchase from you, are the ones who are listening and relating to YOU, not just your brand.

And this time? Don’t focus — at all — on the number of people who unsubscribe. The people who unsubscribe from your mailing list when you send an email telling them about your paid service are the people who didn’t belong on your mailing list in the first place. In my opinion, it’s better to lose these people sooner rather than later. It will allow you to focus on your true audience and fine-tune your marketing and products to their habits and preferences.

Don’t stop at just one email, either.

When you’re introducing a new coaching package or digital product, tell your list about it multiple times. Talk about why you created it and how much you enjoyed the creation process, who would benefit from it, and why they should buy now. Make these sales emails about your audience, and how your new offer will transform their lives. Make it personal, friendly and relatable to them.

2. Share (multiple times!) to social media

If you’re not on social media, it’s almost as if your business doesn’t exist. Social media is now, more than ever, influencing people’s buying habits. Here are just a few statistics from 2018, courtesy of Hootsuite, to show the importance of social media:

• 93% of Twitter users who follow small-to-medium-size businesses (SMB) plan to make a purchase from a brand they follow
• 41% of Twitter users purchased products after exposure to an ad on the platform within the past 30 days
• Around 46% of Facebook users in six countries have found fashion inspiration on the platform within the past three months
• LinkedIn is a less active social media platform, with average weekly use between 0 and 2 hours among registered users

The recommended daily number of tweets is up to 30 — so there’s plenty of scope to share your paid content on Twitter.

Other than Twitter, there are plenty of groups on Facebook for entrepreneurs that allow you to promote your paid content. Instagram and Pinterest are also a great place to share amazing visual content to promote your products.

Before sharing your paid content on social media, think carefully about where your target audience is most likely to be and focus your efforts in that area. It’s no use sharing 15 tweets about your amazing paid content if that’s not where your target audience hangs out.

3. Submit to relevant directories

There are plenty of directories that will let you submit your paid content, but some of them charge a membership fee. As with sharing your content on social media, consider where you’re most likely to reach your audience.

If you’re not sure which directory to submit your paid content, use a bit of trial and error. Share your content on a few and see which one gets the most positive response and focus your efforts on sharing your content there.

The more you share and put your content out there, the better. Just be sure to measure the engagement you’re receiving so that you’re not wasting your valuable time in areas that aren’t benefiting you and your business.

4. Get on other people’s podcasts

Who doesn’t love a good podcast? Audio content is fast catching up to visual content in terms of its effectiveness in marketing. While photos and videos are visually appealing, audio is easy and convenient. You can listen to a podcast while doing other tasks which is what makes them so attractive.

If you can land a spot on someone’s podcast this is a perfect opportunity to plug your paid content and products. You can address the audience personally and tell them all about your awesome product and how it would help them. Instead of just reading an email, they’ll be able to hear the passion in your voice and the enthusiasm you have for your product. This is a great way to persuade people and encourage them to make a purchase.

It’s no good getting a spot on a podcast that isn’t listened to by your target audience so again, you’ll need to do your research. What podcasts are your ideal customers listening to? What audio channels appeal to them? Being on the right podcast will put you right in front of your audience, all they’ll have to do is listen.

5. Use paid ads strategically

Paying for ads is something that has to be given a lot of thought and planned carefully. Depending on what you’re going for, ads can be quite pricey. The higher the level of exposure, the more expensive ads are, which makes absolute sense. You need to pay more to get your ad in front of more people. Just make sure it’s going to be shown to the right people!

If you’re not hot on creating ads yourself, I definitely recommend that you outsource this to an expert. Whether you’re wanting to advertise your paid content on Google or social media, it pays to have an expert at the wheel — literally! From keyword research to design and copy, there’s a science to advertising that we don’t all have the time to learn. After all, you’re juggling multiple tasks, wearing all these hypothetical hats, to keep your business up and running.

Can’t decide if you’re business is ready for online advertising? This introductory guide on online advertising from Postcron will answer all your questions on how, why and where to advertise.

In my opinion, ads are not something to be used constantly, but strategically. Like the launch of one of your new, amazing products. Use ads to get the word out and get the ball rolling. Ads should be used to help the sale of a product get off the mark and gain momentum.

6. Slice off a piece of your paid product and give it away

This is an amazing way to promote your paid content. Tease your audience and wet their appetite with a small portion of your product — for free! In business, it’s not all take take take. You need to give as well. Giving to your audience is so important because it helps to build a trusting relationship. It sets you and your audience up as equals and shows that you are generous and want to help them.

For example, let’s say you’re selling an eBook that helps people learn how to become an entrepreneur. By giving away the first chapter of your eBook as a FREE download, you help your audience take the first step in their journey — you’ve given them a small part of the solution to their problem. Not only does this satisfy the need to try before you buy, it makes your audience want to buy! They’ve had a small part of the solution/product, so they feel as though they need to have the rest to complete the puzzle.

7. Make sure you’re linking to your paid product on your website!

There’s a simple yet effective way to promote your paid content. There is no limit to how much you can promote your products on your site because guess what? It’s yours and you can do whatever you want with it!

Have links and call to actions for your paid products in the sidebar of our site. Have pop-ups, link to your paid content wherever it’s relevant. Sprinkle CTA’s throughout longer pieces of text on your site. Not only does this help to break up the text and make for easier reading, it’s an ideal place to promote yourself as you’re more than likely talking about your products anyway!

No one is better at promoting yourself than you. You are your biggest advocate. No one believes in your products more than you do. Your website is the perfect place to rave about them and sing their praises.

8. Include links to your paid content from your blog

Much like the point above, if you have a blog on your site, this is the ideal place to promote your paid content. Your blog is going to center around your area of expertise and so will your products, so it stands to reason that the two should intertwine perfectly.

Your blog content will be about your paid content — is there any better method of self-promotion? You are your biggest advocate. You need to tell people why they should purchase your products and how it will help them solve a problem. Sprinkle CTA’s throughout your blog posts for relevant products. Using the example I used before if one of your paid products is an eBook that guides people through the steps to becoming an entrepreneur and you have a blog post about transitioning from full-time employment into full time freelancing — well the two practically go hand in hand. What a great chance to link to your paid content. The people reading that blog post will more than likely be interested in the eBook too!

9. Include your paid content in your “recommended tools and resources page”

You are allowed to put your paid products into your recommend tools and resources page. No one is going to promote you like yourself so go ahead and do it. There’s no shame in that — I’d even encourage it. Marketing is vital to your success so don’t hold back.

This kind of goes without saying, but make sure the paid content you’re putting in your recommend tools and resources page is relevant and makes sense. I’m sure you have these pages organized in some fashion, so if you can’t find a logical place to link to your products, create a section for them, preferably near the top. You want your customers to be able to find this content easily so having links right at the top of these pages is pretty helpful.

10. Add a link to your sales page in your email signature

Something you might not have considered for promoting your paid content is to add a link to your sales page into your email signature. This is will take you less than five minutes to do but it can be really effective for marketing and promoting your products.

Everyone on your mailing list will get see the link, existing clients and customers will have easy access to the link, anyone you email is going to be able to locate your sales page quickly and easily.

People pay more attention to email signatures than you might think — particularly if they’re eye-catching. Make your signature stand out. Have a professional portrait of yourself along with your name and role in a font and color in keeping with your brand. Don’t make it so small that it becomes illegible and at the same time you don’t want it to be huge and take up the entire email. Some happy medium that’s enough to catch the reader’s attention. You want them to take notice, so they click on the link to your sales page and discover your amazing products.

In Conclusion

You’ve put so much time, effort and passion into creating your paid content and products. Don’t let it all be for nothing. Show everyone how awesome it is by promoting and marketing it! Make sure that people discover it and it’s readily available and accessible to your audience. Spend 20% of your time creating, and the remaining 80% promoting. This just goes to show how vital promoting your products is. How can people purchase your paid content if they don’t know that it exists?