Direct Marketing Channels Direct marketing used to take the form of direct mail campaigns, print newsletters, and catalogs. While those tactics are still used to great effect in some cases, many marketers have turned to their online equivalents, including e-mail, text messages, push notifications, and social media. Channels like these allow marketers to engage consumers in real time with personal- ized messages. For more information on e-mail marketing, including best practices, see “E-mail Marketing: How to Push Send and Grow Your Business.” Industry Influencers In Chapter 3, we mentioned industry influencers as a possible extension of your content marketing team. For more infor- Leveraged correctly, they are a valuable resource for content creation and also content distribution. If you have mation on working built strong relationships with influencers, you can get them to share your content with their audiences, which with influencers, has two huge advantages: It creates an opportunity to get your content out to a new and potentially larger pool see page 72 in the of relevant prospects, and gives your content the added authority that comes from being shared by an industry Appendix. influencer. Partners for Co-Marketing In addition to working with industry influencers, consider looking for other individuals and organizations to partner with in a content delivery exchange. For example, you may find opportunities to share another organization’s highly relevant content with your audience, either through an e-mail blast or in your newsletter, in exchange for the other organization doing the same with a piece of your content. Provided that the content is relevant to both sets of audiences and in no way undermines your own sales efforts, this can be a quick and easy way of getting your content out in front of an expanded audience. Paid Channels 2" Beyond the many free options listed above for delivering your content — which The effectiveness of these and other paid typically cost you time, not money — there are a variety of paid channels that you channels can vary greatly, so it is important can utilize as well. These include various forms of advertising, including: to do your homework before investing in any » Content discovery platforms such as Outbrain, StumbleUpon, and Zemanta of them. As noted in Chapter 2, cheaper forms of content delivery are almost always » Social media promotions such as LinkedIn and Facebook ads, preferable to expensive ones. sponsored YouTube channels, and promoted tweets » Display and pay-per-click search ads 2" » Sponsorships It Takes a Content Factory! | 37