While there’s certainly sometimes a need for a well-timed blast about a sale, hard-promoting a sale isn’t always the best way to get results. Today, it’s vitally important to rethink traditional marketing tactics and consider something new.

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about and have a basic understanding of content marketing. Content marketing is entirely about offering up something of value to your customers, beyond the fact that you’re having a sale. The modern consumer tends to respond to this kind of marketing much better than “in your face” advertising. Below we’ve outlined some tips for using kick-butt content, with your marketing channels, to broadcast a sale.

Create Content Relevant to the Sale
The company blog is the heart of your content marketing strategy, and when using content creation to broadcast a sale, it’s where people should be spending the majority of their time on your site, not necessarily on a page dedicated to the sale. If you have a content calendar, consider what you have coming up. Can anything be related back to the product or service you’re putting on sale? If not, are there any interesting topics you can talk about, that bear some relevance?

Usually, the best content to broadcast a sale with isn’t written with the sole purpose of the sale. Great content stands on its own; if the content itself is too “salesy” it might turn off potential consumers. They need to feel like you’re giving them something of value before they commit to a purchase.

Use CTA’s to Funnel Visitors
By making sure your content and sale are both related, you know that anyone who reads through the content is someone who may also appreciate the sale. Help funnel that visitor back through to your sale with a well-placed call-to-action (CTA) that encourages them to take a next step. Soft-promoting your sale through relevant content can only be successful if you paint a clear path to conversion for your visitors. They won’t automatically connect that great piece they’ve just read on your blog and the sale you’re having, you have to help push them in the right direction by connecting the dots.

See also: Use The Right Call-to-Action to Boost Website Conversions

Go Easy On Your Email Subscribers
We’ve talked about some of the best practices of email marketing in the past; by now you should know that effective email marketing is dependent on great content, timely messages, and less spam. If you’re having a big sale, don’t hesitate to send an email to subscribers that have signed up to receive promotions. However, try and limit the hard-promotion of your sale via email to just one message.

Remind subscribers of your sale via email not by another blast but instead by linking them to great content on your blog that is relevant to whatever product or service you’re promoting in the sale. Send a micro-message to subscribers with links to content you think they might be interested in and remember that a well-placed CTA at the bottom of the content will help funnel more people back toward the sale.

Connect Followers With the Content, Not the Sale
While most companies tend to think of their social networks as nothing more than another segment of customers to tap when there’s a sale, businesses that promote fresh content in favor of a daily reminder of the sale see better results. Soft-promoting your sale on your social networks through relevant content that links back to your blog is a fantastic way to put your potential customers in the right frame of mind to make a purchase without shoving a sale down their throats.

By adding in this extra layer of soft-promotion, broadcasting your sale becomes less of repetitive used car salesman tactic and more of a value-added campaign. Tying your content creation calendar to your sales calendar will prove to yield a higher rate of conversions than if you were to do both independently.

Looking for assistance with creating content to soft-promote your sales? Swing by our Content Creation services page, we’d love to connect and help you succeed!