Launched in 2012, Medium has about 625,000 active users and is largely untapped by brand marketing, making it an excellent opportunity for brands that produce content with real value.

Medium is unique in its algorithm and system of ranking content according to quality as opposed to the existing popularity of the contributor. Rather than focusing on the number of clicks, Medium’s algorithm prioritizes the ratio of clicks to reads and reads to recommendations using the “recommend” option at the end of each article, leveling the playing field for contributors who have a smaller following or who don’t post clickbait. It also makes chronological order a secondary factor.

Frequent posting will increase your chances of attracting followers from your target audience, but it’s not a requirement for getting your content front and center, which brands typically pay top dollar for.

Getting your branded content on Medium with a well-researched social media content strategy will enable your brand to reach a vast, targeted audience with an increased chance of conversion. You can sign up by linking to your personal or business Twitter account and personalize your profile to link back to your website.

What to Post on Medium

Because Medium rewards quality, the best approach is to create or share your best content. Republishing content from your blog or website on Medium allows you to reach readers that you might not have access to otherwise. Create a collection for a theme relevant to your business and/or a brand collection that will draw readers into your brand. You can also publish visual content rather than textual articles.

Marketers report a higher conversion from Medium traffic, so be sure to link back to your website on your profile and in your content. You can also include CTAs where appropriate and recommend posts that are related to your industry. You’ll get the best performance from content that’s engaging, interesting, and valuable to readers.

Here are 3 examples of popular, useful, and fun Medium.com marketing posts:

• Five Content Types for a Buyer-Centric Content Marketing Strategy
• How to Write a Content Marketing Strategy Step-by-Step [with Template]
• How To Use Infographics To Get A 10X Return On Your Content Marketing Strategy

Approach your readers the right way.

When your audience encounters your solution or offer, they’re more likely to be converted if they’re at the purchasing stage of the buyer’s journey. Your Medium audience will largely be in the consideration stage, which means they’re looking at different potential solutions to a problem they have. This is the stage when you should be building a relationship and conveying credibility and authority in your industry.

You’ll also have a lot of readers in the awareness and pre-awareness stages. This is when you want to focus on brand awareness, touching on pain points, and providing information and value. Don’t sacrifice content quality, but be aware of your reader’s mindset.

Make a space for yourself.

One of the best strategies for building an audience is to carve out some market share for your content. You can do that by running an analysis between the content that your audience wants and needs and the content that’s already available on Medium. Record both lists and indicate the performance of the content that’s already available.

If you’re lucky, there will be an obvious gap where something your audience wants isn’t being published. More likely, you’ll have to look for weak points in the existing content and strategize to produce content that will perform better. Don’t stray from your audience in this analysis and make sure the niche you carve out for yourself fits into your sales funnel at the right point in the buyer’s journey.

KPIs

Mediums metrics are a little different than other social media sites, but they’re just as valuable in keeping your content strategy on track towards your goals. You should be regularly monitoring your key performance indicators (KPIs) and adjusting your strategy to correct any weaknesses and build your strengths.

KPIs that are extremely useful on Medium include your views, shares, reads, and read ratio (the percentage of viewers who stayed and read the post). You can also compare your read times to your read ratios to determine the best length for your posts. Medium also has “fans” (followers) that can tell your how much of an audience you have direct access to on this platform.

Design for Dummies

Another unique feature of Medium is its user interface. Formatting is more controlled than elsewhere on the web, making it easy to personalize but difficult to mess up. The editor looks like the version that readers will see, which is a significant upgrade for those who aren’t exactly proficient in page design. The results are beautiful and simple and don’t distract from the value of the content. The platform allows you to invite team members to edit your post before it’s published and share feedback in Notes, a major convenience for productivity.

Create a Calendar and Start Posting on Medium.com

For any content strategy, it’s a good idea to create a content calendar. Do some research in your market, your existing content, and your competition’s content to determine what your audience is most engaged by.

Checking out Medium’s most successful content in your industries will provide major insights. Do a brain dump of content ideas, refine them, and get them on your calendar. Then schedule time to create your content in batches (content batching) and upload it to a content scheduler that will post automatically according to your schedule.

Medium provides analytics that make it easy to assess what type of content works best on their platform for your audience so you can tailor your content strategy on the fly.