Content distribution is a vital step next to creating high-quality content. Without it, your content may not reach its intended audience, resulting in a significant loss of potential traffic and leads.
Content distribution is the process of sharing your content on different mediums and platforms to reach a larger, targeted audience. It helps to boost brand awareness, establish trust with potential customers, and drive traffic to your website.
It is critical to have a distribution strategy in place to ensure that your content reaches the right people at the right time. With so much content being published on the internet every day, it can be challenging to get your content noticed. However, with a well-planned content distribution strategy, you can increase the visibility of your content and improve your chances of reaching your target audience.
Content distribution channels and platforms
Content distribution channels and platforms are numerous. Companies use them to distribute their content to the right audience at different stages of their buying cycle. Some of the most popular channels and platforms include social media, email marketing, content syndication, among others. Each of these channels and platforms has its advantages and disadvantages.
Owned media, earned media, paid media explained
To categorize channels and platforms, we commonly use the terms “owned media,” “earned media,” and “paid media.”
- Owned media is content created and published on channels or platforms that the brand or company owns, such as their website, blog, or social media profiles.
- Earned media refers to the publicity and visibility gained through word-of-mouth, social shares, mentions, and comments from the audience without paying for it.
- Paid media, on the other hand, involves paying to promote content on third-party platforms and channels, such as social media ads, display ads, and sponsored content.
Understanding the differences between these types of media can help businesses develop a more effective content distribution strategy that fits their goals and budget.
Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool in content distribution. Companies use it to build relationships with their customers and prospects by sharing content.
The advantage of social media is that it allows companies to reach a vast audience at a low cost. Also, companies can engage with their audience by starting conversations, answering questions, and reacting to their feedback.
However, the disadvantage of social media is that it can be hard to stand out among the vast amount of content and competition. In the end, social media doesn’t seem so “low cost” anymore, if ads are needed to reach a sizable audience.
To effectively distribute content on social media, a company’s social media profiles must be well prepared and optimized. Here are some recommended improvements and activities:
- Optimize profiles for each social media platform: Each social media platform requires a different approach to optimization. A company should take into consideration the unique requirements of each social media platform, such as profile picture size, bio length, and cover photo size.
- Consistent branding: Ensure that the branding is consistent across all profiles. Use the same profile picture and cover photo across all social media platforms so that your brand appears recognizable and consistent.
- Use keywords and hashtags: Using keywords and hashtags increases the reach of your content and ensures that your content is displayed to the right target audience. Use keywords that your target audience might be interested in, and create the right hashtags that apply to your content.
- Include a call-to-action: Including a call-to-action on social media profiles encourages followers to interact with your content. Encourage them to engage with your content by asking for feedback or comments.
- Engage with followers: Engage with your followers by responding to their inquiries, comments, and messages in a timely manner. This will help you build trust and credibility with your audience.
- Share quality content: Ensure that all content shared on your social media profiles is of high quality, relevance, and interest to your target audience. Share a mix of formats such as posts, images, videos or even live videos.
- Use paid social media advertising: Organic reach can be limited on social media platforms, so consider investing in paid advertising to increase your reach. Paid social media advertising can help your content reach a larger audience and can be targeted to those who are relevant to your business. More about this in a minute.
Email marketing
Email marketing is another channel used by companies. It can help to attract and retain customers. Email marketing is effective in generating leads and sales. Also, email marketing allows companies to personalize their messages, leading to higher conversion rates.
However, the disadvantage of email marketing is that it requires a significant amount of time and effort to create an email marketing campaign that stands out in the recipient’s inbox.
Here are a few things needed and recommended to make email marketing an effective tool for content distribution:
- Build an email list: You need to have a list of subscribers who have opted-in to receive your emails. You can build your list by providing opt-in forms on your website, offering incentives like free e-books or discounts for signing up, or by using lead generation ads on social media.
- Segment your list: Not all subscribers are the same, so you need to segment your list based on their behaviors, interests, or demographics. This will allow you to personalize your emails and send targeted content to specific segments of your list.
- Choose a reliable email service provider: You need to choose an email service provider that is reliable, has a good deliverability rate, and offers features like automation, segmentation, and analytics.
- Design your emails: Your emails should be well-designed, visually appealing, and responsive. They also need to be optimized for mobile devices since a majority of emails are now opened on smartphones.
- Craft compelling subject lines: Your subject line is the first thing subscribers will see in their inbox, so it needs to be attention-grabbing and intriguing enough to make them want to open your email.
- Write compelling copy: Your email copy needs to be engaging, informative, and relevant to the subscriber. Use a conversational tone and focus on benefits rather than features.
- Include a clear call-to-action: Every email needs to have a clear call-to-action that tells the subscriber what you want them to do next. This could be to read an article, make a purchase, or sign up for a webinar.
- Test and optimize: You should be constantly testing different elements of your emails, like subject lines, copy, and call-to-actions, to see what works best. Use the data from your analytics to optimize your emails and improve their performance.
- Comply with email regulations: You need to make sure that you are complying with email regulations like CAN-SPAM and GDPR. This includes providing an easy way for subscribers to opt-out of your emails and only sending emails to subscribers who have given you permission to do so.
- Monitor your metrics: Lastly, you need to monitor your email metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. This will allow you to measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.
Own website, corporate blog
When it comes to content distribution, a company’s website is an essential tool that should not be overlooked. With the ability to take on various forms such as a corporate blog, a corporate magazine or a newsroom, a website provides a powerful platform for sharing high-quality content.
One of the biggest benefits of using a company’s website for content distribution is the level of control that businesses have over how the content is presented, and over what is published. This means they can ensure their brand’s message is delivered effectively and accurately.
However, with the constant rise in competition, it has become increasingly challenging to attract and engage a sizable audience through search engines like Google. This increased competition means that companies need to stay ahead of the game by using effective search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and by producing high-quality, relevant and engaging content.
In order to make a company’s website a viable platform for content distribution, there are a number of recommended improvements and activities that can be implemented:
- User experience: One of the most important things to consider is the user experience. This means ensuring that the website is easy to navigate and that information is presented in a clear and organized manner.
- SEO: Another important improvement to consider is the optimization of the website for search engines (SEO). This involves using relevant keywords and meta descriptions that accurately describe the content on each individual page. This can help to increase visibility on search engine results pages and ensure that potential customers can find the website easily.
- Content: In addition, use your “home advantage“ to regularly publish high-quality, relevant content on the website. This can include blog posts, infographics, whitepapers, and other forms of content that are useful and informative to the target audience. This not only helps to establish the company as an authority in their field but also provides additional opportunities for visibility on search engine results pages.
- Mobile optimization: It’s also important to ensure that the website is optimized for mobile devices, as an increasing number of consumers are accessing the internet from their smartphones and tablets.
- Connection to social media: Finally, integrating social media sharing buttons into the website can help to drive more traffic to the website and increase visibility on social media platforms.
Advertising in search engines and social media
Advertising has become an essential component of a successful content distribution strategy. It plays a vital role in promoting important new pieces of content and getting them in front of the right audience. Comprehensive pieces of content such as white papers are good candidates for advertising campaigns as they provide in-depth information on a particular topic that can help establish a business as a thought leader in their industry.
Two main channels that businesses can use to advertise their content are search engine ads and social media ads.
Search engine ads are placed on sites like Google and Bing and reach people who are actively searching for a particular product or solution. These ads work well for products and offerings that are already on people’s minds, and hence have a higher chance of conversion. However, one of their drawbacks is that they can be prohibitively expensive as they charge businesses on a pay-per-click basis.
On the other hand, social media ads are placed on sites like Facebook and Instagram and can be used to target audiences with specific interests or social and demographic characteristics. By narrowing down the target audience in this way, businesses can ensure that their content is seen by the people who are most likely to engage with it. However, social media ads may not always lead to immediate sales, as people may not be in a buying mindset when they view the ad.
How to choose?
Each channel and platform has its advantages and disadvantages, and what works for one company may not work for another. Companies need to assess their content and the behavior of their audience to determine the best distribution channels for their content.
Creating an effective content distribution strategy
Creating an effective content distribution strategy involves identifying your target audience and understanding how to reach them. Here are some tips and tricks to consider when creating a content distribution strategy:
- Know your audience: It’s imperative to understand who your target audience is, what their interests are, and where they are likely to be found. By identifying these factors, you can effectively choose the right channels to distribute your content.
- Use the right channels: Based on the interests and preferences of your target audience, you can identify the right channels to distribute your content. This may involve using a combination of social media platforms, email newsletters, podcasts, or video channels.
- Create engaging content: Once you have identified the right channels to distribute your content, you need to make sure that your content is engaging and relevant to your target audience. It should also be visually appealing, easy to read and understand, and shareable to maximize distribution.
- Monitor your success: Measuring the success of your content distribution campaign is crucial to understanding what works and what doesn’t. By tracking metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, and lead generation, you can see what efforts are producing results and adjust your strategy as necessary.
One final thought …
Many businesses prioritize content creation over content distribution, viewing the latter as an afterthought. However, this is a mistake. In order to maximize the reach and impact of your content, you should plan for content distribution from the very beginning. This means carefully considering the channels and platforms that will be used to distribute the content and planning for them well in advance.
By incorporating content distribution planning into your overall content strategy, you can ensure that the accompanying content pieces for social media, email marketing and other forms of outreach are produced in advance, ready to go as soon as your new content is published. This streamlines the distribution process and allows you to get your content in front of your target audience as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Get in touch
If you are interested in more information, contact me on LinkedIn or send me an email to jan@contentmeister.com
I am looking forward to hearing from you!