Everything You Need to Know about Content Distribution

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Undoubtedly these are all essential. Yet, just because you have a lot of content doesn’t mean it’s getting in front of the right audiences.

With so much content online today, you’ll be lucky if they find you at all.

So, instead of relying on luck, you’ll need to promote your content where your potential customers are and find better ways to reach them.

To do this, start by incorporating a plan for content distribution in your content marketing strategy. Together, these two make the dynamic duo.

Learn more about it in this article.

Content distribution is the act of sharing and promoting your brand’s content through various media and channels.

It’s what you do with your content once it’s created and where you publish it for consumption by your buyer personas.

It also requires you to stay up-to-date on trends and forecasting that reveal where your audience can be found.

Simply put, content distribution is a proactive way to get in front of your audience. Use it as a valuable tool, in addition to your SEO strategy, and reach for greater success.

When it comes to the best types of content to distribute, much will depend on your particular business, your allotted budget, and your target audience.

Different types of content can be beneficial, and each may need its own distribution plan.

Below are examples of content types that can rock your business to levels.

Creating eBooks and offering them to your audience via a dedicated landing page, a pop-up on your website, or embedded in a blog post’s call-to-action can help you create more leads. 

Offer it for free in exchange for contact information.

Providing webinars shows you have confidence and something worthwhile to share with your audience. It’s a mutually beneficial type of content for both you and the participants.

Guide your audience to a dedicated page on your website. Share clips of the webinar on social media or insert relevant sections into a blog post or web page.

Create shareable infographics that illustrate large sets of information in a visually pleasing way. Share them on Pinterest or insert them in articles and blog posts.

Blogs offer a wealth of opportunities to share content and are beneficial in converting readers. Post often and share them on social media.

Give your audience something to listen to while working out, commuting, or any other time when they need a hands-free option.

Audio content remains popular today, so consider turning blog posts and even video content into this form and distribute in different channels. These channels may be through Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Videos continue to dominate consumer time online. Comb through your content and find those that you can turn into video form and share via YouTube or other platforms. 

Promote the video through your social media channels and email campaigns.

Case studies present information on a client or customer’s experience with your brand, product, or service. 

Include a brief background, list the challenges, and reveal how a successful outcome came about. Share these on your website on a dedicated page.

The beauty of case studies is that they demonstrate how your brand, product, or service can meet a challenge and help the customer. It builds trust, and customers today need this more than ever.

Newsletters are great vehicles for sharing curated content as well as themed topics, latest updates, and new discoveries.

You can create one and send it to everyone on your email list, or create a LinkedIn newsletter and invite your followers and connections to join.

(Speaking of newsletters, are you subscribed to ours?)

Today you have choices when it comes to content distribution channels.

Each one offers benefits but may not be the right fit for certain types of content or for your targeted audience.

The key to success, however, is how your audience interacts with each one, if at all. 

The three different categories of content distribution channels are paid, earned, and owned. How you use them is up to you. Choose one for your content or combine them to boost reach and increase impact.

The paid category is as it sounds. You pay to distribute content across specific channels.

You invest upfront in hopes of receiving positive outcomes. On the positive side, however, it allows you to reach a broader audience.

You will, however, want to be careful in how you approach paid content distribution. These can often be seen as insincere or manipulative by some audiences and can take a chunk out of your expected ROI.

Earned distribution channels are those owned by outside parties who willingly share or promote your content without receiving payment to do so.

Through these channels, you can gain a new audience, boost your credibility, receive higher website traffic, and even improve your rankings on search engines.

Owned distribution channels are those you already own, allowing you to control when, what, where, and how often content is shared.

These most commonly include your

You have total control over the content and how it is distributed. Update, remove, or refine whatever you like in order to improve performance.

However, it will take time to grow traffic and build an audience that regularly visits these channels.

Fortunately, today you have options when it comes to content distribution tools to help you get your content out there and reach a larger audience.

Most come with a free or paid version and offer different benefits. Here are five of the best content distribution tools.

As an all-in-one CRM with its own Marketing Hub, HubSpot provides you with a tool that allows you to schedule, post, and monitor your content on social networks. Other benefits include the ability to learn from your email marketing campaigns.

Medium is a digital publishing platform open to anyone and currently has a built-in audience of over 170 million readers. Topics here cover a wide range, so use it to distribute your content in addition to your blog.

HARO (“Help a Reporter Out”) is an online platform connecting journalists with data sources. It provides a way for you to gain backlinks and press mentions.

Distribute your original research and studies here so that journalists on the platform can find them.

You may also receive queries from journalists for certain types of information. As a result, they may mention your brand, product, or service in an article, providing you with wider exposure and a potentially new audience.

AddThis is a social sharing tool that provides readers of your content an easy and almost effortless way to share your content without ever having to leave your webpage, email newsletter, or other content type.

Mention is a monitoring tool for social media, providing social listening capabilities as well as publishing. It can show you the level of engagement or impact your content is having and let you listen in for mention of your company name, brand, product, service, or other reference.

Content distribution strategies are essential for several reasons, including aligning your marketing team and keeping them on the same page, boosting the impact of your content, and creating a benchmark to measure against.

Here are tips on how to strategize and maximize your exposure and reach a larger audience.

When it comes to your content, what you create and how you distribute and share it are two sides of the same coin. 

As such, you will want to include content distribution as part of your overall content marketing strategy.

The first step, of course, to any content marketing plan, is to know your audience. 

You most likely already researched your target audience and possibly created your buyer personas, both of which will help guide you through the strategy more efficiently.

While planning what content to create, research individual distribution channels. 

This step will help you determine what type of content you need to reach your audience and also save you time and resources. Always ask yourself what content type will work best on the channels in which you find your audience.

Once identified, use an editorial calendar or other content governance tool to:

To make the most of your content, past and present, start with a content audit to identify potential opportunities.

These opportunities may appear in the form of content that can be republished, repackaged, or repurposed for a different content distribution channel.

Perhaps you have content that received lackluster results during a promotion but now know where to distribute it for better success. For this, you may need to convert the content into another form.

Another strategy is to ride the wave of your most popular content by turning it into different formats and sharing on different channels.

Balance how you promote different types of content, utilizing any combination of owned, earned, and paid distribution channels.

For example, if you promote your eBook via a paid campaign, follow this up with mentions and promotions on your blog and social media.

Finding a beneficial balance increases your chances of growing your audience and also making the most of your promotional budget.

Before selecting your content distribution channels, define your goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). 

With these, you can better determine what channels will fit the best for what you want to achieve.

As for meeting your goals, you may want to experiment with the different channels until you find what works best.

Your KPIs will differ depending on content type, distribution effort, and your promotional strategy.

For example, if one goal or KPI involves increasing lead generation, consider inserting a CTA at the end of your blog post to encourage readers to take action right away. You can also offer a gated eBook to capture leads.

Analyze and measure your results to know when and how to adjust as needed.

While a major focus on creating your content is vital to success, so too is the way you choose to distribute that content to ensure it reaches your intended audiences. 

Don’t wait for more of your target audience to find you. Instead, go out and find them by utilizing the various owned, earned, and paid distribution channels available today.

To find out more valuable ways to diversify your content marketing approach, check out our Interactive eBook.