Why Content Distribution is Hard (and Tips for Making It Easier)

Businesses worldwide continue increasing their content marketing budgets to expand their reach and grow their audiences online. But if they don’t have a content distribution plan in place, a lot of their time, effort, and resources will end up going to waste.

Content distribution is a vital strategy for getting your content in front of the right people. It can help you build brand awareness, encourage your audience to act, and help you create a loyal following. A good distribution strategy can lead to more engagement across different channels and increased traffic to your website.

Keep reading to learn why the content distribution process is so important and why many marketers overlook it. We’ll also explain how to build a content distribution process that targets your ideal customers with valuable content that gets clicks.

Quick Takeaways

• A good content distribution strategy can lead to more engagement across different channels and increased traffic to your website.
• The process involves publishing, sharing, and promoting quality content to get your brand in front of the right audience so they actively and willingly consume it.
• Every type of content requires unique distribution tactics.
• There are three main categories of channels: owned, earned, and paid.

What is Content Distribution?

Content distribution is a strategic approach to getting your content in front of your target audience through various channels and formats. It involves publishing, sharing, and promoting quality content in the right places so people can actively engage with it. This process will take place after content creation, but you should establish your strategy beforehand. Then you’ll have a roadmap to follow from beginning to end.

Source: Moz

Content distribution isn’t the same as content promotion, but promotion should be part of your distribution strategy. Content distribution should encompass these essential elements:

• Audience: Who the content is for
• Strategy: How you’ll reach your audience and get them to consume your content
• Channels: Where you’ll effectively reach your target audience
• Relevancy: Helping people solve their problems or meeting their needs
• Results: Reaching your goals and adding to your bottom line

Types of Distributable Content

Here are several types of distributable content to consider creating for your target audience. Each type of content will require unique distribution tactics. For example, you could share a podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. You’d probably share videos on Vimeo and YouTube. And you could distribute blog posts on your website blog, newsletter, and social media channels.

• Ebooks
• Videos
• Interviews
• Podcasts
• Case studies and success stories
• Infographics
• Blog posts
• Webinars
• Emails
• Presentations
• Whitepapers

Content Distribution Channels

Content distribution channels are where you share and promote your content. There are three main types: owned, earned, and paid.

Source: HubSpot

Owned

These are the channels your business owns and can control directly. Examples include your website, blog, email, and social media profiles. You should have a clear goal and strategy for every channel you intend to use. Owned channels can help you build brand awareness, boost traffic, build a following, and generate new leads.

Earned

Earned channels involve third parties that share or promote your content for free. Examples include social sharing and mentions, guest bloggers, product reviews, public relations, and online communities and forums. Third parties “own” your content on these channels. The goal is to reach a larger audience and build trust by providing value.

Paid

Some channels aren’t free. You must pay to distribute your content to a highly targeted audience. Examples of paid channels include social media ads, pay-per-click ads, sponsored content, and paid influencer content. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and Instagram are common paid channels.

Why Content Distribution Can Be Challenging

If you’re like many other brands, you may have focused more on content creation than distribution in the past. We tend to get so caught up in providing value that we sometimes forget to distribute and promote that value to the people who will appreciate it most. Here are some challenges you may face while trying to implement a new content distribution strategy.

The Need for Repurposing and Redistributing

While SEO can get you a long way, your marketing team needs a couple of extra tools in its toolbox to reach its full potential. Repurposing evergreen content to distribute on more channels can be a smart approach to reaching a larger audience.

Don’t give up if your distribution efforts aren’t initially as successful as you’d like them to be. Repurposing a piece of content that fell flat on one channel to share on another could help you reach more interested prospects who can’t wait to engage with your brand and consume your information.

Numerous Options

It can feel overwhelming when you’re faced with choosing a few channels out of all the options available to you. Having a deep understanding of who your audience is and where they’re spending time can help guide you to the best channels for your business. Also keep in mind the purpose of each type of channel. Choose the ones that will best help you reach your goals.

Decrease in Organic Traffic on Social Media

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to reach people organically on social media. Finding the right audience can be time-consuming, ineffective, and expensive. You’re competing against more and more companies every day. The market is also becoming more saturated as businesses continue publishing new content. That’s why it’s imperative to have a distribution strategy in place that works, which may or may not prioritize social media.

How to Build a Content Distribution Strategy

Follow these steps to build a successful strategy for distributing your content effectively.

• Set your SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) goals and KPIs (key performance indicators).
• Research your target audience.
• Conduct a content audit.
• Research and choose the best distribution channels for your business.
• Decide what types of content you want to distribute.
• Build an editorial calendar that includes when you plan to distribute what content where.
• Locate or create your content.
• Distribute the content on your chosen channels.
• Build relationships with people.
• Measure results over time, and optimize your efforts as you learn what works and what doesn’t.

A Proven Content Distribution Process

As we already mentioned, content creation and publishing can get you a long way, but they can’t get you all the way. You also need to incorporate a content distribution plan into your overarching content marketing strategy for maximum success.

Consistent and effective content distribution and promotion are hard work. That’s why we offer our clients a proven plan for targeting specific buyers through audience segmentation.

We promote your content daily using contextual advertising that targets your ideal buyer personas – wherever they are online. We’ll also measure progress, send you regular reports, and continually optimize our strategies to enhance your content’s performance.

Our platform reaches close to 95% of audiences across dozens of native platforms promoting content in context for engaged users. Our optimization tactics allow us to increase engagement and click-through rate (CTR) while reducing your cost per click (CPC) – delivering you the lowest CPC possible.

We can help your business reach an engaged audience to grow your brand awareness and attract repeat visitors and subscribers to your website.

Set up a free consultation with MIG to learn more.

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