Smart Content Distribution Is Key To Getting Traction; Here’s How To Do It Right

Intro

Content marketing is the name of the game for B2B companies. According to Forbes, 90% of marketers include content in their marketing strategies, highlighting its essential role in connecting with audiences, building brand identity, and enhancing online visibility.

Marketers know that great content can make a real difference, but the question is, how do you do it right? According to the same report, only 29% of respondents claim their content marketing initiatives have had a beneficial impact on lead generation and revenue growth.

But it’s not the lack of great content that’s holding them back. Rather, it’s getting that content seen by the people who matter. A well-thought-out content distribution strategy can make all the difference, outlining who your target audience is, where they are, and how they can be reached.

You’re competing in a crowded space, with over 7.5 million new blog posts published every single day somewhere on the internet. To stand out, you need to think carefully about where your content goes. Get this right, and you’ll get the results that you’re looking for.

Choosing the right distribution channels

Source

You should already know your target audience and, more importantly, where they are online. Once you have identified the most influential websites and blog pages in the niche you’re targeting, you can focus on publishing your content there, getting it in front of a large, highly-targeted audience that’s likely to care about what it is you have to say.

By targeting relevant blogs, websites, trade publications, and social media pages, you’re putting your content out in the places where it’s most likely to generate clicks. In doing this, you’ll gradually strengthen your website’s domain authority, increasing its ranking on search engines – an important goal for any content marketing initiative.

Social media

Social platforms like X, Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn are all extremely powerful distribution channels. They attract huge audiences and generate tons of brand engagement.

You’ll need to develop strategies for each one, taking advantage of its unique characteristics. On X, you’ll mostly look at hard-hitting, short-form content in line with its character limits, while on Meta, you can be more flexible. For LinkedIn, its built-in blog platform and lively communities offer fertile ground for more in-depth blog posts that can spread across its network. You can publish thought-provoking posts on your LinkedIn profile and encourage your employees to share them to boost reach. Instagram means focusing on visuals, while TikTok is all about snappy, short video content.

Once you’re up and running, you’ll likely want to invest in some automation tools that can help to simplify social media content distribution. Apps like Sendible and Agorapulse will allow you to schedule posts in advance to ensure you maintain a constant presence, and you can utilize social media listening tools like Sprout Social to keep track of how often your brand is mentioned or to identify other trending topics, allowing you to participate in the conversation.

Press releases

Aside from social media posts, it’s crucial to create content in the form of press releases that can be distributed through newswire services to hundreds of journalists and news websites. Any time your company has something newsworthy to share, you can share it far and wide. Journalists often utilize newswires because they provide access to the most current, industry-specific goings-on, giving them fresh material to write about.

Compared to legacy press release distribution services that circulate news to overused lists of general news sites, you can achieve better results by choosing a niche newswire that publishes your press releases to specific and relevant publications within your industry. For instance, MediaFuse offers several different newswire services, targeting crypto and blockchain, finance and fintech, gaming, and cybersecurity. Each wire service has established strong relations with industry-leading publications and can offer guaranteed, amplified coverage of your latest news to the right readers. They provide a powerful way to generate awareness and establish credibility for your brand.

Nadav Dakner, founder and Chief Executive of Media Fuse, stressed that laser-focused content distribution is the key to driving more meaningful engagement.

“By placing your news and content at the forefront of prominent industry publications, you significantly increase the likelihood that it will be seen by investors or potential customers,” Dakner said. “When your name appears where your future stakeholders and buyers are already looking, you get noticed, and that recognition can greatly enhance your credibility”.

Newsletters

A newsletter is another winning distribution channel for your content. After all, subscribers have already expressed interest in your product by signing up. Content in newsletters can include blog posts, announcements, case studies, research, industry reports, events updates, and promotions – both from your brand and others in your industry. Be sure to deliver this kind of content consistently, every week or twice a month, to ensure your brand is constantly on the radar.

You can take it a step further and segment your subscriber lists for greater relevance, tailoring your newsletter to different audiences, segmented by their interests, demographics, and buyer stages, for example.

Keep in mind that newsletters are a great way to promote your content on other platforms, not just your website. As best-selling marketing author Ann Handley points out, newsletters are especially great for building up momentum on social media.

“Your newsletter is not a tower, it’s a bridge to your other marketing,” she notes. “Do you have a LinkedIn or Facebook group? Highlight questions or discussions in your newsletter. Have an Instagram? Share its images in the newsletter.”

Customizing your content for each distribution channel

It’s a bad idea to try to distribute every piece of content you create across every single channel. Different types of content perform better on some channels than others, so it’s important to be selective about what you share.

For instance, those who have signed up for your newsletter have shown enough trust in your brand that they’re willing to provide you with contact information. That means they’re suitable for targeting more explicit sales-focused content. It’s far more likely that they’ll convert and buy your product or service than someone who’s just come across your brand for the first time via a social media post. On the other hand, if you have content that promotes thought leadership or competition, social media platforms are where you need to be.

You can still share content across multiple platforms, but you’ll need to alter the formatting to fit. For instance, a blog post on “how to get more paid ad clicks” would go into great depth on LinkedIn, whereas on Facebook or X, you might want to share a graphic that summarizes the main points and links to the longer piece.

For press releases, you’ll need to use a traditional PR format complete with your company’s boilerplate information. And if you’re adding content to your newsletter, it’s better to tease those clicks with a catchy headline and either a small excerpt or a summary of what they’ll learn when they read the full article.

Measuring the success of your content distribution

To do this, you’ll need to consider the metrics you’re interested in and establish clear benchmarks regarding what you’re hoping to achieve. You can then employ data-driven techniques to optimize your content and its distribution to increase its effectiveness over time.

Establish your KPIs:

For most brands, the ideal key performance indicators include your content’s reach, namely the number of unique visitors, page views, and impressions. You’ll also want to monitor engagement, which includes comments, likes, shares, and time spent on the page. Then, there’s actual conversion, which means keeping a tally of lead generations, sales, and new subscribers or sign-ups.

By monitoring these metrics, you’ll get a clear picture of your content's impact and whether or not it’s helping you achieve your business goals. If your ambition is to increase conversions, you’ll want to focus on lead generation and sales, but if you’re simply going for more brand awareness, then you’ll be most interested in reach and engagement.

Analyze your performance:

You can employ a wide range of techniques to analyze the performance of your content and measure those KPIs.

For instance, content audits involve logging, analyzing, and optimizing your content over time. You can also use comparisons to gauge the impact of two different versions of the same content and how well they’re received on different platforms. Tools such as Google Analytics can help you to keep track of organic search referrals, and then you can evaluate each distribution channel to see what works best for each content type.

A/B testing is an essential technique that involves comparing two versions of a marketing asset to see which one performs better for a specific goal, such as increasing sales leads. Using tools such as Convertize, you can randomly show one version or another to different audiences and make data-driven decisions as you attempt to optimize your content.

Because more than 60% of marketers produce fresh content each day, it becomes vital to continuously optimize your performance. By leveraging feedback from audience engagement, you’ll be able to make continual adjustments in real time and monitor how they affect your business objectives.

By setting your business goals and monitoring the KPIs, you’ll be able to track, measure, and report on the overall success of your content distribution strategy.

Take your time, get it right

A carefully planned content distribution strategy will make all the difference in getting your content seen. It will also help you connect with your audience and fuel business growth. By crafting the right strategy, using effective tools, and optimizing your content for each distribution channel, you’ll be on the path to success.

Experiment with new approaches and different platforms, and don’t be shy to try something new. Once you identify a successful formula, the engagement will follow, leading to a growing recognition of your brand as an authority in the subjects that matter most.