How to Build an Effective Content Distribution Plan

 

How can you build an effective content distribution strategy?

What if I told you there is an easy way to build a powerful content distribution channel that actually works.

Yes, there is a way… and all you have to do is apply some simple steps in the process. But why do you need a distribution strategy?

Because a proficient content distribution plan will get your content in front of your target market and enable you to create bonds with your buyer persona.

This will result in trust and credibility–moving target market to take the desired action.

Hence, to help you build an effective article distribution plan, the first thing you need to do is to identify the objective(s) of your content.

This brings us to…

What do you want your content to achieve?

Find your content objective and take advantage of it. When trying to identify your content goals, the following questions might come to mind.

Do you want to:

• Drive more massive traffic back to your site?

 

• Attract millennial to your product or services?

 

• Increase email signups?

 

• Create brand awareness?

 

• Improve website engagement?

 

• Etc.

Another area you need to consider when building your article distribution strategy is to understand and define the nature of your target market.

Who do you want to reach with your content?

To better understand and define your market persona, you will also have to analyze the following questions:

• Who is your target buyer?

 

• Where does he come from?

 

• What is the gender of your target market?

 

• Where does your audience always hang out on social media?

 

• When does he go online?

 

• What is his favorite channel for content consumption?

These are important questions that need answers. And if you can find the answers, you will be in a better position to build an effective content distribution platform.

Pro tips:

Pinpoint your content marketing goals. Identify and define your audience, in terms of:

• Who they are
• What interests them most

 

• Where they’re hanging out, and

 

• How they interact with your content.

More on what to consider when building a  content marketing strategy.

Do you know how your target audience consumes content?

You cannot possibly create a perfect article distribution plan without knowing how your buyer persona engages with your content and his favorite content consumption channel.

If you can find your audience’s content consumption platforms, you will be able to go where your audience is–that is, put your content in front of them, and speak directly to your audience.

When you’ve gathered the following data based on the questions above, you’ll be able to develop a perfect content distribution strategy that actually works.

The next step is to…

Document your content distribution plan

Why should you document your digital content distribution strategy?

Because documenting your distribution strategy will increase your content marketing success rate.

But the truth is, only a handful of marketers have a documented content distribution method to work with.

To back this up, research by the  Content Marketing Institute (CMI), in collaboration with MarketingProfs indicates that 48% of B2B small business marketers have a documented distribution strategy, while 60% of their B2C counterparts who have a documented content distribution strategy have increased their content marketing success rate.

 

Hence, with a documented plan, you will have a road-map to guide you along the way–thereby increasing the efficiency of your content marketing campaign by eliminating unnecessary techniques.

That is why 65% of marketers say their greatest educational problem is to know how to build a content strategy.

 

Now that you have successfully mapped out the “what” you want your content to achieve,  “who” you want to reach, “how” they consume content, and “why you need to document your plan, what’s next?

It’s time to analyze the distribution channels available to you…

To develop a perfect content strategy, you have two options available to you. You either go the premium way or you go the organic/freeway.

In both cases the is no winner, as marketers are having tremendous successes using both strategies.

It all depends on the objective of your content and the steps you’re using.

However, although you have the free or organic and paid options available, these are also classified into 3 groups, including:

1. Owned distribution
2. Earned distribution, and
3. Paid distribution

 

 

Let’s talk about these categories a little:

• Owned Distribution – This is a strategy that involves distributing content to web properties that belong to you, such as; your blog, via your email newsletter, your social media profiles, and other relevant platforms.
• Earned Distribution – This technique works when third-parties distribute your content through different channels including; press release coverage, guest post contributions, retweets on Twitter and other social shares, product reviews, etc.
• Paid Distribution – Paid content distribution works when you pay for your content to be distributed. Payment for this strategy takes many forms, but on many occasions, it best works on a cost-per-click (CPC) deal, where the owner of the content pays a certain amount every time someone clicks through to view the content.
  

But for optimal result, I recommend you use all these strategies. This will enable you to skyrocket your marketing campaign, and you will be able to pinpoint what works best for you.

So then, let’s discuss the two primary distribution channels available to you.

Organic content distribution channels

The organic distribution, which is free, encircles both “owned” and “earned” distribution strategies.

It is the free channels you can take advantage of to establish your audience and engage with them without paying a cent.
The best organic content distribution channels are email marketing, social media sites, etc.

Let’s start with email marketing…

1: Email newsletters

You need to apply email marketing to your distribution strategy as 90% of marketers view emails as the most effective content distribution channel, according to Marketing Charts.

 

But the truth is, you cannot send out emails without a list of subscribers. The must be recipients who will receive your emails, that’s why you need an email list.

That means, if you do not have an email list, start building your list right NOW!

Use powerful tools like Optinmonster, Thrive Leads, etc, to grow your list. Use strong calls-to-action to move users to sign up for your list.

This article by Buffer will also help. You can  gather visitors email addresses and build your list via:

• Gated content

 

• E-book download

 

• Newsletter subscription

These strategies will enable you to build a database of targeted email subscribers.

So, if you have invested in building your email list, you can promote and distribute your articles to your subscribers and Increase return on your investment (ROI).

Your email recipients will, in turn, share your content on social sites to reach more people.

*Important* Bear in mind that not all who will submit their email address are quality leads, you have to nurture them to mature or qualify as quality leads.

Therefore, create highly informative content pieces and use automation tools to add the content in your welcome email sequences.

From there you can nurture your subscribers.

Once you’ve generated some leads, start sending out newsletters to your subscribers with links to your blog content.

Add links of your articles to your email signature to make it easier for recipients to find your blog. Encourage them to share your content by embedding social share buttons.

2: Blogging and syndication sites

Using your personal or business blog to distribute blog posts is one of the best content distribution strategy you could ever apply.

Your blog is your online empire where you regularly produce blogs to drive traffic, attract leads and convert them.

So, share links to your blog content across different platforms.

Do your blog have social media share buttons?

Many times after reading an interesting post and want to share it on social, I realize there are no share buttons on the blog. This makes it difficult for readers to share your content.

Hence, add social share buttons to make it easier for your audience to share your articles.

Apply influencer marketing to Increase the chances of your article reaching more people by mentioning others in your blog posts.

And when your post is published, reach out to them to let them know about the mention and links to their sites.

For example, in one of my recent posts where I mentioned Larry Kim of WordStream & MobileMonkey and other influencers, Larry shared the post, then contacted me to edit the anchor text.

 

Hence, send out emails or tweets to those you’ve mentioned.

This will give them the opportunity to share your post with their audience and also ask you to edit the article in regards to how you’ve mentioned or talked about them.

Pro tips:

• Share links of your blogs on social media sites.

 

• Mention influencers in your posts.

 

• Republish your blog content on different syndication sites.

Some of the best syndication sites you can take advantage of are:

• Growth hackers

 

• Zest.is

 

• Inbound.org

 

• Viral content bee

 

• Medium

 

• Bizsugar

 

• Etc.

These steps will enable you to distribute your articles and reach a wider audience.

3: Social media

Social media provides amazing platforms for marketers to scale their businesses in many different ways, including conversing with clients and prospects to understand what is their most pressing needs.

With social media engagement, you also get to know how your audience view your brand, what content types they want from you, etc.

However, the best rule of thumb for social media marketing is NOT to be everywhere.

Choose a couple platforms (especially the major social media sites) and focus your attention there.

Here’s what to do…

• Always create and share valuable blog content.

 

• Use visuals to make your content more appealing.

 

• Share your posts at optimal times of day–depending on your target audience Geo-location when they’re sure to be online.

 

• Be active and interact with your audience, customers, and prospective customers.

 

• Ask questions to find pressing issues your audience is dealing with and offer a solution by linking to relevant content on your website.

*Important* Inasmuch as it’s necessary to have a presence on the major platforms, make sure you choose social sites where your audience hang out and consume content.

4: Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the method of using keywords and keyword-phrases to increase your content visibility on searches and improve Google rankings.

When you use targeted keywords in your content, it enables Google bot to determine what your content is about, what each web page contains, and how relevant your content is to users search query.

SEO pro tips:

• Find keywords and keyword phrases that are relevant to your content topic.

 

• Use keyword tools to find and analyze what keyword terms your target audience is searching online, keyword volume and keyword difficulty.

 

• Use the keywords you found most relevant to create content and make sure each content be focused around that keyword and related keywords. This will enable Google to determine what your content is about, and boost your search ranking.

 

• Create quality content. Marketers have figured out that longer blog posts perform better on Google. Why? Because they’re in-depth, well researched, and packed with valuable information. This type of blog content attracts quality inbound links which help to further increase your Google search rankings.

Paid distribution channels

Paid content distribution channels are fascinating platforms because they put your content in front of your buyer persona.

It is paramount to your business’ success in that, from an SEO perspective, paid distribution drives targeted website traffic.

This distribution strategy is ideal when you want to give your content optimal reach.

For example, a new product deserves all the extra boost it could get to reach more people, attract new customers & prospects, and generate new leads.

So if you have a new brand, a new product or service, or want to host a webinar, etc, to generate new leads, paid content distribution will enable you target quality leads that you can convert to buying customers.

Therefore, paid distribution is a formidable force that must be integrated into your marketing tactics.

Further, you can easily gauge your campaign metrics and measure your results with paid content distribution.
However, there are different types of paid networks, and here are a few of them:
Ad networks – Ad networks are also known or called “Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising (Ads).” These distribution channels take your content to your buyer persona.

But because it is a PPC tactic, whenever users click to engage with your content, you will pay for the clicks.
Interestingly, there are two types of Pay-Per-Click advertising:

1: Search PPC

Search PPC is a technique where you pay for keywords to show up as sponsored search results.

This means that when users search for the term or related terms, your sponsored keywords will appear first at the top of the search result page.

Here’s an example of a search PPC in the screenshot;

 

In this example, I searched for the terms, “content marketing tools.” As you can see in the screenshot above, the first result has a green “Ad” box before the URL.

This is a paid keyword, sponsored search, or search PPC ads. Although there are different search Pay-Per-Click networks, Google AdWords is the most popular.

2: Content PPC network

The second option for PPC ads is Content Pay-Per-Click advertising. This is a network of websites that offer different content formats, such as; text, images, videos, audio, and so on, often through widgets.

In other words, this option uses content discovery networks to advertise your content.

This technique is exceptionally great if you want to attract more people to your brand and increase brand awareness.

Pro tip –

• Your campaign objective is to reach more people and convert them to leads. You can’t do that without building relationships with them. So make sure your ads campaign directs users to highly interactive content that will add value to their lives. That way, visitors may be more inclined to sign up for your email newsletter.

Paid social channels

Paid social networks allow you to run ads campaign that target a clearly defined segment of users.

However, bear in mind that social advertising differs across platforms, and depending on your campaign goals, use common sense when assigning ads budget.

Consequently, before allocating budget and running your ads, pay attention to the following:

• Do you want to increase brand awareness?

 

• Do you have a new product and want to create buzz to generate more product awareness?

 

• Do you want to drive more website traffic?

 

• Do you want to generate more quality leads?

 

• Etc.

These are some important questions to consider. Thus, pinpoint which social ads or platforms best suite your campaign goals.
It might be one social platform, or a combination of two, three, or four platforms. What matters is to figure out social sites that will help you hit your target.

Let’s discuss a little about what each social media advertising (ads) network offers:

LinkedIn – This professional social networking site is the top-level spot for B2B marketers. Why?

Please look closely at the infographic below…

 

The analysis shows that 80% of B2B marketers generate leads from LinkedIn, 90% of B2B marketers are using LinkedIn over other social media networking sites.

Furthermore, 46% of all social traffic for B2B marketers is from LinkedIn, while 95% of B2B companies are using LinkedIn to distribute content.

Hence, LinkedIn ads are great for your business even if you’re not a B2B marketer. Why?

Because a sponsored LinkedIn content helps you to attract new clients and prospects to your business page. In turn, you can convert them to quality leads.

LinkedIn ads also let you send InMail messages to potential clients. It allows you to send direct messages even to people you’re not following.  

Instagram – Instagram is an image focused platform that allows users to share visuals to engage their audience. Instagram ads services are incredibly amazing.
But since Facebook acquired Instagram, to use its ads services, you must have a Facebook page and Facebook advertising account.

When you have the above mentioned in place, and based on your campaign purpose, you can then choose a campaign that will help you attain your aim.

Twitter – This mini-blogging platform of 280 characters offers advertising campaigns that will enable you to accomplish your marketing objectives.
Twitter advertising can help you achieve the following:

• Boost website engagement

 

• Grow your followers

 

• Increase web traffic

 

• Generate more leads

 

• Increase conversations

 

• Etc.
  

Facebook – We cannot possibly round this up without the mention of Facebook advertising.

This giant social networking site comes with fascinating ad tools and features that will–like other ad networks take your business to the next height.

Although Facebook ads services are similar to Instagram and other social sites, what’s vital is that you select promotional services that will enable you to progress to your target result.

Conclusion

In concluding this article, please take note of some important elements of content distribution as indicated in above.

There are many distribution options available to you, so make sure to evaluate your options correctly for optimal return on your (ROI).

This will give you a profound understanding of both your target market and the best distribution channels for your campaign.

Establish and document your content distribution strategy, promote and distribute your articles to Increase its influence and impressions.

Business People Working in Office– stock image

 

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