It’s time to rock another year of content marketing, but what content distribution channels are working in 2019?
If you don’t have a true content distribution strategy, your content marketing is going to fall short. Don’t think that you can send out content on any old network and get the results that you want.
Continue reading this article to find out where you should distribute your content for the best results.
Distributing Your Content in the Right Places
When you’re distributing your content, you may just want to get it out there. You don’t really care where you’re putting it and you’re doing the shotgun approach.
Go!
Go!
Go!
While that might sound like a good strategy, it isn’t going to be that effective. You need to understand who your target audience is and distribute your content where they are.
Who Is Your Target Audience?
You should know who your target audience is even before you start creating content so you should know the answer right away.
If you haven’t figured out your target audience, you may need to go back to the drawing board and learn more about content marketing.
If you’re just creating content for the masses, you’re not going to serve your target audience. You need to speak directly to your audience so you are helping them with their pain points.
Where Does Your Target Audience “Hang Out”?
Once you are sure that your content is in alignment with your target audience, you can figure out where your audience hangs out.
Depending on your audience, they may spend a lot of time on social media. Other audiences might be easier to reach by sending out a promotion through a partner’s email list.
Once you know who your audience is, it makes it much easier to decide on your distribution channels.
How Do They Like to Consume Content?
Besides where your audience likes to hang out, you need to figure out how they like to consume content. Some of your audience will want to view videos, others like to read blog content.
You can figure out how they like to consume content by doing A/B split testing. Try putting out the same content via blog post while also running a video with the same content.
See which content performs the best. Do this a few times with different information so you can get more of an idea of what is truly working.
Benefits of Different Distribution Channels
If you find a distribution channel that is doing really good, you might think you should focus on that channel only. While it is good to have focus, you want to have at least a couple of channels so all of your eggs aren’t in one basket.
Owned Media Content Distribution
Many people forget about distributing their content on their own platforms. You can think about your website, blog, and even social media platforms that you’re active on.
These channels are almost free for marketers to use, so why are they so underutilized? Because what is free is often taken for granted. Don’t be that person.
Think about other departments of your company that can distribute your content. How can you work together to get the information out to your customers and potential customers?
Build upon older content and update it with key information.
Share your company’s content with your employees. Let them know about it and that you want to get the word out. If your employees don’t know they can help – they won’t help.
Don’t forget your own email lists. While it might feel like a lot of work to put an email together to promote a piece of content, email marketing makes a major difference. Even if your email is very simple, it can get a lot of eyes on your new piece of content.
While you do have options with these “free” methods, the reach of organic continues to decrease.
Third Party Media Content Distribution
Third party media is everything else outside of what you own. There are so many options but again, keep in mind where you’re going to reach your target audience.
The largest benefit of paying third parties to distribute your content is that you can get a lot of reach. If you have the budget for it, putting money into high-quality third-party media content distribution can help boost your content in a big way.
Let’s say that you have a pretty limited budget. Even if you have a limited budget, there are ways to get creative. You can look at the big sites you want to buy media on and see what their minimum spend is.
If their minimum spend is too high, you can always write and ask them if they have a smaller affiliated site. If they have a smaller affiliated site, the amount of ad spend you have to commit to is likely to be smaller. Even if they don’t have an affiliated site, they may refer you to another opportunity that will work better for your budget.
Don’t forget guest blogging. Blogging for free on other people’s blogs is a great way to get a link back to your site and exposure to their audience. Make sure the blogs you are posting to will get you in front of your ideal audience.
Continue to Learn More About Content Distribution Channels
You don’t have to stop learning about content distribution channels and content marketing with this article. We have more great reading for you. Read our article about marketing in niche industries.
