Distribution of content is the key in Content Marketing

You have heard the saying, “Work smarter, not harder,” haven’t you?

C.R.E.A.M: Content Rules Everything Around Me.

Everyone is screaming that content is king. Everyone wants in on the content marketing space and brands from every industry are publishing content day in and day out.

How much content is created every single day? A lot.

How much content is created in your industry every single week? A lot.

Why your content marketing is not working?

64 percent of content marketers feel they don’t use content effectively. That represents a whole lot of campaigns. It’s likely that some of them are focusing on quality while others are primarily focused on quantity. Neither approach guarantees results. However, the end goal is the same: publishing great content that gets shared on social media and ranks high in the search engines.

1. The Social Dilemma! Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have enabled content to be distributed on a massive scale. The evolution from a broadcast-based model to the social-based model of distribution means that anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account can have as big an impact on a piece of content as the evening news once had. The potential for branded content is enormous.
   
   
2. You have no strategy? It’s as simple as that — most people fail because they have no content marketing strategy. As you’re creating your strategy, look at which of your competitors have already been successful. You can learn a lot from someone else’s failures and successes. Why has their content been successful? Emulate that. Where have they shared their content? Mimic that. Understand what metrics support success as viewed by management. Here is a list of some common goals and metrics.
   
   
3. You’re don’t use analytics. Once you’ve set your goals, you have to measure your success. If you ignore the analytics, there’s no way to know what works. Your goals and metrics should be based on multiple numbers. The majority of B2B small businesses measure their content marketing success based on their website traffic. This isn’t a bad way to measure success, but it shouldn’t be the only way to monitor the success of your content marketing strategy.
   
   
4. Are your targeting the wrong audience? This idea from Vishal during the roundtable is spot on: “I started doing this one simple thing where I’d go into work every morning and I’d say, “How am I going to drive revenue today?” It was a real simple statement, but that ended up driving my choice of those 85 hats to wear within the next four hours of that morning. It was extremely helpful. We’re a small group as well, so thinking that way helps use that limited amount of time and resources.” Think about it. Find your people. Your content will sail!

What is the solution? How can you do content marketing right?

Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.

Great content is useless if it is not discovered and just sits on your website. Build a plan to amplify and distribute your content. There are many innovative ways available online to distribute your content at a fraction of your content cost.

Rather than trying to produce more or better content, marketers should focus on their distribution plans. It should be part of their overall strategy. However, it’s likely just an afterthought for most of the 64 percent of marketers who feel they’re not using their content effectively. So rather than debating quality versus quantity, marketers should be debating on how much to spend on promotion.

It took me 4 yrs to grasp how to use online channels to market my product(s) & grow my startup to $1 mn+ revenue.

Here are my learnings from using 11 channels for marketing & growth.

Includes:
• When to use
• How to use
• Use it for
• Pro-tips

A mega thread 🧵

— Hrishikesh Pardeshi (@hrishiptweets) May 10, 2021

Here are a few remarkable findings featured in Ryan Skinner’s article:

• Brands can actually step down content production and step up distribution to get better results.
• An ecosystem of vendors have cropped up to help marketers drive distribution of branded content.
• The most effective promotions often come from doubling-down on past successes.
• Better distribution improves content’s quality, as the feedback cycle accelerates.

How do we match content writing with content distribution?

1. Don’t allow your king to fall on deaf ears
   Simply creating good-quality content is no longer enough. You need to have a strong distribution strategy in place to drive relevant traffic to your content. SEO shouldn’t be the only tool to help you meet your purpose of distribution. Start by creating content with an extended shelf life. When that’s done, try to reach your users early on, even before they know they need your product or service. Once you recognize the importance of a certain piece of information you have created, begin exploring options for repurposing and redistributing it for extended reach.
   
   
2. Make sure to select the right queen
   There are three queens: Owned, Earned, and Paid.
   Owned Content Distribution: This includes distributing content to web properties that belong to you, like your blog, email newsletter, social media, or microsite.
   Earned Content Distribution: This is when third-parties distribute your content or content about you through press coverage, guest article contributions, retweets or shares, or product reviews.
   Paid Content Distribution: This is when you explicitly pay for content distribution. Payment could take many forms, but often works on a cost-per-click (CPC) model where the owner of the content pays a certain amount every time someone clicks through to view the content.
   
   There are many types of content that you can distribute. From blog posts to case studies, infographics to podcasts, and white papers to videos, your distribution strategy is only limited by your imagination.
   
   
3. Marry your king and queen
   After you’ve produced valuable content, you need to lay down your goals before selecting the distribution channels you have to use for each piece of content. When you are able to answer questions such as ‘Who are you trying to reach?’ and ‘What do you care most about?’, you’ll be in a better position to determine which channel is the best fit. If someone in your network has similar goals, reach out for help. Social listening can help too. Pay attention to the kind of content your audience is sharing and where they are sharing it for a better understanding of value and distribution.

In case you forget, Remember:

D.R.E.A.M: Distribution Rules Everything Around Me.