This article has been written by Manasa Raghuvaran pursuing a Diploma in Business English Communication for International Professionals and Remote Workers course from Skill Arbitrage.

This article has been edited and published by Shashwat Kaushik.

How to maximise content distribution platforms

Content creation is only half of the battle. Effective content distribution is crucial to your audience and to reaching your goals. While many articles focus on traditional, paid and organic methods, there are various other channels and strategies that can enhance your distribution efforts.

This article will explore diverse content distribution platforms, helpful tips for creating impactful content, and strategies to ensure your content remains timeless.

Influencer collaborations

Extended Reach: Influencers have built-in, loyal/niche-specific or refined audiences that trust their recommendations. Collaborating with the influencers can help you tap into these audiences effectively.

Tip: Influencers add a layer of trust and credibility to your content, making it more engaging.

Here comes the question: How do you do that? Don’t worry I have got you covered.

Identify Relevant Influencers: Use tools like BuzzSumo, Upfluence, HypeAuditor etc, to find the influencers whose audiences align with your target demographic. It is also important to look for engagement rates, follower demographics and content relevance.

Offer the influencers something valuable, such as commissions or partnerships that benefits their audience.

Tip: If you are short on funds to offer to the influencer, then try to opt for a win-win situation. Devise content in such a way that you and your influencer can benefit from the audience.

Work together on blog posts, social media posts, and videos and ensure that the content feels authentic and more of the influencers style.

Content syndication networks

Generally, it is a different form of earned media distribution in which existing content is repurposed on third-party websites or platforms.

Syndication allows your content to be seen by a larger and more diverse audience.

Identify the platforms, like Medium, Taboola, LinkedIn Pulse, etc., where you can re-publish your content. It is ideal to tailor your content for each platform by tweaking headlines, formatting, CTA’s, etc.

Use analytics to track the performance of the content and placements and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Tip: Proper syndication can improve your SEO through backlinks, leading to improved Google rankings.

Email newsletters

The direct way to reach your audiences is through email newsletters. Subscribers who opt-in are generally more engaged and interested in your content/service or service, leading to a higher CTR%.

Build an email list: Offer free services/content or anything that benefits your audience for free as lead magnets to encourage sign-ups. Utilise tools like Mailchimp to manage the list.

Tip: Analyse the customer pain points and your business services, then create a lead magnet specific to your audience.

A lead magnet can be a trailer or teaser of your services or products, and at the same time, it should benefit the customer.

Craft engaging newsletters

Create value-packed newsletters that offer insights, case studies, offers, discounts, updates, etc. It is ideal to personalise the content based on subscriber preferences and behaviour.

Tip: Add easy-to-share elements such as social media buttons and encourage the customers to forward the email to friends and colleagues.

Podcasts and webinars

The most popular way to skyrocket your audience is through podcasts and webinars.

Audio and video content can be more engaging than text; we can capture the attention of users who prefer these formats.

• Build authority: Regular appearances on podcasts and webinars can establish you as an authority in your area or they can be used for personal branding, which builds more credibility among your audiences.
• Host your own: Use platforms like Anchor and Zoom to create and distribute your podcast or webinar. Remember to plan the content specifically for your audience.
• Guest appearances: Leverage speaking opportunities at industry conferences and webinars.
• Identify relevant events: Use platforms like Eventbrite, Meetup, YouTube, and event listings to find conferences and webinars that are specific to your niche.
• Develop a compelling speaking proposal that highlights your expertise and the value that you bring to your audiences.
• Deliver engaging presentations that offer practical takeaways. Make use of interactive elements like Q&A sessions to connect with people. These practices will provide opportunities to network with other industry leaders, collaborators and highly engaged audiences interested in your niche.
• Tip: Live sessions provide immediate interaction with your audience and help to build credibility.
• Reposting Your podcast: Reposting your podcast or webinar on all the platforms will attract users from different platforms.
• Spotify podcast: post it to Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music.

Short video on TikTok; post it to YouTube and Instagram.

Community platforms and forums

These platforms help you reach highly targeted audiences interested in specific topics. These platforms enable direct connection with your audience, fostering relationships and trust.

Identify relevant communities: Use platforms like Reddit, Quora, etc. to find communities discussing topics related to your content. Join social media groups that align with your niche.

Participate in the discussions by providing insights, answering questions and sharing your expertise.

Tip: Avoid self-promotion and instead link to your content when it fits the conversation.

Content partnerships and guest blogging

Guest blogging content partnerships introduce your content to new audiences, driving traffic and increasing brand awareness.

Find suitable partners: Use tools like SEMrush and Ahref’s to identify websites and blogs with overlapping audiences. Reach out with personalised pitch proposals featuring mutually beneficial content exchanges.

Create high-quality guest posts: Write detailed, valuable articles for partner sites that include lines back to your content. Ensure the posts are well researched and relevant to partner audiences.

Promote your guest posts through your own channels and the same applies to your partner sites as well. Leverage the platform’s insights to reach your goal and devise a strategy accordingly.

Essential insights on how to choose a content platform

• Research and identify your specific audience niche.
• Identify where your audience will mostly hang out online and where they prefer   consuming content.
• Tip: Analyse the demographics of website visitors.
• Use analytics to analyse the historical data of your target audiences.
• Identify the current trends in content patterns in your niche and align them with your targeted platform.
• Research how you can reach your audience beyond paid or organic platforms.

How to develop a content plan for each channel

Creating goals for your strategy is very crucial. Think about your short-term and long-term goals. What are the success metrics that you want to achieve? How many new customers are you hoping to acquire?

• Develop a content plan based on the insights gathered from the research. As the algorithms are different for every platform, it is recommended to personalise your content plan specific to each platform. This will help to reach more users.
• Use a content calendar to track content and distribution.
• Prioritise owned channels.
• Content optimisation is key to reaching more customers and ranking on Google. Plan for SEO-optimised content and backlinks.
• Leverage the analytics insights to make data-driven decisions and customise the content plan. Measure the platform success rate and switch the platforms from low performing to high performing content platforms.
• Leverage the content collaborations for better reach.
• Make tweaks to the old media posts and data you republish and repurpose them to engage with your audiences.
•  Encourage user-generated content.
• Always plan for enduring content that is highly effective and highly engaging, and content should connect to your audiences at any point in their lives.

How to measure the success of content distribution

We have many types of metrics to analyse the success rate of our content. Decide how you will determine success. Here comes the note that tracking the right ones for the right business goal is key to achieving success.

Website traffic : It shows how many people visit our site. We can determine the website’s popularity and content reach.

Social media engagement : It measures how much interaction our posts get, how well our content aligned with our audience. 

Conversion rates : They tell the percentage of visitors who have taken the desired action, like signing up, etc.

Cost per acquisition: It reveals how much it costs every time to gain a new customer or lead through our content efforts. It also helps in analysing market spend.

Attention metrics : They measure how much time users spend engaging with our content.

Bounce Rate: It gives the percentage of visitors who have left our site after viewing only one web page or the audience who has left the site within the first 5 seconds after visiting.

Understanding and tracking these metrics plays a crucial role in evaluating content distribution efforts. By focussing on these key indicators, we can refine our strategies and optimise our content to reach our goals. 

Tip: If the bounce rate is higher, that means we need to take a look into the content on the landing page. Analyse the entire content, include keywords and proper CTA’s wherever necessary, include high-quality imagery and make the changes in the content.

Dear Readers, now comes the interesting part!

What is ageless and enduring content

It is the content, which is always valuable to your audience, likely to be shared with decent Google rankings. Writing this type of content revolves around the topic, irrespective of trends, news, patterns, or age group.

Examples of ageless and enduring content ideas

• Conduct original research and think from the customer’s perspective to create practical content.
• Leverage and stay updated with trends that resonate with your audience and incorporate them into your content.
• Highlight common mistakes that beginners make in your niche to help others avoid them.
• Provide a list of five free and paid tools that benefit customers.
• Make use of the most engaging content from the existing and convert it into a new format and republish it across different platforms.
• Create a checklist for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business.
• Share best and worst practices to meet a specific goal.
• Offer comprehensive information about a product/niche that readers need to know.
• Present case studies in your niche. Remember to showcase successful case studies.
• If your niche is the finance industry, then you can present, “5 platforms you need to stop investing immediately if you are in the finance industry.”
• Outlining things to avoid in order to successfully reach your goals.  

Conclusion

Effective content distribution goes beyond just using paid and organic methods. By leveraging a variety of platforms and strategies and focussing on creating timeless content, you can maximise your reach and impact.

Remember, the goal is not to just have a wider reach but to engage and convert your audience. So, quality content matters! Continuously optimise your content and channels for a better conversion rate.

References

• https://www.evereffect.com/blog/how-to-develop-an-effective-content-distribution-strategy-10-steps/
• https://blog.aspiration.marketing/en/optimal-content-distribution
• https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-marketing-plan
• https://letterdrop.com/blog/content-distribution-strategy#:~:text=To%20build%20a%20content%20distribution%20strategy%2C%20identify%20your%20target%20audience,distribution%20tools%2C%20and%20measure%20results