Content marketing consists of two separate processes: content creation and content distribution. If you nail them both, you’ll earn better brand visibility and a boost to your reputation. Many companies, however, excel at just one or the other.
Content Creation: Engage, Inform, Entertain, and Persuade Your Audience
Great content delivers value. It leaves the reader feeling like he or she has gained something. It could come in the form of a laugh at an amusing turn of phrase or an insightful idea that changes how your reader thinks or views the world.
If that looks like a difficult goal to achieve, your eyes don’t deceive you. It takes skill and hard work to produce great content. However, the effort can yield tremendous rewards.
For instance, long-form content—articles and blog posts that exceed 1,000 words—often attract the most attention. According to Curata, longer content can increase lead generation by nine times. Even if only a fraction of those leads converts into customers, you’re still ahead of the game.
Shorter content can still maximize your inbound marketing strategy, but only if it delivers real value. You have to push your readers’ buttons and urge them toward an action of your choosing. You might want them to visit your product page or download your e-book. You must build your content around that call to action.
Content Distribution: Find Your Audience and Convince Them to Engage
Once you write your content, you have to put it out in the world. If your content never finds an audience, it can’t deliver a return on your investment.
Content distribution requires a carefully orchestrated plan. If you publish your content through the wrong channels, you’ll annoy your audience or never find one at all.
Although the term “content distribution” sounds like a one-step task, it actually refers to a longer process. After you publish the content, you have to promote it. Make sure its intended audience can find it on the web whether it’s hosted on your blog or shielded behind a paywall.
The Content Sandwich: Putting Content Creation and Distribution Together
Now that you understand the process, it’s time to put these two separate processes together. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a handy guide for getting the most out of every piece of content you create.
Start With Social Media
Even if you host your content on a different website, social media offers one of the most powerful tools for content distribution. To ensure you have a reliable framework in place, start building your social media presence.
You might start with just one platform, such as Facebook or Twitter, then expand into other social media sites. Share great content that others have created so you build trust with your audience. Establish yourself as the go-to marketer for great information so that your followers will feel confident reading your content, as well.
Having a strong social media presence gives you a built-in audience. It also doesn’t restrict your publication channels. You can post content on your own blog, someone else blog, or anywhere else on the Internet and promote it in one place.
Build a Content Creation Team
If you want to create amazing content, you need a professional in your corner. You want to produce in-depth, meaty articles with perfect grammar and logical structure.
You can hire an in-house writer and editor, but that might prove cost-prohibitive. Another option is to outsource your content needs to reduce the costs but still walk away with amazing content.
You might also need a graphic designer if you want to produce infographics or use images alongside your written content. As with a content creator, you can hire an in-house professional or outsource the work.
Design an Editorial Calendar
Now that you have a team in place, decide when and what you want to publish. An editorial calendar projects your content creation and distribution plans for the next several months. Brainstorm ideas for content, find a professional to write each piece, and schedule your publication dates.
An editorial calendar creates a framework for your content. It ensures that you have a plan in place and an end goal in mind. For instance, if you’re using content marketing to build up anticipation for a product release, you can build your content plans around that specific goal.
Develop Syndication Channels
Syndicated content forces each piece you create to pull double duty. You can publish it via multiple channels and exponentially increase your exposure.
The only problem lies in the search engines. Google will penalize duplicate content, so you can’t just copy and paste your article or white paper on multiple websites.
Writing for Hubspot, blog strategist Kathleen Celmins recommends using teasers to syndicate your content. Publish the article on one website, then write several brief summaries or recaps for other channels. Link to the original article from the teasers.
You can syndicate your content on social media, on other people’s blogs, and on industry forums. Use those resources to put your content in front of as many people as possible.
Curate an Email List
Email offers one of the most powerful content distribution tools. It allows you to speak directly to your target audience through their inboxes. Use your blog and social media accounts to capture email addresses from potential customers so you can let them know when you publish content.
You might want an editorial calendar for your email list, too. Maybe you’ll send out a newsletter once a month to update your audience on your latest activities. Some businesses send emails once a day or once a week. Maintaining a consistent schedule helps build trust among your subscribers.
Avoid Alienating Your Audience
Now that you know how valuable content distribution can become, you might feel tempted to blast your audience with promotional social media posts and sales-ridden emails. Resist the urge.
If you constantly flood your Twitter feed and email outbox with promotional messages, your audience will learn that you only care about clicks. All the trust you built with your social media following will evaporate in one fell swoop.
Instead, Moderate Your Communications
Create a mix of social media posts every day. Most of your posts or updates should include non-promotional material. Offer helpful tips, point out exciting advancements in your industry, or start conversations with potential customers.
Sprinkle in a few promotional posts in between the others. You can post an excerpt from your content to whet your audience’s appetite and to provide something of value right off the bat.
Make Friends With Your Audience
If you want to master killer content distribution, you need to turn your followers into ambassadors. Make them want to promote your content for you. Convince them to sing your praises in their own circles.
How do you accomplish this? Make friends with them. Engage with them on social media and turn yourself into an indispensable resource. Most importantly, start conversations by asking what they think and delivering thoughtful responses.
Use Exit-intent to capture bouncers
Exit-intent popups are triggered once the user tries to get away from your article thus it’s your last chance to capture runaway’s attention.
What’s great about exit-intent technology is that it can be customised to target specific people, in specific region and with specific interests so offering something that will catch reader’s attention gets a lot easier.
Have a look at this article, it covers everything you need to know about exit-intent popups that generates leads.
Mastering the Perfect Combo
As you can see, content creation and distribution work best when you master them both. Great content leads to increased visibility while reliable distribution channels ensure that great content finds an audience.
The above tips will help you reach your goals, but pay attention to your own results, as well. Every business has a distinct and unique audience, so you might find that you need to tweak your efforts to suit your followers.
Now that you’re armed with knowledge about amazing content and killer distribution, go forth and create content, then make sure people see it.