Who is reading your content, converting from your content – or hell, even seeing it at all? For a marketer or business, it can be a hard fact to swallow that your content is not being consumed by the public, least of all your target market. It’s says nothing about the quality or plan of your content, it comes down to the distribution channels you are using to get your content out there. If you don’t even know which content distributions are available to you, here they are.
Owned channels
This is the most elementary channel, and still, so many businesses fail to include their elaborate content marketing strategy on their own website and onsite content. The benefit is that you can do it in-house, and can improve your standing with some simple changes. If you think that your owned channels can only drive traffic if there is paid supporting it, you aren’t thinking detailed enough. Revisit all your content and determine whether it is keyword rich and whether or not those keywords are featuring in titles and places of prominence. This can be achieved with an SEO audit. There is no point spending money on a campaign if the landing page will not bode well for conversions or hold its own without the paid.
Paid outreach channels
So now that your owned channels are firing as they should be, you can look to implement an outreach calendar. By doing this, you can ensure that your content is being distributed on pages with high authority. This link building strategy is powerful for SEO, but don’t treat it as only that. It’s also an opportunity to have your business linked to content that reads well and persuades the audience to visit your destination page to learn more and even convert.
Earned channels
This channel will taste the sweetest, but it is the hardest to acquire and is quite unpredictable in nature. Earned content distribution can be achieved through publicity, guest contributions, shares, retweets or reviews. Unless you have dedicated resources in this space, try not to focus all your attention here as it won’t always bear fruit. Instead, think of it as a great benefit, but not an assumed success. You can generate a little bit of this magic on your own by turning product or guest reviews into content streams, although they will be housed on your own distribution channels.
Social media channels
Your social channels are particularly powerful, and frequency is favoured here so no need to hold back. This distribution channel is where you can begin to flesh out your brand story or build out content surrounding your FAQ’s. It’s also where you will get the most direct contact with your audience, so stay vigilant on responding to comments and reviews. The more comments you receive and respond to will keep you higher on the feed, so remember to ask questions and call for opinion each time you post and you will be able to sidestep that pesky algorithm.
Sponsorships and partnerships
With more channels than we know what to do with, you can have your content appearing on just about any platform. Blog posts are easy and effective, but there is also white sheets, case studies, videos, podcasts and eDMs. While there are points for creative channels, it has to make sense for your brand and be a viable channel for your ideal audience to consume and convert, so keep it in the realms of reality.
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These 5 distribution channels will have you well covered and will roll into your greater digital strategy of creating more backlinks. Doing this will, in turn, increase your rank and page authority. Like the rest of your marketing endeavours, a good mix of distribution will make sure you are appearing in more places and capturing more potential customers.
