Efficient distribution lies at the heart of every successful content marketing campaign. By the time you have gone through all the effort to create something unique and interesting, you will rightly feel that your brand deserves a strong social media reputation that will bring in a large audience for your content.
But because there are so many methods of distributing content for social media, blogs, vlogs, videos, photos, and plenty more, it’s hard to pinpoint which specific distribution channels are worth focusing on. Luckily, years of content distribution have shown the many strengths and weaknesses of different communication channels.
Source: Unsplash
Based on these popular practices, we’ve compiled a list of the best content distribution channels you can use to maximize your reach and garner a larger audience. We’ll be dividing them into three separate groups of owned, earned, and paid.
Owned
Owned content distribution channels are assets entirely under your control. Blogs, websites, social media profiles, podcasts, email campaigns, podcasts, and vlogs are all owned content distribution methods. The main advantage is that companies have the power to dictate how, when, and exactly what content they will distribute through these channels.
Ramp Up the Social Media
Source: Unsplash
Social media platforms are the loudspeakers of a company’s voice. If you really want your content to reach a wider audience, then get busy posting, reposting, and sharing content on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
For example, if you create a blog post for your website, summarize it, include a link to the full article, and post it on your social media wall. This way you repurpose content you’ve already created into new content for social media marketing (SMM).
Combine the unique posts you created for each social media platform and create a social media wall that can be added to your website. This way, you’ll repurpose all that content, engage your website visitors, expand your reach, and show off how active your company is with its followers on social media.
This is the magic of social media marketing; there’s just so much you can do as each platform offers its own creative freedom. Crafty social media marketers will know their audience and understand the strengths of each platform, which they will use to their advantage. For example, if a company is developing the voice of a professional, then LinkedIn would be their best bet for SMM. Whereas a more casual and layback company may focus on platforms like Instagram.
To successfully reach a large audience and maximize the reach of your brand, make sure that your social media marketing is in full force. With a solid content calendar synced up with a detailed SMM plan, you should have no trouble maximizing your audience on social media platforms and potentially reaching millions.
Email Is Still Holding Strong
Source: Unsplash
You may think email marketing campaigns are antiquated, but you’d be surprised at how effective they still are to this day. In fact, Statista claims that by the end of 2023, email marketing revenue will reach an estimated 11 billion US dollars, which is not a small number by any means.
Email marketing campaigns are super easy to set up thanks to a myriad of automation tools. In only a few minutes you can create an advanced campaign that will send content to countless emails and monitor their progress. With the collected data, marketers can tailor the campaign to be more effective, improve email opening rates, and increase their reach.
Youtube – When Words Are Not Enough
Source: Unsplash
Besides being a limitless entertainment platform, Youtube can also be an amazing marketing tool. Think about it: millions of people across the world tune in to watch hours upon hours of video content. This is why videos are an important element in successful marketing campaigns.
A great way to utilize Youtube as a content distribution channel is by repurposing existing content into videos and shorts. If you have a blog article that has performed exceptionally well on your website, turn it into a video and publish it on Youtube. If the blog managed to garner plenty of traffic, there’s a good chance it can reach even more viewers as a video on Youtube.
As for quick content creation, you can also adapt content into Youtube Shorts for more bite-sized videos. These are incredibly easy to make as Youtube comes with tons of helpful editing tools to help you create Shorts on the go.
And on top of that, Youtube comes with a slew of analytic features that can help track your video marketing metrics and the success of the campaign. Look through your content to see what can be adapted into videos. This will help extend the reach of your content, as well as its longevity.
Paid
Now let’s look at the kinds of content distribution channels that are booked and paid for. These are services that companies can book to help them diversify their content distribution methods and maximize their audience through several targeted content marketing campaigns.
Influencer Marketing
Source: Unsplash
If you regularly use social media and online entertainment platforms, chances are you’ve come across influencers, or creators famous on that particular platform. These influencers earn a lot by helping companies advertise their products.
You’ve most likely heard a few of your favorite Youtubers advertising Nord VPN for Chrome, some Instagram influencers marketing an image editing app, and so on. So, why is influencer marketing so effective? For a pretty simple reason: it’s content distribution but with a face.
At the end of the day, users consume content because they are looking for some sort of feeling or sensation. Nothing is as good at producing feelings and sensations as other humans. This is what makes influencer marketing so powerful and why an influencer can be a great
Influencer marketing requires at least some relevance between your content and the influencer’s own. Keep in mind; no book of rules prohibits influencers from promoting things that are not entirely relevant to their own content.
However, to reach an audience that is most likely to engage with your content, it’s important to work with influencers whose work shares some of the features as yours. Relevancy, in this case, is a fundamental ingredient for an effective content marketing campaign.
Imagine you’ve created an in-depth blog post on the topic of combating procrastination and improving focus. This content could work with a wide number of influencers, but the most organic marketing tactic would be to work with an influencer who covers personal growth and professional development.
Their followers know that, when they are consuming this influencer’s content, they are getting advice for their life and work.
The influencer then mentions how there’s an in-depth guide on how to reduce procrastination, linking to your content. So now, their users are likely to follow the link to your content as this is something relevant to them.
Effective Social Media Advertising
Source: Unsplash
As if social media wasn’t important enough on its own, there’s also the separate matter of posting sponsored advertisements on different SMM platforms. This can be effective at reaching a wide audience since so many people use social media daily. Throwing a few paid SMM ads into the mix could give your content the exposure it needs to maximize its audience.
There are plenty of nuances to optimizing social media promotional posts for maximum conversions, such as the question of relevancy. As with influencers, paid promotions on social media are only effective if they can capture the interest of their viewers.
For this, they also have to be relevant. A great example of how to pair content with relevant advertising is picking the right platform to promote your content on.
If your company provides business-to-business (B2B) software services, then your products and services are not very visual and are not for the common person. This eliminates platforms like Instagram and Facebook where people rarely go for professional software services.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, is the perfect fit for promoting your content to garner a larger audience. This platform is intended for professional networking, so you’d be advertising your content to prospective clients.
Earned
When your content starts taking off, you’ll see it being distributed on its own through a variety of new channels. These are what industry specialists call “earned” distribution channels. They are neither owned by the brand nor are they paid for by the company.
These are natural forms of distribution where other content creators, brands, companies, and plain individuals spread your content themselves.
Backlinks – The Backbone of Traffic
Source: Unsplash
You’ll know your content is resonating with audiences when you find backlinks on websites and platforms you never reached out to. Now keep in mind: unlike the other 2 categories of content distribution channels, backlinks are typically out of your control.
The best you can do to earn backlinks from high-quality websites with strong domains is to post helpful or interesting content yourself.
Sharing Is Caring
Source: Unsplash
While social media profiles and posts are media distribution channels that you own, there’s still the matter of earning word-of-mouth marketing, which, in the case of SMM, is sharing. One of the most effective methods of getting the word out about a new product or a company’s latest milestone is to get users engaged enough to share the news with others.
Getting other social media profiles to share your content across the platform is not something you can control or pay for. This is something you must earn by gauging what kind of content your audience likes to receive and what will interest them enough to share your SMM posts with others.
So long as you create content that’s honest and piques the interest of even a handful of users, there’s a good chance the posts will be shared and increase their reach.
Offer a Helping Hand
Source: Unsplash
You can’t force people to take an interest in your content. However, you can get your name out into the vastness of the internet by engaging with online communities. Take part in discussions, live streams, or answer questions, and some users are bound to reciprocate by checking out what you have to offer.
One of the best places to do this is Quora. You may have already used Quora a few times to find the answers to some pressing questions. Content marketers have seen just how helpful websites like Quora can be and are now targeting them.
For example, a company specializing in SaaS could ask some of its marketing specialists to pay attention to Quora and answer as many software-related questions as possible. This type of content is accessed by countless people around the globe.
You can go a step further by leaving a link to the company’s blog or website in the answer. In short: by simply answering a single question, you have the opportunity of gaining thousands of new viewers.
Sense of Community
Source: Unsplash
Another great way to maximize the reach of your content while engaging with people online is through communities and groups. For example, promoting your video which reviews the latest camera lens would be most effective in a photography pro or hobbyist group.
And these online communities are everywhere. Facebook Groups, Discord servers, Subreddits, public chat rooms, and other online forums are more fantastic ways to connect with a user base and expose your content to them.
Just remember one important caveat to this kind of distribution: be sincere. Online communities, especially private ones, are very particular about advertising within the group. The last thing admins and moderators want to see is a new member spamming their content only to have it met with a bunch of negative comments and reactions from veteran users.
Enter the group, get to know the people there, what their interests are, and their group dynamics. Be sincere with your presence there and engage with the other members. Only then can you gain their trust enough that they will be interested in seeing what content you have to offer outside of the group.
Final Thoughts on Content Distribution Channels
It’s important to note that each individual channel is not always going to be effective on its own depending on what type of content you’re producing.
For example, an in-depth guide on how to use your product may garner the interest of existing clients who regularly visit your website. However, this same guide adapted into a social media post will not fare as well, since a large chunk of your followers may not be familiar with your product.
So, to get the most out of your content, make sure to use the right channels and repackage content to be used in others. This network of easily accessible content will surely maximize the reach of your brand and product.