You have a lot of published content, and you want to develop a winning content distribution strategy to show it to the world and achieve positive results as efficiently as possible.
On the one hand, it’s never been so easy to engage with customers due to the large number of content distribution channels — search engines (SEO), email marketing, social media, text messaging (SMS), chat — you name it.
On the other hand, it’s never been so hard to engage with customers since more content distribution opportunities led to more challenges like information overload, high expectations about experiences, and continuously shifting behaviors. Your content distribution strategy has to account for those challenges while keeping your content marketing goals in sight.
This guide to balancing multiple content distribution goals will help you examine the current state of content marketing in your company, understand the fundamentals, generate ideas to streamline lead generation, boost conversions, and maximize marketing ROI.
How to Balance Multiple Content Distribution Platforms
Content distribution strategies can vary depending on the size of a business, the industry it belongs to, and other specific factors. However, each strategy and its success revolve around three general things:
Data, knowledge, and expertise.
Resources and their spending.
Approaches, technology, and innovations.
With this in mind, consider asking yourself a few crucial questions.
Do I Know My Target Audience Well Enough?
Do you have a clear picture of an average person consuming your content? Who is your typical customer? Before distributing content, conduct audience research to know everything about your target audience, its behavior, and habits.
The analysis of demographics, needs, preferences, interests, and other personal characteristics of your target audience will help you comprehend essential information, such as:
preferred content formats (media formats) and length
relevant topics, tone, and style
best time to post and distribute content
posting frequency
preferred channels for content consumption and communication
Even the basic information on your target demographics will help you come up with effective distribution strategy, select the right content distribution channel for the right audience, employ suitable content assets, and boost your overall marketing efforts.
The detailed profile of your target audience will empower you to use more advanced techniques to distribute your content to the right person at the right moment and through their favorite media channels. In other words, it will enable you to see the big picture and achieve the goals of your content marketing strategy.
Do I Have a Single Marketing Ecosystem?
A large-scale content distribution strategy is time-consuming and requires the involvement of a large amount of resources unless you establish a single environment for all stakeholders participating in content creation and distribution. It can be a popular content distribution platform or a custom solution tailored to your organization.
By centralizing content distribution within a single ecosystem, you can automate processes, save time, and reduce the risk of errors or duplicated work. A unified ecosystem allows for more precise targeting of your content, as you can leverage audience insights and preferences across multiple channels to tailor your content distribution strategy.
With all your distribution activities consolidated within a single ecosystem, you can gather comprehensive data on content performance, audience behavior, and engagement, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your strategy.
A single ecosystem makes it easier to scale your content distribution efforts as your audience grows or your content strategy evolves, ensuring that you can adapt and respond to changing market conditions and audience needs.
Do I Reuse Existing Content?
Content repurposing and reuse is another tremendously efficient approach to optimizing workflows, saving resources, and reaching a broader audience.
At Viseven, we reuse existing content for multiple distribution channels with the modular approach. In combination with in-house software, the approach allows our team to divide texts, images, and other assets into separate modules and reuse them in different combinations for different channels without duplication or plagiarism. For instance, content from the owned distribution channels like blog posts can be repurposed into shorter format social media posts or be reused across paid channels.
For our team, the modular content approach is fundamental. It helps clients expand the lifespan of content, maintain consistent messaging and branding across multiple channels, boost time to market, and dramatically reduce costs on content operations.
Can I Optimize Spend for Paid Distribution Channels?
Interestingly, 63% of companies use paid channels to boost content distribution, and 17% succeed in content marketing after testing new distribution channels.
Paid channels like social media ads can be extremely efficient. However, efficiently distributing paid ads while optimizing your budget involves strategic planning and thoughtful execution.
As I mentioned above, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your target audience. By knowing your ideal customers, you can use paid content distribution channels to create targeted ad campaigns that resonate with them and ensure that you use your ad spend effectively.
Consider using the targeting options provided by Facebook, LinkedIn, or other popular platform to learn how to reach the most relevant users at a reduced cost. With each paid social media campaign, your expertise will grow.
Don’t forget to regularly analyze your campaign performance data to identify trends and areas for improvement. Use social media analytics tools that can help you analyze the media coverage you get and the efficiency of ads you run. It will enable you to refine audience targeting, reach new audiences, and optimize your ad spend over time. Experimenting with different targeting parameters can help you discover the most cost-effective combinations.
Do I Explore the Latest Technology?
It’s crucial for anyone creating professional content to keep an eye on the latest technology. In the future, the integration of AI and big data will significantly impact content distribution by enabling more personalized, targeted, and efficient strategies.
AI and big data help businesses generate personalized content recommendations based on customers’ behavior and preferences, increasing organic traffic. For example, AI can help determine the optimal time, channel, and format for delivering content to maximize reach and impact. Apart from improving the efficiency of social media marketing, it will also help you choose the right paid media to save resources on publishing content.
With AI, companies can also employ predictive analytics to forecast future trends, audience preferences, and content performance, allowing content distributors to adapt their strategies proactively and optimize distribution efforts.
Additionally, AI may automate various aspects of content distribution, like scheduling, publishing, and reporting, freeing up resources and enabling teams to focus on more strategic tasks.
Final Thoughts
Content distribution is a critical aspect of content marketing that plays a pivotal role in amplifying your brand’s reach and visibility. Effective distribution not only ensures that your content reaches the right audience but also drives engagement, nurtures customer relationships, and fosters brand loyalty.
A well-planned content distribution strategy considers various channels, formats, and platforms, enabling you to cater to diverse audience preferences and consumption habits. This tailored approach helps to capture attention, deliver value, and encourage meaningful interactions with your target audience.
Moreover, content distribution allows you to reinforce your brand’s message and style consistently across various touchpoints, enhancing brand recognition and trust. By optimizing your distribution efforts, you can better understand audience preferences, measure the impact of your content, and refine your strategy for maximum effectiveness.
©2024 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved.
Originally Published on Martech Zone: How Can You Balance Multiple Content Distribution Goals in 2024?