How do you distribute your brand’s content? Distribution is a key element of the content marketing mix and a lot of brands struggle with it. What’s the point of creating content if nobody is listening, reading or watching?

You can’t assume your audience is going to be so fascinated they seek out your content without being prompted. You don’t want your audience stumbling across your content by accident. You need to give the audience what they want, when they want it and where they are open to receiving it.

Adopt a PR perspective

Episode 43 of the Brand Newsroom podcast covered the topic of distribution focussing on where brands typically struggle. According to co-host Nic Hayes, Managing Director of Media Stable, brands are failing to understand the distribution element of the content marketing mix because they are failing to fully assume a PR perspective. He believes getting engagement with the media will only get you 50% of the way to successful distribution. To fully distribute your content in an effective way, you must also distribute through your own channels and networks. If you don’t do that, Nic believes, “You’re just blowing out hot air”.

Adopting a public relations perspective means finding the ‘story’ and identifying the newsworthiness in your content. If you’re not sure that you’re pitching to your local media effectively, ask for feedback when you push out your content to them. This can make a positive change to your processes.

Remember it’s you who knows your own content the best. You shouldn’t be looking to other brand’s success stories with content marketing distribution, as each solution will be different and one size does not fit all.

Cost-effective distribution

If you’re struggling to see the desired results from your content marketing distribution, you may need to work on building your audience. One way to do this without exorbitant costs is brandscaping.

When you brandscape, you collaborate to create content with a brand who is complementary to yours and shares a similar audience. This means you and the partnered brand will share the cost but extend the reach of this content without competition.

Using a PR perspective, brandscaping is also valuable as you share the one point of contact to the media. According to Nic Hayes, this one point of contact works to distinguish your story from the rest as you minimise the clutter the media receives, and provide them with an offering featuring two experts rather than one.

How much to invest?

Still worrying about cost? Research shows that about 10% of your content will drive about 90% of your website traffic and luckily, the digital landscape allows you to pick and choose when and where you invest. The hard part is recognising what that lucky 10% is before it gets out there. As Sarah Mitchell says,

“It’s almost impossible to predict what’s going to be a hit and what’s not going to be a hit.”

So how much money and how much time should you spend on this component? This is a complicated question, and unfortunately the answer isn’t so straightforward. As Sarah says, “It depends on your business objectives.” Ask yourself, what is your audience in each channel look for? Analyse this information and invest your money accordingly.

What about content you’ve already generated?

One of the great things about content marketing is that you can develop valuable investments to recycle and republish as time goes on. If you have existing gems in your archives, a particularly great time to consider redistributing old content is when your audience is growing, as your new audiences might get new value out of old content.

You may even be able to alter your content slightly to make it topical for current times. Revisit your library and consider whether any of your existing content could be made relevant with relatively little effort. Consider what timing will make your content relevant. For example, if you have a fitness business, the first week of the new year will be a lucrative time for your business because of new years resolutions.

If you are struggling to manage your content distribution and need help, contact Lush Digital Media. We create content marketing strategies for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

By Carla Young