What is a Content Distribution Strategy?

You need to create loads of content to promote your business. Blog posts, podcasts, newsletters, white papers, and more. But, all of this content takes a lot of time to produce. A content distribution strategy enables you to reuse and repurpose one large piece of content you create into tons of different types of content in a variety of ways, making your content work as hard as you do to promote your business.

This concept has been around for quite a while, being made famous by marketing personalities like Gary Vaynerchuk, but we still see this method being really underused by some of the people who could benefit from it most like:

• Small Business Owners
• Start-Up Founders
• Organizational Leaders
• Busy Executives

The starting point for your content distribution strategy can be any piece of long-form content, but your content distribution plan should be formulated before you create anything. It is recommended that you spend 20% of your time creating content, and 80% of your time promoting it. Once you’ve planned the content you will create, you need to formulate a plan for recreating it in multiple forms to maximize its reach and effectiveness.

Check out these steps to creating an effective content distribution strategy.

Determine your long-form piece of content.

This is always the starting place for any content distribution strategy. Decide if you’ll start with a webinar, podcast episode, long video, a speaking engagement, or even a long-form written piece of content. This could be a brand new piece of long-form content or can be something you already have available that you’d like to repurpose.

Focus on your most important channels.

It’s important to know your audience to know which channels will be most effective. Do they spend a lot of their time on Twitter? Is the audience primarily on Instagram? Is Facebook more their speed? Or are you specifically targeting professionals in that setting? Then maybe LinkedIn is your main channel for distribution. Maybe traditional PR routes give you the most bang for your buck. Whatever route you choose, make sure you know the main channels where your audience lives and prioritize those.

Decide on your content types.

Now that you’ve decided on your distribution channel, it’s time to think about what kind of content you would like to create from the long-form piece you have already decided on. Some content types to consider are ebooks, webinars, infographics, white papers, podcasts, videos, case studies, and blogs. So for example, you could record a webinar that’s already on your calendar. From that recording, you can create shorter length YouTube videos, write a blog on the topics covered for your website, and, if appropriate, use the data points to create an infographic for Pinterest.

Set your content distribution KPIs and goals.

Setting goals with measurable results should happen alongside any content distribution plan. Luckily, most online outlets come stocked with key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can easily measure and track. It may take a while to set a baseline for these indicators in each channel you are using, especially if it is a new one for you. This graph from Hubspot makes it really easy to understand.

Build a content calendar.

There is a lot of planning that goes into a successful content distribution strategy and an editorial calendar is a key tool that can help keep you organized. You can easily create one in your favorite spreadsheet program or create one in the project management system of your choice. We personally recommend this one. A great content calendar will map out your content creation plans for a set amount of time, along with the plans for repurposing each piece of content and which channels you will use to promote that piece of content. 

Create your content.

Once you have both your long-form content plan in place as well as the smaller pieces of content you plan to make, it’s time to start creating!

Distribute and market your content.

Now it’s time to put your shiny new content out into the world. Go back to the channels you’ve already decided on utilizing and promote your long-form piece of content in those channels first. Then, begin distributing the smaller pieces of content that are specifically designed for each platform.

Don’t let your content wither on the shelf with a one and done content creation mentality. By taking the time to establish a content distribution strategy, you are giving your content new life and ensuring that it works as hard as you do to promote your business.

Want more tips on creating a content distribution strategy? Download our free guide here.

Or listen is as our CCO, Savannah Abney, explains more about what a content distribution strategy looks like below.

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