We’ve been talking a lot here lately about creating compelling content. But that’s only half the battle of successful content marketing; just because you’ve penned a winning blog post doesn’t mean anyone will read it.
If you want your audience to absorb your valuable insights and look to you as a thought leader, you need a solid content distribution strategy.
To that end, here are three essential questions to ask.
1
Where is your audience?
Where are they seeking and consuming information? Traditional media sources, or Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn?
2
What is the nature of your message(s)?
Theme, format and tone should play to both the interests of your audience and the strengths of the channel. Opinion pitches or hard news, for example, are often best suited to traditional and trade media. Quick thought-provokers or playful banter, meanwhile, works well on social media – and it’s a more immediate opportunity to drive traffic to your website.
3
Does your audience need or want your content?
Why is the information you’re sharing valuable to your audience? What problem does it solve? Or otherwise, how does it inspire or engage? Pushing out content nobody cares about risks tarnishing credibility with your audience and allies (e.g., reporters, editors, etc.).
Taking these issues into consideration, your strategy will most likely involve a mix of channels – blog, newswire, industry publication submissions, social media status updates, email and more.
It’s also important to stagger the rollout of any given piece of content. You’ll get more mileage out of each idea, help build momentum and, last but not least, make sure it gets released on time depending on the outlet.
Ragan Communications, and more specifically Ragan’s PR Daily, for example, do a good job of working different channels to reach different segments of their audience, disseminating information via the web, email and social media networks.
