We all know that “content is king.” That’s old news in the marketing world. Content is what attracts people to your site and lets them know what you’re all about. Ideally, the content we create would naturally attract the crowds, but that’s not always the case. More than four million blog posts are published every day, which means there’s a lot of competition and your content really needs to stand out.
But how will people find your content when there’s already so much out there? Enter content distribution.
What is content distribution?
It’s just what it sounds like— a way of promoting your site’s content so that it reaches your audiences. It applies to any type of content you create, whether it’s a how-to guide, podcast, blog post, or an infographic.
How can it help my site?
As mentioned before, many people will see your content. But beyond that, there are other benefits of distributing your content.
Brand awareness
When people see your content, it will be connected to your brand. When lots of people see your brand name, they’ll remember it— whether it’s consciously or subconsciously. If they see your brand name pop up somewhere else, it will trigger them to remember your content and keep your name in their mind.
Build credibility
People will not only remember your name, but they’ll see it as a source of information or expertise in your field. If you’re company sells chairs and you create an infographic about finding the right chair, the next time someone wants to buy a chair, they’ll remember your content and find your site.
Get Links
When other sites share your content, they’ll likely link back to your site. Backlinks have consistently been named a top Google ranking factor, which means they’re extremely valuable and will help with your site’s SEO.
Increase site traffic
Another perk of getting links is traffic referrals. When people click that link, they will be taken back to your site where they have a higher chance of converting. Even if they don’t convert, just spending some time on your site will help build more brand awareness.
Higher organic search rankings
All of the above benefits contribute to your site’s organic search rankings. When your site has good content, is seen as credible or authoritative, has a large backlink profile, and gets lots of traffic, it will be ranked higher in search engines. And that’s what any company would want.
How to promote content
Getting your content out there can be a long, tedious process, but it’s well worth the effort (remember all of those benefits!).
Look at your time
To effectively distribute content, it takes time. Start out by looking at how long you spent actually creating the content. Take that time and multiply it by two. That’s the minimum amount of time you should spend promoting content, if you want any results at all. For great results, you need to spend four times as long promoting it as you did creating. It might sound like a lot of time, especially if you spent days or weeks creating a single piece of content. But if you want to reach your audiences, you’ll need to put those hours to good use.
Identify audiences and online publications
Next, identify your main target audiences and look at where they spend their time online. If you sell surf boards, your target audience probably spends time reading online surf magazines. Or if you sell designer dresses, your target audience might often go to fashion and beauty sites. Keep a running list of these websites and online publications and find emails for editors and journalists on those sites.
Create a promotion pitch
You’ll need to create a press release for your content. Tell editors and journalists what you want them to cover, why it’s important and relates to their site and their audiences, and why you’re an authoritative source of that information. And, of course, include a link to what you want them to share.
There’s not a one-size-fits-all pitch you need to follow. It doesn’t need to be long— in fact, it’s better to keep it brief and get to the point quickly. Be creative with it. You might need to experiment with a few different formats before you find one that works.
Send pitches
Send your pitches to all of the editors and journalists you want to share your content. It can be a long process and you may be sending tens, hundreds, or even thousands of emails.
You should also follow up with people if they haven’t responded and make sure they got your email. Sometimes emails get lost when editors are receiving hundreds each day, so a follow up in the same email thread can help you get to the top of their inbox.
Look for coverage
After you’ve sent your email pitches, keep an eye out for coverage. Sometimes journalists or editors will share your content without responding to your emails, so it’s your responsibility to find out when they do.
You can use a tool like Ahrefs to look for links and brand mentions, or you can just check on the websites you pitched to see if they’ve covered your piece. Not every site will put a link back to your site. If you find someone that didn’t, you can email them again and ask them to add a link.
As you go through this process, you’ll not only realize the importance of content distribution, but you’ll see an increase in site traffic and organic rankings and come out ahead of your competitors.
