Optimizing Results Through Your Content Distribution Channels

Content Distribution is the mechanism of promoting content to online viewers through multiple media formats

About 70% of marketers invest in content marketing and 40% of marketers say content marketing is an important part of their strategy. Given all the distracting and diverting noise in the content marketing arena, not to mention the fastly growing competitors, one must deliberately carry out strategies for utmost engagement and performance for optimal content discovery.

Here are the steps worthy to follow.

Knowing Your Audience

Your audience must be your primary priority in creating your content strategy. Before diving into the specifics you must meticulously know every angle of your audience’s interests, goals, and needs. Specific details of your main audience matter. Details like age, gender, location, and goals. Even the ways and means of reaching them also help.

During this time wherein online platforms are at their prime when it comes to collaborating and connecting despite the physical (social) distancing, it is crucial to reach them through their most frequently used online platform. Your content must align with the audience’s characteristics and be intended to ensure long-term engagement. It must communicate well to certain target groups or individuals.

Moreover, your content design must cater to the location, behaviors, and interests of those target audiences. In this way, your content will be more relevant and engaging. Customizing your content design to make it more resonant with your audience’s experiences is the key to deepening relationships and creating a lasting impact on your viewers. There are abundant choices you can try to help you prepare your content based on your primary audience’s preference. There is software that offers pre-made web designs, newsletter templates, and related stuff that will come in handy as you deliver your content on certain 

Identifying Your Goals

Before diving into content creation or distribution, identifying your goals is the cornerstone of a successful strategy. This is more than just mentally noting your objectives; documenting them is critical for clarity and alignment across your team. Writing down your goals provides a solid foundation for decision-making, ensuring that every action you take is purpose-driven.

Why Documenting Goals Matters:

  1. Clarity and Focus:
    Writing down your goals helps to narrow your focus, ensuring that your strategy remains aligned with your overall business objectives.
  2. Team Alignment:
    Clearly documented goals allow your team and stakeholders to understand your vision, ensuring everyone is working towards the same outcome. This alignment fosters better collaboration and efficiency.
  3. Measurability:
    Having your goals written down makes it easier to measure progress and success. This will help you adjust strategies as needed and stay on track.

Key Considerations in Goal Setting:

  • Specificity: Ensure your goals are clear and actionable.
  • Realistic and Achievable: Align your goals with your resources and capabilities.
  • Time-Bound: Define a timeline to achieve these goals, helping you prioritize tasks effectively.

Once goals are set, you’re better positioned to select the most effective channels for your content distribution, making the next step of the strategy much smoother and more impactful.

Channel Category

When planning a content distribution strategy, understanding the different types of channels available is crucial for reaching your audience effectively. The main categories include Owned Content Distribution, Earned Content Distribution, Paid Content Distribution, and Free Content Distribution.

1. Owned Content Distribution

Owned channels refer to platforms and properties that you control, such as:

  • Blog posts
  • Social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)
  • Email newsletters

These platforms give you complete control over your content, making it cost-effective and flexible. For instance, Instagram sees 952 posts every second, while Twitter experiences 8,726 tweets per second. This is a highly reliable, long-term avenue for content distribution.

2. Earned Content Distribution

Earned content is shared by third parties without compensation. Examples include:

  • Guest posts
  • Social media shares and retweets
  • Press coverage and product reviews

According to Nielsen, 92% of global consumers trust earned media more than other types of promotion. This increases credibility and extends your reach by leveraging the trust others have in your content.

3. Paid Content Distribution

Paid channels involve compensating platforms or influencers to amplify your content. Common methods include:

  • Social media ads
  • Sponsored content in publications
  • Influencer partnerships

While this requires a budget, it allows for precise targeting of your audience and can significantly boost visibility and engagement, especially when competing for online traffic.

4. Free Content Distribution

Free distribution channels are great for spreading content without a financial investment. While these channels may not guarantee as much reach as paid or earned options, they can still drive significant engagement, especially with the right strategy.

These channels provide cost-efficient opportunities to extend the reach of your content and can often be integrated with your owned content strategy for enhanced results.

Content Reach Through Repurposing

Repurposing content is a strategic way to extend the lifespan of your material without constantly creating new content. By transforming a single piece of content into various formats—such as videos, infographics, or podcasts—you can engage different segments of your audience and increase your reach. Here are some effective ways to repurpose content:

  • Videos from blog posts
  • Infographics summarizing key information
  • Podcasts for audio consumption
  • Social Media Snippets to promote blog content

This process not only saves time but also boosts SEO and audience engagement.

Measuring Content Performance

Constant monitoring of content performance allows you to gauge its efficiency when it comes to income and profit. It provides insights as to determine your next move towards attaining your goals. This process will enhance your entire content distribution procedures since it will equip you with significant information from the documents and reports you’ll acquire through the monitoring.

Study shows that  70% of marketers invest in content marketing and 40% of marketers say content marketing is an important part of their strategy. With the enormous investment spent on content marketing, it is safe to declare the importance of monitoring content performance. According to 2020 research of Content Marketing Institute,  80% of their respondents use metrics to measure accomplishments. 

The first step of measuring content performance is to determine and decide on the metrics you’re going to use. Benchmark your identified goals to guide the process. Establishing the Key Performance Indicators in making measurements in comparison to the Return of Investment is highly suggested to make a scientific and bulletproof form of measurement.

Key metrics for measuring content performance include:

  • Internet Traffic: Tracking sources of web traffic, such as blogs and social media, helps identify which channels drive the most engagement.
  • Audience Behavior: Using tools like Google Analytics to track time on page, session duration, and visitor types (new vs. returning) gauges audience interest.
  • Lead Generation: Analyzing how well your content generates leads gives insight into its effectiveness in converting visitors into customers.
  • SEO Rankings: Tracking search engine rankings helps assess the visibility of your content in search results and its alignment with SEO goals.
  • Social Shares and Backlinks: Monitoring shares and backlinks indicates content virality and its credibility across the web.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): A high CTR shows that your content is engaging and can convert impressions into actions.

Moreover, content discovery platforms are widely utilized for user metadata which determines and recommends specifically suitable content. These are software executed to deliver customized content to mobile devices, websites, and other related channels. Listed below are top content discovery platforms that you can employ to further advance.

  • Google Cloud CDN – Google Cloud Platform releases its users from dealing with infrastructure, servers, and configuring networks. 
  • Akamai– This software specializes in providing secure and highly efficient cloud services. Furthermore, it aids in the acceleration of innovative and simplified ways to connect globally for business advancement.
  • Swarmify – This handy and resilient software empowers its users with ease of delivery despite the abrupt changes in network traffic. Its users experience easy access, ease of use with high-speed network access. 
  • Limelight Networks – This is a cloud-based content delivery channel with the most expanded private content delivery network. Limelight Networks provides its users with fast content delivery, reliable cloud security services, web acceleration services and combined with cloud storage services to enhance subscribers’ experience. 
  • Microsoft Azure CDN – This cloud computing platform and mechanism supplies a universal solution for swift and high-bandwidth content hosted by Azure or any other apps. It aims to create and execute managing applications and services for app optimization.
  • Amazon CloudFront – This CDN (Content Delivery Network) software delivers messages smoothly through edge locations (a global network). It integrates Amazon Web Services products to enhance businesses and web developers’ performance through accelerating content delivery to end-users. 
  • Cloudflare – This cloud-based software is well known for its secured online services. This is objectively designed to unify developing technologies to improve clients’ experience through advanced web protocols. 
  • KeyCDN – This is one of the most affordable content delivery networks that offer immediate content delivery. This CDN is cost-efficient yet high-performing. Best in collaborating with other infrastructure sources to maximize functionality and efficiency. 
  • Fastly- This cloud-based platform produces a fast, secure and scalable online experience by way of anticipating and mitigating threats and fast-paced technical innovations. 

Optimizing your content distribution strategy is key to effectively reaching and engaging your audience. You can maximise your marketing efforts by understanding the importance of various content channels, continuously monitoring performance, and leveraging content repurposing.

Staying aligned with your goals and adapting to ensure sustained growth and impact is crucial. Your content can significantly enhance brand visibility and drive measurable results with the right approach.

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