What are the best practices for developing a content distribution strategy that supports your brand goals?

1 Define your content goals and metrics

Before you start distributing your content, you need to define what you want to achieve with it and how you will measure your success. Your content goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, you might want to increase your website traffic by 20% in the next three months. Your content metrics should be linked to your goals and track the performance of your content across different channels and stages of the buyer's journey. For example, you might use metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, engagement, and retention.

2 Identify your target audience and channels

Your content distribution strategy should be based on a clear understanding of your target audience and their needs, preferences, and behaviors. You need to create buyer personas that represent your ideal customers and map their content consumption habits. This will help you determine the best channels to reach them and the type of content they are looking for. You should also consider the strengths and weaknesses of each channel and how they fit your brand goals. For example, if you want to boost your brand awareness, you might use social media, email marketing, and influencer marketing. If you want to drive more sales, you might use search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and webinars.

3 Create and optimize your content

Your content should be relevant, valuable, and engaging for your target audience and consistent with your brand goals. You need to create content that addresses their pain points, answers their questions, and offers solutions. You also need to optimize your content for each channel and format, using keywords, headlines, images, and calls to action that attract and retain attention. You should also follow the best practices for content readability, accessibility, and usability. For example, you should use short sentences and paragraphs, bullet points, headings, and white space to make your content easy to scan and understand.

5 Test and experiment with your content distribution

Your content distribution strategy should be flexible and adaptable to changing market conditions and customer feedback. You need to test and experiment with different aspects of your content distribution, such as the channels, formats, headlines, images, and calls to action. You should also use tools such as analytics, surveys, and social listening to monitor and measure the results of your content distribution and identify what works and what doesn't. You should also be open to trying new and innovative ways of distributing your content, such as podcasts, videos, or interactive content.

6 Review and refine your content distribution strategy

Your content distribution strategy should be constantly reviewed and refined to improve your performance and achieve your brand goals. You need to analyze the data and insights from your content metrics and feedback, and compare them with your content goals and benchmarks. You should also evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of your content distribution and determine the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of each channel and format. You should also look for opportunities to optimize and enhance your content distribution, such as repurposing, updating, or syndicating your content.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?