Content Distribution Tools: You Might Not Need MORE Content

As an inbound marketer, the benefits of creating valuable content for our website visitors are obvious.

Content has been the staple of an inbound strategy for years, but many marketers are missing one thing: the marketing. 

When approaching content marketing, how long do you spend creating it? What about actually marketing it? 80% creation and 20% distribution and promotion? An even 50/50 split? 

Well, according to Social Triggers, you should be spending only 20% of your time actually creating content, and 80% of the time promoting and distributing it.

Content without the marketing ISN’T content marketing, it’s just content. Without a huge social audience or subscriber list that is actively sharing and promoting your content for you, you won’t nearly reach the number of people you want.

Let’s throw a hypothetical in the mix. If you write a blog post and it gets under 1,000 views, chances are there are a LOT more people out there that would get value from your content.

Why, then, would you spend time creating more content when you already have something that hasn’t hit its full potential?

Instead of creating another piece (which, let’s be honest, probably takes a lot more effort), why not turn that 1,000 views into 10,000?

With a few robust content distribution channels and tools, you could be reaching a lot more of your potential customers with the content you already have.

The secret to reaching more viewers with your content has very little to do with how much you are creating, but rather how good you are at getting what you make in front of more people.

But easier said than done, right?

Well here is all you need to know about distributing your content, and some great tools for maximizing your viewership.

The 3 Different Types of Content Distribution Channels

Before showing you the tools, let’s dive into the three different types of distribution channels there are, and how you should strike a balance between the three.

First off are owned channels. Owned channels belong to you and are under your direct control. This includes your website, blog, email. These channels are probably the ones you use most for promoting your content.

Next, is earned media. Now, this is where the tricky stuff comes in. Others are involved, sharing your content or regulating HOW it’s shared. Social media, (where you or others post your work for the algorithm to then take over), guest blog articles, online communities, customer product reviews, and most media coverage are all forms of earned media.

Last is paid distribution. Basically, any exposure that you are paying for, including pay-per-click ads, print ads, and social media ads.

By identifying which methods you are using and which ones you can afford to put a little more time towards, you can strike a perfect balance between these three distribution channels.

Without further ado, here are some great ways to get your content out there!

Tools for Owned Distribution Channels

GoodBits

Next up, GoodBits helps you incorporate your brand into every aspect of your email newsletters. There is an easy, drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG editor that you can use to collect content created by brand and display it seamlessly.

Allowing the addition of RSS, Twitter feeds, and more lets you create an email newsletter full of amazing links to your content for you to distribute. You can then integrate with MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and HubSpot to customize mailing lists to send it to.

Sigstr

So you send regular promo emails or newsletters, who doesn’t? But what about the rest of the 10,000 (on average) emails sent annually? How can you market with normal, day-to-day communication? That’s where Sigstr comes in.

In its basic form, Sigstr gives your marketing team the power to improve their reach by integrating promotional content into the signature of your emails.

By using Sigstr email signatures, you can drive traffic to a specific landing page or content offer and improve your conversions. Even if you’re just building brand awareness, Sigster can maximize the number of clicks on your emails. Anything you can do with a CTA on your site you can do with Sigstr in your emails.

Sigstr also allows you to customize who receives what content, too. By integrating with HubSpot it lets you personalize CTA’s and content distribution based on who you are trying to market to and track what CTA’s are getting the most engagement.

Earned Media

Buffer

Buffer is great because it gives you a way to simply schedule your content on social media. It allows you to freely write posts for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Google+ with one click. You can also create a backlog of social posts scheduled for later at chosen times and add images easily.

Buffer is unique because it keeps data on content that you’ve already posted, letting you bring it back to life by showing what worked and what didn’t.

Using it can help you to analyze your social posts campaign performance to figure out what language is most engaging and how you can improve what you post. It’s all about making your content marketing more efficient...

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