How to Distribute Your Content Effectively

Oftentimes, content creation is such a complex process that marketers breathe a sigh of relief when they press publish, thinking the job is done. In reality, that’s when the real work just begins. For the content to take off and deliver results, you have to promote and amplify it.

In this article, we’ll show you how to distribute your content so that it gets in front of as many people as possible.

Why Distributing Your Content is Essential for Success

Ross Simmonds, founder at Foundation Marketing, believes “Content distribution differentiates a piece of content that thrives and one that falls flat.”

If your SEO-optimized blog post is generating 1,000 visitors to your website, you could double (or even quadruple) that traffic with a proper distribution strategy. More traffic means more leads, which in turn translates to more customers and increased revenue.  

11 Ways to Effectively Distribute Your Content

1. Use Newsletters

There are two approaches to publicizing your content using email newsletters. The first is to launch your own and build a community of devoted readers around it. Then, publish valuable content to keep those readers engaged, aligning the newsletter issues with your overall content strategy.

For example, use pop-ups on your website to notify visitors that they can sign up for your company’s email newsletter list. Whether you send your newsletters out weekly or monthly, choose your most recently published blog content, guides, and guest content to include within your newsletters, so your readers are notified of what you’re writing and why. This will keep them informed and educated, but make sure you keep growing your subscriber list over time. And, don’t forget to periodically weed out inactive subscribers so you can maintain strong deliverability. 

Another tactic is to build relationships with people and brands behind popular newsletters in your industry. Share their content in your newsletter to give them a reason to reciprocate the favor, which will get your content out there to a wider audience. 

2. Submit a Guest Blog

Look for high-authority websites in your industry that accept guest contributors. Reach out to content managers in these blogs and pitch your blog ideas, and be as unique and non-promotional as possible. Chances are that some will decline your proposal, while some will jump at the opportunity to work with you. 

When you contribute a guest article, you can link back to your website or your social profiles in your bio. But, if you’re creating high-quality, non-promotional content on your company’s blog, you can also link to those pillar posts within the body of your article. And by using key terms as anchor text, you’ll improve your SEO in the process. Getting these links placed on outside sites not only assists with your SEO strategy but also increases the chances that people who frequent those sites will click those links, come back to your website, and enter into your inbound funnel.

3. Share on Twitter

Twitter has over 460 million active users, and there are many ways to put your content in front of these users. 

The most obvious method is to share a link and headline of the content in a tweet. Beyond that, cull the most interesting parts of a blog post into a Twitter thread and add a link to the blog.

You can also find ongoing chats where your audience is involved regularly. Find relevant questions and plug in links to your content that answer these questions. 

Another underused method is retweeting. For example, if you stumble upon a tweet of a customer venting or ranting about a poor product or service, use that moment. Retweet their comments and add a link to a piece of content that offers a remedy to the problem.   

4. Share on LinkedIn

LinkedIn offers many opportunities to share your content. What sets it apart from other social channels is that it has a publishing functionality. Use LinkedIn’s article publishing feature to republish a blog post in its entirety as a LinkedIn article. LinkedIn then puts these articles in the feeds of those who are most likely to find it useful, helping you tap into a network you may not even be connected to. 

Statistics have shown that posts on LinkedIn with images garner a 98% better comment rate than those that are text-only, so be sure to add images to your posts. In addition, posts that link back to the original asset have a 200% higher engagement rate. 

5. Show Up in Reddit

As of December 2021, Reddit had more than three million subreddits. Each subreddit comprises a targeted community interested in a specific topic from marketing, health, entertainment, and more. Find subreddits where your audience hangs out and look for opportunities to submit links to your content. 

Keep in mind that each subreddit has its rules, so make sure you abide by them. Build authority first by answering questions and commenting on posts without adding links and market later. Otherwise, the moderators could potentially mark you as spam. 

6. Engage Quora Users

Quora users are distributed across over 400,000 topics. Regardless of how unique your business is, there are users on Quora looking to learn something about it. 

Create a list of Quora questions that are relevant to the content you’re publishing. Narrow down to highly followed questions (those with more than 500 followers). Answer the questions, and, where possible, embed a link to your content. 

7. Leverage Influencers

The success of this distribution strategy comes down to finding the right influencers. Don’t pursue mega and macro-influencers unless you have the deep pockets to get them to ink a deal with you. 

Rather, build relationships with micro-influencers (between 1,000 – 10,000 followers). These are people who are more inclined to work with you and have a highly engaged audience, which will work in your favor. Plus, they probably won’t ask for monetary exchange, and instead, you could work on some sort of mutually beneficial collaboration. 

8. Use Online Communities

Find online communities where your target audience spends time and get involved with them. This can be via LinkedIn groups and communities or Facebook groups, for example. Keep in mind people in these communities are either asking for or offering help, so make sure you’re focus is aligned with that. 

When capitalizing on these groups, the most important thing is to tailor your content to match the intent and preferences of the community members. If they love breakdowns, personal stories, or analysis, give them just that. Again, contribute first and only share links to your content that is applicable and will genuinely help them. 

9. Leverage Slack Communities 

There are tons of Slack communities out there, especially for link swapping and guest post exchanges. Tap into these channels to expand your partnerships, offering to place high-quality links that will add a little something to your content. Once your content goes live, those that added their links will help you out by sharing it on their channels. 

You can also distribute your content on these channels, as long as it makes sense and, again, isn’t too frequent. As always, follow the community guidelines and make sure to share your content on the right channels. Keep in mind some Slack communities have set aside days for members to share their content.

10. Add Links to Live Assets

If you have a YouTube channel, list your top-performing videos. Then, add a link to a content asset that is relevant to each video in the video description. This is something so simple that it can have a big impact on how far your content goes. 

11. Include in Your Email Drip Campaigns

Your sales funnel presents a ton of opportunities for you to share the content you’re creating with purpose. When your leads enter your funnel, they’re looking for resources, educational material, and content that can help address their questions, and better familiarize themselves with what it is you do. As long as you’re creating content with your audience in mind, then you’re in a prime position to use that content by adding it to your email drip campaigns and getting it to the right people at the right time. 

Remember, your content lifecycle isn’t complete once you hit publish. You need to ensure your content is seen by the right people (and at the right times). Make sure you not only distribute your content by incorporating it into your social media calendar but also tackle the methods mentioned above for ultimate success. 

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