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There are over 6 million blog posts published each day.
Sure, 99% of those aren’t from your direct competitors, but you’re competing with them for attention all the same.
The key to cutting through the noise is to find new content distribution ideas to get your assets in front of the right audience and get people engaged with your material.
C-suites and finance departments often worry about the tangible benefits that content distribution brings to the table. They want to know how these campaigns help bring in new business. Fair enough.
Well, how does over 26,000 page views in a week sound?
Those are the results of Ross’s distribution strategy for one of our most successful case studies.
Now, imagine you drove this massive engagement to a landing page optimized for conversion. Ross has used similar tactics to drive some incredibly impressive marketing results:
- Making the front page of Reddit seven times.
- Over 1 million visitors via social and referral traffic.
- Over 1.2 million views on Slideshare.
- 500,000 impressions on Twitter.
- 40,000 views a month on LinkedIn.
That’s the power of content distribution.
With that in mind, let’s explore 10 actionable content distribution ideas that your marketing team can implement in 2024.
10 Content Distribution Ideas to Expand Your Impact
I should start by saying that there are many more content distribution options available than the 10 on this list — this is just a jumping off point to get you started.
Experiment with a few to see what works and what doesn’t for your business and audience, and you’ll find that you see more and more avenues for effective distribution to expand your online presence!
1) Pin Key Content to the Top of Your X Account
This one’s an oldy but a goody.
Utilize the ‘pin’ feature to ensure that your most important content remains visible at the top of your feed to receive the attention it deserves for new followers.
For instance, many brands pin major product announcements, industry reports, or rebrands, making it the first piece of content a visitor encounters, which can improve engagement rates and drive traffic to their primary content assets.
Amanda Natividad, the VP of Marketing at SparkToro, currently has a pinned thread with 623 retweets discussing the impact of zero-click content.
It’s a 15-part thread that provides a lot of value with a link to a long-form SparkToro post that elaborates on many of the insights from the thread.
Instead of relying exclusively on SEO or internal linking to drive traffic to this page, why not give it some prime real estate on another popular platform as well?
A solid X thread takes a few hours to draft, edit, and post — which isn’t bad considering this is an effective marketing strategy to drive traffic to your website. That’s a solid investment of time for something that can live for years at the top of a social profile.
2) Share Images from Your Asset as a LinkedIn Post
Visual assets are a powerful tool for storytelling. They are also great when it comes to content distribution.
Add compelling graphs, screenshots, and infographics from long-form content to your social platforms, like LinkedIn, to stop scrollers in their tracks, captivate attention, and generate interest in your content. This is also a sneaky strategy to regurgitate previous material with little extra work.
For example, we recently published a long-form report covering the results of our survey on the state of AI in marketing. The report is chock-full of data-rich graphics that visually summarize the results for easy consumption.
These are the perfect types of images to share for information-hungry marketers on LinkedIn.
If you’ve invested in any type of detailed report that includes custom imagery, grab a few of the most compelling or controversial ones, and post them across social media to entice viewers to explore the full document, driving traffic to your site and increasing your content’s reach.
A few likes from a handful of interested followers can start a snowball effect that boosts the visibility of your post by appearing as suggested content for their followers — providing instant value to your audience while expanding your reach.
3) Run Paid Advertising on Instagram
Instagram ad targeting can reach specific demographics to ensure your content reaches those most likely to find it valuable. For example, I recently came across a paid ad from LinearB, a software delivery management platform, promoting a downloadable ebook targeting engineering leaders.
(I’m not an engineering leader, but don’t blame them. I spend a lot of time scouring websites.)
The ad itself is eye-catching and well-designed and has a simple, low-effort CTA to download the ebook.
The beauty of paid ad distribution is that you know that someone will actually see the content. LinearB may not have a large organic following on Instagram, but LinearB can greatly extend that reach with a well-crafted ad.
Using PPC for social media helps you extend the reach of key content assets well beyond that of your existing social audience.
For more tips on how to do this, we recently looked at the paid ads that brands like Mimecast and Barracuda use to build brand awareness and drive leads to key conversion pages.
4) Create a Long-Form Post for a Relevant Subreddit
Reddit contains millions of niche communities that dive deep into specific topics, including communities focusing on professional topics (marketing, programming, sales, etc.). This makes it a hotspot for marketers who need help with everything from customer research to content distribution.
Distill key points from your long-form content into an easily digestible Reddit post to establish yourself as an authority and eventually drive traffic to your site.
Of course, this is a bit trickier than on other platforms. Redditors are notorious for their BS detection, and any obviously promotional or spammy posts will be down-voted or removed.
That’s not to say you can’t use the platform for content marketing and distribution — many SaaS brands do.
Here’s an example from the r/marketing subreddit.
Andrei Zinkevich, co-founder of the ABM agency Fullfunnel.io, posted a detailed breakdown of the lessons he learned while doing demand gen that earned over $5 million for his clients. The post includes:
- Five key takeaways from eight years of work doing demand gen and ABM.
- A walkthrough of the specifics of a successful campaign.
- A TLDR recapping the post for time-crunched Redditors.
- A gentle CTA to follow him on socials and join Fullfunnel.io’s weekly newsletter.
The post generated a lot of engagement for an industry-specific subreddit, including multiple dialogue threads between Andrei and interested marketers. This includes going the extra mile for individuals by providing even more detailed breakdowns across multiple comment threads.
Reddit is quite the beast in marketing, but this is another example of how investing some time in providing high-value content on the platform can increase both a personal and company brand.
5) DM People Who Show Interest in Your Topic
Direct messaging people who show interest in your content topics on platforms like Reddit, Quora, X, LinkedIn, and Instagram demonstrates genuine engagement and can convert curiosity into concrete leads.
📖 EMBRACE THE INBOX + DMs 📖
Reach out to people in your network. Not everyone is online at the same time and some of them missed your big news. But they’d LOVE to help & promote you.
So hit them up. Send them a DM or email.
Let them know 1-1 that you published something.
— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) September 20, 2021
The key is to reach out to people who have left a question or comment that you can respond to. Gone are the days when you should DM someone to sell your service just because they liked one of your pictures.
Additionally, reaching out to influencers or individuals that you cite in your content — think subject matter experts or prominent thought leaders — can cultivate relationships and encourage them to share your content with their followers, amplifying your reach.
6) Create YouTube Playlists for Popular Content Topics
The popularity of video content continues to rise, and creating YouTube playlists around popular topics related to your SaaS product can attract a broader audience. Investing in video is easier for larger brands with expansive production budgets, but you’d be surprised how many create videos and then just let them sit around.
In addition to the YouTube SEO you should do to increase visibility, you can organize your content into thematic playlists, enabling users to easily consume it.
Ahrefs is one of the best when it comes to video creation and distribution.
Instead of letting users search for the content they want through the “latest” or “popular” tabs, Ahrefs organizes its YouTube homepage into a series of tutorial playlists. That way, someone who came to the site looking for information on SEO tricks will get not just one video but over a dozen.
This is a great way to keep viewers engaged and ensure that those views from one of your more popular videos can transfer to others and establish your brand as an industry expert.
7) Comment on Other People’s Social Content
Engaging with other people’s content by leaving thoughtful comments and subtly plugging your own relevant content can drive traffic back to your site. This strategy increases your visibility and positions your brand as an active participant in industry conversations, building credibility and authority in your field.
LinkedIn is the top professional networking platform, so this strategy is especially effective on this channel. In fact, LinkedIn’s new collaborative articles functionality is designed to promote this type of engagement.
This is another type of distribution where Ross excels. He’s very active on LinkedIn but not just through posts. Any @ mentions or trending posts on relevant topics are the perfect opportunity to jump in and share content.
In the example above, a LinkedIn user mentions Ross and Foundation in a comment on the original post, providing the perfect opportunity for him to share a Loom he created on AI and content marketing.
Remember, sharing content on LinkedIn shouldn’t feel pushy or cringe-worthy. The more active you are online, the more opportunities you have to share relevant content in a way your peers will appreciate.
8) Create Sharable Quotes within Your Web Assets
Make key points from your content easily sharable on platforms like X and LinkedIn to turn readers into content distributors. Some web-building platforms offer features that allow users to highlight text and share it directly to their social networks, effectively leveraging your audience’s networks to increase your content’s reach.
If you want an example of how to incorporate sharable quotes into your content, check out our post on the ROI of content marketing.
Once you have the functionality set up in your website, it’s an easy recipe for content distribution. All you have to do to make sure that your content is:
- Valuable to your audience.
- Easy to understand.
- Worth sharing.
That means investing in content that’s educational, entertaining, empowering, and, above all, engaging.
9) Send Key Assets to Your Mailing List
Regularly send high-quality, relevant content to your email list to keep your leads engaged and warm. This approach ensures your most dedicated followers don’t miss your latest content and can significantly boost traffic to your new assets.
It’s crucial that the content shared adds value, avoiding the perception of spam and encouraging recipients to look forward to your emails.
This distribution strategy is also beneficial because it helps you get more of your top-tier content in front of people who have already moved further into your funnel.
10) Join Relevant Podcasts to Plug Your Content
Appear on industry-related podcasts as a guest expert for a platform to discuss your insights and plug key content assets. This strategy reaches audiences who prefer audio content and can significantly boost awareness of your brand.
In addition to having a podcast of his own, Ross frequently hops on the mic with other content creators in the marketing space to help spread his brand as a thought leader and expert to other audiences.
My episode with @insightly‘s team on “Closing Time” is live and worth a listen. We dive into:
– How AI is being used as a sales tool
– Predictions around the AI gold rush
– The risks associated with deepfakesAnd much, much more.
Check it out here: https://t.co/U26AEDOOkF pic.twitter.com/AXktmPLE4F
— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) February 7, 2024
Getting on a podcast seems like a daunting task.
But there are over 2 million podcasts out there right now. Sure, only a fraction of those are about marketing or tech, but these shows are constantly looking for new people to talk with — all you need to do is take the jump.
Get Your Content to the Right Audience with D.R.E.A.M.
Well, there you have 10 content distribution ideas you can use to get started and make sure that the content you invested in isn’t just sitting around collecting dust.
If you want to get on the front page of Reddit, generate millions of impressions across X, and have your content downloaded by countless others, start using these content distribution tactics.
If you’re ready to take the next step in your content distribution journey, check out the D.R.E.A.M. playbook that Ross has used to earn millions of page views.
