Pundits and prognosticators share a common view about how corporate and field marketers will allocate resources this year. Marketers are all in when it comes to content creation.
The rise of the enlightened buyer coupled with the shift in influence to social and online communities has created a gap in the market. That is where organizations committed to crafting thought leadership, best practices and trend analysis content can step in.
There’s limited business appeal to tap dance with the dwindling number of trade journalists and analysts when a company can itself be a credible source.
A successful content marketing program must have time and budget committed to two equally important tasks – create and distribute. Most marketers get the creation part. Distribution? Not so much.
Simply put, the most elegant and carefully constructed content that fails to attract and engage the right audience is an exercise in wasteful futility.
Audience is more than a quantity benchmark. Sure, attracting numbers is important in terms of overall awareness and brand building.
Yet, in business-to-business and public sector, it is more critical to appeal to higher value decision-makers and influencers. They are the ones who play a lead role in vendor selection.
Here are three tactical approaches you can employ to improve content distribution:
Be strategic in social networking. Collaborate with your sales team to identify decision-makers at existing customers and prospects. Map where they are engaged online and then appropriately use social media as a channel to share your content.
This process cannot be automated without the risk of being perceived as spammer. Repeat…it cannot be automated.
Repurpose content for lead nurturing programs. Market automation platforms like Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, Hubspot and eTrigue require lots of exceptional content to power lead generation and nurturing campaigns.
By linking to your thought leadership content (rather than marketing oriented white papers and case studies), you can educate and inform, while growing readership with the right targets.
Establish co-distribution relationships with like minded groups and partners. Throwing up a blog roll is merely a start. Connect with other organizations that have a desirable following, and offer to share and cross-promote content.
Will they be receptive? You bet. In fact, Strategic Communications Group and Bizo recently announced a content collaboration agreement that focuses on both organizations’ publications – Modern Marketing Today and Digital Marketing Remix.
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Want to learn more about content distribution strategies? Join me on February 13 at 11:30 AM ET for an exclusive Q&A with Sean Callahan, former editor of BtoB Magazine. Our session is entitled “Understanding the Content Marketing Landscape: Reflections of a Former Business Journalist.”
