Are you still reading this? The world today is flooded with new content every second and it’s no new news it’s affecting how users consume information. Studies have shown that most people do not even read past the headlines of news articles or blog posts. This may be why we are seeing more and more headlines sounding so spectacular – to make users click. But even if users are clicking, they are scanning, looking for images and video or ‘liking’ posts every now and then just because. Where is the value in this never ending cycle?
How it translates to marketing
The marketing challenge behind the content-overload problem is obvious. As marketers trying to push our precious content through the noise day after day, “what can we do to be heard?” – becomes a common question. You’ve built a blog, invested a great amount of time and money into creating relevant content and yet, even if the content is top-notch and valuable paired with the best headline you’ve ever come up with, your analytics show two digit impressions. How do we get our meaty content in front of not only users, but the right users and more so, how do we get them to engage? Many are pointing to the next generation of marketing: content marketing.
Content distribution and building an audience
We can no longer trust in the power of a headline – even if it gets users to ‘like’ it. Today, it’s about content distribution and building an audience. Some have reservations about investing so much time and effort into one post, only to gain a small portion of the traffic the post gets and an even smaller portion to convert customers and subscribers. But there is a great value in building relationships and branding your company as a thought leader in the industry.
Now for the good stuff. Here are some quick content distribution tips to help you build an audience and gain ROI.
1. Find super-niche communities
Who is the audience should be the fundamental question and guide for every piece of content a brand publishes. It’s obvious, but finding a smaller number of the right people vs, everyone will lead to more pageviews. When a brand finds the right online communities where its audience lives, don’t just spam articles and leave it – Engage, build a reputation as an authority.
2. Reuse content on different social media platforms and mediums 
If an organization puts a significant amount of time and money into a new content marketing asset, spend some time thinking about how that content can be repurposed for different audiences in different spaces. Editorial calendars are a great organizational tool for not only planning ahead for new content but also for repurposing content. This is a smart move as some people gravitate towards long-form text or others are likely to engage with visual content. It’s essential to publish content that is able to adapt well to different mediums and platforms.
3. Make content shareable
With digital content today, expectations are beyond high among users. Without even thinking, if an interface isn’t fit for sharing or isn’t responsive to their device, it takes less than a second for a user to hit the exit or back button – opportunity missed. Make content accessible first, then make it shareable through non-obtrusive, but ever-present social sharing buttons and calls-to-action.
4. Take advantage of already existing social channels
Yes, even Facebook! Channels like Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram are climbing to world dominance, which means they are channels you shouldn’t ignore. This doesn’t mean just posting your content once. This involves posting it multiple times, spread out, experimenting with different verbiage and visual content.
5. Make email work
Content Marketing Institute Founder, Joe Pulizzi practically worships this idea of building an audience through constant distribution of valuable content. Email marketing is one great way to do this. It ain’t easy, there’s an art to it. It’s okay if new contacts are on our email list for months before they take any action – if these contacts are receiving valuable content over and over from our brand, when they’re ready to make their move, they will. Emails are the secret ingredient to nurturing these leads.
6. Spend some money
Users will continue to bypass content and valuable information online and offline. As marketers facing this problem however, it’s our job to embrace the new generation of marketing. Innovate, test, test, test, engage meaningfully, build audiences, achieve goals.
Are your headlines being heard through the noise? Have any more content distribution tips? Let us know, on our Facebook page.
