Content Creation and Distribution

Creating good content can be hard.

As a business owner juggling a hundred things at the same time, you might not always be inspired to come up with new content on a regular basis. Suddenly, you might realize that your last blog post was several weeks ago, your last Instagram upload was a hurried “filler” post, and you haven’t sent your regular email newsletter in months.

Good content is a business investment. But in addition to creating content, you’ll also want to ensure that you have a plan for distributing that content as well, to help you promote the content that you create. Content distribution involves publishing and promoting your content in the right channels at the right time, to get more eyes on your brand. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at some tips for both content creation and distribution. See how you can supercharge your content creation efforts. Let’s get started now.

The Content Creation Process

The number one thing to remember before you start is to create content with your buyer personas in mind. 

Creating for your intended audience makes it easier to know what kind of content you should do and determines which channels you should be on. Here are some criteria for great content that will resonate with your customers:

• Relevant– Choose topics that are interesting and speak to your target audience’s pain points. 
• Unique– Make sure your content isn’t a near-duplicate of something that already exists. Do a Google search on a potential topic to see what videos and blogs are out there and frame your ideas in your own original way.
• In-depth- Longer forms of content like blog posts, white papers, webinars, or ebooks need to be packed with information and zero fluff in order to be valuable. Have a thorough understanding of the topic and a strong outline of the ideas you want to talk about.
• Evergreen– “Evergreen content” is content that continues to be relevant to audiences years from now. They aren’t time-sensitive (trends or news-based) and users are likely to look for the same information in the future. This will help you get found through search engines and get backlinks.  Over time, this increases your site’s domain authority as well.

Tips for Finding Content Topics

If you feel like you’re running out of content ideas or feeling like you have nothing new to say, get fresh inspiration from:

• • User-Generated Content like tagged photos, videos, testimonials, and reviews – Remember to always get permission before re-sharing to avoid copyright issues
  • Behind the scenes stories and photos of your team and company events
  • Influencer content and partnerships to increase your reach and engagement
  • Set Google Alerts for relevant keywords and get notified via email for fresh news and articles
  • Keyword research on current and trending topics

• • Customer service questions or inquiries can inspire you to create new content that addresses these common concerns

• • Product reviews, or even competitor product reviews can be another goldmine for content ideas. For example, you could discuss the pain points that the reviews touched on, and highlight how your product solves those issues.

• • Public forums like Reddit, Quora, or Facebook Groups where your target users hang out
  • Industry forums and newsletters in your niche provide you with the latest trends, updates, and best practices that you can share with your own audience
  • Prompts can sometimes be helpful for creating captions or topic ideas. Check out this big list of content prompts from best-selling author and marketing expert Marie Forleo
  • Interviews with industry experts or influencers are not only great for boosting your brand credibility through social proof, but they also provide you with original and exclusive content
  • Leverage content – This involves repurposing previously published content into other media, distributing it on other channels, or promoting it again. This approach will help you to get a much better return for your marketing efforts.

The good news is that there are a lot of ways to repurpose and distribute content. Check out this illustration from the Content Marketing Institute on what you can do with a single blog post:

(Source: Content Marketing Institute)

Different Types of Content

Now that we’ve seen how you can get ideas for new content, let’s look at the different types of content that you can create. Everyone consumes content differently. Diversifying your content types and distribution channels increases your chances of reaching audiences wherever they are, whether they’re scrolling through their social media feed, their favorite podcast app, or checking their emails. 

What media formats can you and your audience benefit from?

Blog Posts

Blog posts can be short (300-1000 words) or long (more than a thousand words), but long-form content generates more page views, social shares, and leads than their shorter counterparts. Semrush says that businesses who use blogging as a marketing strategy see 13 times more ROI than those who don’t.

Popular types of blog content are how-to articles, listicles, news, and trends. Blogs are also versatile and you can easily incorporate visual assets like photos, videos, or infographics into them. Strong, in-depth research is the key to value-packed blog posts. Investing time and effort in research gives you a lot of material that you can repurpose over and over again into other forms.

Don’t let your blog posts collect dust. Promote them on Facebook, Instagram (add the link in your bio), Twitter, LinkedIn, forums, and email newsletters. Ask your audience to share them, too. For a good example of helpful, non-salesy topics, take a look at the Shopify blog: 

(Source: Shopify)

 

Infographics

Infographics are catchy, easy on the eyes, and deliver information in a digestible way. It’s for audiences who want a bird’s eye view and want the key details of a topic but don’t have the time to read a long blog post or watch a 20-minute video about it. 

Take content such as key points, statistics, comparisons, or actionable tips from your blog posts, surveys, or white papers and use them to make infographics. Infographics are now easy to make on your own with tools like Canva, Piktochart, and Easel.ly. 

Share your infographics on your blog, social media platforms, groups and forums, and email newsletters. They can also be used inside your white papers or PowerPoint slides. 

White Papers

White papers are in-depth, long-form documents or reports that companies or organizations produce to talk about a certain topic in their niche or their product and service. They can help boost your reputation, provide people with relevant information, and generate leads. 

The difference between a white paper and an ebook is that white papers are more technical and often include charts, tables, and graphs. Airbnb’s Report on Travel and Living and Adobe’s 2021 Digital Trends Report are examples of white papers. They’re usually in PDF format and are free to download on a company’s website.

You can design whitepapers using a tool like Venngage, Adobe Spark, or Canva.

PowerPoint Presentation

Take PowerPoint presentations beyond business meetings and use it to deliver content for your audience, too. PowerPoint presentations can be uploaded to SlideShare, a document and presentation sharing platform. 

With 80 million users, you don’t want to miss out on Slideshare’s user base. Set your uploads to public mode so you can tap into more people and attract unique visitors from search queries. 

Repurpose your slides and make them into a video format for YouTube or use them for a webinar, an ebook, or infographic. Organic Veda has a PowerPoint presentation that’s partly promotional and mostly educational on SlideShare:

(Source: Slide Share)

Live or On-demand Webinars

Webinars are a great way to show your expertise on a subject. You can host it yourself or invite speakers and influencers. Make sure you get an audience for your webinars by promoting them several weeks before on your website, on CTAs on your blog posts, through a newsletter, on social media, and in community forums or groups.

Make recordings of live webinars and make them available for a limited time on your YouTube account or Facebook business page. That way, your content continues to be accessible to those who missed it. Webinars are also great incentives for signing up for your newsletter.

Some webinars can also be converted into podcasts, but make sure it can stand alone with just the audio. Take a look at Fitbit’s on-demand webinar:

(Source: FitBit)

Video

The possibilities for content creation are endless for videos; product demonstrations, reviews, educational and how-to videos, behind-the-scenes videos, or even funny and inspirational content. Remember to not make it about your product all the time.

Host your videos on YouTube or Vimeo and share them on your social media accounts and email newsletters. 

To recycle video content, make transcripts of your videos and use the text for blog posts, quotes, and infographics.

Faber Castell USA has a great YouTube channel full of educational content and guest videos:

(Source: Faber Castell USA)

Targeting Gen Z and millennials? Try short-form video content like Tiktok videos, Instagram Reels, and YouTube shorts. 

(Source: J. Crew Instagram Reels)

Podcasts

The popularity of podcasts is skyrocketing and is expected to continue growing in the next year. People love to multitask and podcast content is easily accessible while people are making dinner, working out, or driving. This lets you have some quality airtime with your customers. Branded podcasts work well for spreading brand awareness and demonstrating your industry expertise.

Repurpose content from your blog posts, infographics, or short videos by talking about them in-depth in a podcast format. Record your podcast with tools like Audacity, Garageband, or ProTools and be present on two of the biggest podcast platforms, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Check out Trader Joe’s podcast page on their website: 

(Source: Trader Joe’s)

Testimonials and Case Studies

People love a good story. Sharing success stories from customers who used your product is one way to help clear doubts or obstacles that a prospect might have before purchasing your product or service. 

Share testimonials and case studies on your website’s blog, email newsletters, and your social media accounts. You can also do video or audio interviews with your customers and share these on your YouTube channel or podcast.

Quotes

Do you have great lines from your blog posts or customer reviews? Short, inspirational, or witty quotes are great to use for social media posts on Twitter or Instagram. Use a photo editing tool like Canva to create an image that blends in with your feed and brand to create a uniform look. 

Oreo’s Instagram feed, for example, always features a consistent and instantly recognizable look:

(Source: Instagram)

Ebooks

Ebooks may seem intimidating, but if you already have existing content, you can condense material from your white papers, PowerPoint presentations, infographics, and blog posts into an ebook. If you’re starting from scratch, use the guidelines I listed above for creating content. 

Pack it with engaging text, actionable tips, and useful information. Make it easy to read and avoid being too technical.

Distribute ebooks on your website, through a landing page where visitors can download it for free in exchange for their email. Ebooks can also be used as premium content for your loyal subscribers or freebies with a purchase.

Fitness Studio The Workout Loft offers free ebooks as part of their content strategy:

(Source: The Workout Loft)

A Content Distribution Strategy

Content distribution can be classified into three media types:

• Owned Media– These are your company’s owned channels such as your website, blog, email newsletter, or social media pages.
• Paid Media– This is where you pay for your content distribution. Examples include Google Ads campaigns, social media ads, and paid influencer content.
• Earned Media– These are content distributed by third parties. Re-shares, re-tweets, guest blog posts, and free PR features are examples of earned media.

Traditional Content Distribution Channels

Now that you’ve created your content, the next important step is to promote and publish it across different distribution channels. The distribution channels you choose will depend on your goals, target audience, and resources. 

Here are some traditional channels to promote content:

• • Websites– Post content on your website and consistently update it to build domain authority and get more backlinks. Highlight new content in prominent places on your site.
  • Email Newsletters– Include links, quotes, excerpts from new content, downloads, or content round-ups.
  • Social Media Advertising– Promote your best pieces of content on social media to encourage clicks and conversions.
  • Sponsored Posts or Influencer Marketing– Content produced in partnership with influencers or celebrities helps increase brand awareness and build brand trust. 

Pro Tip: Leverage content by making your calls-to-action (CTAs) clear when publishing or sharing on a channel. That could be asking people to subscribe to your newsletter, retweet a post, visit your website, or purchase a product or service.

Social Media Channels

Social networks are a powerful tool for creating communities and building relationships with your target audience, but remember, it all starts with great content. You can either opt for organic traffic or purchase ads. Both have their advantages, but paid social media ads help you reach target audiences faster to get ahead of the competition.

Each platform has its own pros and cons and some will work better than others. The industry you’re in and your target audience will also influence your choice. 

Here’s a list of some of the top social media channels to publish and promote your content:

• • • Facebook – You have two options for leveraging Facebook posts: on your business page and on Facebook Groups. Popular content are visual assets, webinars, and links to blog articles.
    • Instagram – Instagram is image-heavy but short-form video content such as Reels are gaining popularity fast. Millennials aged 25-34 years old are the largest demographic on Instagram, followed by those in the 18-24 age group.
    • Pinterest – On Pinterest, people create inspiration boards where they “pin” images and infographics with links to the original content source. Pinterest users are mostly women at 77%, but the male user base is steadily growing. Older audiences (50-64) are the highest demographic, making up 38% of its user base, followed by the 30-49-year-old age group.
    • Twitter – Twitter has a 280 character limit, so keep your posts short and sweet. Media like photos, infographics, videos, and article links can also be included. 42% of Twitter’s users are aged 18-29 and 27% are 30-49 years old.
    • Tiktok – Tiktok is a platform for video content that lasts roughly 15-60 seconds. More than half of Tiktok’s users are female at 60%. It also appeals to a younger demographic, with 60% of its users aged 16-24.
    • LinkedIn – People aged 26-55 make up the majority of LinkedIn’s user base. Photos, videos, webinars, and article links can be shared here. There’s also a new “write article” feature that lets users publish blog posts directly on the platform.
    • Reddit – Good ol’ Reddit is a community forum where people ask questions and seek answers from users. It’s most popular among US adults aged 25-29, followed by those in the 18-24 age range. More than 6 out of 10 users are male. When using Reddit, be extremely careful about promotional content. The best way to leverage your marketing here is to post helpful answers (you can be as thorough as you want in explaining your points) and participate in community discussions to establish yourself as genuine, and interested in the conversation.
    • Quora – Quora works the same way as Reddit. It has slightly more of a male user base, with 57% men and 43% women. Most of its users are 18-34 years old.
    • YouTube – YouTube has an extremely wide-ranging user base, with 74% of US adults using the platform. You can post videos of all lengths here, and host webinars and live streams as well.
    • Twitch – Twitch is a live video streaming platform with 70% of its users aged 16-34.
    • Spotify – Spotify is an online music, radio, and podcast platform. It’s most popular among users aged 18-34.
    • Apple Podcasts – Apple Podcasts also has the same demographic as Spotify and both platforms are currently neck and neck in terms of market share in the US.

Bonus tip: Don’t forget niche forums that cater to your specific audience. 

Don’t get overwhelmed by all the options and feel pressured to attempt everything at once. Start small, like cycling one piece of content through several channels for one week. You can also try mastering three or four channels before moving on to other ones. Continue to test and look at your metrics to know which channels bring in the most engagements and conversions. 

If you’d like help getting your content out to a wider audience, consider a tool like Carrier Pigeon, a content distribution platform that’ll help you to get your content onto multiple platforms.

It’s a social distribution platform for content creators that does the work for you, helping you to expand your content’s reach exponentially, allowing you to increase your conversions, all while saving you time.

You spend time creating great content, so don’t let it get lost in the sea of what’s currently out there. Instead, get the word out about your content, and start generating new traffic, and making more sales. It’s time for your brand to get noticed. A good content distribution strategy can help.

Do you want to level up your content creation and distribution strategy? If you’d like solutions to help you grow your business, reach out today for your FREE 20-minute consultation call. I’ll help you scale as efficiently as possible.