Content Distribution Tactics to Boost Brand Reach

The most frustrating part of any content creator is that creating content is only half of the job. The rest is getting people to see it. Posting on social media, collaborating, sending out emails, all that jazz. It’s an unfortunate reality of being in a creative position. 

Fortunately, spreading your content isn’t exactly rocket science. In this article, we will tell you about different content distribution tactics that you can use to spread your media online.

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Find Where Your Target Audience Is

When you start writing content, you do some target audience research. You learn what they want, what they read, what their problems are, and more. If you did your due diligence, you’ve also already learned what platforms they use the most and the content distribution channels they prefer.

Does your content have something to do with B2B? LinkedIn is your best choice. Looking for older audiences? Try Facebook! Want to appeal to teens and young adults? TikTok and Instagram are your friends.

In some cases, it’s also appropriate to go beyond social media. For example, most companies have already harnessed emails for their content and product promotions. In some cases, alerting people via phone messages can be desirable. Make sure you get explicit consent from your users to send regular messages to them; otherwise, you’re going to aggravate and annoy your readers.

Optimize Content for Distribution

If you want your content to make waves, you’ve got to make it shareable.

First, focus on providing value with your content. It can be:

• Educational. How-to guides, tutorials, or explainer videos that solve common problems in your industry.
• Entertaining. Quizzes, interactive content, or humorous posts related to your brand or industry.
• Inspirational. Success stories, motivational quotes, or behind-the-scenes glimpses of your company culture.

Doing so also allows you to leave some space for promotions. We recommend assigning at least 80% of your content for value and leaving the rest 20% for promotions and partnered content. 

Make sure you include plenty of visuals to support your claims and add a bit of diversity to the plain walls of text that most articles end up being. Images can be shared on their own. If you provide graphs or diagrams, they can become lead magnets of their own, attracting organic backlinks from other content creators.

Regardless of the type of content you do, it’s always a good idea to use some storytelling tricks. This way, even complex educational content gets a bit of entertainment value, which leads to easier understanding and better shareability.

Every platform has its own optimal tactics for distributing content. Try to find out what brings the most readers. Sometimes, it’s the right hashtags or post format. Other times, it can be something as trivial as posting time.

Engage in Content Syndication and Guest Posting

You can increase your brand reach by partnering with other brands relevant to your niche. The two best ways for such partnerships are content syndication and guest posting.

Content syndication is when you republish your content on third-party websites. While it creates a potential issue of content duplication, most marketers agree that content syndication overall improves your content’s performance, so the tradeoff is worth it.

Try to look for content aggregators within your industry. Type an industry keyword + “submit content” or “contribute article” to find them. There are plenty of industry-specific aggregators that will gladly repost your articles, as well as general aggregators like Google News, Apple News, LinkedIn Articles, and Medium. Keep in mind that some of them require pre-established credentials, so you won’t be able to contribute right away.

On the other hand, we have guest posting, which entails contributing original content to the host’s website. Find a website with a good domain and topical authority in your niche and pitch them a few ideas. If they accept, you get a strong backlink, and they get content—aa win for everyone. 

You can also engage in paid partnerships to distribute your content or buy backlinks to get others to write content that links back to your webpage. We recommend staying away from low-quality websites that offer cheap backlinks. While you can get more links that way, their weight will be significantly lower, reducing their SEO value and your ROI.

Run Paid Ads

Paying for guest posts isn’t the only way to use money for promotion. You can also find plenty of success by running ads for your website. There are two main ways of doing it.

PPC Ads

The fastest way to distribute digital content is by purchasing Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads. Google is at the forefront of PPC right now, but there are other alternatives, including competing search engines.

The general gist of PPC is that the partner puts up your ad on their platform and you pay a fixed sum every time somebody clicks it. It’s a fast way to gain many eyes on your content. However, it has some downsides.

For example, competitors can try to drain your funds by botting ad clicks. There are ways to prevent this, but it requires a more hands-on approach.

In general, people are very skeptical of ads, mostly because of their intrusive nature. Being overly aggressive with your advertising, using scummy tactics, or clickbaiting your users will lead to reputational damage.

Native Ads

Another way to approach branded content distribution in marketing are native ads. Unlike PPC ads, native ones aren’t characterized by their monetization but by their unintrusive integration into the host’s content.

The key to successful native advertising is offering valuable, high-quality content that visually blends with the hosting platform.

The most popular native advertising platforms are Outbrain and Taboola. However, they aren’t your only options. Other examples of increasing content reach include sponsored content on social media and industry-specific platforms.

Partner with Influencers

Speaking of social media, influencers have become a massive asset for anyone doing digital marketing. Partnering up with them can greatly increase your brand reach and improve your community perception. However, you have to do it right.

First, identify the people you want to work with. You don’t necessarily have to go for the biggest names in the niche (although it helps a lot). However, make sure they align with your views on industry issues. Otherwise, you might end up signing a contract with an influencer who doesn’t really believe in your content or product.

Allowing full freedom of speech will net you a great image within the community, but only if what you offer is of top-notch quality. However, if you’re not that confident in your product or services, you can ask the influencer to omit certain negative aspects while you work up how to shore up your weak spots.

You can work on a paid or quid pro quo basis with influencers. However, if you do the latter, make sure you provide enough value for them in return. Simply giving a shoutout to them every now and then can go a long way to strengthening your relationships. Nevertheless, you should always communicate whether the value offered is sufficient.

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Repurpose Your Content

Adapting content for different formats

Cross-platform distribution of repurposed content

Measure and Optimize

Now that you’ve started your branded content distribution, it’s time to measure the results of your marketing efforts.

First, differentiate between reach and impressions. Reach is the number of people who saw and engaged with your content. Impressions are the total number of times your content was engaged with. Therefore, if one person reads the same article two or three times, your impressions will reflect that, but for reach, they still count as one person. Knowing this will give you context for other metrics.

Key engagement metrics include:

• Likes/Reactions. Basic engagement indicator.
• Comments. Show deeper engagement and interest.
• Shares. Indicate content value and virality potential.
• Time spent on page. Content quality indicator.
• Scroll depth. Content consumption measurement.

The click-through rate is another good metric to keep in mind. It’s calculated as the number of clicks on a link divided by the number of times the content was seen. Similar to it is conversion rate, except now you’re counting the number of times a desired action was completed. For example, booking a demo session, subscribing to a newsletter, or product purchases.

We also recommend keeping track of cost per acquisition (CPA). Simply divide the total cost of your marketing campaign by the number of leads you got.

To calculate these metrics, you can use a number of platform-native solutions like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, X Analytics (formerly Twitter Analytics), LinkedIn Analytics, and others. Alternatively, you can use third-party tools like Hootsuite, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Sprout Social.

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Conclusion

Content distribution doesn't have to be the dreaded second half of content creation. With a strategic approach and the right mix of tactics, you can amplify your content's reach and impact. The key is to remember that successful distribution isn't about being everywhere—iit's about being where your audience is and delivering value in ways that resonate with them.

The most successful content creators aren't just good at creating content—they're excellent at getting their content in front of the right eyes. With these distribution tactics in your arsenal, you're well-equipped to ensure your valuable content reaches and resonates with your target audience.