The online world is full of content. According to Wired, Hundreds of hours of video get uploaded to YouTube every minute, millions of ‘grams appear on Instagram daily, and a couple million blog posts get written daily. The sheer volume of content means that marketers need to work extra hard to make sure the things they create and publish get in front of the right people. And yet, so many make content marketing distribution mistakes that pretty much ensure their content doesn’t reach the right crowd.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular content marketing distribution mistakes and what you can do to correct or avoid them in the future.
Common Content Marketing Distribution Mistakes
Assuming the quality of the content will lead people to it.
This is a newbie mistake, and a pretty common one. You’ve gone and created a beautiful graphic, a well-written ebook, a hilarious video. You publish it…and nothing. No one clicks, no one views it, no one buys it. In an overcrowded content field, being excellent isn’t good enough.
Choosing distribution options that don’t get your content in front of the right audience.
Here’s another fairly common mistake people make when distributing content. They realize that they have to do something to get their content out there, but they choose the wrong way to go about promoting or distributing it. An example might be promoting a blog post targeted at teenagers on LinkedIn, or sharing a video designed for executives on Instagram.
Relying on organic search.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a great way to have people organically come across your content in searches. But it’s not so effective that you should rely solely on it.
Not having set goals.
If you don’t know how many people you want your content to reach — or specifically who you want the content to reach — is really going to throw a wrench in your content distribution plans.
Not doing enough (or any) research.
What methods of distribution or promotion are the most likely to deliver your content to the right audience? If you don’t know the answer to that question, it’s likely you’ll struggle to get your content out there.
How to Avoid Making Content Marketing Distribution Mistakes
There are a lot of mistakes that can be made when distributing content. The good news is that most of those are avoidable with a bit of time and effort. Here’s how to avoid making content distribution mistakes.
Identify your audience.
Identify your target audience, then zero in on them. Where do they hang out online? What do they want from life or from your content?
Set goals.
What do you want the content to do? Are you hoping for more leads, more conversions, or just an increase in brand awareness? Knowing the end result you’re going for will help you select the most viable distribution methods.
Do your research.
If you’re going to use social media to promote your content, how many followers do you have, how engaged are those followers, and how much do they share? If you’re going to partner with influencers for content promotion, do they have a track record of success? Do they speak to the type of audience you’re trying to reach?
How to Fix Content Marketing Distribution Mistakes
If you’ve already published your content and thought you could get by based on the quality of the content alone, or by depending on search, it’s not too late to go back and correct your mistakes.
Think of it as a relaunch of your content. Few, if anyone, might have noticed when you published it the first time, so you can take the time now to really get it out there in front of people.
One option is to approach influencers who might be interested in your content, or who might think that the content is something that would appeal to their followers. Let them know about your content — whether it’s a video, ebook, or blog post — then ask if they’d be interested in sharing it.
A more budget-friendly option is to use a pay-per-click content amplification platform. You only pay when influencers share your content, and influencers are free to choose the content that seems the most interesting or relevant to them.
Whoever said, “If you build it, they will come,” clearly wasn’t talking about content marketing. With content marketing, it’s all about making what you produce and publish makes its way to the right audience.
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