Planning, implementing, and publishing content is only half the battle. Straight away, you need to start looking at ways to distribute your content. After all, what good is your insightful blog post, audio blog, great infographic, or helpful YouTube video unless it reaches people?

Content distribution is often neglected and is a far more complex topic than it seems at first glance. Especially if you want to get the most out of your content. This article provides some important tips to make your content marketing even more successful.

The basics of content distribution

Working on the foundations of your content isn't always exciting. And that's probably why it gets forgotten so often. But like the foundations of a house, this groundwork is extremely important even if you don't see the fruits of your labor right away.

Content strategy and planning

These basics include analyzing your target audience and planning based on that. Read my tutorial on content strategy. Explained in short form, the content strategy helps you with the following points:

• You choose exactly the topics and questions that really interest your intended readership.
• It will guide you through the process. Should you rather approach a topic with an extensive article, a YouTube video, or a downloadable PDF white paper? It all depends on who you want to reach.
• The strategic approach is important to ensure that you choose the right channels and platforms for the subsequent steps to reach your target groups.

Search engine optimization for the Content Hub

A content hub is the one-stop shop for all your content - whether you're a freelancer, agency, or have other websites. This is still true today, when the music often plays on third-party platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn , etc. In fact, it's even more true than ever. Because with a content hub, you have an area for your content that's just yours. And you can design it the way you want.

Without a content hub, you leave yourself completely dependent on other platforms. And that's not a good idea in the long run. A content hub could come in the form of a corporate magazine and should then be optimized for search engines like Google.

An important point is the selection of the right keywords. Ideally, this should be done before you even decide on a specific topic. Because then you can align your content with the terms that are relevant for your target group.

The load time of your website - and how well it works on mobile devices - is also very important for SEO today. But not only: Google emphasizes these points so much because they influence theuser experience. Google only wants to recommend sites that excites users. Therefore: Search engine optimization becomes more and more the general optimization of your website. It is not an additional task. It's part of your toolbox.

Optimizethe "sharability" of your content

If you want your content to be well received and recommended, you have to pay attention to its so-called shareability. In other words, you want to maximize the probability that your content (almost) spreads by itself.

First of all, your content has to really inspire people. If you have a well-formulated content strategy and you align your content with the wishes and needs of your target group, this should happen almost by itself (see above).

Your content must be worth recommending to others. Because as already explained in my article on the topic of content marketing for agencies and freelancers: mass-produced goods are no longer attractive. You have to stand out in a positive way. This doesn't have to take a lot of effort at all. Often it is already helpful if you know, understand and speak the language of your target group. It is just as effective to create one really good and detailed article rather than five boring ones.

Ensuring your content is oriented to the specifics of the respective platform and channel is also part of the recipe for success. Your approach will be different, for example, depending on whether you're creating a video for Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

You've completed the first step already? Then make sure your audience feels inspired to redistribute your content. On YouTube, for example, it's common practice to actively encourage viewers to comment, like, and subscribe. These activities stand out positively in YouTube's algorithm and so your video will be suggested to other users.

When it comes to an article on your website, make sure that the preview on Facebook & Co. looks good. And that it is stimulating: You have an article image, the headline and a few words of text at your disposal. Put as much effort into exciting content and appropriate keywords here as you do with your article itself! Ask yourself why you click on postings on Facebook, Twitter & Co. What must such content "have" to attract your attention? You can then imitate this effect for your own content.

Distribute your content for free

You probably want your content to be a viral hit, i.e. you publish it, sit back comfortably, and watch it spread at lightning speed. But this rarely happens - and practically never without the right preparation.

There's really no way around actively distributing your content. There are some good methods that take time and effort but are ultimately free.

Use your own platforms

Start with the things you yourself have sovereignty over. In professional circles, this is called owned media. Make sure, for example, that your content is placed prominently on your own website and can be found easily. You may have followed the advice of many experts and created a newsletter distribution list. This is, of course, also something you can use to distribute your content.

If you now realize that you hardly or not at all have your own platforms and channels: It's never too late to build them up. However, check in advance whether you and your team have the necessary resources for this. You can find tips on working with concrete platforms in our section on online marketing.

Content distribution via social media

For many companies, social media channels will be another important tool. Here you should make sure your content is known and shared - and not just once. Don't forget that on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, algorithms always stand between you and your audience. That's why it's important to make people aware of your content multiple times.

This doesn't mean you should post the same thing over and over again like a robot. Ideally, each reposting should have a new perspective, a new piece of information, or a new approach. Experiment with the content of the posts and also with the times and days of the week you publish them. But don't overdo it, for example, and post your content more than once on the same day. Some platforms like Facebook will penalize you if you try to push the same link over and over again. Both patience and creativity are called for here.

In general, content distribution is a long-term activity. Assume that you'll be promoting your content for weeks and months on end. If your topic isn't current for very long, you must either update your content regularly and then re-promote it or make sure it gets the full attention on the very first day.

Another tip is to plan your content distribution right from the start. You can then consider, for example, what aspects of your content you can adapt for other channels and distribute them separately. Here are some examples:

• If Pinterest is important to you, your blog post should contain a graphic that can be easily distributed there.
• For Instagram, you produce a short video teaser to your much longer video, which is optimized for YouTube.
• For LinkedIn, you pick out an essential statement from your content and write an article on it.

This list could be extended indefinitely. The earlier you think of these accompanying and complementary media and formats, the easier it will be to implement them. Today, content is no longer a monolithic "piece of content". In an ideal world, your content would be modular from the outset so that it can be easily distributed through different channels. This is also part of the strategic approach.

Find and address multipliers

Practically all social networks want to connect people with people. Even when it comes to business offerings like LinkedIn, companies find it extremely difficult to gain attention and reach through their own corporate sites. There's a simple reason for this: people generally prefer to interact with people rather than with a company or a brand.

That's why it's so important to motivate other people to recommend your content. You can start with yourself, your friends, colleagues, and partners. Don't forget those customers who are especially enthusiastic about you and your work. Hopefully, you can motivate them all to recommend your (fantastic, great, unique, wonderful) content on their personal profiles. In professional circles, these are often called brand ambassadors. Corporate influencers are, in turn, your employees who use their own name to promote their employer's cause. 

In addition, there'll be various multipliers in your subject area and your industry, also known as influencers. In contrast to the "professional influencers", however, they've built up their influence because they have the appropriate professional competence and are respected experts. These people don't necessarily have a large overall reach but they do reach exactly the right people.

Have a think about who you could approach. But keep in mind, however, that these people may be asked frequently. You need to treat them with respect, get to the point quickly, and make it clear what makes your content so special. If you're really good, you'll already have contact with these people before you ask them for such favors. At this point, you're engaging in typical influencer relations.

Distribute your content for a fee

As mentioned above, companies can find it difficult to reach people with their messages. Target groups encounter a never-ending flood of content but their attention spans and time are limited.

For this reason, you'll often have to pay to distribute your content. In fact, it's considered an integral part of content distribution in many places, especially at the very beginning. The first wave of attention is purchased. After that, it will hopefully run largely by itself.

This means, for example, that you place an ad - on Facebook, LinkedIn or Google. Or you book a sponsored post on a suitable site . However, pay close attention to the measurement of success so that you don't waste your budget. See my tutorial on content KPIs. Because the easily available metrics such as page views or likes have in most cases unfortunately the least significance.

Which way is worthwhile for your content always depends on the individual case. Maybe you promise yourself new customer business. Then, of course, you have a greater incentive and more financial leeway, because your expenses are then directly countered by income. It's more difficult if your content is targeted at the beginning of the customer journey, as is classically the case in content marketing. Sometimes you won't be able to make a direct connection between spend and revenue.

How to choose the right measures

This brings us to an important point. Which measure is actually appropriate and when? The answer to this question depends very much on what your goal is, who you want to reach, and in what situation.

Here's another example: Google Ads are ideal for reaching people who have a specific question. With these ads, you'll rather be addressing people who are already looking for something. Not every product or offer can be advertised well with this channel though. This insight is just as important when you take care of your SEO. It doesn't help much if you're "No. 1 on Google" for terms or expressions that hardly anyone ever searches for. Unless the sum of such rankings helps you and is profitable with the necessary content.

Facebook Ads, on the other hand, are good for reaching people who have specific interests or who match demographic data. This is much more general than Google Ads but can work well if you can't get anywhere on Google - and vice versa.

This question about the objective also has a major influence on what content you want to tackle at all. Do you want to reach people who are still at the very beginning and still have many questions? Or do you want to reach people who are already researching concrete solutions to a clearly defined problem?

My conclusion on content distribution

This article has hopefully given you an idea of the considerations that go into content distribution. It's important that these considerations are made at the beginning of your planning. If you start thinking about distribution after you've already published your content, it's usually too late already.

Ultimately, how well your content spreads has a lot to do with how clearly you have your goal in mind. But it also has to do with how well you understand your target group and how focused you are on the distribution.

Contributing photo: Robin Worrall