You’ve got a cavalcade of content. Now you need to the distribution channels to get it where it needs to be.
Well, how do you do that?
Fret not – there’s a ton of content distribution channels and tools out there you can use to amplify your blog articles, infographics, and video spots. Many of them are free to use; some require a premium (paid) membership; and some of them let you monitor your content to see how it does in terms of engagement and impressions.
In short (though this list isn’t!), the following 25 distribution channels, tools, and apps are everything you need to amplify your content to your desired audience:
Owned Channels
Including your own website and blog, these are all platforms you control directly.
1. MailChimp
Email, used by roughly half of the planet, remains one of the top ways to distribute content. And Mailchimp (WhaleShrimp?) is one of our favorite ways to coordinate impeccably designed and automated email marketing campaigns to your targeted audience. After the campaign’s begun, track how it’s doing with detailed analytics reports or integrate your favorite app without skipping a beat. MailChimp also handles landing age and social media ad creation.
Got some blurb-able blogs full of compelling pull-quotes? Use this tool to make sharing those quotes easier for readers. For free, Click to Tweet generates a link you can share in your article next to any segments you want Twitter users to share. All they have to do is click it and their tweet, complete with your blog’s insightful quote, is ready to go. Social share, simplified.
3. Medium
This blog publishing platform with 60 million unique monthly readers as of 2017 is a great way to reach new audiences that may not otherwise find your humble site. Write about new topics exclusively for Medium readers or republish your content where you can build a new, tightknit community that will share and comment on your articles. And as a CMS, it’s even simpler to use than WordPress. It’s free to use, too.
4. Slideshare
For documents, infographics, slideshows, and other static visual content, SlideShare is your main bet. With over 80 million professionals visiting the site monthly, this content sharing network provides a great opportunity for amplifying your content to a wide audience, raising brand awareness, and generating leads with strong calls to action. Just make those thumbnails extra-clickable.
LinkedIn is where most B2B buyers do their research and where 94 percent of B2B marketers distribute their content. To increase thought leadership and position yourself as an industry leader, share your blog articles on the most buttoned-up of the social media platforms. It’s where businesses connect, and where 80 percent of B2B leads come from. You can cultivate a community of like-minded professionals in the comments section.
Paid Channels
These platforms require some change to work. Pay a little and they’ll distribute your content for you in the form of ads, influencer marketing, or syndication. If you got the budget, paid channels are a good way to extend your brand reach to new audiences you may not otherwise stumble upon your content.
6. Outbrain
Ever notice those “Recommended For You” links to articles at the bottom of many, many websites? Discovery platforms like Outbrain takes those articles and promotes them across a variety of websites. It also gives you a suite of metric analyzing tools to help you measure your content’s success.
7. Nativo
Similar to Outbrain, this paid sponsored content platform automatically distributes your blog articles across the ‘Net and gives businesses the tools to measure and optimize advertising campaigns. Drive new traffic and build new leads with this option.
8. Taboola
Like Outbrain and Nativo, this paid distribution option automatically places your content in non-disruptive “Recommended For You” sections across a variety of other publisher sites. Choose the right thumbnail and headline to build awareness, drive traffic, and generate new leads.
The largest social media platform in the world with over 2 billion daily users lets you create ads and easily track their performance. You can also select which audiences you want to target based on specific demographics, optimize campaigns based on your own goals (increase brand awareness or sales, for example), and create sponsored posts where you can interact with commenters.
10. Promoted Tweets
If you have a sizable audience on Twitter, you can pay to have your tweets promoted. That means your individual tweets will show up on the timelines of relevant users. Relevancy is based on who users follow, what they retweet, and, generally, how they interact on Twitter. Like Facebook, you can target your audience based on demographics and easily track your metrics.
Earned Channels
These are the places you don’t personally own, but where you can contribute to third party publishers and platforms, and grow online communities on social media.
11. Quora
Providing answers for customers is one of the content marketing cornerstones, and Quora is all about solving life’s questions. If your audience is asking a lot, give them solutions and link to your website or specific blog articles in the process. Give a detailed, in-depth answer and your Quora entry could top Google searches.
12. PR Newswire
PR Newswire, or Cision, sends your press releases out to over thousands of different publisher outlets, which can result in lots of media coverage. Tools can proofread and optimize your releases and measure your results. There free and premium options available.
13. Reddit
If your industry has a subreddit on Reddit, the largest Internet forum around, you should get your content creation and social teams involved. Interact and respond to commenters with links and excerpts your high-quality content without acting to sales-y you can get upvoted to the top of relevant threads. But be careful with this tactic – providnig useful, engaging and authentic responses is key for Reddit. Anything less can (and will) backfire.
14. Listly
It feels like half of the Internet is made of lists or listicles. Free app and content-sharing platform Listly facilitates even more list-making. Think of some list-worthy content and embed them in your articles or share them across the Listly community and your social channels.
15. Buzzstream
This platform helps you build influencer and publisher lists and optimize pitches so you can expand your reach through the most qualified prospects. You can manage contacts, keep conversation records, build profiles, and segment potential targets based on various attributes. Build relationships through Buzzstream and you’ll get a better chance at sharing your content.
16. YouTube
For video content, you’re not going to do much better than YouTube. Free to use, easy to upload, and frequented by over 30 million visitors per day, your video content has the potential to expand your organic traffic if you optimize your titles, use bright eye-catching thumbnails, and to link back to your website in each video description. Choose evergreen or trendy topics (or mix them up) and keep runtimes short if you want to keep people watching.
17. Video on Facebook and Twitter
Besides YouTube, you can post video content on the other social media giants. You’ll be glad you did—Facebook averages 8 billion videos views per day, and tweets with video attract 10 times as much engagement. Keep things short and sweet, and don’t forget add text and subtitles since mobile users tend to browse without sound.
18. Instagram
Several B2B companies you wouldn’t expect, including GE and 3M, host terrific Instagram accounts showcasing projects and employees at their workplace in picture or video formats. The Facebook-owned app has over 1 billion monthly users, which makes it a vital part for B2B brands looking to build more brand awareness and engage buyers.
19. Local Media Partnerships
Sorry, no link here. But one of the best ways to expand your reach and spread your message is through your local newscasters and journalists. Look up their contact info using Buzzstream or journalist database Muckrack, and reach out to see if they’re interested in your story.
20. Buffer
This all-in-one social media management tool gives you total control over your LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profiles, allowing you to easily maintain, schedule, and share content with all your followers, no matter the platform. You can also create management teams and review analytics for all your campaigns on one dashboard. Super handy, and free to start.
21. Triberr
A social network for influencers, this is a great place to network and develop relationships that can lead to content sharing opportunities. Create and promote blog content and identify influencers who can help you out. There are free and premium options.
22. Guest Blog Posting
No link here, either. Guest blog posting requires you identifying and partnering up with other publishers and writing blog content for them. It sounds counterintuitive, but if they have a large readerbase you’ll increase your audience and extend your brand reach further than before. Include a link back to your website and you’ll also drive more organic traffic and potentially generate new leads. It’s a win-win for everybody.
23. Xink
A cloud-based software service that instills your email signatures with links to your content. That’s right, the little block of text beneath your name can be a gateway for your contacts to discover the latest updates and information about your business. Turn every email you send into a branding opportunity.
24. Soundcloud
Got a podcast? You may want to start one up. 64 percent of B2B buyers call podcasts a great way to enter the early stages of the buying process. Upload your radio show, where you interview Subject Matter Experts or talk about the latest news in your industry, on this audio-hosting platform and build a community of fellow podcasters or blast it out to your followers.
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