Are you aware that 90% of B2B marketers use content marketing as a part of their overall marketing strategy? There’s so much focus on developing the right content strategy and creating more effective content, but are these efforts actually paying off? Here’s the hard truth!
- Only 37% of B2B marketers have a content strategy with formal documentation.
- 25% of B2B marketers believe they have a young content marketing maturity level.
- 61% of marketers revealed that generating leads and traffic is a major marketing challenge at their company.
This indicates that many marketers are yet to catch up with the best content marketing practices. One of the significant reasons behind the ineffectiveness of a content marketing strategy is poor digital content distribution.
An inappropriate distribution strategy not only makes it difficult for your content to be visible but also renders the entire process futile. What a waste of effort and money!
In this blog, we’ll explore 7 major mistakes in content distribution that can be avoided. At a glance, this is what we’ll cover.
Table of Contents
- The 7 Sins of Digital Content Distribution
- Incomplete Audience Research
- A One-Size-Fits-All Approach
- Only Focusing on Generic Goals
- Lack of Clarity on KPIs
- Not Adding Variety to Distribution
- Reluctance to Spend on Distribution
- Not Analyzing Newsletters
- Conclusion
The 7 Sins of Digital Content Distribution
1. Incomplete Audience Research
We all have a basic understanding of the audience we wish to target. The challenge however is to know who they really are; including aspects such as their preferences, behavior patterns, likes and dislikes, difficulties they face, their motivations and so on and so forth.
A lack of knowledge and research about your target audience can lead to many problems.
You may end up channeling your efforts on a distribution channel that your audience might not be using. It could also result in choosing a content format that doesn’t really appeal to them.
To avoid such mishaps it’s important to conduct thorough research and know the audience well. Right from deciding your content niche to selecting the distribution platform, your content efforts must be planned keeping the target audience in mind.
2. A One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Having a one-size-fits-all approach to your digital content distribution will do more harm than good.
Issues such as a mismatch between the distribution channel & the content format, the amount of content created & the amount consumed and the money being spent & the return on investment; are all too common in the digital publishing world.
It is therefore essential to design a roadmap before even creating content. This plan should specify details such as when, where, why and how the content distribution will take place.
3. Only Focusing on Generic Goals
When it comes to content, it’s easy to have generic goals. For example as an educational publisher, your goal might be to sell your product to the maximum number of institutions. While that is an absolutely valid goal and certainly the end objective, it doesn’t really help when things go wrong.
Specific and measurable content goals can help you pinpoint where the issues are. For example, if people aren’t buying your product, it could be because the content pieces are not interactive enough, the concepts are difficult to comprehend, the sources of information are unreliable and so on.
Therefore, when distributing digital content,the focus should not be only on generic goals.It’s crucial that every piece of content you send out has a certain purpose and a way to measure its performance.
4. Lack of Clarity on KPIs
As mentioned above, there has to be a defined way to measure the performance of every content piece. These are called Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. Since everything online is measurable, there are a number of KPIs to choose from. The KPIs one chooses should match the goal of the content piece and add to your overall goal.
For example, if the goal of a content piece is to spread brand awareness, the KPI in focus should be the number of shares it gains. Even if the number of users who’ve engaged with the content piece is high, the piece hasn’t achieved its true objective until it has been shared.
For digital content distribution to be successful, a business must analyze and choose the right KPIs, based on their end objective.
5. Not Adding Variety to Distribution
As we know, every platform serves a unique purpose and a unique persona. While most businesses distribute their content across multiple platforms, what they don’t do is tailor the content to each platform and their respective personas..
For example,you might publish a blog on your website. The same blog can be shared on various social media platforms, at the click of a button. However, users on some platforms may prefer watching videos. While users on other platforms might wish to read the entire article without leaving the platform itself.
To make your content strategy successful, it is essential to understand your audience’s preferences and repurpose your content accordingly.
6. Reluctance to Spend on Distribution
With all the research and effort put into creating content, one would imagine your work would speak for itself. Fortunately or unfortunately, that’s not the case. Irrespective of how good your content is, it needs to compete in an overcrowded market.Without a push, it won’t stand a chance.
Luckily, we’ve got paid campaigns distribution channels to help.While most companies are reluctant to spend additional money on promoting their content, what they don’t realize is that it’s a necessity today.
Choosing the right platforms on which to promote your digital content, can help you achieve your targets sooner. It can also help you get more out of your top content pieces.Additionally, you don’t need to spend a lot of money on paid channels, if your strategy is planned well.
7. Not Analyzing Newsletters
Email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your existing customers. They keep your customers abreast of the latest happenings in your company. They can also be personalized to some extent, allowing you to build your relationship with each individual.
However, one mistake a lot of us make is in our approach to these emails. Companies tend to send out the email, and hope for the best.Or rather, since the newsletter is just an update from the company, businesses send out the email without expecting it to have a negative impact.In reality though, even loyal customers might choose to opt-out from the mailing list.
Instead, it would help to analyze the performance of your newsletters and every element within them. For example, you could use A/B testing to see which subject line attracts the most attention. Regularly testing your newsletters, gives you the most out of this highly effective, direct digital content distribution channel.
Conclusion
As you can see, without a digital content distribution strategy in place in 2024, you might never be able to realize the full potential of your content marketing efforts.
KITABOO, a cloud-based digital publishing platform is designed to help enhance, create and distribute exceptional eBook experiences. With KITABOO your digital content can be distributed in a matter of seconds across platforms and devices.
To know more about how KITABOO can aid your content distribution efforts, write to us at KITABOO@hurix.com.
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