How to Boost Content Performance

Do you feel like all your time creating content is going to waste? Gone are the days when simply writing and publishing an amazing article was all you needed to attract readers.  

Nowadays, it’s not enough to create outstanding content. You also need to get that article, video, or infographic in front of the right people, at the right time, and in the most efficient way possible.  

This is why you need to have a content marketing distribution strategy!  

In this article, our SEO marketing agency will discuss the different content distribution channels, from organic ways like SEO to paid distribution to ensure your content performs well.  

What is Content Distribution?

Content distribution is the process of presenting, sharing, and promoting your content. It’s how you showcase your content to your audience through various media formats and channels.

Paid Distribution + Organic Distribution is The Key

Organic distribution is any form of distribution that you’re not paying for. Examples of this are SEO marketing, guest posting content in online publications, and social media shares.  

However, organic reach has its limits, especially now that social media channels have become pay-to-play platforms.

Paid distribution, on the other hand, requires you to invest your money to get your content in front of more people, whether that’s on social media or Google.

To boost your content’s performance, this SEO marketing agency recommends that you strike a balance between investing in paid distribution and using organic distribution to help your content gain traction and generate engagement online.  

Different Content Types for Distribution

Below are the different types of content you can create to promote your business:

• eBooks

• Podcasts and Interviews
• Videos
• Infographics
• Success Stories
• Webinars

• Blogs

Top Content Distribution Channels

Depending on your target audience and resource, the channels you can use to distribute your content include:

• Owned content distribution: Content properties your business owns. This includes your site, blog, social media profiles, mobile app, and email newsletter.
• Earned content distribution: Earned or shared channels are when third parties, such as journalists, bloggers, or anyone shares or promote your content.  
• Paid content distribution: Paid channels include PPC ads, sponsored content, paid influencer content, and paid social ads.  

5 Tips for Building a Solid Content Distribution Strategy for Better Content Performance

Your content marketing plan is only as valuable as its ability to appear in front of the right people and get them to take action.  

Without a solid distribution strategy for both paid and organic distribution channels, your content won't be able to reach its intended audience.  

Below are five tips for building a content distribution strategy that drives results according to our very own SEO marketing agency experts.  

1. Get to Know Your Intended Audience

You might think that it's better to get your content in front of as many different kinds of audiences as possible to generate more engagements and for a quick ROI.  

But it doesn’t work that way. Imagine physically mailing your content to all your customers even though they have different likes and preferences. It would be a disaster!  

Those people who don’t find your content relevant might ignore you or think you’re just spam. This creates a negative experience that will ultimately impact their perception and future relationship with you.  

Make sure you make a good impression by presenting the right content to the right people.  

The first step you need to take is to segment your audience and create a customer persona for each group.  

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to ask yourself or your potential customers the following questions:

• What kind of content does this group interact with?

• What kinds of topics are they interested in?
• Where do they go to discover and consume content?

It’s also important to determine where your target audience spends most of their time online because that's usually where they discover and consume content.  

You want to meet them where they are to ensure your content gets the most exposure and engagement.  

That said, a good distribution plan isn't just about determining the right channels to use and to whom you should present your content.  

You also need to make sure you're showing them the right content at the right time.  

We recommend looking at your analytics to determine the time when your audience is most active online. This will give you an idea of when to post.

If you’re unsure how to do this, it’s a good idea to ask your go-to SEO marketing agency!

2. Leverage Organic Channels to Test Your Paid Ads

Before investing a ton of money into promoting or distributing every piece of content you publish, try organic distribution first.

Post content on social media, and your website, then distribute it via email for a couple of weeks.  

You want to determine which pieces your audience loves to engage with and share.  

Once you've determined your high-performing pieces, optimize them further by running an A/B test.  

Tweak the call to action, title, description, or other elements in your content to see which copy works best for your audience.  

Using your organic distribution as a test allows you to gain insights into the topics and platforms that your target audience likes before you spend a fortune on promotions.  

3. Promote Stellar Content Right Away

When you’ve put in all the resources to develop a truly amazing piece of content, and it’s tested well organically, don’t hesitate to promote it right away.  

This is especially important if you’ve come up with something extremely valuable for your target audience and your business.  

Content that will help you build backlinks, allow you to create a lot of other articles around it, and position you as a leader in your industry offers even more value.  

Make sure you create comprehensive pieces that you know your audience will love to read. These pieces should solve their problems, answer their questions, and educate them about certain topics.  

The goal is to get these pieces some early traction through organic distribution and then catapult them through paid distribution to earn a boost of performance later on.

4. Consider Consumer Intent When Doing Keyword Research

Your content will perform much better if you can create pieces that address your customers’ search intent and use keywords that help boost SEO.  

There are three main types of search intent:

• Awareness: Users are looking for information or navigation. Usually uses the key phrase “what is ABC?".
• Research and Discovery: Users aren’t quite ready to buy but are still looking for options available in the market. Usually uses the key phrase “ABC vs. XYZ”.  

• Purchase: Users are ready to buy and intend to complete the purchase process. Uses the keyword “buy ABC".

You want to create content that answers directly what people are searching for and why. This will also make it easier to determine the best distribution method(s) to maximize your content’s performance.  

For example, if you know that a user is still in the awareness stage, then you can create informational pieces that you can distribute across search engines where they’re more likely to look for answers.  

You can also put pieces that allow your customers to compare and contrast products available on the market on social media.  

Here are some tips from SEO marketing agency experts to help you understand your prospects’ intent:  

• Use analytics to gather real-time search insights you can use to better understand the intent of your target customers.  
• Conduct a competitive content analysis to identify content gaps and other intent-based keyword opportunities. Find out what your competitor isn’t providing your audience and fill that gap.  
• Publish more content that effectively addresses each user’s search intent.  

5. Set Your Content Distribution Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Set goals for your content distribution strategy and measure content performance.  

It’s important to set goals so you can determine your KPIs. Goals play an important role in helping you recognize where you're going and what success might look like when you get there.

One of the top ways to identify if your content is doing well or underperforming is based on the number of website traffic it generates.

Other KPIs you want to measure are:

• Traffic/Reach: Unique page views by channel and source
• Engagement: Average time on page and bounce rate

• Top Content: Top page views
• Poor Content: Top exits
• Impact: Conversions, backlinks, and click-throughs
• Sentiment: Social shares and comments

Setting these KPIs and understanding how each contributes toward conversions or whatever goal you want to achieve is the best way to evaluate the performance of your content.

Looking for a Trusted SEO Marketing Agency?

If your content isn’t generating the results you want, don’t hesitate to call for expert help!  

Digital Resource is the best SEO marketing agency to help you boost your content’s performance!  

Our digital marketing experts and SEO specialists will work with you to create a custom content plan that will help you gain traction online and attract more customers.  

Want to get ahead of your competition this 2023? Contact us to get started!  

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