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Digital marketing is a must for any business, but it’s a crowded and competitive space. But with the right plan in place, you can carve out a space for your business and find a worthy ROI for your efforts.

If you’re not sure how to create a marketing strategy, the best way to start is to break apart your tactics into marketing campaign phases. The RICE marketing strategy model can help you accomplish this by sorting your work into 4 phases of marketing that can guide your decision-making. That way you can easily identify which areas are the most effective to focus resources on.

The 4 Phases of Marketing: What Is RICE?

Put simply, RICE stands for reach, interact, convert, and engage. RICE itself originates from Hubspot’s inbound marketing model and is a popular variation that many marketers have coined and adapted for use in recent years.

What Is The RICE Method In Marketing?
RiceGraphic min 1 jpg RICE: The 4 Phases of Marketing Strategy Crucial to Your Success

While these marketing funnel stages sound simple, there’s a lot of room for creativity in what tactics you use within each step. If you’re newer to digital marketing it’s common to start in the reach phase and move through the phases in chronological order. 

Why Does a Strategic Marketing Management Process Matter?

With careful execution in all the phases of this strategic marketing process, the goal is to see your marketing successfully repeat the RICE pattern with ease over time.

Or simply stated, you know what marketing works for you.

The ultimate goals of your marketing should be about more than just conversions. Your efforts need to work holistically to create a sustainable marketing model. When you achieve that, your marketing will efficiently and effectively support you to scale your business.


Finding the tactics that work for you in each of these 4 phases of marketing earns you more than a sale. You earn a supportive and engaged community of brand ambassadors along the way. (Word of mouth is never dead after all, even in digital marketing.)

Phase 1: Reaching Your Audience

You already know that building a business and waiting for people to find you isn’t enough. So it’s logical that the first phase of a strategic marketing process focuses on a foundational step – figuring out if and how you can reach the right audience. 

This stage is focused on being helpful and building your EAT (expertise, trust, and authority) online. It ensures you’re found in the right moments by the right target audience and leaves nothing to chance.

What Marketing Tactics are Used in the Reach Phase?

When it comes to digital marketing, here are the following tactics you need to have in place to solidify your reach:

What KPIs Should I Use in Reach?

It’s a well-known fact that internet marketing comes with a lot of metrics to review. Two of the key metrics we recommend focusing on to  assess if you’re successfully increasing your reach include:

  • Click-through rate
  • Traffic sessions driven from each tactic (social ads, PPC, organic search, etc.)

You may be tempted to look at increasing impressions as an indicator of success, but it’s a vanity metric to view cautiously. If your audience targeting is off at the start, you may have a wide reach but an extremely low click-through rate because you’re not aiming for the right people.

On the flip side, you may reduce your audience size and pull back your reach you have but find a better, more relevant audience in this phase. That’s the better group to pursue and hopefully push through your RICE strategy.

Phase 2: Interacting with Your Audience

The goal here is to make your business accessible. In the 4 phases of marketing, this is the stage where if you don’t have the right infrastructure in place, you risk losing your audience.

What Marketing Tactics are Used in the Interact Phase?

This is the point where good design and user experience are key. Tactics in this phase include:

What KPIs Should I Use in the Interact Phase?

During this marketing campaign phase, consider using the following in accordance with your campaign goal to measure success:

  • Goal completions (in Analytics it could be a quote submission or gated content download)
  • Email sign-ups
  • Social engagement rate (for ads and unpaid posting)
  • Pages per session during organic website visits (Do you meet the standard 2 pages a session or exceed that – below 2 indicates a problem)
  • Lead submissions (both from organic or paid marketing)

Again you’ll want to match marketing tactics to the appropriate metric. For example, looking at email bounce rates holds a very different meaning than looking at website bounce rates.

By this stage, you’re likely already doing SEO and content creation (part of the reach setup) to help with your organic marketing in search. So look at pages per session to see how visitors are interacting with your site. Also, consider soft goal completions like downloading an item or signing up for emails.

Whereas if you’re running PPC and paid social advertising, measure form submissions on that page or engagement rate and shares (on social) to name a few.

Tower blog iPad scaled RICE: The 4 Phases of Marketing Strategy Crucial to Your Success

Phase 3: Converting Your Audience

At last, comes the headline act everyone waits for — the conversion. But for marketers, we know that the time it takes between someone meeting your brand initially and converting can vary widely.

As a part of your marketing make sure you consider the sales funnel your business has built. It will ultimately affect your marketing strategy and how much time it takes to establish and repeat the 4 phases of marketing (RICE). 

Some factors that influence the length of time to conversion are the 4Ps (product, place, price, and promotion.) Times to convert on selling a home improvement product for 30,000 will look different from selling $10 books. 

Knowing the time it takes for your audience to decide will better help you make marketing decisions about where and how to reach and interact with them, to ultimately push them towards converting.

What Marketing Tactics are Used in the Convert Phase?

Some examples of marketing tactics include:

  • Advertising with limited/ exclusive offers
  • Marketing automation (to connect with visitors at the right moment)
  • Special landing pages with conversion copy
  • Hard calls-to-action (Eg. the ‘purchase now’ messaging)

 

What KPIs Should I Use in the Conversion Phase?

This is likely the simplest stage to measure. Here are some of the common performance indicators companies look at:

  • Amount of revenue acquired (does it meet your growth goal)
  • Total sales from a campaign
  • Number of SKUs sold

Phase 4: Engaging Your Audience

Did you know that roughly 65% of your business can come from existing customers?

While it’s tempting to consider marketing a success at the conversion and call it a day, what you do to engage your audience after the sale is what sets you apart. You’ll notice any successful strategic marketing management process accounts for this final step in the 4 phases of marketing.

You’ve set the stage in reaching and interacting with these customers that converted — now you want to make sure that if they (or a peer) are looking for a product or service, you come to mind again. But to stay helpful and relevant, you need to execute marketing tactics that engage people.

What Marketing Tactics are Used in the Engage Phase?

There will be some repeat tactics from earlier, but the primary difference is that your messaging through those outlets should be more focused on nurturing. Tactics we recommend include:

  • Email marketing and automation (follow-up surveys, updates, special messages)
  • Organic social media posts
  • Digital remarketing

What KPIs Should I Use in the Engage Phase?

As you reach this last step in RICE, it all boils down to this:

Tower blog iPhone scaled RICE: The 4 Phases of Marketing Strategy Crucial to Your Success

How to create a marketing strategy: Which Stage of RICE Are You In?

It’s easy to feel eager and want to skip ahead to the conversion stage, but as you work on assembling your marketing plan, audit your business through an unbiased lens. Ask yourself:

  • Am I reaching my desired audience in the right places?
  • Are people interacting with my business through the desired outlets?
  • Am I seeing the conversions I want from my digital marketing efforts (your website, social, PPC, etc.)
  • Am I seeing repeat business from those conversions?

If you’re getting interaction but not seeing conversions, you likely need to go back to the interact stage and do some foundational work. If you’re seeing conversions, but a lack of repeat business – then you need to work on the engagement phase. Or if you’re not even seeing interaction via your efforts, start with the reach phase and make sure you’re actually getting in front of the right people.

Need some help figuring out where to start with digital marketing? Contact our team for expert advice in crafting an effective B2B or B2C marketing plan to navigate the digital landscape.

Contact Our Team

If you’ve been asking yourself whether your B2B business should have an account on Pinterest, the truth is there is no clear cut answer. It all depends.

Pinterest was the fourth most used platform at the end of 2019 so there’s clearly a huge audience to reach through marketing. It’s also worth noting that:

There’s a lot of potential on this platform, but don’t rush to create a business account just yet. Start with research to gauge if you have any target audiences on the platform.

Navigating Pinterest marketing in regards to your business can be overwhelming, especially if you haven’t spent much time on it. Doing B2B marketing on Pinterest is definitely valuable for some businesses, but for others, it’s not an effective choice.

This blog will explore what a strong Pinterest marketing strategy looks like and show examples of successful B2B companies using Pinterest effectively. We’ll also provide you with a free, Pinterest SWOT resource that can help you start figuring out if and how you can leverage Pinterest to grow your business.

B2B Pinterest Marketing Strategy

Content is your business’ currency on any social media platform. Before you even start B2B marketing on Pinterest, you need to first make sure you have high-quality content. This is what makes your target audience want to follow and interact with you.

Why is this step important? Some people may use Pinterest to follow friends, but most use Pinterest to find the information they’re interested in. And that information can be anything returned from their search, from sponsored ads to organic pins promoting blogs, videos, and other content. Your audience’s search behavior is the key to your success on Pinterest.

You can’t reap the benefits of Pinterest marketing if you’re only ever pinning content made by others. Make something of your own that’s also worth sharing.

Organic Vs. Paid Distribution on Pinterest

After you have your content resources, it’s time to strategize how social media accounts, like Pinterest, can be used as a content marketing distribution channel. Pinterest B2B marketing is most effective with a plan that uses both organic (aka unpaid) and paid posting. Both are valuable methods for growing your followers and reaching new potential customers.

A woman browses Pinterest pins on her iPad.

Organic Pinterest Pins

Anyone creating a pin on Pinterest, including B2B companies, should first read through Pinterest’s guide to creating great pins. It’s full of great tips to help you understand how you can choose or create the best images for your pins. It also has tips for optimizing your text, incorporating your logo, and branding your posts. Pinterest also has extensive resources to help you learn the ins and outs of creating boards, pinning, and more on its platform. Like any social media account, your organic posting will get very little engagement in the beginning. Don’t be discouraged though, as with time and a willingness to experiment you will learn what tactics work to increase your followers.

Organic Pins & Search Engine Optimization

One way you can help your organic pins is to incorporate an SEO keyword strategy in the pin that you are writing directly on Pinterest or even on your account page. You don’t need to have any fancy SEO tools to do so (although they do make it easier). Start by searching to find keywords related to your B2B business, industry, or product. See what competitors are using in their pins if possible, and look at what Pinterest is suggesting in its search bar as you start typing. From there, gather a list and decide what phrases you want to use. Doing this makes your unpaid pins easier to find through search on the platform.

Paid Pinterest Pins

Once you’ve created an organic posting plan, it’s essential that you also set aside money and make use of paid advertising on Pinterest. By the end of 2019, Pinterest recorded having 320 million active users monthly, with 58% of those users saying they used it to make shopping decisions. The problem is that with algorithms and other factors, it’s difficult to target the users you want to reach solely by posting unpaid content. But with paid ads on Pinterest, you can expand your visibility much more quickly. By paying to boost a pin, you can choose specific targeting in regards to location, gender, age, interests, languages, keywords, and more. Because of that, your content is more likely to reach people who are interested in it. And one of the awesome benefits of Pinterest marketing is that users can save your paid pin just like they can save a regular pin. This is a great way to see what content your audience is finding valuable. Best of all, long after your paid post ends, the people who saved it can still go back and reference it. This gives your advertising a longer lifespan than it has on other popular platforms.

So, Does Pinterest Work for B2B Businesses?

The answer is both yes and no. The key to making Pinterest work for B2B marketing is to do your research and curate content to align with the data.
Find out what audiences are on Pinterest and how they intersect with your customer demographics. Then figure out what angle you need to take to interest those audiences and engage with them on Pinterest. Building that relationship, brand awareness, and authoritative voice is what can give you an advantage when they’re ready to buy.

There are plenty of blogs on best practices for creating a Pinterest business account and managing it. But when it comes to B2B marketing on Pinterest, it’s more valuable to look at real-life examples of companies who are and aren’t doing it successfully. That way if you decide to get on Pinterest, you have examples of strategies that are actually working for other B2B groups.

A marketer plans out his social plan on paper at his desk.

Examples of Poor Pinterest B2B Marketing

When it comes to finding B2B Pinterest examples of companies who aren’t successful, it’s actually quite difficult. Part of it is that no one wants to talk about when Pinterest marketing isn’t effective. The other issue is that their account is doing so poorly it’s hard to find through search. However, there are some valuable lessons that can be learned from studying their profiles and content. Below are two B2B companies that definitely have the potential to increase their business through Pinterest marketing, but currently aren’t doing a stellar job. I’ll dive into some main takeaways below for each, but check out the link to their accounts and have a look for yourself.

HubSpot Creative’s Pinterest

HubSpot is recognized as a leader in marketing, sales, and customer service software, so you may be surprised to see they’re on Pinterest. But a segment of their business, HubSpot Creative, actually has an account geared towards people interested in marketing and design. This should be a great fit given the visual, creative nature of Pinterest. The problem? They only have around 400+ followers. And for a company with such high brand recognition in its field, that’s not enough to make an impact. Let’s break down their account. What did they do well?

  • They create well-organized topic boards.
  • Their account uses high-quality images.
  • All pins are clearly and consistently branded.

Where do they struggle?

  • Their only in-house content is team updates.
  • Some of the content is great to view but offers nothing beyond the image.
  • The account leads to a Tumblr page instead of their main website, creating a credibility issue.

Staples NAD’s Pinterest

You also might be surprised to learn that Staples has an account geared towards its B2B customers. And while it’s not a bad account, it’s not performing like a competitor (Office Depot) that I’ll cover below. The account only has 64 monthly views, and after gauging their competition, that’s a low number for their level of name recognition. What did they do well?

  • Their account is verified, adding to its credibility.
  • Pins are being used to distribute their online Work Life Magazine.
  • Imagery is branded, attractive, and good quality.

Where do they struggle?

  • They only have one board with a handful of pins.
  • Pins are only their content, while it’s best to have a mix of your pins and external content.
  • They lack diverse content, as it’s all online articles.

There are some recurring lessons from both of these examples. Pitfalls you should avoid for B2B marketing on Pinterest include:

  • Only pinning your own content
  • Not having your own content
  • Not having enough boards
  • Not establishing your credibility either by verifying your account or linking to the right website

Examples of Successful B2B Companies on Pinterest

Starting to ask yourself again if effective Pinterest B2B marketing is actually possible? While we showed where it can fail above — the answer is still YES!
Below are two B2B companies doing a killer job – and some honorable mentions that didn’t make this list, including FireRock’s Pinterest and Survey Monkey’s Pinterest. If you have some free time, it’s worth studying their accounts to see how both are leveraging this platform well.

Office Depot’s Pinterest

So above we saw a competitor, Staples NAD, engaging around 60+ views monthly. However, Office Depot is tapping into 7 million monthly views. Businesses are familiar with both suppliers and both are well-recognized brands. And they’d be engaging similar audiences on Pinterest. So why is Office Depot doing so much better?

Here are some factors playing in their success:

  • Their account is verified, making it more credible.
  • Written content makes use of SEO keywords and hashtags so it can perform well in search.
  • The pins and content target Pinterest’s main audience demographic – women! (The majority of Pinterest users are women.)
  • Branding on their images is very well-done.
  • They mix up the use of images and short, eye-catching videos.
  • Their content includes blogs, videos, and product spotlights, all tastefully done and diverse.

It’s exciting to see how they’ve embraced the platform and earned a great ROI as a result. They’re actively engaging millions of users every month. It’s easy to think that pens and office supplies aren’t exciting and therefore they can’t get away with B2B marketing on Pinterest — but Office Depot is doing it.

Ultimately, they realized the opportunity on Pinterest and angled their approach accordingly. They pivoted from just “selling businesses supplies” to designing a narrative. Their popular messaging includes designing your dream office and creating a picture-perfect business space to work in, which they subtly suggest starts with their supplies.

IBM’s Pinterest

So maybe you think office supplies are fun, and it makes sense to you that they can market on Pinterest. But business technology giant IBM is doing it, too. Their account has over 129,500 views monthly. So how is this B2B company performing so well?

Here are a few details worth calling attention to:

  • Their account is verified, giving it that sense of credibility.
  • They have diverse boards with different targeted interests like cooking, geeky tech gifts, tech in sports, tech in fashion, and much more.
  • They do a great job creating a lot of women-focused content to tap into that specific audience. (Over 5,000 users follow their women in tech board.)
  • The content is diverse, including blogs, old IBM photos, infographics, and cross-promoting other people’s content.
  • All branding is clear and consistent.

What’s interesting here is just how good IBM is at targeting not just their audience, but who they think is on Pinterest that could potentially be their B2B client. They target tech people who love history using iconic IBM photos. They target a niche community interested in fun technology incorporated in gifts, sports, and fashion. And their targeting of professional women is also a smart move.

Encouraging women in STEM fields is a social push — but IBM has recognized it’s also a rising audience. This group is highly active on social media, so IBM has curated content around that topic. This is a smart move because it will tap into women in the field now, and the next generation of women in tech who are vocal online.

A neon sign that says do something great.

The Advantages of Pinterest Over Facebook or Instagram

It’s a no brainer for businesses to be active on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. But when it comes to Pinterest, it’s often a question mark for B2B companies. Here’s an overview of Pinterest user facts to persuade you that it holds value:

  • The majority of Pinterest users are between ages 30 – 49.
  • Around ⅓ of users admitted to using Pinterest to follow brands.
  • About 6 out of 10 Millennials use it specifically to discover products.
  • Only 28% of marketers worldwide use it for marketing.

As millennials in the workforce are aging, they’re gaining more responsibility, including purchasing power within their job. It’s interesting to note that they are the majority of Pinterest users and that many of them will use it for product discovery. And, we know from data that users on Pinterest are more willing to buy products compared to users of other social media platforms. That paired with the fact that only around a quarter of marketers use the platform shows a HUGE opportunity. If you find that your B2B company’s products or services can align with audiences on Pinterest, it opens the window to reach audiences that aren’t inundated with marketing. The key is taking advantage of organic and paid posts, while also figuring out the best way to present content. Native advertising is certainly a part of how B2B companies find success on the platform.

How B2B Marketing on Pinterest Can Grow Your Business

Now that you’ve seen the good and the bad, it’s time to figure out if Pinterest can actually grow your business. We’ve put together a Pinterest SWOT exercise you can use to ask some key questions to lead you to either create an account or disregard the platform.

Mountain the clouds

Download & Print the Pinterest SWOT Template

It’s possible to use B2B marketing on Pinterest to grow your business, but you need to make sure it fits into your social media plan. And if you don’t have one, then it’s wise to start first by creating a social media strategy for your business.

At the end of the day, your success on Pinterest will be contingent on your willingness to put time into creating and sharing good content, analyzing data, and being flexible enough to adjust your strategy to find what tactics work.

Feel like you still need help getting started on Pinterest? Looking to improve your presence on your social media accounts? Learn how our team can help bring you better engagement online through our social media services.

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You’ve just uploaded your content and it looks beautiful—the headlines are sharp, the images practically jump off the page, and the SEO is on point. Your team spent hours creating and proofing it, and now it’s finally published.

But is good writing enough to make you stand out online? Or does the real power lie in how you use content marketing distribution channels to get your message directly in front of your audience?

According to cloud service DOMO, here’s an average of what’s being created and shared in just one minute online: 

  • Instagram users are sharing 46,740 photos
  • Twitter users are producing 456,000 tweets
  • YouTube users are watching 4,146,600 videos
  • Internet users are conducting 3,607,080 Google searches

And that’s only a snapshot of a few platforms.  If you don’t understand and use content distribution channels, and only ever worry about publishing it online, there’s a risk the very people you put together content for will never read it amidst all the noise of online platforms.

What Are Content Marketing Channels

Content distribution channels are the places your audiences go to when searching for information, and therefore the places you should be promoting your content. There are four content distribution channels you can use to increase your reach:

media structure 01 scaled Do Content Marketing Distribution Channels Actually Matter?

Paid Media

Paid media is a method where businesses pay a channel to promote their content.

Examples: paid Facebook ads, Pinterest ads, Google ads, Podcast ads, Sponsored Instagram content, or Sponsored videos.

Advantages: Speeds up the process of acquiring audience attention you haven’t been able to reach organically.

Disadvantages: This option can become very expensive and sometimes have little ROI if you’re not targeting the right audiences.

Earned Media

Earned media is a method where third parties with influence promote or share your content by their own will.

Examples: A popular blogger links to your piece, an Instagram influencer shares your content in a story, or a news outlet promotes your content.

Advantages: Your content gains exposure to new audiences at no cost.

Disadvantages: You can’t control who promotes or shares content, which can be a problem if the person sharing it is controversial.

Shared Media

Shared media is a method where you place content on platforms, like social networking sites, and then users themselves continue distributing it. It also includes user-generated feedback. Social media optimization is continuing to be a major factor in helping businesses be found online.

Examples: Users share a Facebook post, Instagram users tag someone on your post, or someone leaves a review on Google to share with others.

Advantages: This option is either free or at a low-cost to you and since users distribute or generate content about your piece, it can build trust in your brand.

Disadvantages: You can’t control the spread of shared media that’s tied to negative user feedback. The best you can do is be vigilant for any negative shared media and then respond appropriately.

Owned Media

Owned media is a method where you are in full control of the content and you’re handling the publishing and distributing yourself.

Examples: Publishing a blog on your website, creating a landing page for an event, publishing a whitepaper in your resources, or producing your weekly podcast.

If you interested in learning to start your own podcast, our B2B podcasting guide covers everything you need to know before you take the deep dive into podcasting.

Advantages: This option is either free or at a low-cost to you (if you’re paying someone to manage your owned media channels). You also have full control over this channel and how content is distributed.

Disadvantages: Distribution is limited. Only audiences who are visiting that site or know about the content are finding it. It’s limited to the people who already know about your content or happen to find it while searching online.

The best distribution plan isn’t limited to one of these channels. Instead, it takes a multi-channel content marketing approach and combines the channels. Just using one channel will limit your reach, but by combining the channels you can continue driving traffic to a piece of content long after it’s published.

The Importance of Content Distribution

Envision this. Your team has spent hours working on a video. You got the staff together to make it, coached them during filming, and then spent time editing it to create an informative piece of content. 

Now imagine what happens if you just publish it on your website and make one Facebook post announcing it. Ultimately, you’ll see the video’s traffic spike. That’s great right? 

Except when you go to check on it days or weeks later, you’ll likely find traffic has dropped. And if you check that video maybe even a year later, it might not even have any traffic. 

Too many businesses think it’s enough to post content on their site and then promote it in one post on their social media account. When you spent all that time, money, and effort creating content, did you really want it to only be viewed for just a few days after it’s posted?

Now Imagine you did the following instead with your video:

  • You publish the video on your website highlighting a service.
  • You post on Facebook to draw attention to its release.
  • Your followers respond to it, some comment, and a few share it.
  • You decide to use it in a targeted ad and it reaches a new audience.
  • After the ad runs, data shows an increase in traffic for that service.
  • You work it into an email campaign.
  • You later see an influential person in your industry shares the video on their own will.
  • After that figure shares it you see your traffic increase again.
  • Later you’re answering a question on Quora and link to the video to help explain.
  • After linking your content on Quora you notice traffic again rises upward.

Because you used a multi-channel content distribution strategy your work engaged current clients, reached potential audiences, and earned the attention of an industry influencer and his or her followers.

The importance of content marketing distribution channels shouldn’t be overlooked, because by using them you ensure audiences actually see what you create. Why create something if no one is seeing it? If you simply post content on your site and move on to the next piece, your current and potential audiences won’t know it exists.

The old way of thinking says “content is king”, but marketer Ross Simmonds has coined a more accurate mantra for content creation. He pushes creators to abide by “D.R.E.A.M – distribution rules everything around me.”

A man sits by a wall thinking with a lightbulb drawn above him.

What Type of Content Should You Be Creating?

Distribution aside, you still need to be creating good content that’s worthy of sharing. If what you’re sharing isn’t put together well, a diverse strategy across content marketing distribution channels won’t fix the fact that what you created doesn’t add value to the conversation. There are two strategies you should use to create valuable content.

First, create content that aligns with the awareness stage of a buyer’s journey. There are a lot of nuances to that journey, but clients typically move through four phases:

  1. Awareness Stage
  2. Consideration Stage
  3. Decision Stage
  4. Post-decision Stage

When you set out to make content, think about what phase your client is at when they’re looking for information on that topic. Then create and answer the questions you think they’d have at that stage.

Second, use the “Skyscraper Strategy” to create content that will perform well. A simple Google search will show you the top-performing content. Especially when writing, the skyscraper technique primarily helps you see what those articles at the top of google cover.

After reading through some of those pieces, write something better! You can see what they’ve done well and what basic information you should cover. But what do those resources miss? Now is your chance to include that information, go more into detail, and as a result become the new authoritative resource.

Pros and Cons of Different Content

So what content should you be creating to share in the first place? That looks different for every business, so you really need to pick and choose based on the resources you have and your audience.

We’ve broken out popular types of content and what you should consider before creating them, so you can decide what works best for your business:

Blogs

Pros: Good way to share educational information about your industry, easy to create and distribute, a good way to be seen as an expert source

Cons: Lots of competition online, time-consuming, requires writing skills

Videos

Pros: Visual, engaging, higher conversion rates on certain platforms (like social media)

Cons: Need special equipment, editing footage can take time, requires visual & auditory skills

Podcasts

Pros: Engages with a fixed audience, no ad competition, builds intimacy with listeners

Cons: Need special equipment, editing sound can take time, requires auditory skills

Ads

Pros: Extends your reach, allows for specific targeting, quickly increases brand awareness

Cons: Can be costly, requires the right messaging

Infographics

Pros: Engages people visually, captures attention

Cons: Take time to create, requires design and editing skills

Where to Distribute Digital Content

Once you’ve created content that aligns with your business’ ability and the needs of your audience, it’s time to get down to actually distributing it. You understand the content marketing distribution channels and have created your distribution strategy, but what are the actual platforms you can use?

There are plenty of options, and new platforms are created every year that rise to popularity. Here are some ideas of a few you can get started with to distribute your content. Remember to always look out for emerging platforms that’d be appropriate for reaching your audience.

Blogs

The best platforms you can use to distribute your blog content include:

Videos

The best platforms you can use to distribute your videos include:

  • Your own website
  • Youtube (offers paid and organic posting)
  • Vimeo
  • Facebook
  • Instagram (for short content)
  • TikTok
  • Snapchat

Podcasts

The best platforms you can use to distribute your podcasts include:

  • Apple podcasts
  • Spotify
  • Google Play Music
  • Overcast
  • Stitcher

Ads

The best platforms you can use to distribute your ads include:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • Google Ads
  • Bing Ads
  • Quora
  • Answer.com
  • Reddit
  • Twitter

Infographics

The best platforms you can use to distribute your infographics include:

  • Your website
  • Slideshare
  • Quora
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

Paid vs. Free Content Distribution

Every business is different, so there’s no exact rule on how much of each to use. The best advice is to just make sure you use both methods. Over time collect data and see what content does better for paid vs. free content distribution. Then plan and continue experimenting to find what works.

By organically distributing content for free, you can connect with loyal followers and build relationships with influential people. It’s important to gain an understanding of this type of distribution since it will save your business money.

However, paid distribution is worth it if your budget allows for it. It offers a way to take those start pieces of content and place them into potential audiences you haven’t been able to reach organically. And it helps you grow your followers more quickly.

A woman runs up imaginary steps on a wall.

Automated Content Distribution

Content distribution can become a chore in itself. If you’re finding that it’s hard to devote enough time to distributing, consider ways that you can automate the process. Take advantage of tools that will let you schedule distribution ahead of time, so you can plan it for weeks at a time. 

First, assess what task you’d like to save time doing. Then research to see if there are automated platforms you’d trust to handle that type of distribution.

For example, on Facebook you can use the publishing tools to schedule posts promoting content. You can choose everything down to the date and time of distribution. That way you can frontload your work and not have to constantly devote time to going in and posting every week.Platforms like Hootsuite will even allow you to manage scheduling posts on different social media platforms from the same place. Other pieces of content, like email marketing, can also be automated with a third-party service, like Active Campaign.

Yes, Content Marketing Distribution Channels Matter

Look at it this way – are you creating content you want people to see? Chances are you answered yes and that’s why publishing should never be the last step when you’re creating a content marketing strategy. If you don’t have a multi-channel distribution process, you’re just wasting a lot of effort creating work that no one will engage with. There’s a risk they won’t even know it exists.

However, if you do have a distribution plan it’s likely that you won’t just get engagement from your current audiences, but that you’ll also find new ones! Your content is a valuable resource for growing your audience base — that’s why you should prioritize distributing it.

If you find your team is lacking the time and manpower to manage distribution, consider if hiring a digital marketing agency is right for you. By doing so, you have a team of experts handling the details of creating relevant content and distributing it effectively.

By relying on an agency, you can free your team to focus on product and service development instead. Your content ultimately wins too because you have experienced professionals using their industry knowledge and strategies to boost engagement and ensure it is actually reaching your audience. Remember, content is only worth it if it’s actually being seen.

Need help distributing your content? Talk with our team of experts to learn more about how you can increase your work’s visibility online for your audience.

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