Picture this: you’ve crafted a brilliant content calendar for your SaaS brand. It consists of blog posts, ebooks, and case studies. And you have nailed the messaging. You hit send and patiently wait for the views to start pouring in.
But nothing happens.
Worse, people are unfollowing your social media accounts and unsubscribing to your newsletter.
The underlying reason: your marketing strategy lacks content distribution and is targeting the wrong audience.
The good news is you can redefine your content game without reinventing the wheel through a content distribution strategy.
In this article, you’ll learn how you can create a winning content distribution strategy for your SaaS brand.
What is Content Distribution?
Content distribution is the process of publishing and promoting content across multiple channels to enhance content discovery, engagement, and performance.
A content distribution strategy covers:
- Who are you writing for (your audience)
- Where will you publish it (channels)
- How will you entice your audience (tactics)
- What are you trying to achieve (KPIs)
- Why your audience should care about your brand (type of content and its alignment with your target audience)
On the other hand, content promotion is less targeted and refers to sharing content across various platforms, so anyone and everyone can find it.
How to Build a Content Distribution Strategy
Building a content distribution strategy is more than simply publishing content on multiple channels and repeating the process.
Content distribution requires a tactical approach. You need to have a predefined process that targets specific metrics and maximizes the mileage you get from your content.
But, how do you achieve that? Use this 5-step framework to create a content distribution strategy for your SaaS business. Note that this framework will only work when you have a pool of high-quality content to share with your target audience.
1. Identify buyer persona
Buyer personas stand at the heart of your content distribution strategy, envisioning things your potential clients really want to consume. They help you decipher who your target customers are and how to talk to them.
With this semi-fictional representation of your potential buyers, content distribution becomes easy as you’ll not only create content that’s aligned to your buyer’s needs but only distribute them in a way that fits in their behaviors and needs.
But, the question is: how do you identify your ideal buyer persona?
Well, for this, it’s time to dig deep.
Ask these question and collect real-world data:
- Which type of people would be benefitted by your content?
- Where do they hang-out?
- Whose opinion do they trust?
- What are their goals and pain points?
For instance, Mailchimp has done an awesome job at creating their buyer personas, and that is reflected in the quality of their content and its performance.
2. Decide your distribution channels
Different types of content should be distributed on different platforms. But, with the wide variety of channels, it becomes difficult to know where to put your efforts to get optimal results.
The key to success is to not choose the distribution channel randomly. Spend time researching which channels are the most suitable for your business before you start disseminating content.
But remember, there is a thin line between promoting your content just enough and annoying people by sharing it on every platform possible.
For instance, the target audience of a B2B SaaS company can be found in SaaS communities like GrowthHackers, Slack channels, and LinkedIn and Facebook groups.
One way to find your distribution channel(s) is to analyze your content engagement. Measure the performance of content on the channels you already use and apply an identical approach to other channels having a similar audience so you can grow your reach.
3. Content prioritization and repurposing
Now, for each distribution channel you choose, you don’t necessarily need to create all the content from scratch. You just need to grab the right opportunities.
These opportunities can be in the form of content repurposing, reposting, or repackaging. Carefully assess your current content assets that are worth distributing and prioritize them as per channel.
For instance, in case of content repurposing, create a blog post highlighting the benefits of your service and repurpose the key takeaways from the same content into a Twitter thread, Quora answer, or a Facebook post.
This thread by Amanda Natividad is a great example of how blog content can be repurposed as a Twitter thread.
4. Define your KPIs
While pumping out industry-related content, take time to evaluate its performance to ensure it’s helping your business grow.
And for that, you need to define your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). The KPIs for each of your different channels are likely to be different. So, define the metrics that align with your business goals and allow your team to follow the progress.
Some crucial channels and the KPIs and metrics associated with them are:
5. Create a content distribution calendar
You need to create a content distribution calendar that helps you identify what, when, and where your content needs to be published.
A content calendar will help you determine content topics, publishing schedules, and different content formats for each channel’s audience and goals. It also acts as an effective collaborative tool allowing everyone to check the status of each content without having to contact people individually.
For instance, by sharing a company’s content distribution calendar, a video editor gets a roadmap about the upcoming videos he needs to edit and plan his workflow.
By planning ahead and distributing responsibilities for creating, scheduling, and publishing content, a content calendar can improve the operational side of your content distribution strategy.
Here’s an example of what a content distribution calendar can look like:
Content Distribution Is a Non-negotiable
Content isn’t the king anymore; distribution has dethroned it. Don’t let your SaaS brand suffer.
Apart from investing in high-quality content, create a content distribution strategy that drives brand awareness, builds brand affinity, and increases conversions.
About the Author
Riya Shah is a freelance B2B SaaS writer specializing in writing long-form data-driven and actionable blog content. Find her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
