“It’s not the best content that wins. It’s the best promoted content that wins.”
~ Andy Crestodina, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder, Orbit Media Studios, Inc.
Have you ever wondered why there is a rising need for content syndication for small businesses? One of the prime reasons is that content syndication turns your best content into a
powerful lead generation tool. The practice of sharing your material in various ways to reach your target audience is called content syndication. B2B marketers use it to improve the effectiveness of their content in terms of lead creation.
Content marketing is difficult for small businesses. Every day, millions of blogs are published online. Having a social media promotion plan is a fantastic idea. However, it is still challenging to be discovered by new eyes.
“Content is king, but distribution is queen, and she wears the pants. It's not nearly enough to create a good piece of content. You have to understand how content spreads across the web”.
- Jonathan Perelman, VP of Agency Strategy and Industry Development, BuzzFeed
Cathryn Lavery and Allen Brouwer are the co-founders of BestSelf Co., a finalist in Shopify's Build a Business VI competition, and creators of the Self Journal. BestSelf Co. developed a content syndication plan, which got them featured and gained readership on significant sites, such as Business Insider and The Huffington Post.
Through content syndication, they were able to accomplish the following:
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186,000 new monthly visitors
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$2 million in revenue
Content syndication is a
crucial part of any content marketing strategy and is a must for every business that wants to make a significant impact in the digital world. When syndicating your content, be smart, purposeful, and creative.
Content Syndication Is on the Rise, Again
The benefits of content syndication are the primary reasons for its increased use. Here are a few factors responsible for this resurgence in content syndication.
Inbound Marketing Is Inadequate
The results of traditional
inbound marketing do not scale to meet the demands of enterprises. Due to the increasing relevance of
account-based marketing and the saturation of inbound marketing approaches, expanding inbound outcomes has become significantly more complex and expensive. Additionally, the cost of inbound marketing strategies has ascended dramatically.
Approaches for Content Syndication Have Evolved
The approaches to content syndication have evolved in perfect sync with the evolution of content types. As a result, marketers now place a far higher premium on innovative content syndication programs. For example, earlier, only blog articles were syndicated. Now, other forms of content are increasingly being syndicated. And, despite advancements in SEO over the years, syndication remains critical.
B2B Marketers Can Use Syndication More Effectively
Marketers' capability to track and optimize program success has also increased. As a result, B2B marketers have a slew of
different B2B marketing methods at their disposal, among which content syndication is critical. B2B marketers have created four types of content syndication. They are as follows:
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Syndicate third-party content on the blog
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Publish your content on other blogs
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Distribute your content through content syndication websites
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Self-syndication
Successful B2B marketers leverage syndication programs to establish thought leadership and influence their target audience. It enables you to reach new audiences or existing consumers, increases your brand's authority and exposure, and foster a reasonable brand opinion, all of which might result in qualifying business inquiries. Effective content syndication platforms enable B2B marketers to generate, moderate, and syndicate material with complete confidence, which leads to a higher conversion rate.
Types of Syndication Outlets
Exploring syndicating content across many platforms or networks is essential to maximize audience reach. Well-planned content syndication for small businesses may provide a slew of benefits. When seeking for third parties to syndicate your brand's content, there are a few options to pursue.
Multi-author Publications
Numerous multi-author publications accept syndicated material and republish entire or partial pieces, integrating your blog's RSS feed. For example, Social Media Today is popular business-related syndication sites.
Blogging Platforms
There are numerous blogging platforms that allow users to create their blogs on the platform or website. In addition, there are several blogging systems available, generally known as Content Management Systems (CMS), which serve as the home for your content. Blogging platforms are an excellent alternative for content syndication for small businesses because they have built-in audiences and allow you to control how much you post.
Some of the most popular platforms are WordPress, Blogger.com, Tumblr, Typepad, and Drupal. However, according to blogging professionals, currently, WordPress is the most popular blogging platform available. Indeed, WordPress powers almost 50% of the world's top 100 blogs. Among these are several top-rated sites, like The Wall Street Journal and NLF.com.
This syndication outlet is the most widely used content marketing strategy among small business owners.
Social Networks
Numerous social networking platforms allow you to publish content directly to their platforms. It's ideal for including links to your website to improve traffic. In addition, it's a means to post and promote your content across the most
powerful social media platforms for your business.
Instant Articles on Facebook and LinkedIn's Publishing Platform are two such platforms where you can syndicate your material. These are great options because you'll be able to use content discovery and analytics tools to optimize your pieces for social sharing.
Social syndication delivers:
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Easy to consume
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Easy to share
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Enjoyed by thought leaders
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Always lead back to your offer
The Building Blocks of an Effective Content Syndication Program
While content syndication is seeing a resurgence, B2B marketers should exercise care before delving into this promotion channel. Content syndication is gained importance due to new capabilities and unfavorable circumstances. However, a few factors must be considered for establishing successful content syndication.
Target the Right Persona (Executives)
Although CEOs have considerable decision-making authority, they are not the main contenders for target content syndication. Therefore, targeting executives makes sense if you offer a content solution designed to benefit them. First, target personas who understand the challenges and appreciate the solutions you offer. The targeted personas will have an internal influence on others, which is more effective than approaching executives directly. However, you must first create your persona profiles.
Right Content Assets Based on a Buyers' Journey
It is critical to pick content assets based on an in-depth buyer's journey map, matching content with targeted personas and funnel stages. In addition, your content syndication efforts should be broken down by target accounts based on the research they conduct on certain topics.
Your content asset should be:
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Educate target audiences about current issues and challenges
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Inform about the latest trends
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Advice on what they can do to improve their situation
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Introduce your brand's approach to solving the problem
Businesses who are interested in your company, your brand, and your brand's solution (at a high level) may learn about them through content syndication at the top of the funnel. It may also be used for middle-of-the funnel projects.
Create Nurturing and Follow-up Systems
Content syndication leads are not the same as website inbound leads. Prospects engage with your material via content syndication leads: the research, ideas, and recommendations surrounding a certain issue. Lead nurturing with relevant content is critical before
business development rep (BDR) follow-up. If you already use intent data to target accounts for syndication, you should use it to target content and messages for nurturing, like emails and videos.
Content Syndication Is Here to Stay
While the world of digital marketing is continuously evolving, it's safe to assume that content syndication is growing in relevance and is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Small businesses that invest more time and effort in content syndication will get a significantly higher return on their investment. By utilizing a variety of content syndication platforms and outlets, you can increase the reach of your content and brand visibility. Content syndication is a solid content marketing strategy that will help boost your marketing efforts if done correctly.
FAQ:
Is content syndication effective?
Content syndication is cost-effective, helps you reach larger audiences, boosts brand awareness, and improves SEO performance. Hence, it is an effective marketing strategy.
What is B2B content syndication?
B2B content syndication refers to the process of republishing digital information such as whitepapers, blogs, and videos on a third-party website. Content syndication's primary objective is to create new leads from prospective client accounts.
What additional content syndication best practices exist?
Here are some of the best content syndication practices:
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Select the appropriate publishing partner
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Distribute your content across multiple platforms
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Combine it with your ABM campaigns