Blog Distribution Done Right: How to Increase Your Traffic and Shares Ten-Fold

Picture yourself at a music festival. You’re wearing your Insta-worthy outfit and are showing it off at every opportunity. Everyone is dancing, serenading, and pretty much having the time of their lives. You even get the chance to ride that humongous ferris wheel they have every year. 

 

But then you realize…there’s only one type of music being played. Huh? That’s not how music festivals are supposed to go. Yikes.

 

Guess what?

 

That’s not how blog distribution is supposed to go, either.

 

Festival goers return year after year to their favorite audience because they’re able to satisfy the many facets of their diverse musical interests. Your content distribution strategy should have the same ability, and that can only be done by incorporating different channels—the same way music festivals bring different genres together.

 

An effective content distribution strategy takes two or three (or more) distribution channels and fuses them together to make a harmonious yet powerful marketing tool—one that rakes in organic traffic and social shares like crazy.

 

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Let’s first take a detour and check what’s beneath the hood.

 

Surprise, Surprise—Blog Distribution Isn’t What You Think It Is

 

Get me right.

 

Blog distribution, or content distribution as some call it, isn’t in any way related to content creation. The two are inherently different concepts—no connection whatsoever.

 

But try telling that to newbie content marketers who can’t hold in their delirium and are itching to explore this wonderful world head-first. Chances are you’ll get a tongue-lash of a lifetime. Uh-oh.

 

Seriously, though, blog distribution is one of those arts that no one has ever truly mastered to date. But you, my friend, are going to be a worthy owner of that coveted crown by the end of this blog.

 

At its core, blog distribution is about leveraging a variety of channels to promote and distribute content to a target audience. The keywords: variety, target audience.

 

In other words, you’re not just using one tool to push out content; you’re pulling together many of them. And you’re not just pushing out content; you’re promoting and distributing it in ardent resolute—almost as earnestly as that forlorn salesperson you saw outside Walmart the other day.

 

With the current glut of online content, we’re almost at—dare we say?—the point of oversaturation. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd, even with show-stopping, high-quality content. The days of “set it and forget it” are long gone. Now more than ever, you need to chart new channels and distribute your content like your life depended on it.

 

Now, please don’t mince my words. Valuable content does matter a great deal. In fact, research has it that consistent, high-quality, relevant content has a higher ROI than just about any other form of marketing. 

 

But here’s a hard-hitting truth no research will ever tell you: without an apt, well-ideated content distribution strategy, your piece of content—in all its glory and delectable pizzazz—will get zero eyeballs. Yep, you read that right. Zero.

 

Time to go back to the drawing board and do the needful.

 

Content Distribution as It Should Be: 5 Channels Your Blog Content Should Be On 

 

That said, getting your blog content to a wider audience doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It requires proactive, consistent effort, plus a subtle touch of your content marketing magic (hey, you got this!)

 

Just be sure to promote your content to as many channels as possible, and choose the ones that best fit your marketing goals, product/service, niche, and specific buyer persona.

 

Here we go!

 

To start with, you have to know that you can resort to organic channels, or to pain channels (or a mix of both, of course!)

 

Organic Channels

 

1. Your own network

 

As obvious and unpromising as this sounds, it’s not. It’s actually the complete opposite.

 

Start by promoting your blog content in your own network: send it via email to those subscribers that are already in your email list. 

 

That’s a good start!

 

It’s even better if you have a regular email newsletter. Consider including links to recent, interesting blog posts in a sidebar.

 

Talking of emails, you can also include a link at the bottom of your email signature that links to the company’s latest post. That way, you get to kill two birds with one stone—building thought leadership while elevating the personal branding of all the employees who share your emails on a daily.

 

With email campaigns boasting an average click-through rate of 2.6%, there’s every chance your blog content will (finally!) get in front of the right eyeballs.

 

2. Social networks

 

For many of you, interacting with social media platforms is as habitual as breathing. You do it without thinking, almost on automatic. Scrolling, snapping, double-tapping—it’s second nature. You know the intricacies of social media like the back of your hand, especially in the how and when of your engagement with it. 

 

But there’s one thing you didn’t know it could do…

 

Help you reach a far broader audience for your blog posts.

 

To say that social channels are a literal treasure trove when it comes to blog distribution would be an understatement. 

 

Let’s set the stage with some statistics:

 

 

Internet users love, love, love social sharing. That bit is dead-on obvious. And from these numbers alone, we can see that social media is a gigantic market, often under-utilized or misused by many sites in general referral traffic and promoting blog posts (you included, oops!)

 

Time to change that.

 

Because social media sites can experience a high volume of traffic and engagement, you’ll want to leverage those crowds to bring eyes to your blog or website. Plus, it’s a budget friendly way to market your blog posts (hey, we know the purse strings are tight!)

 

These few best-practices should get you up and running in your quest to conquer social media with awesome content:

 

  • Link it

After self-promotion, finding an obscurely-hidden link to your blog is undoubtedly next in the list of what social media users hate the most. Heck, it tingles their last nerve. 

Save your target audiences (and yourself) the trouble by putting a direct link to your site on all of your social networks. Also, try to keep your handles consistent across all platforms.

 

  • Stick to a schedule

With everything you have to do to keep your content strategy fresh and firing on all cylinders, you’ll need a way to stay organized—and keep yourself sane—as you promote your blog on social channels. 

After you’ve planned out tailored content for each channel, schedule your social media posts so you can set them and go. Tools like CoSchedule and Hootsuite work excellently for this multi-channel scheduling.

 

  • Stay on top of trends

From now henceforth, view (creative) bandwagoning as a good thing. 

 

As you share content on the fly and hone your social media listening skills, learn to tap into the pulse of virtual buzz on each platform. Then you can customize your content pieces to utilize the already-built hype in these social platforms.

 

The crown of it all?

 

Your posts will reach a new, much larger audience, and consequently, your blog content will get the direct traffic and social shares it so richly deserves. Talk about a one-two-three punch!

 

So whether you’re riding the wave of the #Toilet Roll Challenge, the latest iPhone emoji, or an upcoming holiday (National Grilled Cheese Day, anyone?) season, the natural conversation of buzz-worthy topics can serve as traffic-building vehicles.

 

3. Social Groups and Forums

 

You know where else you can share content on the internet other than your social media profiles?

 

On individual social media groups and forums—say, for instance, Facebook groups.

 

As far-fetched and vague as this content distribution strategy sounds, it actually works to excellent effect.

 

But only if you’re willing to fold your sleeves and get dirty looking for forums related to your niche. 

 

Woe unto you if you push that piece of content—you know, the one your boss proudly lauded you about—onto the wrong forum. The number of social media shares you’ll get will have you wishing you’d rather have spent that money on a bottle or two of Budweiser.

 

Paid Channels

 

Integrating paid media in blog distribution is a topic of great debate—doesn’t a content distribution strategy do that itself?

 

If you take one thing away from this blog, let it be the answer to the above question: a big no. Nothing markets itself. The world tends towards entropy, ignorance, and forgetting your company exists.

 

That being said, I’m not suggesting you hire someone in a gorilla suit to stand by the side of the freeway holding a sign with the title of your latest blog post on it.

 

 

 

 

FYI, the blog post is in his briefcase.

 

Source: Gorilla Suit

 

Why? For starters, it would be difficult to attribute organic traffic and conversions to the person in the gorilla suit.

 

Besides, research has (consistently) shown that gorilla suit marketing tactics convert poorly. Uh-oh.

 

Some paid content distribution channels that can be very effective (yet insanely inexpensive) include:

 

4. Paid Ads

 

Tools like Adsense and Adwords can help you get positive results pretty quickly (at least, in less time than driving traffic organically).

 

Of course, there’s no magic here, and it all depends on the key performance indicators you have predefined. 

 

But one thing is for sure: paid ads let you focus on specific target audiences, track results in a fast and simple way, and make the necessary adjustments to your content distribution strategy.

 

5. Paid Content Promotion

 

Before you bite your tongue trying to pronounce the many bombastic words on here, let’s get this one fact out of the way:

These blog promotion tactics are the cheapest, most effective you’ll get out there. Period.

 

  • Reddit Ads

 

Reddit lets you buy clicks at low, low prices from socially engaged visitors. These visitors are typically in the college demographic, and are often looking for engaging visual content. 

 

Is your new piece of content dazzling with all the latest, richest, most alluring visuals the internet can offer? This tactic can get it out there—faster than you can say the word “amazing content!” 

 

Just be sure to follow the protocol of the sub-Reddit you’re advertising on.

 

  • Outbrain

 

Outbrain is another content promotion ad platform—you can advertise for inexpensive traffic on related blog posts for audience nurturing and development.

 

3 Key Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Content Distribution Campaign

 

So far, so good.

 

You have your blog posts lined up for the stardom that’s (hopefully) awaiting them. And you have a clear idea on which channels you can use to promote them on.

 

But…

 

How about reviewing some key tips to optimize the effectiveness of your content distribution efforts?

 

It’s great to distribute your piece of content on as many channels and platforms as possible, but if you turn a blind eye on these tips, all of your efforts will be in vain. Believe me.

 

1. Choose the Right Content Distribution Tool for Your Needs

Here, you’ll likely be spoilt for choice, but make no mistake about it—the content distribution tool you choose will greatly determine the number of social shares and traffic you’ll garner at the end of it all. 

 

Buffer, Edgar, and Goodbits undoubtedly lead the pack in this regard. However, you’d be damned to sleep on other equally competent content distribution channels, including WiseStamp, MailChimp, and SumoMe.

 

2. Perform Some Thorough Keyword Research

 

SEO strategies don’t end at content marketing 101. They can be of help to blog distribution, too. Analyze which keywords or long-tail keywords come up frequently in your niche and include them in your blogs’ titles and title tags. 

 

That’s how potential clients will find you on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. And that’s how you’ll win yourself that slippery yet precious organic traffic.

 

3. Get Out of Your Little Bubble

 

Ok, that might have sounded a bit harsh, but hear me out.

 

Perhaps your content distribution efforts are hitting a snag every single time because you’re afraid of trying out “unorthodox” promotion tactics. 

 

Newsflash: walking on eggshells never got anyone anywhere.

 

If Elon Musk wasn’t brave enough to join forces with Confinity in 2002, Pay Pal wouldn’t have been born. Consequently, SpaceX would have been a distant, untenable dream that only lived in his head (and probably in some science books somewhere).

 

You get the point.

 

Take a chance with these content distribution tactics. You never know where your luck lies.

 

  • Utilize your sales team when brainstorming and crafting content for the company blog 
  • Ask evangelists of your brand to lend a hand (shhh, do it quietly and politely, please)
  • Bring your employees in on the act—tell them to preach the gospel of your blog on social media
  • Convert your content into different media—PDFs, video content…you name it.
  • Learn the fine art of crafting great, irresistible headlines
  • Get those inbound links (haven’t you heard that inbound links are Google’s most influential ranking signals?)
  • Evergreen content has never lost its appeal—so make sure your content is fresh before you can promote it 
  • Keep your website design clean and clutter-free 
  • Make Google Analytics your absolute best friend (how else will you know what’s working and what’s not?). 
  • Leverage Campaign Monitor to gauge whether the links in your email signature are actually being opened

 

And that’s it. No more, no less. 

 

Having explored this topic in its entirety, I’m confident this is the only blog distribution guide you’ll ever need.

 

Ever.

 

Let Us Help You Get the Rhythm of Your Content Distribution Strategy Right—the First Time.

 

When you parallel music with content distribution, the similarities are striking. They both need the right instruments (channels), a steady beat (strategy), and a voice (content marketer) to bring it all together.

 

However, being able to integrate disparate channels from across the divide is a chemistry of sorts—and it can be risky. 

 

Done well, it creates magic. Done poorly, it can create a content distribution strategy that’s blatantly out of tune. 

 

At Zoey Writers, our forte is creating excellent blogs that sings. Variety is the spice of life, music, and, of course, blog distribution. Let us help you add a dash here and there to get the rhythm just right.

 

All you have to do is ask to get our superior blog writing services. What are you waiting for? Contact us today.

 

Photo by Artem Podrez from Pexels: Thanks Artem!