Content Distribution 101 for B2B Companies

Organic web traffic is the holy grail of B2B marketing. You want people to visit your website and hang out. You want them clicking around, following you on social, and generally interacting with your company. Because the more they do this, the more likely you are to earn their trust — and make a sale.

But how can you build a loyal follower base that comes to you when they’re in search of a solution? 

With search engines constantly updating algorithms, B2B buyers’ inboxes inundated with cold emails, and basically every corner of the internet trying to tell you about a new industry term (heard of dark social yet?), it probably feels intimidating to dive into the beast that is content marketing.

But fret not. Content marketing is really a fancy way of saying that you want to share something of value that your audience can rely on and get something positive out of. In short, content marketing builds on the idea that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. You’ll build rapport and establish authority in your field by offering insightful, purposeful resources. 

Easier said than done, right?

In this blog, we’re breaking down six simple steps you can take for a bootstrapped content distribution strategy to amplify your reach and boost your online presence.

How to create a B2B content distribution strategy 

Establish a goal

The first step in any successful marketing campaign is setting a measurable objective. Creating content for traffic is a lot different than creating it for lead generation, just to name a couple of examples.

You want your goal to be SMART — aka, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

A good example of a SMART goal for content distribution is: Increase web traffic by 15% in Q3 of 2022.

Identify the real MVPs

We’ll start your content distribution strategy with long-form content. For example, this can be a video, blog post, ebook, or podcast, all of which you can trim and repurpose in multiple channels.

If you’ve got existing content already, find the gems and polish them. In other words, find the most valuable content and use it as a foundation for your content distribution strategy.

Identify your top performers by reviewing your analytics. What are people clicking on? What’s the blog with the highest traffic? Then, reverse engineer a formula by finding the common threads and come up with ways to replicate the success. Two examples of commonalities may be a specific category or formats like tutorials or countdowns.

Plus, if you’ve been creating content for a while, you’ll probably find yearly trends. Maybe your audience tends to search for industry reports at the beginning of the year. 

If you don’t have existing content, start by finding the topics you’ll cover. Many companies focus on their competitors when they’re starting from scratch. Instead, you should focus on what your target audience is interested in or talking about. They’re the ones who’ll read you, so it pays to spend some time finding the gaps — what questions are they asking that you can’t find an answer to?

Extract the key takeaways

Many times, marketing teams focus on churning new content endlessly. But in reality, you can focus on amplifying the reach of a few key pieces of content. At least at the beginning or if your budget is tight.

So, dissect the long-form content you identified in the previous step. You can separate each section of the blog and make individual social posts. Or take quotes from your guests and turn them into graphics. The point here is to extract as much value as you can from each piece to share repeatedly across your channels.

Prioritize the channels your audience is already using

The goal of your content distribution strategy is to reach your target audience. So you need to find where they are and adjust your content to fit the channel’s best practices.

Some of the most common channels for B2B marketing include LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, email, YouTube, and podcasts. To make your choice, study user behavior and analyze your current client base and your buyer persona(s).

It’s a common mistake to think that you have to be everywhere (hi, TikTok) to stay relevant. But this only dilutes your efforts and makes it harder to achieve real impact.

Batch your content production

Okay, now we have a plan laid out, including the objective, long-form content, and platforms you’ll use. The next step is to actually create the content.

Each platform has a set of rules and best practices you’ll need to keep in mind. Start by researching these factors:

• Available formats. For example, on LinkedIn, you can share PDF files that show as carousels in people’s feeds. But you can’t do this on Twitter.
• Ideal graphic size. Each platform has recommended guidelines. For Facebook, graphics are horizontal for the most part, while LinkedIn recommends square or vertical because many users use the mobile version.
• Best times to post. Are users visiting the platform as they sip their coffee or in the evening as they wind down? If you’re choosing emails, Thursday and Friday are usually good days to send them.
• Recommended cadence. We believe that the best posting cadence is one you can sustain. But still, it’s worth looking at successful users to gauge a posting frequency you can start with. Each platform is unique — you may post daily on LinkedIn, but you certainly don’t want to send a daily email.

With these details laid out, you’ll want to create graphics, copy (text), video covers, and a posting calendar. Pro tip: Make it a goal to batch content in advance instead of creating and posting on the same day. You’ll feel more at ease knowing you have a buffer, so a curveball won’t leave you with nothing to share.

Use HubSpot Campaigns to group your efforts

Now that you have the assets to promote your long-form content (aka blog, video, podcast, etc.), it’s time to schedule and share them with your network.

HubSpot’s Campaigns feature allows you to group together everything relating to a specific marketing effort to keep things organized and be able to report performance accurately.

Create a HubSpot Campaign when you:

• Host an event.
• Create a downloadable resource.
• Launch a new product.
• Want to nurture existing prospects and leads.

Use HubSpot Campaigns to create newsletters, blogs, social posts, ads, and even landing pages. Then, you can use the Campaign reporting section to find each asset’s performance and how close you are to your goal. The Campaign reporting panel gives you attribution reporting per asset and per channel, so you can make informed decisions in future campaigns, like replacing a channel or prioritizing a type of content over another.

Ready to take things one step further? Download now: Build a Lead Acquisition Strategy.