Here's why content may be king but distribution is queen

By now, all marketers in Singapore should have added content marketing to their lead generation tools. But as anyone in the content business knows, producing content is only half the story.

To be effective, you have to allow people to see it. So, alongside a content strategy you must also have a distribution strategy.

But while this fact is widely understood in the United States, which leads in content marketing, I still find that many marketers in Singapore are not as aware about distribution. Fact is, though, you cannot expect your video to "go viral" by relying on viewers to stumble upon your content by accident.

As people in the business like to say: "Content may be king. But distribution is queen. And she wears the pants".

Distribution can be grouped into three types:
1. Owned – you run your content on your own site
2. Paid – you pay someone to run your content on their site
3. Earned – other sites like your content so much that they place it on their sites for free. In other words, you "earn" distribution by producing great content which media organisations, bloggers, and YouTube viewers like to watch.

Clearly, everyone likes to think their content deserves views. Besides, earned views have more credibility than owned or paid ones, because your content is effectively endorsed by the third parties which run it.

But in truth, there is now so much content out there that you have to work hard in order to have your content noticed. You are not likely to earn media until someone has noticed your content on another site.

Which site?

Running your content on your own site is a no-brainer. Of course you should run it there.

But the only people who will notice it are people who are already on your site. In other words, you are preaching to the choir.

If you place your content on your YouTube channel it might be in the public domain, but there is still no guarantee anyone will see it.

To find new audiences, there is simply no way around paying for media. Budget-conscious marketers in Singapore don't like to hear this, but the truth is that you can't get around paying for media to attract an audience to your content.

Some in the industry even say you should allocate as much as 50% of your content budget to distribution.

Paid distribution goes far beyond posting your content on blogs and other websites. Where there's a screen, there's a way.

1. Search. Devise a search marketing campaign around your content.

2. Out-of-home. In Singapore we have many such screens in lift lobbies, hotels, Guardian Pharmacies, on the sides of buildings in Raffles Place, and even inflight entertainment.

What works for 30-second spots can work for your content, but be sure viewers of the screens you are paying to be on have sufficient dwell time to watch your content in full. And unless your content is like silent movies of old, be sure the OOH providers screens are audio-enabled.

3. Television. Many television networks allow you to pay for airtime and run your content on their channels. You can even use PRNewswires or Reuters Television to distribute the content to TV stations globally.

The bottom line is that you have to think about distribution before you even start producing your content so that your content appeals to the audience(s) you are capturing. Failing to consider distribution in your content strategy could leave you with great-looking content that don't garner the audience it deserves.

Mark Laudi is one of the speakers for the Content Marketing & Strategies Conference. 

Content Marketing & Strategies Conference 
Sheraton Towers, Singapore
May 15 – 16 2014

Organiser: Pacific Conferences 

Click here to register.