Nailing your content is fantastic… but great content isn’t much use if no one’s reading it. Your blog posts might be hugely useful and your videos might be slick and well-produced, but you need to get your content out there to attract attention. So how exactly can you get people to notice your content, so you can grow your email list? Content distribution.

Quite simply, content distribution means promoting your content through different channels. That includes owned channels such as email, social media or your blog. You can also distribute content through your network — an influencer might share your post about your latest products, for example —  or pay to distribute it through a Facebook ad.

You’re already distributing content by emailing it to your own list, and perhaps by publishing it on your own blog and on social media channels. But if you don’t (yet) have a large email list or social media following, what else can you do? Here are 10 suggestions for your content distribution strategy:

1. Promote Your Content in Your Own Email Signature

Yes, you’re sharing content through your email list but are you using your own email account? Using your email signature to highlight new posts or videos can encourage people to check these out. You could make your content even more enticing by using a short teaser, like “Did you know the #1 mistake that people make when buying shoes online? Click here to find out.” Most retailers already do this, including deep links to their social media profiles. The Home Depot creates a ton of great DIY content, which any subscriber can find in the brand’s email signature.

2. Partner Up With Influencers

Does your content mention or link to influencers within your online niche? If so, let them know about it! This goes for content on your blog or website, but also for your email newsletter itself – if you mention them there, forward a copy and let them know they’re welcome to share it. Other retailers can be influencers, too. This might work well if, say, you sell scarves aimed at trend-setting millennials and they sell boots for the same target audience.

3. Repurpose Content as an Email Opt-In

If you’ve been running a blog for a while, there’s a good chance that there’s lots of great content in your archives that isn’t getting the attention it deserves. Pick one of your popular blog posts – or even a series of posts – and use it as the basis of a free ebook. You can share it with your existing email list, and encourage subscribers to get their friends to sign up so that they can get the ebook too. Food52 takes this one step further and uses content distribution as the opt-in, making sure new site visitors know about the upcoming (and extraordinarily popular) Thanksgiving newsletter, which blends content and commerce masterfully.

4. Connect with Influencers on Social Media

One way to get an influx of traffic to your content is to get it shared by an influencer with a large following. But how do you get noticed? Start by sharing their great content on social networks, making sure you tag them. They may retweet or share one of your posts in response. It’s also worth looking at who they’re following and what they’re sharing, so you can connect with those brands as well.

5. Cross-Post Articles from Your Blog or Newsletter to Medium

If your blog and/or newsletter don’t have many readers, how about distributing that content somewhere where readers gather? Medium is a great option for this: you can simply copy-and-paste your content and publish it there. You might get a much wider audience than on your own site. The Netflix Technology Blog, for example, lives on Medium, where readers can learn more about the technology that powers the platform.

6. Repurpose Your Content for Different Mediums

If you’re struggling to come up with enough content, look at ways you could repurpose what you’ve already created for a different medium. A podcast episode could become a blog post, for instance – or key points from a blog post could become a series of tweets.

7. Make Content Distribution Easy for Subscribers

If you want your readers to help with content distribution, you need to make it easy to share. That means including sharing buttons (don’t forget a button that lets readers email content to a friend, too). Each piece of your content should have a branded image so that it can be easily pinned on Pinterest, and so that it’s more eye-catching in busy Twitter and Facebook feeds. ShoeDazzle combines content distribution best practices, creating content in partnership with social media stars (choreographer Aliya Janell has 2.4 million Instagram followers) and making it easy to share.

8. Use Your Content Archives

Don’t forget about older pieces of content in your archives. Revisit these and update them to link forward to more recent pieces, to encourage more views and shares. A post that you wrote two years ago might still be perfectly relevant today: you could republish and/or reshare it to get it in front of a fresh audience.

9. Provide Relevant Groups and Forums

Some of the best content is user-generated. Provide forums, making it easy for your fans to create content on your behalf. Sephora does this well with an online community for Beauty Insiders, where they can share their own photos and discuss beauty tips (and products).

10. Encourage Readers to Share Your Emails

Even if your email list is currently small, the people already on your list will know other people who might well be interested. Encourage them to forward your emails (and include a handy “subscribe” link). A special offer could be a great reason to prompt subscribers to send your email on to a friend.

 

There are lots of ways to get your content out there – so make sure you’re using them to the fullest. If you’re relying on one or two methods, broaden this out by introducing some new ideas: you might well see your content gaining far more attention than before.

Stewart Dunlop is a content writer for Foundr Magazine.