Creating a course might seem like a lot of work. After all, you have to create a ton of content. And this is on top of all the content it takes to promote it. You probably feel like you’re on a continuous loop of creating content. And then you hope it’s getting to the right audience. You can use content syndication and distribution to successfully market your course.
Content distribution refers to promoting content to online audiences using multiple forms of media through various media channels. The content distribution platforms are increasing every day. They can best be broken into three basic categories – paid media, owned media and earned media.
Content Syndication is a way to republish content to other sites in order to reach a bigger audience. Syndicated content increases your reach and brand awareness while building links and helping drive traffic to your course or article.
There are many resources for course content distribution and syndication to help you use them as valuable marketing tools. Let’s explore the different types of content distribution, the resources you can use for both content distribution and syndication as well as give you ideas on how to use each of them.
Content Distribution Categories
Here are three categories of content distribution you need to become acquainted with. Let’s look at each one in a little more depth to help you learn to use these types of content distribution.
Paid Media
In this type of distribution, brands have to pay to use and access specific media to get a wider reach for their content. You can use this type to build a presence on these platforms that people are already on.
The ads you use should always lead the interested person back to your own media. For example, Facebook Ads or Pay-per-click advertising. Other examples include paying influencers for shares and display ads.
Owned Media
This type of media usually consists of media or promotional items that you created. This means that it is under your control and not subject to the rules and algorithms of others. This includes your websites, blogs and the social media channel itself. Your core content should go on your own platform so you ensure the content isn’t subject to changing rules.
Earned Media
Earned media is one of the best ways to spread the word about your business. It helps to build trust in your brand. This helps your audience to see you as an authority on your subjects and topics. Earned media improves your organic rank on search pages. It can potentially lead to viral content as well. Earned media examples include word-of-mouth, reviews, shares, and reposts, among other things.
Creating your Content Distribution Plan
When creating your content distribution plan there are a few things to consider. First is the type of content you are going to publish to promote your course and where you want to publish it. It could be one or a combination of a blog post, social media or an advertising channel. No matter which one you choose it must be targeted to where your audience is.
Your options include:
- Your website or blog
- How-to guides or tutorials
- Social media
- Podcasting
- Infographics
- Ebooks
- Case Studies
- Facebook groups
- Newsletters/email
- Paid ads
Content Distribution Platforms
- Facebook Groups is a free or paid niche media platform. Find ones related to your course topic with at least 10+ likes or comments on their most recent posts. Join the group and participate often before sharing content. Also tell the group owner why you think the people in the group would enjoy it. Get permission to post, of course.
- Chamber of Commerce is a free or paid platform. Your local Chamber of Commerce will help promote members to other business owners in the local area through their email newsletter.
- Disqus Ads is a paid platform. Their sponsored story unit lets you target people on over 10,000 sites.
- Instagram is a free photo and video-sharing social media platform. Direct message those with similar follower counts and fan base to you to see if they’d want to promote your content in exchange for you promoting on of theirs.
- Snapchat is a free multimedia messaging app where you can record and view Live Stories. A story is a series f snaps others can see for 24 hours. It’s good for snapping a teaser of your content as an attachment to the link for the full version.
- Pinterest is a free social media platform focusing mainly on images. It’s popular for sharing recipes, travel ideas, home ideas, style and other lifestyle type content. Create pinnable images from your content to pin to Group boards.
- YouTube is a free platform for sharing your videos. Share video content you create related to your course.
- Vimeo is a free and paid video sharing site that has tools for hosting, sharing and streaming videos. On the paid plan you can upload video that can then be published on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles as native videos.
- Facebook is a free social media platform where you can share videos, photos, blog post links and record live videos. Write something on your wall that teaches and is related to your course.
- LinkedIn is a free professional social media platform that lets professionals post updates, photos, videos and send message through LinkedIn Mail.
- Reddit is a free discussion website that has updating feed of breaking news, fun stories as well as pictures, memes and videos. Find relevant subreddit related to your topic, add an intro and why your created it with the link to the content. Use bullet points to break down the key takeaways.
- Medium is a publishing platform that attracts insightful writers, storytellers and others who want to read important stories.
- Google Ads is a paid media platform owned by Google. You can pay to display ads for service offerings, products, and video content.
- Facebook Ads is another paid media platform. On this platform you can create do-it-yourself ads that can be targeted across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.
Syndicated Content Tips
Syndicated Content is the republishing and repurposing of your content on other sites to reach a bigger audience. If you’ve never thought about republishing your content on other people’s sites you should.
It’s a good idea to get your content in front of a different audience than the ones already following you.
Not all sites allow content syndication. Check to see if the site you want to repurpose your content to accepts republished content. You should create the content that targets the publishers audience.
You want to keep some of you best content pieces out of syndication so you can have control over it. Publish your articles, blog posts, videos or other content related to your course through any of these ways:
- Free content syndication services such as SlideShare, WikiHow, HubPages.
- Partnerships websites allow you to republish syndicated content.
- Paid services are where you pay a certain fee to have your content published on their network.
- Ad supported is a method that lets you get rewarded for your great content by getting a percentage of the syndication service’s revenue they receive from advertising.
- Licensed blog syndication allows you to earn money from royalties when users access your content.
Content Syndication Networks
Content syndication networks are the services that distribute your content across the many news and blog sites within their network. Here are some of the options available.
- Outbrain is a content discovery and marketing platform. It helps readers find out about your content through recommending it to the top media sites like Time, ESPN, and CNN.
- SlideShare is part of the LinkedIn affiliate network. It is free to use and anyone can upload their content in a slideshow format. Visitors can view them when it’s convenient. These are targeted search visitors.
- Simple Reach is an analytics and insights platform. It helps marketers understand and improve their article’s impact.
- ARC is a PR Newswire’s press release service that spreads your content over a wide are of networks including blogs, news and social media sites.
- Medium allows you to syndicate your own content. The site’s platform is easy to use and links with your social profiles.
In Summary
There are many ways you can publish content for your course’s marketing material. We’ve looked at content distribution, syndication resources, and various options in this guide. Choose the best options to meet your goals.
Content distribution can be done to free or paid platforms. This includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Ads, and your own platforms such as websites.
Content syndication is the process of reusing content on other platforms and sites. Syndicating your content helps you get more exposure to audiences you wouldn’t normally have access to.
Now that you know what and how to syndicate and distribute your content, it’s a good time to start creating a content syndication strategy for your course content.
Please keep in mind that I may receive commissions when you click my links and make purchases. However, this does not impact my reviews and comparisons. I try my best to keep things fair and balanced, in order to help you make the best choice for you.
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Some very good ideas to boost the reach of our work.
Thank you, Dr. Basu!
What a detail list to follow! I always rely on earned media.
It’s a lot, but if you can implement one or more of these tips, it will help.