B2B content marketers continue to increase their use of informative and long-form content. Though a big mistake many of these marketers make is assuming that long content (or just filling space with words) is what’s required to attract customers or enhance SEO rankings. You’ve probably seen blogs and websites that update their content regularly, but still don’t have a loyal audience or subscribers. Well-written content is one that connects with the right audience and provides them with information they need, but how do you attract the audience to the content?

This is where content syndication comes in.

Content syndication offers a solution to the deserted blog phenomenon, and to other content marketing challenges, but it has to be implemented right first. For starters, you have to understand how content syndication fits into the larger context of B2B marketing.

In a traditional sense, content syndication involves media organization sharing or republishing content, resulting in a content syndication network. With the continuous growth of digital media, this has evolved into RSS fees, or real simple sharing, which automates the process of sharing online content.

B2B content syndication utilizes similar channels to traditional media, but the content placement, promotion, and access work mainly in service of lead generation.

How do you know if your company requires content syndication?

In 2019, every company should implement a content syndication strategy if they can. It’s a win-win situation. Your syndication partner will receive quality content to add to their channels, and you’ll get to connect with a new target market. This can be especially beneficial when you don’t have enough content or infrastructure to maintain an owned media presence, but do you have a handful of high-quality assets to utilize for lead generation. Then again, many brands utilize content syndication as an accessory to their existing programs.

Different ways to syndicate

There isn’t really the ‘’best way’’ to syndicate content. You’re going to see different results depending on the medium, partner, and content you select, but how you measure success will depends on your goals. There are two main options; inbound and outbound:

Inbound:

• Co-marketing: Various brands publish and promote content (whitepaper, ebook, studies) and share the resulting leads.
• Social syndication: An agreement between two different brands to promote each others content using social media, also known as ‘’content swapping’’.
• Guest blogging: Your company creates content for publication on another firm’s blog or website. This leads to backlinks to your website, but is a less scalable syndication method.
• PPC promotion: This method has been gaining popularity in 2019, and includes paying a content syndication service to market/recommend your content on relevant websites and search engines.

Outbound:

• Telemarketing/teledemand: includes paying a lead generation or telemarketing firm to advertise your content over the phone to relevant prospects.
• Press releases: Creating content informing users with the company’s latest news. The content will include landing pages to your website. In exchange for payment, the content goes on a “wire” and will be distributed to different online media outlets, like PRWeb or PR Newswire.

Advantages of content syndication

When content syndication is done correctly, it achieves alot more than exposure. It provides you access to a completely new audience, and the ability to engage with them with information and targeted content. The main benefit here isn’t just having new leads, but also having an entry point to attract customers.

The entry point here is the content. Even if a potential customer or subscriber didn’t read the information all the way through, they’re going to remember opening it. If it’s valuable, they will remember the impression or the information they gained from reading your content. This is where the follow-up conversation begins.

If you already own a highly trafficked site, you might wonder why you need to pay another company or a marketing expert to promote content?

Most people are used to being bombarded with your brand’s content in most of the channels they follow you through. Content syndication enables you to promote your content in a new medium, and in front of a less familiar audience.

Building an Effective Content Syndication Strategy

If not executed properly, content syndication strategies can unfortunately fail. Companies must ensure that they partner with firms that understand the goals and objectives behind the strategy. To prevent these pitfalls, you need to map out the process from the start to finish, and even plan for any possible surprises.

The first step would be setting your business goals. In B2B marketing, this usually means getting more leads and exposure, but be more specific. What kind of leads are you aiming for? Will they be in the top or bottom of the funnels? Will these leads also be used in your drip marketing strategy?

The second step would be choosing content that demonstrates interest at certain stages of the funnel. For example, a case study or pricing/features comparison usually indicates someone in the decision stage.

Next, you will have to choose a lead generation service to partner with. This can be somewhat of a difficult step since it needs balancing reputation with accessibility.

The last step would be following up and assessing metrics. This includes following up with people who’ve read and engaged with your company’s content, and utilize the content itself to begin a conversation like: “What did you think about our e-book on [xyz topic]?” This strategy takes the cold out of cold-calling and enables you to cultivate every new relationship by showing potential customers genuine interest.

Closing thoughts

It’s essential to keep in mind that B2B content syndication will only work as part of the greater marketing continuum. It isn’t a shortcut to sell your products and services to customers, but a way to establish a new customer based and gain more demand.