TMI #36: You can’t just create content. You’ve got to distribute it well.

INSPIRATION✨ My take on the intersection of marketing + life

You can create as much content as you want, but if you don’t get it in front of your target audience, it won’t be effective.

And to reach the right audience effectively, you must have a content distribution plan. This is something we talk to our clients about regularly.

In addition to a blog and social media posts, can we pitch this article to trade pubs? Can we partner with an industry association to “borrow” their audience with their email newsletter?

Who better to talk about content distribution than a Zissman Media client who is engaged in creative distribution!

Taylor Evans, senior corporate communications specialist at IAT Insurance, is our featured guest on this episode of TMI 3 in 10. Taylor is also the recent winner of the Trailblazer Award from IMCA, the Insurance Marketing and Communications Association. Go Taylor!

For my full 10-minute interview with Taylor, take a listen here.

Just seeking her 3 tips on content distribution? Read the Cliff Notes below.👇

Here are Taylor’s 3 tips on doing distribution well in 2022:

1.     Meet your audience where they are. This means leveraging a variety of different channels for distribution, as one medium might not be appropriate for every single person in your audience. If we have a blog post, we post it on our website and then promote it on LinkedIn and put it on our email marketing tool as well. But you really shouldn't stop there. Look for other innovative ways to leverage it from a marketing standpoint.

Here’s an example of how we’ve done this:

Our Combating the Driver Shortage eBook was really well received. We did our standard distribution method but understanding that we had an in-person conference coming up, we wanted to be able to give the eBook more legs and increase exposure.

So, we leveraged a QR code and wove that into our presentation so folks could scan and access the eBook directly on their phone. From there, it's pretty seamless for them to share with their  personal network, through their email distribution, to save it on their phone or to leverage on social media.

The result? We had about 40 agent partners at this conference. When we left, we had about 23 clicks, so over 50% dove in and wanted to learn more. And that to us was a big indicator that was an effective strategy. We'll certainly leverage it moving forward.

TIP: One thing we're adamant about is not being afraid to have folks see our message through a variety of different mediums. Just because somebody receives an email from you doesn't necessarily mean they're going to read it.

2.      Tap into PR. If you don’t already have one, starting a relationship with a PR partner is always a great idea. Whenever we have a great blog or eBook content, we share it with our PR team to see how we can give it more legs. We've had a lot of success in doing that. If the content is relevant, you can give it more legs and it can last for a few months this way.

3.      Empower employees to share the content. Because IAT is an insurance carrier, and our underwriters form strong relationships with our agent and broker partners, we like to ensure that they're abreast of everything we're producing from a content standpoint, especially when it pertains specifically to their business.

When the eBook I mentioned earlier made its initial debut, we let all our underwriters know and encouraged them to include it as a link within their signature. So, as they're talking with people, that's another touch point. Or, to be proactive and reach out to their agent and say, "Hey, we shared this eBook today. I wasn't sure if you had the opportunity to review it."

TIP: We also post content on our intranet. If something is featured in the news or we create more content, whether it be an eBook, a video or blog content, it's just as important for us to distribute it internally as externally. You never know what network your employees have themselves.

Thank you Taylor, for these actionable examples of how IAT does content distribution well.

Are you a marketing ⭐️? If so, I’d love to feature you in a future TMI 3 in 10 episode. Reply to this email and tell me about your specialty marketing focus and what you’d like to talk about.

All the best, Mindi 😊

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INSIGHTS✨Stuff worth reading

ActualTech: Why SaaS content marketing is your best marketing strategy

CIO Review: High time for digital marketing to enter the content laboratory

Forbes: You’re probably not a customer-centric company yet

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