Content syndication is a powerful B2B lead generation tool and recognizing its value puts you halfway through the marketing journey. In fact, it’s helped some marketers grow their site traffic by 2x.
What is Content Syndication?
In simple terms, content syndication is a process of republishing a given piece of content on one or more sites to reach a broader audience. It exposes your marketing messages to readers who may otherwise never come across your brand organically.
According to SalesBox, almost two-thirds of B2B marketers use content syndication as their core lead generation tactic. Working with industry influencers, authoritative publishers and distribution partners, they push content like whitepapers, articles, webcasts or infographics to a new, specific set of prospects. Pushes may be through email, social media or digital advertising.
Free and Paid Content Syndication
Content syndication services can either be free or paid. Some industry-specific news organizations and websites like Medium, LinkedIn Pulse, BuzzFeed and Quora are more than willing to publish your post on their site free of charge (at a basic level.)
Some mainstream media sites republish content on their pages for a fee, much like advertorials in their traditional magazine and newspaper counterparts. Other choices include vertical content portals targeting specific industries or interests. Working with content syndication partners like Anteriad, B2B marketers can tap into a suite of demand gen services for quicker content syndication lift off.
Content Syndication Vs Guest Blogging
Although guest blogging might seem similar to content syndication, they aren’t the same. Both have a place in your B2B selling toolkit, but make sure to understand the difference, so you can use each most effectively.
A guest post is a new piece of content exclusively published on a single website or blog.
Syndicated content is a process of taking the same piece of content and republishing it on other platforms, with permission. B2B marketers capture leads from prospects who then see and download it.
It’s fairly easy to distinguish syndicated content from a guest post. There will be a mention on the republished page about the source, which looks typically like this:
“[Article Title] originally appeared on [Original Site Name + URL].”
Or
“[Article Title] appeared in [Original Site Name + URL] and republished with permission.”
Why Syndicate Your B2B Content?
That’s a no-brainer. B2B content syndication brings healthy exposure to your website, improves brand value, and nurtures business revenue. Let’s say your blog post has a potential reach of 1,000, but that reach can increase to hundreds of thousands by republishing it on the right third-party sites. The “right” sites are the ones your target audiences frequent and engage with.
Consider Anna Crowe’s experiment on the content syndication process. An author at Search Engine Journal, she tried syndicating her SEJ posts on sites like LinkedIn Pulse and Medium for 30 days.
On every Tuesday and Thursday, Anna republished two blogs on these two platforms. This method helped her increase the page views on the original SEJ posts by 34 percent. Shares and comments increased, too.
How to Syndicate Your B2B Content
If you use intent intelligence, you may already know some of the topics or even assets that your ideal prospect is looking for. This can help identify the best way to syndicate those content assets to extend their reach.
Use these steps to build or improve your content syndication strategy:
#1 Ask yourself (and others), “What’s your goal?”
There’s no better way to begin than by knowing exactly what you’re aiming for. By getting into the most granular levels of your overall content goal, such as lead generation for example, you can define the specifics.
For instance, are you aiming for top-of-funnel leads or those who already identified in the middle of it? Or is this follow-up content targeting MQLs?
Drilling down into your marketing objectives will help you decide your next steps, along with what metrics to track.
#2 Choose your content wiselyWith your objectives locked in, it’s time to pick the right content to syndicate. Begin by reviewing your content library to pinpoint still relevant eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, articles and other materials.
Once done, check if the content:
- Meets the requirements of your syndication partner
- Serves your identified goals
- Stands out on higher-authority sites
- Offers exclusive value to the new audience
Answering these questions helps you choose (or create) content with the most potential to excite readers and motivate them to visit your site. Some content syndication partners can create and promote content on behalf of your brand. If that’s an area where you lack the resources, but not the desire, consider outsourcing some of your content syndication process.
#3 Decide where to syndicateChoosing a content syndication partner makes or breaks your campaign. For instance, syndicating to a site with millions in traffic but no relevant audience for your brand does not benefit your business. Pick a vendor whose audience reflects qualities you look for in a customer.
Syndicate to sites that are of higher authority. Exposure to their audiences enhances your brand worth and visibility online.
You can also choose the vendor based on the content type or its length. For example, go for Quora or LinkedIn for an instant article or shorter notes. Or choose blogging platforms like Medium and Tumblr for lengthier content.
For B2B content syndication as a service, many marketers have turned to Anteriad for our expertise in running campaigns.)
#4 Use tags to avoid duplicate contentDuplicate content is one of the primary concerns raised around content syndication strategy. Search engines penalize sites having copied content. But as long as you work on your SEO, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Use these two tags to ensure your republished work is not seen as a duplicate by search engines:
- Rel=Canonical: Placing this tag on syndicated content ensures that the republished work points back to the original post and attributes all associated authority to it.
- NoIndex: This tells the search engine to keep the republished content out of the directory, and tells automated bots to avoid indexing this page.
Are you ready to syndicate your content?
If you’ve not yet syndicated your content in one way or another, we recommend you start today. If you’re ready to learn more and to get practical advice on content syndication, check out these articles:
