Now that most businesses understand the importance of incorporating storytelling into their marketing efforts, it's essential to strike the right balance of creating valuable content worth consuming and effectively distributing this content where your audience is most active.
In the beginning stages of content planning, work with freelance talent to understand how content for your business, whether it is a blog post, case study, landing page, video, infographic or other type, will be distributed after publishing, especially among their audience.
Discuss how the resource will be marketed ahead of time, because the way in which it is distributed could impact formatting considerations, the topics chosen and the elements included.
Will this content live on a landing page? Will you promote this resource on Facebook? Understanding how an influential content creator will make use of their audience in the distribution process is a necessary step in ensuring the most results from the partnership.
"A brand should understand and align with the domain expertise of the influential content creator, details of what they have published in the past (which might differ slightly from their domain expertise), as well as the professional objectives of the content creator to best determine how the brand should collaborate with this individual," said Neal Schaffer, speaker, author of Maximize Your Social, teacher at Rutgers University and the founder of the Social Tools Summit and the Social Media Center of Excellence.
"Only in this way can the brand be assured of collaborating and receiving content that is of the highest level because the goals of the brand as well as the creator are the same -- and this ensures that the influencer would naturally promote it to his or her own network as if it was his or her own work," he added.
According to Viveka Von Rosen, LinkedIn marketing expert, speaker and author, here's what you should be thinking about to sync your distribution efforts from the beginning:
- Your Audience. Who is your audience for each platform (I guarantee they will differ somewhat, if not greatly)? What are they interested in? Who are they interested in? Would the person you interview on your Google Plus hangout also be fascinating to your Facebook group?
Accounting for these elements can help your business find worthwhile content to create as well as help with generating content with greater visibility and opportunities for amplification.
Using influential content creators as a part of your overarching content strategy is an effective way to strike a strong balance between content production and content distribution. A little planning can make a big difference in both the quality and quantity of your ongoing content efforts.
This article is an excerpt from the ClearVoice resource, How to Successfully Integrate with Influential Content Creators.
Brian Honigman is the CEO of Honigman Media, a content marketing consultancy that provides strategy on content distribution and content creation. Subscribe to his newsletter to become a better marketer.