There are a lot of content distribution tools, channels, and genres to pick from. Like… almost too many. We’re willing to bet that there are at least a few that you haven’t heard of.
We chatted with our expert content creators to compile this resource: the big list of content distribution channels and ideas you’ve (maybe) never thought of.
Here, broken down by platform type, are our experts’ most effective ways for content marketers to get their information out there.
Social Media
Facebook and Instagram Reels
Utilize Facebook and Instagram reels to broaden your audience. These are short-form, full-screen videos of up to 90 seconds each. They offer content marketers a considerable opportunity to broaden their customer bases through entertaining clips that pull back the curtain on company operations, offer merchandise demonstrations, and/or showcase product tips and tricks. Why use reels? They get views. According to Socialinsider, Instagram reels saw 56.4% year-over-year user growth from 2022 to 2023.
Instagram Broadcast Channels
Use the relatively new feature of Instagram broadcast channels to post personalized messages in real time and garner new interest in your company. Share text and audio messages, videos, photos, and polls to select groups (or all )of your followers. Instagram is a first-rate platform for content marketing, with an average engagement rate–that is, how much of your audience is actively engaging with your content–of 1.95%, according to Sprout Social. That puts it well ahead of other social media platforms.
Twitter Spaces
Another interactive platform, Twitter Spaces, allows users to have live audio conversations on the popular short message app. If you have at least 600 followers on Twitter, you can host your own space and have up to 13 people speak in it. Use it to host live conversations, podcast style, with influencers in your sector, to hold forth on industry trends and/or give company-news updates.
LinkedIn Groups
Find and join LinkedIn Groups that are relevant to your industry. These online communities of professionals interested or engaged in the same kind of work are places where users can share information, articles, and websites and post and answer questions. Use them to find new audiences for your company. Not sure what to use? Try repurposing content you’ve written for your own blog.
Brand Awareness
Medium Blogs
The blog platform Medium offers numerous opportunities to get your writing in front of people likely to be interested in your goods or services. With more than 100 million monthly users, according to the site, Medium is an excellent place to increase brand-name recognition and potential customers. Sign up and write for free, and pay just $5 monthly for an all-you-can-read subscription.
Podcast Guesting
As a content marketer, you have expertise and experience that many people would like to hear about. So why not share it? You can do that by guesting on existing podcasts while taking advantage of an established, rapt audience. Showcase your knowledge and personality to position yourself as a thought leader and your company as a trusted brand. It will do wonders for your business’ credibility and may lead to other business opportunities.
Why go the podcast route? Because people who listen to them are part of a huge community. As of 2022, some 177 million people–62% of the U.S. population–had listened to a podcast, according to the Infinite Dial. That’s good news for content marketers because many of those listeners have purchasing power. In 2019, according to another Infinite Dial report, approximately half of the monthly podcast listeners were employed full-time, and 17% had an annual household income of between $100,000 and $150,000.
Another reason to be a podcast guest is the ability to repurpose your talk and/or responses to host interview questions for your marketing efforts.
User-Generated Content
Getting existing customers to share their positive experiences with and reviews of your products can boost your credibility and sales. According to Northwestern University’s Medill Spiegel Research Center findings, ninety-five percent of people read user reviews before making an online purchase. Encourage high-quality user-generated content by offering exclusive discounts, credits, or product giveaways to customers whose reviews you post to your site.
Engagement
Interactive Experiences
Creating and sharing interactive content may take some work, but it’s well worth it from a marketing-effectiveness standpoint. Interactive content gets 52.6% more engagement than its static counterparts, according to Mediafly. So spend time making and posting fun, high-quality, industry-relevant quizzes and games to your website and social channels. Doing so can interest and bring in new followers, generate sales leads, and help your company collect user information.
QR Codes
If you think the QR code has gone the way of flip phones and 4G, think again. Though it’s one of the more frequently overlooked content distribution tools, the QR code–that two-dimensional, black-and-white matrix label people can scan with their phones–packs a powerful marketing punch.
While QR codes are not marketing information, they’re a good way to direct people to resources. By including them in banner handouts, trade-show displays, and other marketing material, you can take advantage of a tool expected to grow to more than 99 million users by 2025, according to Insider Intelligence.
QR codes give your audience easy access to fun, interactive experiences (that just happen also to promote a product or service). Use them to convey information about exclusive offers, product descriptions, or blog posts, saving users time and effort and getting them to your content sooner.
AMAs
Ask Me Anything sessions are huge on Reddit, probably partly for the big names they draw–past hosts have included Bill Gates and Keanu Reeves–and partly for their interactive model. AMAs are live Q&A sessions that let users do as the name implies: pose any question they like to the headliner. Do the same with names that carry weight in your company’s industry, and plaster word of the upcoming AMA on your website and across your social media channels.
Your own AMA is a choice way to generate interest in your business and its offerings. Answer community questions about your sector, company, and products, and in the process, learn more about your customers and those who could become your customers.
Polls
Online polls are easy, low-cost, effective ways to gather data on your audience. People like them, and their use is increasing, according to Pew Research Center – likely because they’re quick and can be taken at the user’s leisure. Create your own to gather feedback on your company’s products, learn more about customer likes and dislikes, and increase your client base.
Personalized Product Recommendations
According to McKinsey, personalization is an incredibly potent form of communication with customers.
Buyers appreciate personalized product recommendations, so seriously consider making them a part of your marketing efforts. Seventy-six percent of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a brand that personalizes recommendations for them, according to McKinsey & Co.
Use the information you’ve acquired from product purchases and reviews, surveys, webinar attendance and other feedback to predict what other goods they might like, and make tailored suggestions. If you get it right, your recommendations can boost conversion rates and get you happier customers.
Alternative Media
Discord Channels
Discord may have started out as a gamer’s platform. Still, today its wide array of features for online communication makes it a top-notch way for marketers to get new eyes on their video, audio, and written content. With voice and video chat and text message features–and 150 million monthly users and growing, according to CNBC–Discord gives you multiple means of communicating your message and viewpoints to people likely to want to buy what you have to sell.
Telegram Channels
If you haven’t already tried Telegram for your business, it’s time. Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging app that lets you send messages to and share files with other users. With unlimited subscribers, Telegram Channels are a great way to announce to big audiences–such as your current and prospective customers. Share product announcements, blog posts, and otherwise interact with those in your community, all in real time.
WhatsApp Groups
Use the messaging app known for its security to create bespoke threads for specific customer groups. Create, for example, a WhatsApp group for buyers of a particular product to share feedback on it. Create another WhatsApp group where your company and fellow brand adherents answer questions about a specific item or product line.
VR/AR Experiences
Use virtual and/or augmented reality to breathe new life into your website. By using VR and AR, you can immerse existing and potential customers alike in realistic simulations, giving them a more in-depth look at your goods and facilities in a way that keeps them engaged. Maybe it’s showing them the complex machinery used to manufacture your items. Or maybe it’s a comprehensive, 360-degree look at your brand-new product line. Whatever it may be, VR/AR experiences give your audience a deeper, better understanding of your company and its unique value proposition.
Virtual tours let potential clientele take self-guided, self-paced strolls through your shop floor whenever they want, allowing them to see your production processes, safety standards, and behind-the-scenes operations. This bolsters confidence and trust in your brand – and drives sales. In fact, some 50% of adult internet users say they depend on virtual tours for making purchasing decisions, and customers spend five to 10 times more money on sites that have virtual tours than on sites that don’t, according to Entrepreneur magazine.
Thought Leadership
Guest Speakers at Events
Leverage other people’s thought leadership and your own by inviting and hosting guest speakers at your events. A known and trusted industry name can draw a bigger crowd to your event and boost its credibility.
Guest speakers can also lead to more word-of-mouth-generated business. Someone drawn to one of your events by the name may well share their experience on social media or elsewhere, leading to new interest from their followers.
Live Streams
Use live streaming to create and share real-time interviews with sector professionals and experts, host Q&A sessions, and/or conduct product demonstrations. Why do it? People like engaging with their video content. Live content encourages more watch time than on-demand video–27% more, according to Zippia.
Executive Leveraging
Leverage your professional network to get executives and industry experts in your business vertical to pen blog posts, host webinars, and podcast episodes, and share their thoughts and opinions about happenings in your industry. Here’s why: According to a joint thought-leadership study by LinkedIn and Edelman, 64% of buyers say the thought-leadership content of a company gives them a more credible way to assess its capabilities than sales and marketing materials. So invest time and effort in executive thought leadership content.
Presentations and Continuing Education
SlideShare
Leverage the free presentation platform SlideShare–which lets you upload and download all kinds of presentations–to reach peers and establish yourself as a go-to authority in your sector.
You’ll see greater success if you use SlideShare as a way to get across insights and hard-won advice rather than a means to disseminate promotional materials simply. According to Inc. magazine, the overwhelming majority of people just don’t trust what they see as overt advertisements. They’re far more likely to pay attention to content that comes across as genuine industry-player wisdom than a sales pitch.
Online Learning Platforms
It could mean a sizable expenditure in time and funds, but creating your own set of online, industry-relevant courses or workshops could yield a big payoff. Use these to showcase your experience in your industry and add advice and tips you’ve gathered and tested over the years. Utilizing a course-creation platform such as Coursera lets you upload video, audio, text, and other material to educate your audience–which can help get you more customers.
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