Companies and startups publish a variety of digital content regularly to create brand awareness and increase brand visibility. In addition to publishing multi-format content on their websites, they publish content on third-party websites and online platforms. Content syndication refers to the strategy of redistribution or republication of digital content using third-party websites and external channels.
Content syndication boosts content marketing campaigns by increasing content reach and content visibility simultaneously. At the same time, enterprises use content syndication as a lead generation technique to identify and nurture potential customers for their products/services. This blog aims to discuss important aspects of content syndication lead generation for beginners.
How does Content Syndication Lead Generation Work?
B2B companies keep in place content syndication programs to generate more leads in a short amount of time. But content syndication is a multi-step process. One can generate high-quality leads only by optimizing each of the five steps in the content syndication process.
Step 1: Define Goals
Content syndication helps marketers accomplish multiple marketing goals – increase website traffic, generate leads, boost sales conversion, create brand awareness, and build backlinks. But no marketer can accomplish multiple goals by republishing the same content. Hence, marketers must plan and run specific content syndication programs to generate high-quality leads.
Step 2: Identify the Publisher
A marketer can redistribute the existing digital content using multiple websites, platforms, and publishers. But he can drive lead generation by publishing content on a website or platform that caters to the same target audience. Hence, marketers identify the best publisher using important parameters like location, content type, and readers. At the same time, they evaluate the publisher’s reputation based on his website’s traffic and domain authority.
Step 3: Shortlist Digital Content
A marketer can increase website traffic by republishing a variety of digital content – articles, blogs, whitepapers, checklists, and eBooks. But he can generate high-quality leads only when the content impresses and engages the target audience. Hence, marketers have to focus on republishing the best-performing content. Also, they need to ensure that readers can access and read the content seamlessly using their preferred devices.
Step 4: Strategize Content Republication
The content publication time directly impacts the quality and quantity of leads generated through content syndication. In addition to deciding on where and how to publish the content, marketers have to check when the content will be published. They collaborate with the content syndication network or webmaster to ensure that the digital content is published at the most appropriate time.
Step 5: Capture Leads
Marketers can start generating leads when the right content is published at the right time and the right way. But they can make the most out of the content syndication strategy by capturing and nurturing the leads. Hence, marketers keep in place plans to track the leads generated using content syndication publishers. Also, they filter high-quality leads using various lead scoring models.
What are the Major Benefits of Content Syndication Lead Generation?
Content syndication helps marketers accomplish multiple goals including lead generation. Also, marketers can increase leads without escalating costs by repurposing existing content. That is why; content syndication has become one of the most preferred lead generation strategies for B2B marketers.
Leverage Existing Content
Enterprises have to work with skilled content creators to produce fresh and original content regularly. But content syndication creates opportunities for them to control costs by republishing existing digital assets. Hence, content syndication helps marketers generate leads without escalating costs.
Increase Website Traffic
In addition to generating leads, content syndication helps marketers increase a website’s domain authority and create high-quality backlinks. The increase in domain authority and backlinks makes the website rank higher on search engines. Marketers can leverage the surge in organic website traffic to generate more leads.
Boost Content Marketing Campaigns
Content marketing strategies help enterprises get higher ROI in the longer run. Content syndication boosts content marketing campaigns by expanding content reach and increasing content visibility. The improved performance of content marketing campaigns will help marketers impress prospective customers by building authority and trust.
Complement Account Based Marketing
Many B2B marketers these days focus on named accounts while making content syndication lead-generation strategies. They share a list of named accounts or target accounts with the content syndication service providers. Also, they instruct the provider to focus extensively on the target accounts while distributing and promoting content. Hence, content syndication helps marketers identify and nurture high-ticket buyers by boosting account-based marketing.
How to Leverage Content Syndication as a Lead Generation Strategy?
Content syndication creates opportunities for marketers to generate leads by republishing existing digital content. But the strategy adversely impacts the search engine visibility of the original content posted on the business website. Hence, marketers boost content syndication lead generation by adopting a slew of best practices.
Compare Content Syndication Providers
Content syndication creates opportunities for many websites to generate spam. Marketers can generate leads without impacting the website’s reputation only by choosing the right content syndication provider. They can assess the provider’s reputation by reading online reviews and testimonials. Also, they should prioritize high-traffic websites matching the industry and target audience.
Include Canonical Tags
A canonical URL helps search engines identify the master page when the content is published multiple times. While using content syndication for lead generation, marketers can keep a website’s search engine ranking intact using canonical tags best practices. Also, they must instruct the provider to include a canonical link in the post. The canonical tag will make search engines index both original and syndicated content without penalizing any websites.
Use Crawlable Links
Often providers want the syndicated content to appear on search engine result pages. In such cases, they must embed a link to the original URL in the author bio or introduction section. The link will allow search engine bots to access and index the content without any restrictions. But the backlink to the original content will ensure that the bot will not penalize the website for publishing duplicate content.
Conclusion
Content syndication lead generation is a multi-step process. Marketers generate high-quality leads by implementing a custom content syndication strategy. The strategy leverages real-time marketing data to ensure that the right type of content is republished at the right time using the right website/platform/supplier.
At the same time, the strategy focuses on common challenges in content syndication lead generation. However, no organization can leverage the strategy without focusing on nurturing and converting leads generated through content syndication. Hence, every organization must complement the content syndication strategy with lead scoring, nurturing, and conversion plans.
