Difference Between Content Distribution and Content Syndication

We know that creating top-notch content is the most important element to build and retain online presence for any business. But how do we use a single content to its full potential? This is where strategies like content distribution and content syndication come into play.

Both of these help to expand your content’s reach and performance significantly, generating more traffic. So, let us understand the concepts and differences between content distribution and content syndication and how to use them in your content marketing strategy. 

What is Content Distribution?

Content distribution is the process of getting your content in front of your target audience. This involves publishing your content on your channels, such as your website or blog, and then promoting it through different content platforms and channels.

What are some of the popular channels you can use for content distribution?

• Social media (Facebook, Instagram)
• Video marketing (youtube, Vimeo)
• Email marketing
• Paid advertising
• Influencer marketing
• Podcasting

The goal of content distribution is to reach as many people as possible with your content and to drive traffic to your website or blog. By distributing your content effectively, you can apply a complete digital branding cycle, generate leads, and boost sales.

What Are the Benefits of Content Distribution?

There are many benefits to content distribution, including:

1. Increased Brand Awareness

When you distribute your content widely, you can introduce your brand to a new audience. This can help you to raise awareness of your products or services and to position yourself as an expert in your field.

For example, let’s say you are managing a company that sells organic beauty products. Now, studies show that the average time spent on social media in India is about 17 hours a week.

Leverage that by creating a blog post about the benefits of using organic beauty products, and then promote that blog post on social media and email marketing. This would help you to reach a wider audience and introduce them to your brand.

2. Generated Leads

Content distribution can add to your lead generation strategies by providing valuable information to your target audience. When people find your content helpful, they are more likely to sign up for your email list or contact you for more information.

For instance, let’s say you are a financial advisor. Now, you could create a white paper about how to save for retirement, and then promote that white paper on your website and social media. This could help you to generate leads from people who are interested in learning more about retirement planning.

3. Boosted Sales

Content distribution can also help you to boost sales by driving traffic to your website or blog. When people visit your website, they are more likely to convert into customers if they find your content helpful and informative.

Suppose there is an online retailer that sells shoes. You could create a video review of a new pair of shoes that you are selling, and then promote that video on social media and YouTube. This could help you to drive traffic to your website and increase sales of those shoes.

In addition to the above benefits, content distribution also has the following advantages:

• Build relationships with your audience: When you share your content, you are essentially engaging in a conversation with your audience. This allows you to establish a sense of community with your audience.
• Establish yourself as an authority: When you share valuable content regularly, you establish yourself as an authority in your area of expertise. This helps you to attract new clients and partners.
• Improve your website’s SEO: When your content is shared on social media platforms and other online platforms, it increases your chances of being found by search engines. This makes your website more likely to show up in SERPs, which can result in more traffic and sales.

What Are the Challenges Faced During Content Distribution?

There are a few challenges that can be faced during content distribution, including:

1. Content Overload

There is a lot of content being published online every day, so it can be difficult to get your content noticed. You need to make sure that your content is high-quality and that it is relevant to your target audience.

2. Competition

Many other businesses are competing for the attention of your target audience. You need to make sure that your content is better than the competition’s.

3. Measuring Results

It can be difficult to measure the effectiveness of content distribution. You need to track the number of people who view your content, the number of people who click through to your website and the number of leads and sales that you generate.

What is Content Syndication?

Content syndication is the process of republishing your original content on one or more third-party platforms and websites.

The primary objectives of syndicating content are:

1. Reaching a larger audience using third-party websites and platforms.
2. Directing organic traffic to your website.
3. Improving your brand awareness by connecting to a wider audience through a growth hacking strategy.

Why Do You Need Content Syndication?

Content syndication can help your marketing strategy in several ways, such as:

1. Content Exposure

It helps in exposing your content to readers and prospects that may have never organically come across your brand. It also optimises the content visibility on which you have spent a lot of time. Visibility optimisation boosts reach through multichannel marketing, driving in more traffic from a wider audience.

2. Less-Time Consuming

Generating fresh content might indeed require umpteen time due to all the research it requires. However, for syndicated content, the time consumption and effort reduces to negligible. This is because it simply takes rephrasing and restructuring an already developed content.

3. Increase Backlinks

Backlinks are links to move from one website to another and more use of these links can increase your site’s rank in the SERP. The more backlinks to the original page, the more reliability the search engine gives to it. 

4. Lead Generation

Content syndication helps in generating leads for both the original content creator and the republishing site. In the case of original content creators, it offers more engagement from the recreated content than any other original content.

Besides, for third-party sites, syndicating content saves time and also directs traffic by posting a combination of several original contents consistently on the site.

5. Domain Authority Improvement

As we already know, an increased number of backlinks results in content exposure. Naturally, it also adds a side benefit of improving the domain authority.

Adding inbound links from credible sites creates a positive impact on the SEO of the primary domain. The marketers need to assure that they allow these links that lead back to the primary domain of your website.

6. Strengthens Brand Equity

Content syndication increases brand equity in every way possible if you use it in the correct way. It helps in promoting omnichannel brand resonance by including strong calls-to-action and numerous links back to your website.

With the authors getting greater exposure, the audiences end up researching for more pieces of content published by the same author. This strengthens the brand equity of your website, also covering your social media site, creating more traffic.

What Are the Challenges Faced During Content Syndication?

While syndicating content you can face the following difficulties:

1. Lead Generation Not Up to the Mark

The lead generation might not be up to the mark as leads from third-party websites have not seen your brand or product much. It is advisable to go for higher-level offers that will convert them easily even if the viewer has limited or no idea about your brand.

2. Spam Sites Can Affect Your Reputation

Some sites might be spam and if you syndicate your content there might lose your online reputation. Hence, it is recommended to carry out complete research about the site before syndicating your content to that. 

3. Negative Impact on the SEO

As per Google, if you syndicate content on other sites, the SERP will always show the most appropriate version to users in each search. Besides, Google can treat syndicated content as duplicate content, resulting in rank falling. 

4. Penalisation if Duplicity is Caught

Although there is nothing called a penalisation for duplicate content in Google, you will receive a manual penalty if caught doing so. While syndicating content, it is obvious in certain cases to produce duplicate content.

Difference Between Content Distribution and Content Syndication

Although it may seem similar in a lot of ways, you must understand the following points that differentiate content distribution from content syndication:

Feature	Content Distribution	Content Syndication
Ownership	You own the content	The other website owns the content
Promotion	You are responsible for promoting your content on the other websites	The other website is responsible for promoting your content
Revenue	You may earn revenue from advertising or affiliate marketing	You do not earn revenue from the other website

The best way to go about it will depend on what you’re trying to achieve and what you’re looking for. If you’re looking to own your own content and get it out there on your own, content distribution is a great option. On the other hand, if you’re looking to reach a bigger audience but don’t want to take on the responsibility of getting your content out there, content syndication might be the way to go.

Here are a few more things to keep in mind when deciding between distributing content and syndicating content:

1. Budget

Content syndication can be more expensive than content distribution, as you will need to pay the other website to host your content.

2. Target audience

If your target audience is very specific, then content distribution may be a better option, as you can control where your content is shared. If your target audience is more general, then content syndication may be a better option, as your content can reach a wider audience.

3.Goals and Purpose

To build your brand awareness, then content distribution may be a better option, as you can control the message that is being shared about your brand. If your goal is to generate leads or sales, then content syndication may be a better option, as your content can be seen by a wider audience.

Tips on How to Distribute and Syndicate Content

Both content distribution and content syndication can help you to:

1. Increase brand awareness
2. Generate leads
3. Boost sales
4. Build relationships with other thought leaders and influencers
5. Improve your website’s SEO

So, here are some common best practices to consider for content distribution and content syndication:

1. Create shorter content

Just because you are distributing your content through other sites or platforms doesn’t mean you have to post the entire piece. It may be more effective to just publish or syndicate a fragment of your content with a link back to your site (so the audience has to go to your site to see the rest of the piece).

2. Optimise and customise metadata

When you share your content on other sites, make sure to optimise the metadata so that search engines can easily find it. You should also customise the metadata for each content distribution channel so that it is relevant to the audience on that channel.

3. Add visual and audio content

Not everyone wants to read long-form content. So, make sure to include videos, podcasts, and other visual and audio content in your distribution and syndication plans. This will appeal to a wider audience.

4. Know your audience

Not all content is created equal. What is interesting to one audience may not be interesting to another. Make sure you are targeting your content to your specific audience.

5. Encourage audience to engage: 

to inspire your audience to share your content on social media and other channels, you can even offer incentives, such as discounts or free products, to motivate them to share your content.

6. Choose between free and paid mediums

There are many free ways to distribute and syndicate your content. However, there are also paid options that can help you reach a wider audience. Consider your budget and goals when deciding which options to use.

7. Monitor analytics data

Track the analytics data to see which platforms and channels are driving traffic to your website. This will help you to determine which distribution and syndication methods are most effective.

8. Reciprocate with thought leaders

Don’t just share your own content. Consider sharing or syndicating the content of others. This is a great way to build relationships with other thought leaders and influencers in your industry.

To sum up, when you are marketing your content, it is crucial to grasp the nuances that set content distribution and content syndication apart. While both aim to widen your reach, distribution emphasizes varied platforms and tailored approaches. On the other hand, syndication revolves around republishing on third-party sites. 

Nonetheless, the first step to all these strategies is creating informative and engaging content that binds these strategies and makes them successful. This is where Das Writing Services comes into play. We create content based on your purpose, your audience and your requirement. So check out our wide range of services now and contact us to get a quote.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Which is better for brand exposure between content distribution and syndication?

Both offer high exposure to your content in different ways. The content distribution offers tailored exposure across various platforms, fostering brand consistency and a wider reach. Content syndication leverages established third-party platforms, introducing your brand to new audiences in a trusted environment.

2. How do goals influence the choice between content distribution and content distribution?

Choosing between content distribution and syndication depends on your goals. If you seek controlled reach and brand consistency, distribution is ideal. For tapping into new audiences and third-party credibility, syndication might be the preferred route.

3. Are content syndication and content curation different strategies?

Yes, the main difference between the two is that while syndication refers to re-publishing your own content to a third-party website, content curation is sharing other websites’ content on your own website. This helps to build a strong relationship with competitors and thought leaders.

4. Which strategy offers more control over content placement between content distribution and syndication?

Content distribution provides greater control as you decide where and how your content is shared, while content syndication involves relinquishing some control to the third-party site’s guidelines.

5. Does syndication affect SEO differently from distribution?

Yes, content syndication can raise concerns about duplicate content, potentially impacting SEO. In contrast, content distribution allows for tailored content across platforms, which can benefit SEO efforts.