Whether content syndication is the perfect choice for the digital strategy of a brand will
depend entirely on the objective. Besides the objective, how the marketers will
proceed with content syndication and the tools they will use for the same also
affect the viability. Marketers should first understand what content
syndication is all about and whether it is important for their brand.
What is Content Syndication?
Content Syndication
refers to the act of publishing the content on other sites. The content might
be a blog, a website or even videos. It can be published on third party sites
completely or as a snippet, link or thumbnail. Marketers often proceed with
content syndication without any clear objective to do so. Possible objectives
for content syndication could be to boost traffic on the main website or to
build awareness of the product or service or something else. When the goal of
content syndication is clear, it becomes quite easy to gain the same through a
clear cut strategy. Things that will help decide whether content syndication is
the right choice for digital strategy are:
1. Deciding the Objective
Marketers should proceed
with establishing goals they desire to achieve through content syndication.
These goals should match the business model too. All those who are opting for
content syndication in order to boost traffic on the site should not syndicate
complete article on other sites. This way, their article would be read on the
partner site and the reader would not visit the main website. This approach
works only when a writer desires to gain exposure. In this case, one can either
syndicate an abstract, its headline, or even a link that takes the reader to
the main site of the content.
2. Deciding the Platform
When the objective of
content syndication is clear, marketers can proceed with contemplating on the
type of content and the sites they desire to send the same. One should first
chalk out the partner sites where the content would be distributed. Marketers
should also know the audience of the partner sites and their taste. This will
help in deciding whether there is the need of their content on that site. The
requirements of the partner sites and the software capability should also be
mapped. For instance, many partner sites might require customized URLs, RSS
feeds, thumbnail images, paragraph excerpts or even snippets.
3. Opportunities Available
Marketers need to devise
the content strategy completely including its delivery and possible outcomes.
Content Syndication works for those sites that desire to reach new audience and
thereby re-invent the content. This might even result into associations with
new partners. While doing this, marketers need to create potential partners and
their objective of association. All these efforts not only result into
additional traffic on the website but also give the site renewed exposure.
One should always
monitor the content syndication partners on a regular basis. Measuring the
results gained through partner websites will give insight into the work ability
of the strategy and whether it needs to be revamped for future benefits or not.
