Date
3rd January 2024
Content syndication, or CoSy as it's often affectionally named, is one of the most effective methods of B2B lead generation – when done right.
Not only can CoSy extend the life of your B2B content, content syndication for lead generation serves a dual purpose of serving B2B professionals with useful content and generating leads for your business means it's well worth B2B marketers' time and effort.
But to make sure your content is seen by the people who need to see it to generate relevant B2B leads for your business, there's a content syndication process you should follow.
Let us talk you through it.
What Is Content Syndication Lead Generation?
Before we begin, content syndication lead generation is the process of distributing your content via platforms you do not own, such as content library websites, or content syndication platforms, to attract new leads.
The best thing about content syndication for a B2B marketer? It's a highly effective outbound lead generation opportunity.
Modern technology businesses have sophisticated marketing departments and plenty of scope to generate up-to-date and educational content. But when you spend considerable amounts of time creating great content, you want (and need) the right people to see it.
For example, Headley Media is one such B2B content syndication specialist.
We own and run over 250 content libraries in 32 languages across 60 countries within the IT, Cybersecurity, HR, Marketing, Finance, and Electronics sectors.
Each of these content syndication sites host educational content from technology suppliers – like whitepapers, eBooks, research reports, and case studies – which B2B professionals can read for free in return for their business card details.
Our content libraries are trusted sources for industry-leading information. Unlike many other B2B content syndication vendors, we put our readers first. Our audiences visit our sites to educate themselves on new technology and working practices, and in return, we only send them the most relevant content based on their business card information.
When creating your B2B content syndication programs, we recommend vetting your suppliers thoroughly to ensure your provider is reputable, trustworthy and transparent with their content syndication for b2b approach. Check out our ungated checklist to help you choose the right supplier.
Content Syndication Lead Generation: A 5-Step Process
There's a lot to know about content syndication for lead generation, including how to tell the difference between good and bad suppliers and what sort of content you should use. (Our annual publication, The Complete Guide to B2B Technology Lead Generation is ungated, and provides you with a lot more information, so you can read up more.)
Effective B2B lead generation strategies start with good planning. From the first stage of choosing your supplier through to ensuring your leads are high-quality, we've condensed the content syndication lead gen process down into a simple five-stage process.
Let's explore each stage in more detail.
Content Syndication Lead Generation – Step #1: Choosing Your Supplier
First of all, you need to consider what you want to get out of your content syndication lead generation campaign.
- What audiences do you need to reach?
- Do you already have content ready to go, or do you need a steer on what to publish?
- Do you have a target number of leads you need to generate? And if so, how often do you want to receive them?
- What's your budget?
- What's your campaign timeline?
If you're reading this, you're probably already deep in the B2B lead generation research phase, but did you know there are ways you can bring your leads lower down the marketing funnel through content syndication?
A reputable B2B lead gen company can provide you with greater intelligence on your leads or more nurtured leads.
For example, you could promote more of your content to your new prospects, or use intent data to find what part of the consideration phase they're in. That way, by the time your Sales team contacts them, they're already aware of your business's products or services.
For example, we run Nurture Track lead generation campaigns for our clients who require warmer leads through b2b content syndication.
You have to be a little careful choosing a lead generation business to work with. The industry has some very shady players that have given b2b lead generation a bad name over the years ( we don't like those suppliers).
The lead generation agency you choose should be completely transparent and be able to show you exactly how they generate your leads. Take a look at our Reader Journey for an example of a transparent content syndication lead generation process.
Content Syndication Lead Generation – Step #2: Targeting Your Audience
The best B2B lead generation strategies use laser-focused audience targeting to produce relevant and high-quality leads. And a good content syndication lead generation company will work with you to figure out which criteria will work best for audience targeting.
Job title, job function, country, region, company size and industry are all standard criteria, but you can go further. Profiling questions are an effective campaign enhancement, and you can ask almost anything – such as what software the prospect is currently using and whether they're planning to upgrade it.
You can also enhance a content syndication lead generation campaign with other enhancements such as intent data targeting, allowing you to better understand your leads' intentions. and find leads who are actively pursuing solutions like yours.
Content Syndication Lead Generation – Step #3: Choosing Your Content
Hopefully, your business has an excellent marketing department already producing high-quality educational content for your audience (if that's you, hey!).
Our readers want unique, helpful, and easy-to-digest content. That might be an eBook, whitepaper, or case study, but it might also be a video: many users of our content libraries prefer to watch webinar recordings and video tutorials.
The best content to put out will depend on lots of different factors, such as:
- The target audience(s) you need to reach.
- The industry, or industries you operate in.
- The relevant topics that are emerging within your industry.
- The benefits of your solutions and the pain points your solutions address.
- And, of course, your lead generation campaign objectives.
Some audiences and industries prefer, or need, a lot of facts and figures; others like to watch videos of industry experts. Your content syndication partner should be able to advise you on the best types of content to promote based on your needs.
Here's one of our favorite B2B lead generation tips: If you're targeting different countries because you need to reach a global audience, your content syndication supplier should also be able to help you localize your campaign.
Local language lead generation is essential if you want to authentically reach a global audience and produce high-quality, engaged leads.
Also, it's important to make sure your content is unique and valuable. Could readers get the same stuff through a simple Google search? Is it worth them giving their business details?
Content Syndication Lead Generation – Step #4: Syndicating Your Content
So, you've perfected your content, audience targeting, and campaign promotions. It's now time for your campaign to go live!
Having chosen a reputable supplier, you'll know your content is being syndicated on a genuine website owned by the content syndication company you're working with.
Furthermore, the common pricing basis for content syndication lead generation is cost-per-lead (CPL), whereby you agree to a fixed price for a certain number of leads. Taking a fixed CPL approach means you'll know the exact number of leads your content syndication campaign will generate for your budget.
All that's left is for your lead generation supplier to start syndicating your content to their relevant readers, aka distributing and promoting it via their content syndication platforms.
So sit back, relax and wait for the magic to happen. Or, go and do one of the 100 other things on your to-do list...
Here's an example of our content syndication process in action:
Types of Content Syndication Campaigns:
When syndicating your content, lots of B2B lead gen businesses offer different types of campaigns and enhancements. At Headley Media, for example, we offer a full range of B2B lead generation services.
Our lead gen services range from a Single Touch campaign, where your leads are exposed to one piece of your content before being delivered to you, to a Nurture Track campaign, where they are nurtured using two or more pieces of your content before being delivered to you.
Plus, syndicating your content with a reputable lead generation supplier will enable you to enhance your campaign even further. For example, our lead generation campaign enhancements range from audience intelligence strategies to display advertising.
Content Syndication Lead Generation – Step #5: Quality Control
Quality control is the final stage – an often overlooked but vital part of content syndication lead generation.
Before your leads are delivered to you, a good B2B lead gen company should offer lead validation services as standard. Lead validation works by cross-referencing their data with other sources to check the accuracy of the data and the validity of the leads.
For example, at Headley Media, we take a dual-validation approach to quality control.
Firstly, we use our own AI validation tool, Headley Validate, which mimics human authentication on a large scale. Our in-house quality control team then cross-references our data validation manually. Plus, we use multiple sources – including LinkedIn, Xing, company websites, and state registrars of companies.
It's important to work with a supplier that takes quality control of your content syndication seriously because, as you know, business card data changes regularly. People move jobs, get promoted, change their names, and so on, so it's easy to see how data can quickly become out of date. Working with a lead generation company that takes quality control seriously is what sets good lead generation suppliers apart.
For more content syndication lead generation tips, read our Ultimate Guide to Content Syndication Lead Generation, or sign up for our Marketing Leaders newsletter.
