Date
20th August 2024
Content Syndication (CoSy) is one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing, particularly lead generation. But choosing the right content for you CoSy campaigns can be challenging.
The many benefits of content syndication include guaranteed lead volumes; being able to budget your lead gen with confidence; and reaching new and relevant audiences through content syndication websites.
But to make it effective, you want to ensure that the syndicated content you choose is right for your campaign.
That’s not as simple as it sounds. There are many factors to consider when choosing content for B2B content syndication, including the location you’re targeting, where readers are likely to be in the buyer’s journey, and whether the content is high-value enough to gate.
Hear from Headley Media's Head of Marketing, Chloe Addis, and Global Sales Director, Freya Ward, as they discuss how to select the right content for your CoSy campaigns.
Plus, download the ungated Content for CoSy Checklist, with over 20 questions to consider to help you choose the right content for your campaigns, accompanying the video above and this blog.
In this blog we'll answer:
- What is syndicated content?
- How to syndicate your content
- What is the best content for B2B content syndication?
- What are the best formats for syndicated content?
- How to work with B2B content syndication vendors.
What Is Content Syndication?
First, let’s define content syndication. Also known as CoSy, it’s the process of distributing your B2B marketing content via 3rd party content syndication companies, usually for the purpose of lead generation, but also B2B demand generation.
When you syndicate content, it’s hosted on external and reputable content libraries, to reach new audiences of professionals and decision-makers in your chosen sector.
It’s vital in technology content syndication that the content itself is high-value. The content is gated, so that every reader who downloads it gives their business contact details and becomes a lead. That means you have to ensure the content is worth readers handing over their details for. After all, decision-makers know how valuable their personal data is.
Your B2B marketing content can take the form of eBooks, whitepapers, case studies, research reports, videos, tools and templates – genuinely useful, educational content. Let’s dive further into content syndication best practices.
Planning Your Content Syndication Content: What Are Your CoSy Objectives?
When choosing content for B2B content syndication, many technology marketers aren’t sure where to start. How do you produce really meaningful content that’s relevant to the audience?
Let’s start by focusing on your objectives for syndicating content. What do you want to achieve with the campaign?
The answer is usually lead generation: gaining a set number of named leads is one of the most attractive and popular B2B content syndication services. To generate those leads, your content should be educational and near-unique. It shouldn’t be something readers can get elsewhere on the internet ungated.
B2B content syndication is also used for lead nurturing - more on that in the next section - and it’s often used for demand generation and lead qualification, too!
Next, you should consider the geographical locations you’re targeting. Headley Media, for example, offers 265 content syndication platforms across 60 countries. Localizing your content syndication campaign - taking into account what that region’s decision-makers are looking for, and applying cultural differences - will help make your content resonate more deeply with the intended audience.
Finally, consider the buyer’s journey. Let’s dive deeper into that in the next section.
“It's important to map your content to the buyer's journey - something that a lot of marketers do when they’re developing new content, but we find it’s often an area that’s forgotten about once a campaign is up and running.” - Freya Ward, Global Sales Director at Headley Media
Mapping Your Syndicated Content to the Buyer’s Journey
Not all pieces of gateable content are equal. When it comes to generating content syndication leads, some work better for the awareness phase of the marketing funnel; some are more for the consideration phase.
The best way to plan your content syndication campaign is to map your content to each stage of the buyer’s journey.
In content syndication for B2B lead generation, the assumption is often made that you’re generating top-of-funnel leads.
But you can’t control exactly when in their journey leads will read a piece of content, and that’s great, because it means your campaign will probably have a lead nurturing effect too.
If you get a good idea of what the buyer’s journey looks like, and draw your content plan according to what’s likely to be useful to leads at each stage, you will find your lead nurturing content syndication campaigns work harder for you.
By knowing your audience, through account-based marketing, intent data and your own market knowledge, you can use specific targeting and localization to map your content syndication B2B strategy effectively to the buyer’s journey.
Should You Brand Your Syndicated Content?
On B2B content syndication platforms, your content is usually top-and-tailed with your branding, so you don’t need to push your own name too much - this can be offputting, especially within gated content. You can focus more on educating and informing readers on the topic they need to know about.
What Is the Best Content for B2B Content Syndication?
So what format of content should you use?
The content you use in your content syndication campaign will depend on the audience and industry you’re targeting, and the kind of information you want to make available to readers. Don’t be shy to ask your content syndication agency for guidance.
Here are a few examples of the most effective types of content to syndicate, and how they fit into the buyer’s journey.
eBooks & Whitepapers
Educational; fantastic for top-of-funnel content syndication.
As a technology business, chances are you and the experts within your organization have a lot of unique insight to share, especially around hot topics and new developments in your industry.
eBooks and whitepapers, well-written and professionally designed, always do well on content syndication platforms: they are valuable tools for decision-makers to stay abreast of changes, and refer back to when the topic comes up in their job.
Case Studies
Educational, promotional; ideal for middle-to-bottom-of-funnel content syndication.
Case studies are a great source of fantastic, completely unique content for paid content syndication. As marketers, we love them - they’re a chance to speak to a real customer you’ve helped, tell their story, and promote your solution in that all-too-valuable word-of-mouth way.
Research Reports
Educational, awareness-raising; perfect for top-of-funnel syndicated content.
Do you conduct your own research as a technology business? If so, the data you report is worth its weight in gold in terms of content syndication marketing.
Statistics and insights from industry professionals are highly sought after by decision-makers, who can use them for strategy planning and to back up budget decisions with the rest of the buying committee.
Research reports are also great for positioning your business - or even your CEO - as a thought leader, so they’re great if raising brand awareness is part of your content syndication strategy.
Videos & Recorded Webinars
Educational, immersive; ideal for both top-of-funnel and middle-of-funnel content syndication programs.
We’ve seen webinar and video content syndication become increasingly popular, as they’re more engaging - watching a human expert speak is one of the best ways decision-makers take in information.
Quality video is also increasingly easy to make - it doesn’t need to be professionally produced, as long as the sound and video quality are good.
Toolkits, Checklists, Tools & Templates
Useful day-to-day, revisitable; great for all stages of the marketing funnel.
If you’re in the position to give your leads a useful piece of content, one that they’ll download or bookmark, they will keep coming back to again and again, and you’ve got content syndication lead generation nirvana!
A helpful spreadsheet template, a checklist for a certain business process, or a piece of software that performs a simple function for them, can really create love for your brand.
Here’s our example - check out our free B2B lead generation planning toolkit, complete with template, checklist and handbook!
Now that you know more about the types of content to use for your content syndication campaigns, don't forget to download the ungated checklist below to help you with your next campaign. Or, get in touch with Headley Media's team of CoSy experts to learn more.
