Your Quick Guide to B2B Content Syndication

Getting noticed online can feel like running on a treadmill. You’re putting forth plenty of effort, but don’t move anywhere. While online visibility through well-known strategies like SEO is possible, it often takes time and considerable effort. If you’re looking for more reliable and faster results, consider adding B2B content syndication to your toolset.

B2B content syndication reaches more of your target audience online than SEO alone while facing less competition. Additionally, content syndication works exceptionally well for account-based marketing strategies with a niche audience and target accounts list.

Are you new to B2B content syndication?

Use this quick guide to learn what it is and how to use it in B2B marketing to reach your target audience.

What Is B2B Content Syndication?

A content syndication meaning in simple terms is distributing your digital content on multiple third-party sites to increase visibility and generate leads.

How does this look?

If you want to syndicate or share your content, you work with a vendor. A vendor has a network of hundreds of third-party websites ready to publish your content.

You use filters to specify location, titles, business sizes, and other qualifying factors of the audience you want to reach with your content. That way, only third-party websites that reach your niche audience will publish the content, and you only receive relevant leads in return.

Your vendor distributes your content by sharing it across their network based on your selected filters. Your content then appears on several websites that your audience already frequents.

Content syndication differs from guest posting because you share the same content you published elsewhere. Guest posting uses original content. Even though content syndication copies published content, it won’t impact your SEO. Google prioritizes original content. Your syndicated content mainly targets current readers on the host sites rather than trying to rank in Google.

Image from S2W Media

Example of Content Syndication

Syndicated content appears in several ways:

  • Native ad: A customized link to your content appears in the sidebar or bottom of third-party websites with related content. It’s often a widget that updates regularly with new content.
  • Published content: Content appears alongside the site’s regular content but with a note like “Originally appears on…” or “Sponsored Content.” This content remains permanently on the site.

Image from Business2Community

What Types of Content Can You Syndicate?

You can syndicate any online content. Some of the most effective content includes:

  • Blog posts
  • Videos
  • Infographics
  • Podcasts
  • Whitepapers
  • Case Studies

If you’re looking to generate leads, consider using whitepapers or eBooks that you can gate rather than blog posts.

Why Is B2B Content Syndication Important?

There are over six million new blog posts every day published globally. Competing with that large amount of content requires an established website and authority in the industry. However, some topics are so competitive even authority sites struggle to appear near the top of search results.

Content syndication cuts through the noise and boosts site traffic. Through content syndication, you attract new visitors, which can increase your current ranking and authority. In addition, you gain some of the host website’s authority, increasing readers’ trust when engaging with your content. You also reach readers you might not have gotten through SEO strategies alone.

B2B content syndication allows marketers to target their audience. While SEO provides some customization, most traffic is left to chance. You hope that those searching your keywords are B2B buyers. However, content syndication allows you to post your content on sites your niche audience frequents, increasing your chance of reaching that audience.

How Content Syndication Complements Account-Based Marketing

Content syndication works well for B2B businesses using account-based marketing because it gives you more control over who you reach with your content. Through content syndication, you bring your content to your desired audience.

For example, a SaaS brand might share its content across leading SaaS websites where B2B buyers frequently find the latest news and tips. This puts marketers in direct content with those B2B buyers without relying on unpredictable SEO strategies.

6 Tips to Perform B2B Content Syndication

Use these six tips to get started with B2B content syndication.

1. Establish Your Content Syndication Goals

What do you hope to accomplish through content syndication? Establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-sensitive goals gives you benchmarks to aim for. That way, you know when your content syndication is successful.

Some examples of potential content syndication goals include:

  • Increasing brand awareness by tracking the number of visitors who click on the content.
  • Generating leads that fit your target audience.
  • Collecting valuable customer data to help with customized marketing strategies.

2. Create a Target Accounts List

Creating your target accounts list begins with understanding who your ideal customer is. You create your ideal customer profile by compiling customer details from past customers and the characteristics of the customers you want to reach, like the buyer’s title or company size.

You’ll use this profile to identify target B2B buyers and businesses that make ideal customers. This list can include current customers, leads, and accounts that haven’t expressed interest.

Creating a target account list ensures you’re attracting quality leads. A target account list gives your content and strategy a direction based on who you’re trying to reach rather than casting a wide net and bringing in thousands of irrelevant leads.

Image from Sales Playbook

3. Partner with a B2B Content Syndication Vendor

A content syndication vendor is the company that distributes your content, like Taboola and Outbrain. If you don’t want to use a vendor, you can syndicate your content manually by posting to sites like Medium or LinkedIn. However, this process takes considerable work, research, and effort. You’re also limited by the host sites in your network.

Syndication vendors have a broader network of host sites and offer extensive filters so you can send your content to dozens of sites simultaneously for maximum reach.

4. Select or Create Relevant Content

Now comes the question of what content you should use.

Naturally, you’ll want to consider your syndication goal first, then choose content that matches that goal. For example, if you want to generate leads, then you’ll use whitepapers or eBooks.

You should also consider your content’s performance. For best results, syndicate your top-performing content as you know it’s relevant and your customers engage with it.

However, you don’t need to use content you’ve already published. Some marketers opt to create content specifically for syndication. That way, you can ensure the content matches your goals and audience.

5. Capture Lead Information

According to 30% of B2B marketers, content syndication has the best lead generation success.

Add value to your traffic by turning your content into a lead magnet. Gatekeeping your content or adding a form within the content provides more information about who is engaging with your content. You can also receive the details you need to qualify and nurture those leads.

When performing account-based marketing, a lead capture form is necessary to continue nurturing your audience.

6. Analyze Syndication Results

Remember those goals you established before starting? Now it’s time to revisit them and see how your results measure up.

A key to effective goals is establishing metrics for measuring your success, whether you generate a set number of leads or traffic you want to attract. Then, after syndicating your content, watch those metrics to gauge whether your syndication efforts are successful.

You’ll also want to dive deeper into those metrics, like seeing what percentage of the leads you generated converted. If not many leads are converting, you may need to adjust your target audience or reevaluate what content you’re using to ensure usable results.

Start Your First Content Syndication Strategy

Are you ready to start capturing quality leads across more channels?

Hushly can help you reach your ideal customer through our customized experience solutions. Our native embedded streams allow you to insert dynamic content that shows personalized suggestions to readers to increase the quality of leads you collect.

We simplify capturing those leads so you can seamlessly start nurturing them and converting more leads into loyal B2B buyers.

Learn more about our demand capture services for B2B content syndication.

The Pros and Cons of Content Syndication Every Marketer Needs to Know

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Content syndication can work wonders for your B2B marketing.

When executed with careful consideration, you can generate more leads than you’ll know what to do with and turn yourself into a mini-celebrity.

However, there’s also a dark side to syndication. With higher stakes in B2B, you also run a higher risk of damaging your credibility – and even visibility.

The Pros of Content Syndication for B2B

Some B2Bs may not feel comfortable with other media outlets “taking” the content they worked so hard to produce. The truth is, all marketers can benefit from a well-integrated content strategy. Here’s how syndication can help.

Develop New Audiences

Think you’ve already nailed down your target audience? Think again.

While it’s good to focus on a niche, it’s also essential to keep in mind that your industry and market are in a constant state of evolution. New corners pop-up and people discover new problems they need solved.

Syndicating your content lets, you throw a wide net.

Reach Influencer Status

Every industry – no matter how mundane it may seem – has its own mini-celebrities and influencers.

You know them when you see them: they write guest blogs on your favorite websites and always float to the top of your Twitter feed.

If you put special care into your syndicated content and develop a personal thought leadership style, people will start seeking out your writing everywhere they can find it.

Your retweets and mentions will grow, and the leads and conversions will follow.

Generate Leads

With content syndication, you can catch prospects when they have their guard down. Since you’re focusing on spreading knowledge rather than promoting products, readers won’t feel like they’re being “sold to.”

By choosing the right outlet, carefully crafting a piece of content, and optimizing your bio and links, you can generate countless leads over an extended period.

The Cons of Content Syndication for B2B

Fortunately, you can easily avoid (or at least minimize) most of the downsides to content syndication by following a few good practices.

Possible Low-Quality Leads

How many times have you heard, “quality over quality” in regards to generating leads?

Well, it’s true. Low-quality leads who aren’t anywhere near a purchase decision can skew your data and pull time away from other leads who really deserve your attention.

You can minimize low-quality leads by creating and syndicating content for specific audiences.

It’s also a good idea to avoid gating content on your website. By making your blog posts and PDFs accessible to everyone, people will only hand over their email when they truly want to stay in contact with you.

Even if low-quality leads slip through, hope isn’t lost. Planting a seed and creating brand awareness is always a good thing.

SEO Police

If you care about SEO (who doesn’t?), you’ll want to pay special attention here. Duplicate content online can damage rankings.

It’s not necessarily a violation. However, when the Google bots see multiple pieces of content coming from different places, they don’t know which one is the most important.

In most cases, this damages the ranking of both websites. However, it can also backfire for your website and push the syndication outlet above your original work in the search results. Yikes.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a surefire way to avoid this. Instead, only syndicate your content on websites where the benefit of referral traffic outweighs the risk of a slight SEO hit.

You can also ask your developers to include special pieces of code in your posts that tell the Google bots “hey, this is the original piece” but it’s not a guarantee.

Damage to Credibility

For the most part, this is completely in your realm of control.

First of all, anything you publish for content syndication shouldn’t promote products or talk about your company. Instead, focus on writing something thought-provoking for readers.

However, you also want to pay special attention to outlets before you ask them to publish your content. Follow their social accounts. Read their emails. Do they publish click-bait and spam? Alternatively, do they only provide readers with authoritative content? Do your homework.

Create Content that Matters

Driving traffic and creating brand awareness with syndication isn’t worth a thing if you don’t personalize each experience. 65% of B2Bs say they have no problem switching brands if a company doesn’t personalize its communication with them.

Creating content isn’t enough. Marketers need to create meaningful and interesting content and present it to visitors at the right time with tools like content bingeing. Create a personalized experience for every lead and watch your conversions skyrocket.

Hushly can help. Check out our Content Bingeing feature in action!