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Hey there,

I've got a quick question for you this week:

“What’s your plan after you hit publish?”

This is typically the first question I ask clients and friends who want to get off the content hamster wheel and get more ROI out of the content they’re creating.

Iconically it’s the last question they ask themselves.

Because over 95% of marketing teams face the same problem.

They spend most of their time creating so much new content and then struggle to get eyeballs on it.

And this leaves so many talented marketers stuck running on a hamster wheel that doesn’t get them anywhere.

• You try to solve every marketing problem with new content
• If Google doesn’t rank your content, you’re screwed
• 90% of the content you created this year is collecting digital dust on your blog archive
• You’re stuck creating ebooks, guides, and blogs you know nobody cares about
• If traffic isn’t always going up and to the right, you have no way to prove the impact

Maybe you feel that same way right now.

A Distribution-First strategy flips marketing on its head.

It forces you to proactively get your marketing messages and key ideas read and seen.

And puts distribution at the front of your entire content strategy.

Over the next month, I'm going to break down each phase in detail each week and help you finally make distribution a priority.

But today, let's quickly cover each phase in the process. Think of these as plot points in your story.

As you read through each phase, you can see where you're at in the process.

Most folks I work with fall in Phases 1 and 2. They either need to build a distribution strategy or launch the flywheel to make everything run smoothly.

Let's dive in.

Phase 1: Foundation

You need to build your distribution flywheel. That means defining three key areas.

1. The Messages
2. The Channels
3. The Mediums

What you need to do in this phase is look at what content is worth sharing and what messages you want shared. 

Phase 1 is all about putting guardrails on your distribution strategy to keep you on the road.

Phase 2: Execution

This is the step everyone likes to jump to. It's where you start running your existing content through the systems you just built.

Now that you know what messages you want to share, which channels you want to share on, and what mediums you're going to create you can start building out that execution plan.

I like to choose a few Messages/Themes for a month and then find some existing content to remix across my channels.

If you work at a project management SaaS company your themes might be:

1. Productivity
2. AI Workflows
3. Workplace Communication
4. Project Management

From there you can drill into your archives and identify 2-3 pieces of content to remix for each of those core themes and messages.

Phase 3: Optimization

This phase is devoted to fine-tuning your distribution flywheel and doubling down on what’s working and make the whole thing spin faster so you can start hitting your goals.

You started by building the muscles looking backward. Now you want to look forward and build distribution into your entire content creation process. 

That way, when you create that podcast, host that webinar, or write that blog post you have a plan to get the information to your audience across your different channels.

Phase 4:

Now that you have your flywheel in motion, you amplify your strategy even more with new formats, channels, and frequency to build on top of the existing plan.

This is where the top 1% of content marketers live.

They have a consistent engine that is running smoothly and now they can make minor adjustments and improvements to enhance performance.

Hopefully, this gets you excited about implementing the four phases at your company.

I can't wait to dive into each one of these in the coming weeks.

Of course, if you have a question or want to learn more about what it takes to implement this system, check out my Distribution First Accelerator program.

Have a great week! 👊

Justin

Founder, Distribution First

P.S. If you want to get a head start on building your own distribution strategy, check out my FREE email course.