Episode 77
3 Mistakes ALL MARKETERS Make In Their Distribution Strategy
In this episode of Distribtuion First, Justin Simon walks you through the three biggest pitfalls of choosing the wrong distribution channels and how you can avoid them.
Justin shares his personal experiences and lessons learned the hard way about spreading himself too thin across multiple platforms. We'll also explore three major pitfalls of picking the wrong channels and how you can avoid them to maximize your content's impact. Plus, you'll get actionable tips to help you focus on the channels that truly matter for your business and audience.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why focusing on key channels prevents burnout & boosts impact.
- How understanding your audience drives better channel selection.
- Why mastering a few channels is crucial over spreading too thin.
- How aligning channels with personal preferences sustains consistency.
- Why a content floor of easy wins ensures long-term success.
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Transcript
Hey everybody. Before we get started, I want to thank my friends hatch for producing
Speaker:this episode. You can get unlimited podcast editing and strategy for
Speaker:one flat rate by visiting Hatch FM.
Speaker:All right, let's get in the show.
Speaker:Welcome to distribution. First, the show where we flip content marketing on its head
Speaker:and focus on what happens after you hit publish. Each week I
Speaker:share playbooks, motivations, stories, and strategies to help you repurpose and
Speaker:distribute your content because you deserve to get the most out of everything you
Speaker:create.
Speaker:Hey friend. Unfortunately, I've learned the value of
Speaker:focusing on a few key channels the hard way. I used
Speaker:to try and be active on multiple platforms, whether it was
Speaker:Facebook back in the day or using X and now LinkedIn and
Speaker:doing email and YouTube. But I found
Speaker:myself spread way too thin. Even when I had a team. The
Speaker:more channels we tried to focus on, the harder it became. And I
Speaker:honestly, I hated what I was doing. I ended up hating what
Speaker:I was doing. And it came through in the content I was sharing with
Speaker:the audience. So that's when I knew that I had to make a
Speaker:change and really start to focus on the channels that
Speaker:mattered, not just the channels that I thought I should be on, because
Speaker:somebody told me I should be there. And so that's what we're going to talk
Speaker:about today on this episode of distribution. First, we're actually going to go through three
Speaker:pitfalls of bad channels. What are the three main things
Speaker:that cause you to pick the wrong channel and then how
Speaker:you can focus in and get better on the channels that you're actually
Speaker:using. And so that's what we're going to get into today. I'm super excited about
Speaker:it. Let's get into the show. All right, so three pitfalls
Speaker:of picking the wrong distribution channels. What I
Speaker:realized back, and this wasn't that long ago, honestly, and
Speaker:I've ebbed and flowed through this as I was creating content both for my
Speaker:own and honestly, when I was working as an in house marketer, too. There's a
Speaker:lot of pressure to try and do a lot of things, to try and get
Speaker:as much attention, to get as much reach, to get as much eyeballs
Speaker:on that content as possible. And I think it's a little bit.
Speaker:The irony is there, though, that when you actually spread
Speaker:yourself across all these channels, it actually doesn't always help you. It actually
Speaker:can be a hindrance to what you're trying to do. And it's not the
Speaker:type of the decision that you just make once and you
Speaker:set with it. It's actually the type of decision that ripples out across your entire
Speaker:content strategy. Because when you go to
Speaker:pick one channel, as soon as you add on another channel, what you're doing is
Speaker:you're committing to that channel not only for you, not only for your team,
Speaker:but you're committing to that channel for your audience. What we do when
Speaker:we add another channel on the back of our mind is we say, hey, awesome.
Speaker:Hey audience, here's where we're going to be at now. Here's what we're going to
Speaker:be doing, and here's what you can expect from us. And it puts a ton
Speaker:of pressure not only on you and your team to be able to create
Speaker:that content, but to keep up with that over time.
Speaker:How I like to think about channels is narrowing your focus down into the ones
Speaker:that truly make an impact and what you're doing. So let's get into
Speaker:these pitfalls and see how we can avoid them. So pitfall number one
Speaker:is not knowing your audience. And this is such a big one. Your
Speaker:audience, they're probably all over the place. Your
Speaker:audience is probably on multiple channels doing multiple things. They
Speaker:might be on LinkedIn, they might be on YouTube, they might like
Speaker:podcasts, they might like reading newsletters. The reality
Speaker:is they probably like consuming a lot of types of content and
Speaker:like consuming it on a lot of different channels. The key for you though, is
Speaker:to figure out which ones work for you and which ones are going
Speaker:to make the biggest impact on your audience over
Speaker:time. It's a tough balancing act, it really is, because the temptation is there
Speaker:to be on those, but you don't have to be on them all. Instead, what
Speaker:you want to do is focus on the channels that align with your strengths
Speaker:and you can be consistent and engage with without feeling
Speaker:overwhelmed. Because the last thing you want to do is jump
Speaker:from one content hamster wheel. Creating content, doing all this to another
Speaker:constant hamster wheel of distributing is the last thing we want to
Speaker:do when we're creating our content strategies. Knowing where your audience hangs out
Speaker:is so key. Are they more likely to be on one
Speaker:place than another? They probably are. It's just on you to figure out where
Speaker:those places are going to be. Are they more likely to hang out in
Speaker:communities where you can actually interact with them and spend time with
Speaker:them? It's a longer term play, and none of this is overnight.
Speaker:As far as being able to distribute this content and become sort of
Speaker:overnight, all your entire audience is going to want to buy your products and your
Speaker:services. That's not how it works. Figuring out where are your best long term
Speaker:bets to distribute that content across for your audience
Speaker:and different channels are going to represent different opportunities. For
Speaker:example, if you're creating content on YouTube, if you're creating content
Speaker:for Google, that's going to hit one part of the funnel and one group of
Speaker:folks who are looking for a very particular thing. If you're creating content on
Speaker:LinkedIn or X or Instagram, it's going to hit a
Speaker:completely different type of person, buyer and stage at where
Speaker:they're going to be at. Just coming up with a decent mix to be able
Speaker:to know where your audience is at and hit them over time. All
Speaker:right, pitfall number two, not understanding the
Speaker:channel and this ties back into some of the things we just talked about. But
Speaker:this is one of the biggest problems I see in particular inside of
Speaker:companies, is not understanding the channel. But honestly, even as an
Speaker:individual creator, again, the more channels you add, the
Speaker:more channels you're going to have to learn. It's not as simple as just
Speaker:posting and expecting growth. How LinkedIn
Speaker:works is completely different than how X works, which is completely different than how
Speaker:YouTube works. And you better know the ins and outs and the nuances, or
Speaker:at least be in the process of learning all of those nuances
Speaker:to see success in the content that you're creating. Just posting on a
Speaker:bunch of channels you don't understand is not going to help you in the long
Speaker:run. But if you can master a few channels, deeply,
Speaker:understand them, understand what works, what doesn't work, what type of content, and
Speaker:this all ebbs and flows and changes over time. So what worked
Speaker:on LinkedIn two years ago does not work today. What worked on
Speaker:x two years ago does not work today. But unless you're
Speaker:constantly learning the channels, unless you're constantly evolving with what you're
Speaker:doing, it's going to be very, very hard for you to be able to stand
Speaker:out and to be able to make a real impact when building
Speaker:audience. It's one thing to post content, it's one thing to hit
Speaker:publish. It's another to actually understand why
Speaker:you're there, what you're doing, what the purpose is
Speaker:of being there and actually creating content
Speaker:that makes your audience want to do something. Whether that's
Speaker:learn something new, buy something, hang out, just enjoy your
Speaker:content. But just posting stuff and ghosting out
Speaker:of there is no way to build an audience. It's no way
Speaker:to grow your channels. It's no way to actually do
Speaker:effective content distribution. I think my advice in this
Speaker:would be, again, mastering a few rather than, and going really deeply in
Speaker:what those things are. So at any given time, you're only going to be able
Speaker:to learn so many things unless you have a team. For example, when I was
Speaker:at Techsmith, I had a team of folks who were focused on SEO and blog
Speaker:content. I had a team of folks who was focused on YouTube content. I had
Speaker:a team of folks who were focused on social media content. And when
Speaker:you have different groups of different people who can focus on each one of those
Speaker:channels, absolutely. Let's figure out how to use those best and be able to spread
Speaker:ourselves across each of those channels and do that in an effective way. And actually,
Speaker:it was really, really helpful to be able to do that. We got to
Speaker:510, 100 x the amount of views and in depth things
Speaker:we were able to do with the content because we were able to spread those
Speaker:across different channels. But we were only able to do that because
Speaker:we had experts figuring out the nuances of each channel. Social media
Speaker:team did not have to figure out how to rank things in Google
Speaker:and at the same time figure out what was the best thumbnail and
Speaker:headline to put on YouTube. We had experts for each one of those places. And
Speaker:I think that's a very subtle nuance, that whether you're an individual
Speaker:or you're working with agencies, or you've got your own team in house
Speaker:figuring out how to use those people and those
Speaker:resources in a way that allows them to really focus in on what they're
Speaker:doing, I think that is how you start to scale up and add channels and
Speaker:build upon channels as having dedicated people who can come in and focus
Speaker:on those specific things. So unless you're able to actually
Speaker:dive into a channel, learn it, spend time with it, be
Speaker:consistent on it, I would be very hesitant to be able to add that into
Speaker:your distribution mix. So number three, choosing channels
Speaker:you don't enjoy, it's such a low key
Speaker:thing that we don't think about. But unless you enjoy
Speaker:distributing content on a particular platform,
Speaker:you're probably not going to do it. People don't talk about this enough, but
Speaker:passion does matter. It matters in content creation
Speaker:and it matters in content distribution as well. Because all you're doing when
Speaker:you're distributing content is creating micro versions of
Speaker:really good content and just doing it in a different way.
Speaker:Unless you're passionate about creating that type of content, it really
Speaker:doesn't make sense for you to keep on doing it. You're going to
Speaker:a get bored, b get sick of it,
Speaker:c just stop doing it all together because you're burnout. If
Speaker:you don't like making videos, you're not going to create
Speaker:videos very long again. Unless you're hiring this out and you're going to have other
Speaker:people do all the work and da da da like, then potentially that can make
Speaker:sense. But most of us don't have that option. Most of us in
Speaker:some way, shape or form are going to be having our hands in the things
Speaker:that we're creating and distributing. Unless you like the
Speaker:channel, unless you have some sort of passion for
Speaker:writing, then a newsletter probably doesn't make sense.
Speaker:Unless you have a passion for video. Being on
Speaker:a video heavy channel probably doesn't make sense. Unless you have a vehicle
Speaker:to create video content, it probably doesn't make sense for you to try and be
Speaker:on there because you're not going to be able to do it consistently and do
Speaker:it at a high enough level and scale to compete with
Speaker:everybody else. Because that's the other thing with these channels. It's not just
Speaker:you out there in a silo. It's not just you talking to your
Speaker:audience, it's everybody talking to your audience.
Speaker:And probably in some ways creating better content than you
Speaker:are. That's why we have to be balanced. You don't want to just show up
Speaker:and have really bad content. If that is the gateway into your business. If
Speaker:somebody shows up to your. If you say you're on X or you say you're
Speaker:on Instagram and somebody and you post a few times on there, but somebody shows
Speaker:up there and the content is kind of just boring or it's not great, that
Speaker:could be their first and only impression of you and your content. Even though you
Speaker:post really good stuff every single day on LinkedIn,
Speaker:as you think about what you're showing to your audience, or even your
Speaker:potential audience and your potential customers, just keep that in mind. It's actually
Speaker:better in some ways for people to type in your company or your brand and
Speaker:not find you, because then they have to figure
Speaker:out where you're actually at, or you can figure out ways to use those
Speaker:channels to try to get them over to where you're actually at. So if you
Speaker:have an x account but you don't really use it, you could put something in
Speaker:your bio about that and be able to get them over and say, actually, I
Speaker:post every day on LinkedIn. Or hey, we are active over here. If you're looking
Speaker:for help and you're a business, hey, here's where you can actually go get that
Speaker:and a lot of that. Again, to tie it back to choosing the channels that
Speaker:you don't enjoy. You have to be genuinely interested
Speaker:in the channel, because again, these things change all the time. What
Speaker:works in any single distribution channel, even a
Speaker:more historical channel that's been around for a long time, like
Speaker:email, what works in email now is
Speaker:completely different than what worked probably ten years ago. Everything
Speaker:is changing so much. Unless you have the time not only to learn that
Speaker:channel, enjoy that channel, but to be able to
Speaker:continue to learn that channel, you're going to struggle to be able to
Speaker:keep that channel afloat and make sure it actually succeeds for your company. And
Speaker:again, this is true of every single distribution
Speaker:channel across the Internet, whether you're talking
Speaker:Google, email, social media,
Speaker:forums, Reddit, any single thing
Speaker:that you choose, where you want to distribute, paid ads, anything, whatever you're
Speaker:doing, there's those levels of understanding that you have to have, where you are going
Speaker:to commit, you're going to learn, and then
Speaker:you're going to continue to learn, ongoing as
Speaker:you build that channel out of just a few key takeaways here
Speaker:as we wrap up this episode, and this is just a short, kind of off
Speaker:the cuff episode that I wanted to get out here for you all. So a
Speaker:few key takeaways here as we wrap up to avoid these
Speaker:pitfalls, I just want to give you three things to try, because
Speaker:there's three pitfalls, and let's come up with three things to try to be able
Speaker:to avoid these. So as a wrap, our three pitfalls. Not knowing your
Speaker:audience, not understanding the channel, and choosing
Speaker:channels you don't enjoy. As we try to avoid these pitfalls, here are
Speaker:three things that I think we can try. Number one, focus only on
Speaker:channels that work best for your business and your
Speaker:audience. So understand your audience and
Speaker:the channels they're using and focus only on those
Speaker:channels. And I would even go a step further and say, focus on only one
Speaker:of those channels. Like I said, there could be lots of
Speaker:channels that your audience are on. There could be lots of places where they're hanging
Speaker:out. So I would pick one, learn that channel, understand that
Speaker:channel, be able to be consistent on that channel, build an audience on that
Speaker:channel. You would be far better off building an audience on one channel than
Speaker:building small, teeny little audiences that probably
Speaker:don't really take off across many, many places at once. And
Speaker:if you're early, maybe you test out a few things. Maybe you take and say,
Speaker:all right, for the next three to six months, we're going to test out multiple
Speaker:channels and just see where our people are at and what's working. But after a
Speaker:certain point, start to focus in on where you want
Speaker:to build that audience. Number two, choose channels
Speaker:that align with your goals and your preferences.
Speaker:So this takes nuance, but understanding what your
Speaker:goals are is greatly going to determine which
Speaker:channels you choose. So if your goals are conversion,
Speaker:if your goals are we need people in the door now.
Speaker:Your channel should be conversion focused channels,
Speaker:Google, email, maybe YouTube.
Speaker:With search, there is only a certain
Speaker:finite amount of people within your audience, probably less than
Speaker:3% that at any given point are ready to buy. So
Speaker:if your goal is conversion, you better figure out how best to get in
Speaker:front of those people. And typically that is a combination
Speaker:of search and email to be
Speaker:able to gather that information, pitch them a product, nurture them down the
Speaker:line. If you want to build a brand, shoot, you could do
Speaker:a multitude of things depending on who you want to get in front
Speaker:of, but that goal is going to be completely different in the channels you
Speaker:choose or in the frequency and what type of content. All of that is going
Speaker:to be completely different than if you're goals were.
Speaker:Hey, for this amount of time, we got to get as many people in the
Speaker:pipeline as possible. It's just a different goal. Understanding where your
Speaker:goal is at and how that aligns with the channels you choose.
Speaker:Massive. Number three, don't try to do too
Speaker:much at once. When you spread yourself in and
Speaker:across anything. When you're trying to learn something new, when you're trying
Speaker:to build a new habit, when you're trying to start a new strategy,
Speaker:the more things that you try to do, the worse you're going to be at
Speaker:it. You're going to get overwhelmed immediately.
Speaker:You might start really, really hot, you might, you know,
Speaker:first week, bam, we're going. But second week, third week, fourth
Speaker:week, all that starts to dwindle. And now you're feeling not only
Speaker:overwhelmed, but you're actually feeling discouraged. Because in your
Speaker:mind you thought you were going to be able to do something that now you
Speaker:can't even do. Rather than make yourself go down
Speaker:that road, pick something that's actually
Speaker:you're able to accomplish and pick something without spreading
Speaker:yourself too thin, without spreading yourself across multiple channels. Set up
Speaker:some goals for those things and then work your goals and you will be able
Speaker:to find success in what you're doing that way. So again, focus
Speaker:on only the channels where your audience is at and probably out of that, the
Speaker:best channel for you. Choose channels that align with your
Speaker:goals. And don't try to chew too much to spread
Speaker:yourself too thin. Because if you spread yourself too thin, too fast, you're going to
Speaker:burn out. And finally, before we wrap, one last
Speaker:tip here, save the best for last because I think this will help
Speaker:you be able to truly pick the right channels and to be able
Speaker:to make sure you're able to distribute your content without burning
Speaker:out. And that is to create what I call a content
Speaker:floor. And a content floor is just creating a
Speaker:consistent rhythm of creating and sharing your
Speaker:content. What you need to do is prioritize
Speaker:your easy wins, which are high value, low
Speaker:effort activities that drive results. So what are your easy
Speaker:win channels? For me, easy win channels are
Speaker:LinkedIn and email. I'm pretty good
Speaker:at creating content consistently when it's in written
Speaker:form. I've been writing content on the Internet for
Speaker:15 years. For me to come down, sit down and write content for LinkedIn or
Speaker:for an email, not that difficult. That's an easy win. That's my content
Speaker:floor. What that looks like for me as a very basic example of
Speaker:my content floor would be I am going to post on
Speaker:LinkedIn every single day, Monday through Friday,
Speaker:and that's what my audience will learn that I have
Speaker:to be able to provide to them. Oh, Justin, you
Speaker:know, even if I don't say it, people will come to learn Monday through
Speaker:Friday. They're going to see me in their feed with emails. I
Speaker:send a newsletter. Shout out if you want to get the newsletter. And yeah, on
Speaker:the newsletter, go to news dot Justinsimon dot CEO you can get on the newsletter.
Speaker:I send a weekly email every single Saturday morning. I
Speaker:have sent that email consistently since 2022.
Speaker:I don't even know how many emails were on at this point, but it's just
Speaker:become part of my rhythm. Even when I was a full time employee, I was
Speaker:writing an email every single week to send it out as a
Speaker:newsletter and it just became part of my rhythm. Recording these podcast
Speaker:episodes has become part of my rhythm. It's just something that I have started to
Speaker:do and got used to and enjoy doing at this point to go back, if
Speaker:I don't enjoy doing these things, that's when I know I have to start either
Speaker:rethinking the channel or the content itself. Or maybe
Speaker:I just have to rethink how I'm doing it. Because if it's not fun, if
Speaker:it's not enjoyable, I'm not going to do it. These are the activities
Speaker:that they're not going to require a lot of effort. Your content floor,
Speaker:your easy wins, but they're going to bring in the majority of your results.
Speaker:It's classic 80 20. Think about the things that are going to bring
Speaker:in 80% of your results with 20% of your
Speaker:actions. And that's true of channels, that's true of content, that's
Speaker:true across the board. So hopefully this episode was helpful
Speaker:for you as we think about creating channels, as we think about picking the
Speaker:right channels for your content. If this is something you're interested in, I have
Speaker:an entire workshop about picking the perfect
Speaker:channels. It's inside the distribution first membership, which you get as a
Speaker:part of the monthly group workshops.
Speaker:Every single month we do a group workshop together inside the community
Speaker:and we also do a q and A at the back end of the month
Speaker:as well. If you're interested in watching that workshop, getting all the
Speaker:past workshops, potentially getting all the future workshops, and you want to join the
Speaker:distribution first community, I would encourage you to do that to check it out today.
Speaker:If you go to distribution first club and get all the information,
Speaker:would love to have you in there as well. So friend, it's been
Speaker:awesome to have you listening to the show. I'm excited about this
Speaker:episode and I really think it's going to help you a lot. So until next
Speaker:week, I will talk to you later.
Speaker:All right, I hope you enjoyed this episode of distribution first
Speaker:and thank you for listening all the way through. I appreciate you so,
Speaker:so much and I hope you're able to apply what you learned in this
Speaker:episode one way or another, into your content strategy as
Speaker:well. Speaking of strategy, we have a lot of things going on this year that
Speaker:are going to help you build your brand ten x your content and transform
Speaker:the way you do content marketing. Make sure to subscribe to the show and sign
Speaker:up for my newsletter at Justinsimon Co. So you don't miss
Speaker:a thing. I look forward to serving you in the next episode as well. And
Speaker:until then, take care and I'll see you next time.
