What Does Make Creative Content Fail Miserably?

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content-discovery

The most difficult conversations often come down to making room in their budgets for paid distribution.

One of the biggest mistakes today’s marketers make is focusing entirely on content creation without giving proper thought (or an appropriate budget) to distributing that content. In a way, you can’t really fault them. The initial promise of social media marketing was how inexpensive it was, with social media evangelists selling brands on the idea that if you took a little bit of time to put together a piece of content that struck a nerve with the public, you too could have an “Oreo moment” and reach a massive worldwide audience for next to nothing.

However, in the last few years, the landscape has changed dramatically. Social feeds are so saturated with content that it’s almost impossible to break through without paid distribution, and Facebook’s algorithm changes have put huge hurdles in the way of any brand that wants to go viral organically.

So, basically, it’s not effective for brands to create great content unless they have already developed a plan for how that content will be distributed and earmarked money for paid promotion. Before content creators shoot a single frame of video, they need to convene with the media relations team and paid distribution specialists to discuss how the content will reach its audience. In some cases, the distribution strategy will even dictate the details of the creative.

Even if you don’t have a big paid budget, it’s still important to think about where and how people will find your content.  If a story starts performing well on its own, you will double down on it by putting a small amount of paid promotion behind it. Even if you have great content and a brilliant distribution plan, the resulting eyeballs and social shares won’t do much to help your bottom line if no one knows what exactly your brand is supposed to stand for.