Introduction
B2B content syndication is a marketing technique wherein a company leverages a third-party website such as Reddit or Dev Community to distribute its content. It basically entails publishing your content on other platforms, along with your own, to increase visibility and gain high-intent leads.
Making your content discoverable by ranking high on the search engine results page is a long and highly competitive game that requires high investment. Content syndication is a strategic marketing tactic that, if done right, can substantially increase awareness for your organization and get you high-quality leads with minimal investment. Syndication also helps build trust—if a credible website republishes your content, you can gain the benefits of their credibility and reach. The task is just to republish with proper attribution on a platform that is not your commercial rival but has high traffic and credibility.
When you are a B2B SaaS enterprise, and your product caters to a specific niche requirement of your target audience, there is a high chance that they may not even know that you exist. To get the attention of your ideal customer profile, you need to be on the websites they frequent, be it Reddit, LinkedIn, or Hacker News. This marketing strategy is called content syndication.
Content syndication is an excellent way of scaling your content’s reach. But it's not just an increase in numbers—it also improves the quality of leads. It is a focused and targeted marketing strategy that yields high benefits with minimal investments. This blog explores how to integrate content syndication for the best results and the pitfalls and mistakes to avoid.
What is B2B Content Syndication?
B2B companies make products that cater to a very specific niche. For instance, Slack’s cloud-based team communication software is helpful in business communication and management, but the knowledge that such a product exists has to be communicated first. Often, your prospective customers have no idea that you even exist. Increasing your visibility is the only path to generating leads and getting the attention of your ideal customer profile.
Remember that merely spending money on paid advertising does not drive desired leads. It is also a very competitive space. Marketing needs a more focused and streamlined approach that will bring in organic traffic, long-term visibility, and, therefore, high-quality leads. Content syndication for B2B is a cost-effective way to do it.
An obvious doubt is what third-party websites, which are content syndication providers, will gain in this scenario, especially if they are free. Well, they get quality, relevant content for their website. Think of it as a magazine that invites entries from writers who can publish their older material in the magazine. It’s a win-win situation for both!
Contrary to conventions, there is no rule that you can only syndicate blogs or white papers. Since the purpose is lead generation, distribute any content that might help build awareness and trust in your brand. They can even be newsletters, eBooks, or video walkthroughs.
What are the Benefits of Content Syndication for B2B?
'The content marketing strategy for SaaS' has three main components: understanding your audience, ideating content, and finally, distribution. Most marketers think that creativity ends at the second stage. But is it not marketing genius that takes an already-made product and alters it to fit every occasion? Similarly, in content syndication, you get creative with the distribution process. This syndication of content to different websites has several advantages:
1. Enhancing Brand Visibility and Generating High-Quality Leads
At its core, content syndication is a game of bringing new audiences to your website. By publishing your content on diverse websites, you can get an audience from previously unexplored pockets. The strategy should be to republish your best quality and most comprehensive content on platforms with a regular user base, such as Reddit, where readers frequently come to obtain informational content.
Content syndication is also closely tied to increased sales through the generation of high-intent leads since the users are more intentional while searching on niche platforms like Reddit or Quora. It brings in users who are likely to become paying customers rather than irrelevant traffic.
2. Reducing the Buying Cycle
Gaining visibility through featuring on the search engine results page is a long game. It not only requires greater investment but is also highly competitive. For it to work, your potential customer must realize a pain point and search for a solution. At this stage, your website should rank high in the search results for them to visit your website. If the SERP ranking is low, you lose out on potential prospects.
However, with content syndication, you can significantly shorten the buying cycle by going to the site that your potential client frequents instead of them searching for the solution. It is a much more proactive approach toward greater conversions.
So, you are going to your client’s site rather than them coming to you!
3. Creates Demand
Say you are a SaaS company that offers software providing AI-driven responses. A new startup struggling with customer inquiries due to limited staff fits your ideal customer profile.
But here's the catch! They might not know that there’s a SaaS-based enterprise offering software that perfectly suits their needs. In this case, your potential client might not search for a solution. A proactive approach is needed—you must go to your customer. Through content syndication, you can take your blog that explains your AI-driven response software and publish it on LinkedIn or Reddit, bringing it to the attention of your potential client. This makes them realize that a software solution to their problem exists, thereby creating demand and converting them into a paying customer.
4. Great ROI
You are writing once and publishing it again and again. For the cost of one high-quality piece of content, you get significantly higher traffic to your page. Content syndication is, therefore, a smart strategy to maximize impact. You don't have to invest in writing more content for visibility; instead, you use one well-crafted piece to its fullest potential.
5. Search Engines Love Syndicated Content
When your content is syndicated across multiple websites, impressions increase. More people click on it, scroll through it, and spend time engaging with it. Search engine crawlers pick up these cues and start considering your content as more relevant and credible. Search engines value content that stays fresh through constant updates and activity.
Does Content Syndication Affect SEO?
Content syndication leads to significant improvements in SEO. When you syndicate your content to another website, you should add a backlink to your website where the original content is published. These backlinks optimize your website and help it rank better in search engines. Proper attribution in the form of a backlink to the original source is crucial for yielding SEO benefits.
However, one essential thing to keep in mind is that if there is no proper attribution to the original content, search engines may see it as duplicate content, which can negatively impact SEO. Hence, correct attribution is necessary.
Using Canonical Tags to Prevent SEO Issues
Canonical tags help prevent SEO issues while syndicating content. These tags are HTML elements that indicate the preferred page when multiple versions of the same content exist. They guide search engines in recognizing which version is the original and which are syndicated copies, thus avoiding duplicate content issues that can harm SEO.
Imagine a situation where a search engine finds the syndicated content first and mistakenly marks it as the original. In this case, the content on your website could be flagged as duplicate, hampering traffic to your site. To prevent this, canonical tags should be used in syndicated content.
Practical Tip:
- Wait for the original content to be indexed by search engines before syndicating it.
- When republishing, ensure proper attribution to the original content with a backlink.
- Add a canonical tag to the URL of the republished content.
B2B Content Syndication Strategies: An Illustration
Let’s take an example of a fictitious SaaS company that produces security-related software—let’s call it SECUREIT. SECUREIT specializes in cloud security solutions and has written a detailed blog titled: "Guide for Getting Multi-Cloud Environments."
Their target audience includes DevOps and security professionals. This organization decides to get creative with distribution and syndicates its content on other websites for lead generation.
Let’s explore the steps required for effective B2B content syndication.
Step 1: Create Quality Content
At the foundation of all content marketing lies high-quality content. You have to remember that content is king, and unless your content is solid, no matter how good your marketing is, it will not yield desirable results.
Your target audience constantly seeks to educate themselves and gain information to upskill in their field. Thus, your content needs to be informative and comprehensive so that readers gain value from it.
Once your content adds value to your readers, you can consider expanding its reach through content syndication.
Step 2: Partner with a Third-Party Site
You can leverage a third-party site to distribute your blog. For example, SECUREIT, a cloud security solutions company, can partner with B2B content syndication platforms such as TechTarget and Demand Science. These third-party sites will distribute content to SECUREIT’s target audience.
Step 3: Repurpose Your Content to Suit the Syndicating Platform
A practical tip is to tweak your content to align with the style of your selected content syndication platform.
For instance, if SECUREIT wants to publish content on LinkedIn, they can break their blog into images with text and create a carousel post highlighting key points.
Step 4: SEO Optimization
To protect against any SEO penalty, add canonical tags to the URL of your republished content. Additionally, provide proper attribution through backlinks so that search engine crawlers can distinguish between original and duplicate content.
Results
The result of this content syndication strategy is SECUREIT attracting high-intent leads actively searching for cloud security-related solutions. These leads visit their website through an array of third-party websites.
And for all this, the company just had to do minor content repurposing—talk about great ROI!
Content Syndication Examples
Some of the best third-party sites for syndicating B2B content include:
1. LinkedIn
LinkedIn has daily traffic consisting of business professionals who could be your ideal customers. If you customize your content into a carousel post that highlights key insights, it can grab the attention of prospective buyers.
2. Medium
Medium is great for content syndication as it automatically adds a backlink that correctly attributes your content to your website.
3. Quora and Reddit
These platforms have large, loyal reader bases that rely on them for accurate and subjective information. Syndicating content on Reddit and Quora can bring in high-quality leads.
4. Dev Community
Dev Community is an online discussion forum for software developers, IT professionals, and DevOps engineers. It provides an ideal customer base for B2B content syndication. Simply republish your content either as informational snippets or in its entirety to reach an amplified audience.
Conclusion
Content syndication is a time-tested marketing strategy that B2B SaaS enterprises can leverage to source Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). B2B content syndication services can help increase visibility and brand awareness. This enhanced visibility attracts new audiences to your website, often with higher intent compared to those driven through traditional advertising.
Syndication, therefore, leads to greater organic traffic and high-quality leads that have a higher potential for conversion.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Content Syndication in B2B?
B2B content syndication is a marketing strategy that republishes original content on multiple websites. It involves distributing content to other platforms with a backlink directing readers to the original source. This helps B2B enterprises increase brand visibility and awareness while generating high-intent leads.
What is Content Syndication?
Content syndication is a marketing technique in which content is published across multiple websites. The host website benefits by receiving high-quality, relevant content, while the original creator gains higher traffic and visibility. Various forms of content can be syndicated, including blogs, videos, eBooks, and white papers.
What Does B2B Content Mean?
B2B content refers to blogs, whitepapers, eBooks, newsletters, or any other format designed to capture the attention of individuals within your company’s ideal customer profile, such as IT professionals, subject matter experts, or web developers. This content—whether in the form of a blog or video—is used to drive traffic to your website, generating leads and potential conversions.
