Lessons  ·  Lesson 03

Content distribution

The piece goes live, somebody posts it once, and that is the whole plan. Then everyone waits for search traffic that takes months, decides content does not work, and commissions five more pieces to fix it.

Part 1

Distribution belongs in the brief, not after it

Deciding where a piece goes after it exists means writing something shaped for nothing in particular. Deciding first changes what gets written: a piece for a newsletter opens differently from a piece meant to be found by search a year from now.

Do this: Add one line to every brief: where this goes in week one, and where in month two. It changes the draft, which is the point.
Part 2

The second wave is where the readers are

Almost nobody sees a post on the day it goes out. A planned second and third appearance, weeks apart and written differently each time, reaches more people than the original push did.

Do this: Put three dates in the calendar at publication: day one, week three, month two. Different framing each time, same link.
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Part 3

One piece, one place it belongs

Spreading a piece across six channels because they exist gives you six weak appearances. Knowing that your readers are in one newsletter and one community and ignoring the rest is not laziness, it is a decision.

Do this: Name the one place your readers actually are. Put your effort there and stop apologising for the channels you skip.
Part 4

Measure the thing you decided in the brief

If the brief said this piece exists to help sales close, then the measure is whether sales sends it, not how many people saw it. Judging every piece on traffic makes every piece look the same and teaches you nothing.

Do this: Check each piece against its own target from the brief. Different pieces will have different measures, and that is correct rather than untidy.

This is teaching material and our own reading of standard editorial practice, not advice for your specific business. Check anything important with your own specialist before you act on it.

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