Craft a Simple Distribution-First Framework to Get the Most Out of Your Content Strategy & Creation

Let’s say that you’ve adopted the distribution-first mindset that we described in our article on that subject. Working from that mindset won’t take your content strategy to the next level on its own. For that, you need to develop a framework and workflow for content distribution that connects to your broader content strategy. 

The good news is that we’ve got a simple but effective distribution-first framework you can use to get the most out of your content strategy and creation. 

Our Distribution-First Framework

Before you can start to use this framework, you’ll need to identify your core content pillars. We’re not talking about formats here, like articles, videos, and so on. We’re talking about the core ideas or concepts or messages you want to get across as a brand.

If you don’t have official content pillars established already, don’t worry. There’s no need to overcomplicate this, especially if you’re just getting started. Begin by writing down the top five concepts, ideas, or messages you really want your audience to know. It doesn’t have to be exactly five, but somewhere in that range is usually a good starting point. Whatever you wrote down are now your core content pillars. Easy. 

To help clarify this point, let’s look at the top five content pillars from our hypothetical example from a conservation-focused organization. The key content pillars for that org might look something like:

Pillar 1

Stories from the field: Fun, educational content that features interesting stories about the flora and fauna within the protected area

Pillar 2

Why this work matters: Informative content that helps communicate the importance of conservation and biodiversity

Pillar 3 

Fundraising Appeals: Appeals to the community to help provide financial support to further the mission

Pillar 4

Thought Leadership: Larger trend and opinion content that focuses on your niche and social impact ecosystem from a big picture perspective

Pillar 5

“Kelping it Real”: A serialized show that follows the ups and downs of the otter community in your area in a fun and entertaining way

If you’re still feeling stuck, here’s a tip that might help. Do a quick audit on your content to date and start to look for themes or patterns. What content tended to perform best? That’s a great starting point for your content pillars.

Apply Our 3-Part Framework to Each Pillar

Once you’ve identified your core content pillars, take the following 3-part framework and apply it to each pillar. 

Part 1: Identify Your Audiences

Which segments of your audience are relevant to this content pillar? It’s ok if a pillar is only relevant to one audience, but some pillars are relevant to multiple audiences.

By the way, even if a content pillar might be relevant to all of your audiences, you’ll want to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of trying to make everything for everyone. Identify the key audience or two for each pillar, even if that content is relevant outside of those key audiences. 

Part 2: Identify Your Channels

Which channels are relevant for this audience or audiences? Where do they actually spend their time and engage in general? Don’t feel like you have to hit every channel possible here. 

Be discerning and be ready to fully commit to any channel you include. Less channels with more effort usually works better than more channels with less effort. 

Part 3: Identify Your Formats

Based on the channels you identified, which content formats tend to perform best? Long-form written content won’t be appropriate for a channel like Instagram. And vertical video isn’t going to play well inside email. So make sure to think through which formats are most viable for the channels where distribution actually takes place. Make sure you also choose formats that you can actually pull off with your current team and capacity. You can also extend formats in the future as you develop your content efforts. 

Now repeat this process for each of your core pillars and you’ll be well on your way to a distribution-first content strategy. 

Outline Your Ideal Cadence for Each Channel

It’s best to outline a cadence for each channel from the viewpoint of each channel from a distribution-first mindset. Set an aggregate target cadence across all of your content pillars, not necessarily a target cadence specific to each content pillar. If it’s helpful for you to define a publishing cadence for each channel and each pillar, then go for it, but it’s not necessary. 

Once you’ve done this, you essentially have an editorial calendar across all channels, related to all of your key content pillars. So now you’re ready to start actually planning your content production. 

With a distribution-first mindset powering your content strategy, things start to get really fun and easy — especially when it comes to idea generation and vetting. As you identify ideas, concepts, opportunities, and updates as contenders for your content strategy, you can put them through a simple split test. Here’s how it works:

For each idea or concept, ask yourself if it would be more effective to start with a longer-form piece of content that can be “cut down”, or a simple smaller piece of content that can be “built up.” So each piece of content can either start as “cut down” or “build up” content.

“Cut down” content is usually a larger piece, like articles, videos, podcasts, interviews, reports, and so on. Longer form content that has the opportunity to be “cut down” (split) into smaller pieces and repackaged in bite-sized, snackable blocks. “Cut down” content is a super effective way to stretch your content further, extend your content’s lifetime value, and create more content from fewer ideas and opportunities. 

But “Build up” content can be equally as powerful. “Build up” content is faster and easier to produce. It’s a great way to test new ideas and formats and see if they garner engagement from your community. “Build up” content might start with something as simple as a single Instagram story, or a simple text-based post on LinkedIn, or a short blurb in your next newsletter. Over time, and true to the name, “build up” content can be combined with other “build up” content to form larger pieces, essentially reverse engineering “cut down” content. 

Each piece of content now has a simple 2-part framework you can put it through to see if it has legs before you go too far down the production path for that piece of content:

Part 1: Think about  what pillar or pillars would this idea fit into?

Part 2: Determine if this content would work better as a “cut down” or “build up” piece of content to start?

Based on the answers for parts 1 and 2, you can now quickly build out a distribution strategy, release schedule, and production plan for this piece of content. 

A Scalable Framework

Scale the framework up or down as needed. You can take what started as “cut down” content and think of it as “build up” content for a larger “hero” or featured piece. The 12 articles published in “Pillar 1: Stories From the Field” can be repackaged as an interactive field journal. Or the five long-form videos from “Pillar 2: Why This Work Matters” can be integrated into a larger brand narrative video.

You can see how this simple framework can help you not only adopt a distribution-first mindset for your broader content strategy, but also make sure that you’re getting the most value out of each idea. At the same time, you’re setting your content up to be as successful as possible. It also just helps to have a more intentional and clear workflow to make your content production simpler and easier. Pretty quickly, this all just because muscle memory or second nature. 

A Bonus Strategy

Before we wrap up, there’s one additional strategy you can use to squeeze even more juice out of your content — “remix content.” “This content approach is all about taking existing content and being creative about how to repackage and redistribute it in new and interesting ways. 

“Remix content” works best when you start with the content ideas that have previously garnered the most engagement and interest from your community. You want to take the winners and help them win again. 

So if you had a super successful article, repackage that article into a short video where you cover the same key points. Or if you had a bunch of Instagram posts that got great engagement, remix and repackage those posts into a blog post. Or if you had a “build up” piece of content, say a single text-based LinkedIn post, that really took off, you know it’s a viable contender to remix into a long-form email that you can share with your community and pair with a fundraising appeal. 

Fun Fact: Season One of our Designing Tomorrow podcast is actually a remix/buildup of the manifesto we published at Cosmic a few years ago. We knew we had a lot more to say about the key concepts outlined in our manifesto, and always had it penciled out as a foundational season when we launched our podcast. 

Go Your Own Way

Hopefully you can see how this simple approach powered by a distribution-first mindset can help take your content to the next level and build deeper engagement and connection with your community. 

And if this exact approach or framework doesn’t seem viable for you, that’s ok. You can find your own way to adopt a distribution-first mindset and approach. Take the parts you like and leave the rest behind. You’ve got to do what works for you. 

But however you slice and dice it, just be sure you don’t fall back into old habits where distribution is considered last, or not given the consideration it deserves. Your content, and your community, will thank you. 

The Wrap Up

As competition in the attention economy continues to grow and you look to find new ways to connect and activate your community, an effective distribution strategy can be just the edge you’ve been looking for. 

A distribution-first mindset and a simple but effective framework you can use to start getting more out of your content efforts by working smarter and not harder. 

Today, content creation, packaging, and distribution are more important than ever before.  We hope that the ideas, examples, and frameworks we shared inspire and equip you with everything you need to pass Content Distribution 101 with flying colors and quickly reach your own version of Content Distribution Mastery.