Content syndication is one of the easiest, most effective marketing tactics you can use to expand audience reach, increase brand awareness among target audiences, boost organic website traffic, generate quality, purchase-intent leads, and enhance SEO performance, all in one fell swoop. Not only that, but a successful content syndication campaign also helps you build credibility with buyers and content publishers alike, positioning you and your company as reliable industry experts. Considering all those benefits, it would be silly not to make content syndication an integral part of your lead generation strategy.  

But what exactly is content syndication? And how does it work? You’ll find all those answers and then some, right here in our ultimate guide to content syndication. 

Here’s a pocket guide about content syndication: what it is and how you can integrate it to your strategies.

What is content syndication?  

Content syndication is when you republish your already-existing content, be it a blog post, a case study, or even a video, to one or more different websites. And the benefit is two-fold: first, these websites provide readers with fresh content brimming with useful information. And second, you’re able to extend the life of your top-performing content by sharing it outward to larger audiences, which gives you and your brand a huge boost in visibility.  

As for the “how to” question, there are two ways to execute content syndication. You can take the free DIY approach or work with a paid content syndication vendor. No matter which way you choose, you still have every opportunity to experience the full benefits of content syndication. But the paid strategy does offer a more strategic, data-driven approach that can streamline your efforts and drive more positive results, fast. That’s because paid vendors leverage countless insights from first, second, and third-party data to narrow in on the most relevant publications for your target audiences. Even better—paid vendors will determine an appropriate cost for their efforts based on your available budget. 

 Free content syndication Paid content syndication 
Content • You pick the content you want to syndicate based on your target audiences and/or ICP.  • Paid vendors can provide content recommendations based on your target audiences and/or ICP. 
Distribution channels • You choose the syndication channels and publishers that best align with your target customers.  • Paid vendors choose the most optimal distribution channels for your content based on your ideal buyer personas and additional data-driven insights.  
Promotion • You craft all supplementary assets to support your content syndication campaign (i.e., landing pages, emails, etc.)  

• You manage all generated leads.  
• Paid vendors produce all supplementary assets to support your content syndication campaign.  

• Paid vendors promote your content and collect all generated leads for you. 

We’ll get more into the specifics of free versus paid content syndication later in this guide, but this foundational explanation is a great place to start before diving into the details.