Marketing is like chess, a game of strategy, patience and calculated moves. In digital marketing, content has long reigned supreme. Bill Gates said "content is king" and that’s now the go-to mantra for brands and creators who understand why original, high-quality content is the foundation of any successful marketing strategy. Without strong content your marketing strategy crumbles - just as losing your king in chess means defeat. But the king really isn’t the key piece on the chessboard...
The more accurate phrase we coined is “content is king but distribution is queen and she wears the pants”. What happens to the king wins or loses the game but it’s the queen who drives the action and outcomes. She’s the most powerful piece thanks to her agility and reach. The king moves pragmatically one step at a time (always with restrictions) but the queen can sweep the entire board and strike in a single, crushing move. Ensuring your content reaches the right people, in the right places, at the right time is the key to playing the marketing chess game.
Crafting exceptional content is only half the battle. The other half is in making sure your content is effectively distributed across multiple channels and formats. No matter how valuable, insightful, or engaging your content may be, it won’t make an impact if nobody sees it. The best content doesn't always win, it’s the best promoted content that does.
Let’s not forget the pawns in this game. The pawns are your small, consistent marketing efforts like your blog posts, social media updates, automated drip-marketing emails etc. They may seem insignificant in isolation but all these little pawns help you build momentum. A simple social post can always go viral, a small PR-led interaction can help a brand rise to market dominance and even an innocuous email campaign can go on to generate massive lead volumes. In chess, as long as a pawn keeps moving forward then it can always become a queen...
In this blog we wanted to use this chess analogy to help you dive further into why content creation and content distribution have to work together in harmony. Learning how to blend this dynamic duo is the best strategy in winning the marketing chess game. Content Creation: The King That Captures Attention Great content establishes thought leadership, builds trust and fosters engagement. It is the fuel that powers your brand’s digital presence, drives website traffic, social media interactions and, ultimately, conversions. Content is more than just words on a page or visuals in a post though - it’s an entire experience. We think that two things really matter here: (1) Originality Counts
The internet is saturated with content and standing out requires tremendous originality. This fact is truer than ever today given how the time to attract someone’s attention is now as little as two seconds. If your content is indeed king then picture the chess board as being littered with all the other pieces. Most of them are moving against you because that’s typically the content you are competing with. The more opposing pieces on the board then the greater the danger is of you getting checkmated and that can occur no matter how ornate your king is. We excel at creating original and attention-grabbing content so we appreciate that brands who consistently produce fresh, compelling and valuable content have a better chance to snatch attention, earn the trust of their audience and remain top-of-mind. Whether it's a well-researched blog, an engaging video, an insightful infographic, a timely piece of PR or just upscaling photographic imagery into something more interactive within a social post using the right tools - the key is creating content that resonates and which provides value.
(2) Multi-Format Storytelling Is Critical
People consume their content in different ways. Some prefer reading blog posts, others engage more with videos, podcasts or the type of interactive social media posts we referred to above. To maximise reach and impact, brands must embrace multi-format storytelling. This often means re-purposing and re-spinning your content across different mediums. An example is turning a long-form article into bite-sized social media posts, an email newsletter or a podcast episode. Or re-working a webinar into a series of short, punchy videos for Insta reels perhaps.
Doing this allows you to meet your audience where they are and in the format they prefer. Again, it’s like chess - you can play chess on a console, on a mobile device, on a traditional board, by SMS and even on a lawn. Chess is multi-format. So is marketing.
Content Distribution: The Queen That Commands Attention
While high-quality content is always essential it must be strategically distributed to make an impact. Many agencies and internal marketing teams solely focus on the creation of “pretty content” and the intrinsic vanity metrics that often get used to obfuscate tangible financial results. They then let themselves down on content distribution and in doing so this makes the content become the proverbial tree falling in an empty forest with nobody to hear it.
The queen is the most versatile and powerful piece on the marketing chessboard. She is the pivotal piece who ensures your content reaches its intended audience. Without proper distribution then even the most brilliant content remains unseen and gets lost in the deafening white noise of the digital world. You really must make sure that your shiny content doesn’t end up in a content blind spot either because that’s the equivalent of you not seeing a threat or an opportunity from your opponent in chess during a game.
At Irigait we always try to think many moves ahead, often with our proprietary watering hole marketing, and we always flex all our other experience and advanced techniques to ensure you get to see the full board and can move freely across it. Let’s give you just five example areas where your moves really matter when it comes to content distribution: (1) Multi-Channel Approach Your audience isn’t confined to just one platform so why should your content be? A strong distribution strategy means delivering content across multiple channels, including:
Owned Media Your website, your blog, your LinkedIn or Meta groups/pages, your email subscription list, your social media channels, your SMS data etc.
Earned Media PR mentions, guest blogs, influencer collaborations, watering hole placements etc.
Paid Media Social media ads, PPC/search engine marketing, sponsored content etc.
By leveraging all three you can create a robust ecosystem that drives visibility and engagement.
(2) Social Media Amplification
Social media platforms are not just places to passively post your content – they are powerful content distribution tools in their own right. Each of the various platforms have their own nuances when it comes to distribution so your content needs to be tailored accordingly (and re-purposed where appropriate). For example:
B2B articles and webinar promotion work very well on LinkedIn
Short-form videos really thrive on TikTok and Insta Reels
Imagery and good aesthetics in general are pivotal to Instagram feeds
Twitter (X) is ideal for real-time updates and thought leadership snippets (as Threads may eventually become on Meta)
YouTube is still the dominant arena for live-streaming, long-form videos and educational content (but Vimeo is another useful outlet too)
Facebook has many advantages but it’s definitely of the best tools for event promotion
Pinterest is ideal for search-driven visual content like infographics, guides, product photography and step-by-steps
By understanding how each platform functions, brands can amplify their reach and ensure their message is seen by the right audience. With so much choice you have to work smart and use the right technology. An example of working smarter in this area would be using a multi-streaming tool like Restream or StreamYard to broadcast your webinars across multiple platforms (YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook) all at once. Or investing in a powerful marketing automation platform like HubSpot, Marketo, Act-On or any one of the various other options to help orchestrate, streamline and manage all your content creation, distribution, engagement and reporting.
While we create and design all our own original content in-house (plus we are very circumspect and selective in our use of AI in general), we do appreciate that many marketers use off-the-shelf tools like Canva to create their content. If you do then it’s worth you checking out their AI-powered “Magic Write” tool as that can help you generate and refine text content and then pair it with their library of templates and design elements to create visually appealing and branded documents seamlessly (at least in theory).
(3) SEO & Search Intent Optimisation
Even the best content won’t perform if it’s not discoverable. Optimising your content for search engines ensures that it ranks higher and reaches the people who are proactively searching for relevant topics. Even writing something as simple as a blog still involves many elements of considered activity for example, including:
Conducting keyword research (AI is actually something that is useful for this)
Crafting compelling meta descriptions, title tags and headlines
Structuring the blog content with proper headings and subheadings including the correct use of H1, H2 and H3
Incorporating internal and external links and making sure that your permalinks are keyword rich and uncluttered, using "nofollow" for non-trusted external links and linking to related blog posts and owned-pages to improve navigation
Using the right mix of short, longtail and focus keywords (but don’t keyword stuff - keep it natural)
Including descriptive alt tags and compress your images for faster loading speed
Ensuring your blog is mobile-friendly as Google prioritises mobile-first indexing
Using schema markup (rich snippets) so that search engines can better understand your content and improve your click-through rates
Adding social share buttons, QR codes and encouraging comments and discussions to increase your engagement and help rankings
Aiming for at least 1,500 words as long-form content almost always ranks better – this blog for example is around 2,500 words
When you take the extra time to really refine your content and ensure it is easily discoverable then it drives organic traffic and underpins long-term visibility.
(4) Email Marketing & Newsletters
Email marketing is, for us, still one of the most effective ways to distribute content directly to a very targeted audience. With a well-curated, segmented and (ideally) lead-scored email list then brands can ensure that their most valuable content lands in the inboxes of engaged readers to drive traffic, nurture customer relationships and create sales.
Email marketing is like chess because your calls-to-action may not necessarily be overtly intended to achieve checkmate. More often it’s about setting that situation up several moves down the line which is the essence of content marketing, especially when you have the data to understand where someone is in your pipeline. While the option to purchase immediately should generally always be there, you should only ever be selling someone on just taking the next step as you can then pull them through your funnel with greater velocity and success.
The goal will likely always be revenue but the steps you need to take to achieve that may be along the lines of first selling a new subscriber on why they should just open an email. Then selling them on why they should then click through to exchange their credentials to access a piece of gated, educational-led content. Then later getting them to register for a webinar and so on. Although checkmate can be achieved in 4 moves in chess, that outcome is stunningly rare and so the game is usually long and involved.
(5) Influencer & Community Engagement Influencers, brand advocates and even your own customers can help extend your content distribution and your reach reach exponentially. When trusted voices share content it gains credibility and visibility within niche communities. Partnering with micro-influencers, engaging in industry discussions, deploying our proprietary watering hole marketing techniques and generally fostering an active online community all help amplify your content in a way that feels organic and authentic. At this point we could talk about PPC/Social Ads, PR and all the other types of digital activity plus expand on how traditional marketing still plays a part for many (be it events, above-the-line advertising, printed collateral and more) but that’s for another blog. Suffice to say though, everything really is everything in the marketing game.
The Winning Combination: Getting Your Content & Content Distribution In Sync
Creating high-quality content and distributing it effectively are not separate strategies - they have to work together. Having a chessboard is nothing if you don’t have either the pieces or the players to use it. Without compelling content your content distribution efforts will fall flat. Without strategic distribution even your best content will remain hidden. As an isolated piece almost destined to get hidden, the king is vulnerable in chess without strategic movement and the support of the other more manoeuvrable, tactical pieces, even the pawns.
Just a few very quick tips for you to achieve the winning combination:
Repurpose & Reshare
One piece of content should not be a fire-and-forget effort no matter how pretty it looks. Think outside the box a little - a single blog can be transformed and re-spun into:
A podcast discussion
A series of social media posts
A downloadable guide
A YouTube explainer video
An email campaign
By repurposing and resharing your content in fresh ways (and making it a mixture of ungated short-form content and gated long-form content), brands can maximise their marketing investment and extend the lifespan and reach of virtually all their content.
Data-Driven Decisions Effective content distribution is not guesswork - it’s very strategic as we have stated. By analysing metrics (think engagement rates, click-through rates, conversion data etc.), brands can really define and refine their overall content distribution approach. Understanding what content resonates with which audience segments allows for continuous optimisation and better results over time and all at ever-improved customer acquisition costs.
Final Thoughts: Balance Is The Key To Your Marketing Success
In this marketing chess game, content and distribution are equally important. Content is the king that captivates and engages while distribution is the queen that ensures that the king’s power is fully realised. Brands that master both build stronger connections, expand their reach and ultimately drive financial growth.
Are you ready to elevate your content marketing? If so, reach out to us today by booking a free Discovery Call on our homepage here.
Irigait can help you think several moves ahead, make your content reign supreme as king, ensure your queens rule is felt far and wide with the right distribution and be one of your vital pawns in changing the game for you. When the game of chess is over, the king and the pawn are in the same box and we'll always just tell you how we see it so make your best marketing move by contacting us now.
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