One week ago, we hosted a live webinar discussing the contribution of content, and specifically content marketing, on an organization’s marketing goals. By all measures, the webinar was a success for both Right Source Marketing, and more importantly, the attendees. Over 50 people attended and the engagement level was far above average, as evidenced by the dozens of questions we handled during Q&A, the activity level during our Twitter “after party,” and the follow-up comments we’ve received since.

It wasn’t until around the 42-minute mark when someone asked the best question of the session.

Q: Could you speak a little bit more about the magnetic effect of distribution?

I paused before answering, because I realized that while this concept seems so well-defined to Right Source Marketing and (I assume) other content marketing consultants or practitioners, it probably seemed confusing, or at best murky, to members of the audience.

While my reply was adequate (you can listen to it by requesting the video), it was not complete. Here’s the explanation that would have been too long-winded for a webinar:

First off, not all content is magnetic. Only well-conceptualized, well-written, well-formatted, well-optimized and well-distributed content can truly become magnetic. Amplification – or in simpler terms, distribution – is the most critical step in turning a good piece of content into a content magnet. Remember, if you build it, they may not come. If distributed correctly, a single piece of content will live in many places, including:

a. Externally: Search engines, social media properties, social bookmarking sites, syndication sites, etc.

b. Internally: Website, blog, email newsletters, etc. One piece of content can be repurposed or modified for use in different formats or in different marketing vehicles, creating multiple pieces of content from one original piece. One original piece of content can spawn potentially dozens of other pieces of content, living in multiple places – some permanent, some temporary. Each slightly altered version of a single piece of content becomes a content magnet. It lives in different places either for short periods of time or in some cases forever, and serves to draw your target audiences back into some type of engagement funnel with your organization.

A single piece of content, acting as a magnet, will create leads, opportunities, new customers, partnership opportunities, recruiting inquiries, speaking engagements, and so on and so forth. There is no area that content marketing does not touch in some form or fashion.

Again, you can access the recorded version of the webinar here.

Let’s continue to share thoughts in the comments. What does content marketing, or even content magnets, mean to you?