You don’t have to be on every platform. Trying to be everywhere is the fastest way to dilute your content.

And yet, that is often what happens.

For a lot of B2B marketing teams, the reality is that channels just piled up over time. They ended up there because competitors were on it or someone suggested it. Or simply because it felt like the right thing to do at the time. That’s not a strategy, it’s inertia.

This is the fifth part of our seven-part B2B content strategy series.

ICYMI

• Part 1: What Is a B2B Content Strategy (And Why Does It Matter)?
• Part 2: How Do You Align a B2B Content Strategy to Business Goals?
• Part 3: How Does Competitor Analysis Fit Into Your B2B Content Strategy?
• Part 4: Can Your B2B Content Strategy Work Without Core Messaging and Positioning? 
• Part 6: Why Content Repurposing & Distribution Should be Part of Your B2B Content Strategy
• Part 7: How to Measure Your B2B Content Strategy (Without Drowning in Data)

In this episode, we are looking at how to make smarter, more deliberate decisions about where your content should live, and what you should be creating there.

It usually comes down to the fact that nobody made a deliberate decision to be on all those platforms. One channel got added, then another. At some point, the team is maintaining six with content that’s getting thinner and less considered across the board.

It could be that a competitor shows up somewhere new, and it feels like a signal to follow. Or, a platform gets traction, and it feels irresponsible not to be on it.

Remember when everyone was jumping on Clubhouse during the pandemic. There’s nothing more to say on that!

These reactions over time can add up to a content operation that is stretched across too many places to do any of them well.

You want to avoid this trap of being everywhere.

Trying to be on every platform is one of the fastest ways to burn out your team and dilute your content to the point that it stops working. It is not just about the volume of platforms, the same goes for content formats, too. There are long-form videos, short-form videos, podcasts, white papers, reports, infographics... the list goes on. You don’t need to embrace all of them.

What you do need is to work out how you can be most effective on fewer channel instead of spreading yourself too thin. That is the foundation of a strong B2B content channel strategy and the goal of this blog post is to help you work out which channels you should pick.

It all starts with your audience. You need to figure out where they are hanging out online, because the whole point is to meet them where they are at, not expect them to come and find you.

In B2B, LinkedIn is the obvious starting point on social media. But it’s worth looking further than that. Are they into Reddit? Are there niche sub-communities they are part of? Are they following Substacks? Are they attending webinars or industry events? Are they listening to podcasts? Then there’s YouTube of course – the second largest search engine in the world, and most audiences are on there in some form.

Your job is to build a clear picture of where your audience spends their time so your B2B content channels are grounded in evidence.

This is not a one-time exercise.

Audience behaviors shift, new platforms emerge, and the channels your audience favored a year ago may not be where they are most active today. Building in a regular review of this keeps your channel decisions grounded in where your audience is, not where they used to be.

Not all channels carry the same risk and reward… and that distinction often boils down to two categories:

You’ve got your owned channels, so the platforms and spaces that are yours. It could be your website, your blog, or your email list. Bottom line, you control them. So, no platform gets to decide who sees it, or change its terms, taking the audience you built along with it.

Borrowed channels are mainly the social platforms. LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube, etc.  They are where your audience spends a lot of time. While they are valuable, they are rented land.

But the goal is not to abandon them. That’s where your audience already is, and the whole point is to meet them in spaces where they already exist. Treat them as the starting point, always with an eye on migrating that audience over to your own channels.

Now, it’s noteworthy that channel migration is rarely achieved via a link drop.

What moves people is content that is genuinely worth engaging with, content that makes them curious enough to seek out more. The borrowed channels earn their place by building awareness. The owned channels are where that relationship deepens. The real question is whether you are intentionally building toward that, or just posting and hoping for the best.

That intention is what separates a B2B content channel strategy from a content calendar.

This comes up a lot more than you might expect.

Let’s say you do your audience analysis, look at where they hang out, and you find out they are avid podcast listeners and active on Reddit. The podcast side feels manageable. You have people in your organization with plenty to say and no fear of a microphone.

But Reddit is a different story because you aren’t sure how to show up there, what the content should look like, or whether you even should.

In that case, everything points to leaning into where you are most comfortable. Because comfort and quality are more connected than they might seem. If you are uncomfortable creating content for a platform, it tends to show. The content suffers, the consistency suffers, and you end up with a presence that is technically there but doing nothing.

What you are looking for is that sweet spot between where your audience is and where you can genuinely show up well. A platform you understand, where your audience has real expectations, and where you can show up consistently with content that resonates.

That is the platform worth committing to.

Choosing your channels is only half the decision. The other half is what you create on them.

The same logic applies here as it does with platforms: you should not try to create everything. There’s everything from long-form videos to white papers, reports, infographics, and so much more. Trying to embrace all of them is a fast way to produce a lot of content that does not do much.

Spreading thin across formats is just as damaging as spreading thin across platforms, it just tends to get less attention in strategy conversations.

The starting point is intent, and there are two angles to consider. We explored this in depth in Why Not All Content Works Everywhere (And Why That's a Good Thing), but it is worth revisiting here because it connects directly to how you choose your formats.

The first is your audience's intent on that platform. Why are they there? What kind of content do they expect to see? Someone on TikTok is in a very different frame of mind from someone on LinkedIn. One is probably looking for entertainment. The other is more open to being educated or challenged on something in their industry. The format that works in one context can fall completely flat in another, not because the content is weak, but because it is mismatched to the moment.

The second angle is your own intent. What do you want that piece of content to do? Do you want people to engage, share, get in touch, or go and find out more? A format that drives comments is not always the same format that drives clicks. Being clear on what you want the content to achieve before you decide how to package it saves a lot of second-guessing later.

When both of those things are clear, the format decision tends to follow naturally.

Channel and format decisions do not exist in a vacuum. And context matters, because the same person will want very different things from your content depending on where they are with you.

Someone who has just become aware of a problem is not ready for a product demo. They want perspective, context, and ideas. A little something that helps them understand what they are dealing with before they start thinking about solutions.

Move them along to the consideration stage, and the content needs to shift too. All of a sudden, they want more detail. Case studies, comparisons, and reasons to trust you over the alternatives. By the time they are at the decision stage, they want proof like customer stories, specifics, and walkthroughs. Basically, content that answers the question: why you, and why now.

We went deeper on the buyer journey in How Do You Align a B2B Content Strategy to Business Goals?. It feeds directly into your B2B content channel strategy decisions.

This is also where repurposing comes in, and there is a whole episode coming up on this. Rather than building entirely separate content for each stage, you can take one core piece and adapt it. It’ll be the same idea, but with a different depth, format, and moment in the journey. Done well, it means your content is working harder without your team having to start from scratch every time.

There is no right or wrong answer here, but again, focusing on two or three core B2B content channels is a lot more effective than spreading yourself across too many.

When you aren’t stretched too thin, you can get genuinely good at the platforms you are on. You understand the nuances, develop a cadence, and you start creating content that is platform-specific rather than just cross-posted from somewhere else. Now, that’s when things start to compound.

On the other side of this, we have consistency. Showing up regularly on two platforms will almost always outperform showing up sporadically on five. Your audience needs to know where to find you and what to expect when they do.

So, before you commit to a platform, it is worth asking yourself: can I commit to this? Can I be consistent? Can I sign up for a regular cadence that allows me to hone in on my core messaging and just be there for my audience? Because a platform you cannot sustain is not a strategic choice.

If you are taking a fresh look at your B2B content channel strategy, the most logical place to start is the channels you are already on. Not to justify staying, but to get an honest read on what’s working and what’s not.

For each channel, ask three questions:

Are the right people seeing and engaging with your content, or are you posting into the void?

Not just likes and engagement, but leads, conversions, and sales conversations that started because someone consumed your content there. That is the real measure of whether your B2B content channels are earning their place.

If a channel fails on all three, it could mean two things. Either you need to lean in further and get more intentional about what you’re creating there. Or it’s time to step back completely.

Also, keep in mind that stepping back is a strategic decision, not a failure. From experience, a dormant presence on a platform is worse than no presence at all. Your audience will find you in the places you do show up consistently, and that’s where the work starts to compound over time.

For more on measurement, check out How to Measure Your B2B Content Strategy.

If this episode has got you thinking about the channels you are currently on and whether they’re pulling their weight, the B2B Content Operations Benchmark is a good place to start.

It’s free, it takes under four minutes, and you walk away with a personalized report covering content strategy and planning, your tech setup and operations, and team capability and culture. You’ll get specific actions and recommendations based on your answers, not generic advice.

Whether you're building your B2B content channels from scratch or sense-checking what you already have in place, it’s worth four minutes of your time.

Thanks for reading. We hope you found this helpful, let us know on LinkedIn.

Content 10x is the world’s leading authority on content repurposing. Specializing in transforming your content into multiple formats and distributing it across various platforms, Content 10x helps maximize your reach and impact. Our expert team takes your core content and creates a diverse array of high-quality, engaging assets, including videos, podcasts, social media posts, and more. Trust Content 10x to enhance your content strategy and ensure your message is seen and heard by the right audience.

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