After social media and email, there’s one distribution surface that’s often misunderstood or dismissed entirely:
Medium.
Most teams either:
- repost blogs there and hope for reach, or
- ignore it because “we already have a blog.”
Both miss the point.
Used well, Medium isn’t a secondary blog.
It’s a thinking distribution engine - a place where ideas are discovered, evaluated, and followed before people ever visit your site.
This memo is about how to use Medium deliberately.
Without cannibalising your blog, damaging your positioning, or wasting effort.
Why Medium still matters (and what makes it different)
Medium isn’t competing with your website.
It’s competing with feeds, newsletters, and long-form thinking.
People come to Medium to:
- read perspectives, not product pages
- follow thinkers, not brands
- explore ideas end-to-end
- slow down and understand something
That makes Medium especially powerful for:
- early and mid-funnel content
- category education
- belief-shaping narratives
- first-touch authority building
If your website is where decisions happen, Medium is where buyers form opinions about who’s worth listening to.
The biggest misconception: “Medium is for republishing”
The most common Medium strategy is also the weakest:
“Let’s repost our blogs.”
This usually fails because:
- Medium rewards narrative flow, not SEO formatting
- Readers expect essays, not corporate articles
- Product CTAs break immersion
- Generic tone gets ignored
Medium content needs to feel written for Medium; even if the idea originated elsewhere.
The shift is simple but important:
Your blog explains what you do.
Medium explores how you think.
What kind of content actually works on Medium (and why)
Medium performs best when content does one of three things:
- reframes a familiar problem
- challenges a default belief
- explains a complex idea clearly
TOFU content on Medium
This is where Medium shines.
Strong TOFU on Medium looks like:
- “What most people misunderstand about X”
- “Why the common advice around Y breaks at scale”
- “The hidden cost of doing Z the ‘normal’ way”
The goal here isn’t reach alone.
It’s mental bookmarking; people remembering your name and POV.
MOFU content on Medium
MOFU on Medium is about depth without selling.
This includes:
- end-to-end frameworks
- breakdowns of how decisions are made
- lessons learned from real work
- nuanced trade-offs (“when this works / when it doesn’t”)
MOFU Medium content often becomes:
- shared internally
- saved for later
- referenced during evaluation
That’s invisible influence and extremely valuable.
Why BOFU usually doesn’t belong on Medium
Medium is not a conversion environment.
Highly transactional content:
- case studies
- comparisons
- pricing narratives
almost always underperform here.
If BOFU content appears on Medium, it should be:
- anonymised
- insight-led
- reflective
Think “what we’ve learned after working with X teams,” not “why you should buy.”
Founder-led vs brand-led publishing on Medium
Medium is inherently human.
Founder-led and operator-led posts outperform because:
- they feel personal
- they carry accountability
- they sound like lived experience
This doesn’t mean brands shouldn’t publish.
It means brands should:
- publish fewer, stronger essays
- clearly attribute thinking to people
- avoid faceless, committee-written content
A useful test:
Would someone follow this person after reading this?
If not, the post won’t travel.
How to turn existing content into a strong Medium piece
Medium is not where you copy-paste.
It’s where you reinterpret.
Start with:
- a blog
- a memo
- a newsletter
- a repeated sales insight
Then:
- strip SEO scaffolding
- remove product framing
- add narrative context
- focus on why this matters now
- deepen one idea instead of covering many
Think of Medium pieces as:
“The thinking behind the work.”
How Medium fits into your broader distribution system
Medium works best when it’s not isolated.
Use it to:
- test POVs before committing to full campaigns
- introduce new audiences to your thinking
- support social distribution with long-form depth
- create an entry point into newsletters or blogs
CTAs should be:
- soft
- optional
- curiosity-led
Examples:
- “I explore this idea further in my newsletter.”
- “This is part of a longer series I’ve been writing.”
Medium’s role is qualification, not conversion.
How to extend reach on Medium (beyond hitting publish)
Medium rewards participation, not dumping.
To improve distribution:
- engage with other writers in your space
- leave thoughtful responses (not comments)
- recommend pieces you genuinely agree with
- link related Medium essays together
- share Medium links on social as essays, not blog posts
Medium visibility grows through interaction and consistency, not volume.
Measuring Medium success (what actually matters)
Views alone are misleading.
Better signals:
- read ratio and time spent
- followers gained per post
- thoughtful responses
- repeat engagement from the same readers
Medium success looks like:
“People want to hear more from this voice.”
That’s top-tier TOFU and MOFU performance.
When Medium is the right channel (and when it’s not)
Medium works best when:
- your ideas need explanation, not promotion
- you want to build authority before selling
- you’re entering new conversations or categories
- you want a low-friction way to test positioning
It’s not ideal when:
- you need direct conversion
- the content is heavily product-led
- the message requires strict brand control
Used correctly, Medium doesn’t compete with your blog.
It feeds it.
TL;DR
- Medium is a thinking distribution engine, not a reposting platform
- Narrative and POV outperform SEO formatting
- TOFU and MOFU content work best here
- Founder-led voices travel further than brand tone
- Medium is about trust and qualification, not conversion
- Use it to extend the life and reach of your strongest ideas
Next up: It’s the one channel everyone thought died a long time ago and doesn’t deserve any love and affection. Quora for content distribution.
Before you go…
Have you ever published something thoughtful on Medium and seen no traction?
Hit reply and tell me.
Chances are, it wasn’t the idea. It was the framing.
PS. If you’re finding this series on content distribution useful, don’t forget to share this newsletter with others!
See you in the next memo,
