by Monika J., Content Director
According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound Marketing report, marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13 times more likely to have a positive ROI. In other words, now – more than ever before – content is king.
But that king can quickly turn into a hungry beast when marketers are faced with a dizzying number of marketing channels that need fresh content on a daily basis. How do you keep the content beast well fed?
Repurposing content is a lot like serving leftovers from a dish your family can’t get enough of. Your audience has gotten a taste for a topic you’ve posted about, and you would like to extend the life of that topic. If you have a piece of content that resonates well with your audience, it just makes sense to create even more content around that topic.
Here is a quick guide to get you started repurposing content in a smart way to boost your content marketing reach:
Identify the Best Content Piece for the Job
Before we go any further, let’s consider what gives a piece of content “legs,” or what makes it repurpose-worthy. First, take a look at your analytics to find the best performing content pieces in your arsenal. What resonated with your audience and inspired them to comment, like and share? What drove the most traffic to your landing pages or online store?
Then, choose the content that can be transformed into various media with different messaging, graphics, structures, etc. You don’t want to just repeat your original message. The idea is to expand upon it, or to approach it from a unique angle.
If the content passes these two tests, you have a winner. Now let’s see how that content can be repurposed across various channels.
1. Blog
When it comes to content marketing, often it all starts with a blog. Blog posts are easy to share and promote, and they’re easy for your audience to consume. Blogs also have a stellar ROI record for driving traffic to your site.
Blogging about industry topics and trends positions you as an expert and builds trust with your customers. It is also a fun way to explore a number of topics in-depth, yet in a casual tone.
Whether you’re expanding upon a Facebook post or condensing the information from a white paper, turning other content into a blog post is easy. And, a blog post is one of the best places for repurpose-worthy content to originate.
2. Newsletter
Newsletters are another ideal space to showcase your expertise and your ability to help your audience. The featured article is the perfect place to repurpose content, too.
Give a blog post another life by transforming it into a “tips” article to share with your subscribers. Your list of subscribers is (hopefully) a list of warm leads who may be on the fence about using your services or products. Give them a nudge with a helpful article to convert them to paying customers. Or, simply let them know that if they like your featured article, there’s more helpful content waiting for them on your blog and social media channels.
3. Infographic
For your more visually-oriented customers, consider creating an infographic to share. Content pieces that are statistics-heavy and lend themselves to visual representation can be repurposed into infographics for your social media channels, for example.
Then, hold on to that infographic to illustrate future points, perhaps in a white paper you will share with clients, or even in your annual report, depending on the subject matter. People enjoy infographics because they provide a lot of information packed into a tidy package – and they’re easy to digest. As a content marketer, you should like infographics because they can be used and shared in so many ways.
4. Ebook
Finally, ebooks are the mack-daddy of repurposed content. Everything from blog posts to newsletter articles to podcast scripts can be rolled up into a useful, shareable ebook. For example, you can corral five or six blog posts about a particular topic in your industry and create an ebook to serve as a guide to that subject area.
Ebooks are perfect rewards for website visitors who sign up for your newsletter or fill out a contact form on one of your landing pages. They are also smart tools for following up with leads – send them a quick email with the ebook attached as a “gift” that reminds them of your expertise and how you can make their lives easier.
Even though feeding the content beast a steady diet of interesting content can be a daunting task, marketers are lucky to have so many ways of disseminating information. From social media and blog posts to ebooks and infographics, truly excellent content can go the distance to reach your customers across numerous channels and in many formats.
Do you need some help creating content with the ability to be repurposed baked right in? Give us a call, and we’ll show you how to get more miles out of your content – and out of your marketing budget.
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