Each time you put on your “writing hat” doesn’t mean you have to crank out perfectly crafted original content each and every time. That is nearly impossible and absolutely draining. Save some precious time and your sanity by taking stock of what content you’ve already painstakingly produced.
Chances are you have a lot of relevant and informative material ripe for recycling and reinvention!
Quick Tips for Repurposing Existing Content:
- Update Popular Posts: If a past piece of content made a lot of waves, consider revisiting the topic. Add in new data, fresh graphics, and provide your audience with any noteworthy developments regarding the subject. Google Analytics will help you home in on which blog posts were a hit among your readers.
- Switch Up Your Content’s Format: Can you evolve your blog post into an eye-catching and share-worthy infographic or vice versa? What about transforming a presentation you gave into a SlideShare for your audience? Maybe even producing a series of simple “How-to” video segments could add another medium to your offerings.
- Utilize More Distribution Channels: How do you go about sharing your content? Divvy up pieces of your content and blast it across LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. It can be as easy as daily quick industry tips. Put your expertise out there and use all the appropriate channels available to you such as email newsletters, Facebook Pages, Google+, etc. to get eyeballs on your work!
- Let Your Audience Guide You: Take a look back at the blog and social media comments provided by your audience members. Do they have reoccurring questions or concerns that you can address? Their viewpoints might open the door to some neat possibilities for follow up posts.
- Tap into Themes: Hit a specific subject hard? You can probably develop pretty stellar “Do/Don’t” or “Best Practices” lists. These lists are simple to produce and allow you to glean from various pieces of past content. Readers will appreciate this straightforward approach and delivery.
- Revisit Bold Statements: Did you venture out and make any major statements or predictions? For example, predicting the top digital media trends for 2014. How did that pan out? Might be worth circling back for an update and evaluation.
- Make Longer Pieces More Digestible: Don’t be afraid to piece out information you have collected in case studies, white papers, best practice findings, etc. You can choose to share segments or summarize the main points to give your audience a clear view of the larger picture. Feel free to link back to the complete documents so readers can dig in further if desired.
Breathing new life into previously published content can provide an array of exciting new avenues for your content marketing mix. Using your resources wisely is always a smart marketing move!