28 May 5 Keys to Getting the Most Value From One Piece of Content
Many of our clients understand the value of content marketing and want to incorporate this philosophy into their plans, but they face one daunting challenge – producing the content. Creating new content can undoubtedly present challenges (hence this blog post on the benefits of outsourcing your content development), which is why getting maximum value from each piece of content matters so much.
Here are 5 keys to getting the most use from each piece of content you produce, which means you don’t have to produce as much!
Consider re-purposing options from the start – You may only be able to produce four to six pieces of content a year, so be smart about which topics you decide to tackle by selecting those that can be re-purposed most easily.
Re-publish – Years ago we wanted to develop a new e-newsletter populated with content from a monthly series running in Greenhouse Grower® magazine, and we wondered how the audience would engage with this e-newsletter content they may have just seen in our magazine. This e-newsletter quickly become one of our most popular offerings based on the audience metrics, and that helped us appreciate the value of re-using content you have already produced. Of course, you want to be smart re-using content in this manner because you can lose your audience by consistently just publishing the same story, but don’t be afraid to try this approach (and use metrics to measure!).
Update the “old stuff” – Beyond simply re-publishing a story from last year, another option is to go back through your previously posted stories and look for opportunities to update them with the latest information from your company. Stories announcing new products can be updated to incorporate testimonials from customers. Research-based stories can be made ‘new again’ with new research data.
Adapt into another format – Oftentimes, producing one piece of content means you’re 80% of the way to producing a second piece. For example, consider how easily a video script can be adapted into a story or a blog post. Or think about how easily a data-heavy research report can be adapted into an infographic. Different people prefer different types of content, so re-purposing one piece of content into two different formats can easily help you reach more prospective customers.
Turn one story into two – Making time to write a story / blog for your website can lead to going all in on that story and creating something long enough to let you break it into two or more shorter stories. (Good thoughts on blog post lengths here.) Having more posts rather than less and posting more often are two ways to boost your search engine ranking, so be on the lookout for those longer stories that could be split up into multiple posts.
Bob West is the Director of Meister Custom Marketing Solutions for Meister Media, and he can be reached at 440-602-9129 or bwest@meistermedia.com.