Do you repurpose content to save time? The battle all content marketers fight is with with the clock. It takes time to formulate messaging, write, optimize articles for search engines and, yes, be creative. You may start your day with grand ambition. But, then, you deal with two last-minute emails, revisions to a press release, and a meeting about an upcoming trade show. You push that blog you need to post off to another day … or week. A safety net of ways to repurpose content could be the answer you need.
Why Procrastination Really Is Not an Option
Consistently producing and publishing content is important for several reasons. The more content you have on your website, the more keywords you can rank for, and the more organic traffic you can attract. Also, multiple articles related to your area of expertise can indicate to search engines that your website is a valuable resource. If content is arranged in topic clusters that link back to pillar content, your expertise may be even more apparent. Moreover, posting content regularly will signal search engines’ web crawlers to check your site more often, so new content could be indexed more quickly.
In addition to SEO reasons for generating more content, don’t forget that your readers appreciate something new. Sending the same newsletter with the same featured article is less likely to get click-throughs than something timely and fresh. Your content, or lack thereof, also reflects on your brand.
Don’t Duplicate. Repurpose Content.
Sometimes when you decide it’s time to repurpose content, you may be tempted to copy and paste. You may consider posting a byline you created for a media outlet as a blog on your site, or syndicate an article word-for-word on LinkedIn. But don’t. Search engines will rarely show all copies of the same content in search results. Moreover, you won’t get as much of a boost out of the links in the article that direct readers back to your site. In short, not only will just copying and pasting not help, it may hurt.
The Solution: Work Smart
If you need to post content, and you can’t just copy what you’ve already published, you need another option when you’re short on time and inspiration. The solution is to develop a go-to list of options that will help you quickly repurpose content. Here are a few ideas that may work for your business:
- Accept guest blogs. Invite partners to submit articles to publish on your website and to feature in newsletters. Caution: make sure the content hasn’t been published elsewhere to maximize the value to your website and to your readers.
- Rewrite blogs. If you have an opportunity to publish on a platform such as LinkedIn Publisher, consider not starting from scratch. You may be able to write an original summary or combine ideas from a few blogs on your website to create a post more quickly.
- Write about other content. Has your company published survey results or research? Recap key findings for a quick blog or social media post. Does a partner feature your solution in a case study? Write about it, and link to their asset.
- Throwbacks. Did you write about an emerging trend a year or two ago and your predictions are now reality? Or maybe time proved you wrong. You can repurpose content by updating readers with the latest news on the topic.
- Resource lists. Readers may find it helpful to have a list of the resources you provide, like e-books, case studies, and blogs on a certain topic. List the resources, link to the full asset on your website, and add short description to each.
- Checklists. Make downloadable checklists your customers can use to help them make smart buying decisions or to stay in compliance. (And you can blog about why it’s important.)
- Redefine “content.” Content can be an infographic, video, slideshow, podcast — share written articles with your creative team to inspire them to repurpose content in different formats.
Get the Most from Your Investment
Content creation takes an investment of time and resources. But when you start to see an e-book, article, or blog as the basis for multiple pieces of content, the ROI improves. You know B2B marketing content takes a specific strategy to write and optimize — be just as strategic about content creation and work smart.