Doing More With Less: 3 Ways to Effectively Repurpose Marketing Content

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By Katie Clarke

In today’s world, people often approach traditional marketing efforts with a sense of skepticism––the average consumer can spot an advertisement from a mile away. This has made it that much harder to influence them to buy your product or service. As a result, content marketing (such as blogs, social media and videos) has become a “must-have” for any business.

Here are some impressive stats I found from the marketing research company DemandMetric, neatly packaged into an infographic (read: piece of content).

  • 90% of organizations market with content
  • 78% of CMOs see custom content as the future of marketing
  • 57% of internet users read content marketing titles at least once a month
  • 80% of people say they appreciate learning about a company through custom content
  • Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing
  • Per dollar spent, content marketing generates approximately 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing

So we all agree content marketing is great, but it can also be much more time-consuming than traditional marketing. The need to create and publish new, valuable content on a weekly, daily, even hourly basis can overwhelm the savviest of marketers.

Never fear! We’re here to help. (Please visualize me wearing a superhero cape.)

This is a topic I’ve covered time and time again with clients—how can I create more content with less time, effort and budget? The answer is to repurpose it. In fact, half of this blog is stolen from a report I created for a client about a year ago.

Break It Down

It takes time and energy to research and create thoughtful content that other people will want to read or watch. One way to get more mileage from a larger piece of content is to break it down into smaller pieces, for use on different platforms.

For example: One of my clients is currently filming a 15- to 20-minute interview with one of their partners, an expert in his field. They plan to publish it to their YouTube page. While editing the longer piece, they will cut a few 10-second soundbites and save them separately. These will become social media posts. We’ll write a brief summary of the information and include it, with an image and link, in their next newsletter. Voila! Four pieces of content from one.

When brainstorming ideas for new content, start thinking about how you can create one piece—then break it down and change the format.

Build a Library

Nothing makes you look smarter than having a room in your house with wall-to-wall bookshelves stuffed full of tomes. The same is true in the digital world. If you’re going to spend time, money and effort creating lots of content, you should show it off—impress your website visitors. Let them journey down the rabbit-hole of your company’s digital library by adding searchable keywords, categories, tags, authors, etc. Set up your site so that each page contains a curated section of similar content. Name the section “You Might Also Like…”

For example: Have you checked out our blog lately? Go on, click around… (See what I did there?) Just wait until we update it to include episodes of our podcast, “Brand Narrative.”

Ultimately a well-designed digital library will not only show off the amount of content you are creating, but it will also encourage visitors to consume more than one piece of content. (Did someone say lower bounce rate?) As they become more invested in your company, they are more likely to convert to clients and customers—no library card needed.

Bring It Back

Why is it okay to break out the same holiday decorations year after year, yet we exhaust ourselves trying to brainstorm unique content? We, at Findsome & Winmore, are firm believers that great content will remain relevant over time. Some details may change, but timeless advice is timeless for a reason. And let’s be honest, who even remembers a blog article they read years ago?

For example: (There’s no example here, just advice.) Break into your Google Analytics and find your most popular content from two or three years ago. Refresh it a little, then repost it. Got a video that’s a little dated, but contains great stuff? Add a paragraph to the top explaining why the information still rings true.

Just like we all still cry at the end of “Top Gun” (the original 1986 version), people will choose to consume excellent content over and over again. Because the best lessons are eternal, even if the delivery is a little dated.

Remember, the goal of content marketing is to subtly promote your business by offering people valuable content for free. Whether it’s statistics, advice, analysis of current market trends or a viral video—don’t let the opportunity to do more with less go to waste.

Just in case you’re not 100% sold, here are some additional resources that explain how important content marketing is: