Secrets for Getting the Most Out of Your Content

Lately (OK, maybe the last 3-5 years!) you can’t read a marketing article without someone praising the many benefits of leveraging content as part of an overall marketing strategy. And we agree! But guess what?  Here’s something that not many marketers are willing to say out loud: content marketing can be a big pain! You’re all nodding about now, aren’t you?  There’s so much you have to prepare when it comes to content before you write one word:  audience research, buying cycles, keyword research, creating editorial calendars…. the list goes on and on. Is the effort worth it for one piece of content? It can be!  We’re sharing some industry secrets for getting the most out of your content.

Recycle Your Content

Also known as repurposing content, savvy marketers know that one way to keep content fresh and exciting is to repurpose content you’ve already published. If you go down the path of “one and done” then no wonder you’re burnt out on this whole content marketing deal. You’re working too hard! That’s not to say you shouldn’t put effort into creating content, but once it’s creating, get the most mileage out of it that you can. Here are a few ways to do that:

1. Videos
2. Infographics
3. Checklists
4. Case studies
5. Email blasts
6. Memes
7. Podcasts
8. Webinars
9. Presentations

So how does this work exactly?  Let’s start with a fantastic, well-written article that you created; a vision of your life’s passion if you will. You wrote it, posted it on social media, got fairly good traction and then…. that was it. But it doesn’t have to be!  You can turn that article into a video by using a format similar to a PowerPoint type of presentation (of course you can get more fancy, but we’re trying to keep it simple here!). Did your article present a series of facts or concepts?  How about creating an infographic, which basically takes complex concepts and presents them in a visual format? Did you give steps on how to accomplish something?  Create a checklist. You can take an article you wrote and, depending on the content, repurpose it in several ways. Don’t worry that presenting the same content in different formats is repetitive; Neil Patel provided a great article about the power of repurposing.

Avoid Dated Content

There are going to be articles, blog posts, events or announcements that will be a one and done content piece; written specifically for an event or year. However, the overall goal should be to create evergreen content.  Evergreen content is content that is always relevant. It’s interesting and relevant content that does not become dated. Evergreen content can help deliver traffic to your website and hold a valuable position in search engine rankings for months or even years from when it was first published. So what kinds of content pieces are best for evergreen content?  Here are a few examples of evergreen content types:

1. Q&A interviews
2. Infographics
3. How-to guides

Content Marketing Institute wrote a great article recently about evergreen content formats. It’s worth the read! The key to a content piece being evergreen is that it’s not dated or becomes irrelevant quickly.

Revisit Old Blog Posts and Edit Them

If you’ve been blogging awhile, you probably have a pretty awesome collection of blog posts. Some may still be very relevant, but perhaps need a little revising, yes?  Not only is there nothing wrong with rewriting old blog posts, it’s highly recommended! While you might be diligently repurposing your blogs as part of your overall marketing strategy, you should go back and edit those old blog posts to bring them up to date and breathe new life into them! Why would you rewrite a blog post?  A few reasons:

1. Your target audience has changed over time and it needs to be refocused on this new target audience
2. Your writing style has changed and now your older blogs are inconsistent with your brand’s marketing voice
3. Your writing abilities have improved drastically over time (face it, we were all lousy bloggers when we first started)
4. Information in the blog is now outdated, but can be easily updated with a quick edit

Since you wrote the content in the first place, a quick revision and update is fairly simply, and now you have yourself a whole new blog post to share with the world!

Which blog posts should you start with?  Look at the posts that got the most engagement, which you can find in Google Analytics. Look at the “Behavior” portion of Google Analytics, then go to “Site Content”. You can see which posts garnered the most attention. These might be a good place to start. You can also look for post by reviewing titles, looking for ones you KNOW are no longer relevant and need updating.

Trying even one of these tactics can save you a lot of time and frustration. Give it a try!