If you were an English major like me, you probably know the feeling of your term paper falling a few paragraphs short, but having no words to fill that dreaded half-page. So what did you do? You adjusted the margins. You carefully examined the spacing in your MLA-compliant header for any opportunity to take up more of the page. You pondered if your professor would notice a slightly larger font size—before finally giving in. You reopened your notes. You started writing again, partly defeated and partly desperate for a lightning bolt of inspiration.
In my experience, one of the best things about content marketing is that those pesky page minimums rarely exist. It’s almost always better to write less than more, and you can stop when you’ve said everything you need to say. But, as someone who regularly has to generate content ideas, I’m still familiar with the temporary defeat and desperation of coming up short of words. In content marketing, those college page minimums get turned into to-do lists filled with unwritten ebooks, think pieces, and blog posts. Minimum word counts become cyclical production quotas.
But what if I told you there’s a solution to this age-old problem? We call it “repurposing,” and while it might sound like something a professor definitely told you to never, ever do, it’s absolutely welcome with your business’s own content. In fact, more than an easy way out when your team has too many tasks to fathom, repurposing can greatly benefit your messaging, distilling and strengthening it into its ultimate form. Here’s how to do it.
Take stock of what you already have
As a marketer, you feel the pressure to constantly produce content. You may have numerous social media calendars (the average large company has a jaw-dropping 39 twitter accounts), blogs, and email listservs to keep up with. And even if you’re a solo operator at a start-up with fewer marketing channels, your to-do list is likely just as long. In all these instances, repurposing your best content can be a big help.
The essence of repurposing, as you might have guessed, is lifting sentences or ideas you’ve used in one asset and using them as the foundation of another. With this method, you can build mini campaigns around one concept or idea while minimizing your team’s lift. You can repurpose the stats in that frequently downloaded ebook into an infographic for social media, or transform its takeaways into talking points for a webinar. The opportunities are endless when you start to brainstorm.
Create something new-ish
Repurposing content of course saves time. Rather than decipher what your audience cares about or corral resources and subject matter experts, you can simply rework what you’ve already done. But it also makes your messaging stronger. Through content repurposing, you find new ways to get compelling messages out into the world, and by embracing new mediums, you’ll likely reach more people.
For instance, a chart, infographic, or blog is much more accessible than a lengthy report for people with limited time. Content you created for one audience might, in fact, be relevant for another if you cull relevant takeaways into a new format. Sales messaging can serve as the basis of a new thought leadership piece, spreading your message to other industry leaders who might not be looking to purchase your product or service, but might have a need down the line.
Consider this recent post by my MarketSmiths colleague Caitlin. In the blog, Caitlin provides actionable steps copywriters can take to write effective emails, complete with sample subject lines, preheaders, and stats. We could easily organize these subject lines and preheaders into a quiz for LinkedIn or Instagram, inviting our followers to vote for their favorites. We could also arrange the tips into an email-writing checklist, which could live on our website as a lead magnet. These relatively simple tasks could expand the reach of Caitlin’s insights—and our agency’s communications—with minimal effort.
Consistency is underrated
While there’s certainly a time and place to cover uncharted territory in your content, it’s not always necessary. Odds are your favorite brand hasn’t invented anything mind-bogglingly new—it just delivers something solid every single time.
Sweetgreen certainly didn’t invent the salad, and its founders weren’t the first to offer them in a fast-casual setting. Panera Bread started almost 10 years earlier. Chopt opened in 2001. And yet Sweetgreen by far surpasses them in my book with its fresh, sustainably sourced ingredients. After having great experience after great experience, I trust the brand to deliver.
Consistency has made so many other brands into veritable favorites. It’s the major reason people drive Honda Civics, eat at their favorite food chain anywhere they go, and buy jeans from the same label over and over. Like anything else in life, marketing strategies thrive with consistency. Create content consistently to stay top of mind, but keep your messaging consistent, too, to make yourself truly unforgettable.
We find this second part is where brands struggle most. When you have numerous teams with a hand in your communications, from social media to sales, your message can get muddied pretty quickly. Even with brand and style guidelines, it’s difficult to maintain consistency and quality without someone who works across teams.
That’s the idea behind Content Catalyst, MarketSmiths’s solution for consistent content across all channels of your business. By serving as a connective tissue across departments, MarketSmiths can keep your messaging consistent and unlock new opportunities to repurpose content. This allows for greater reach with fewer resources, and high-quality writing for all aspects of your business.
Reduce, reuse, repurpose
Repurposing marketing content is a win-win strategy. It allows you to save time, money, and resources while consistently engaging with your audience. By thinking beyond the traditional blog post or ebook, you can transform your marketing materials into a diverse array of content formats that resonate with every type of customer online.
So, don’t just produce more content for the sake of it. Repurpose your content to unlock its full potential, ensure your brand remains cohesive, and satisfy your audience’s appetite for information and entertainment. And when you want a break from searching for that splashy opening or poring over punctuation, remember: our team at MarketSmiths is always here to help.
