Being a small business has a myriad of challenges already. Adding to that, there’s no silver bullet to help get through any of them. There are, however, things you can do to edge over competition. When it comes to your time, it’s valuable so being able to repurpose content is a major time and money saver.
The adage “content is king” is a well-known digital marketing fact, having more should be better, right?
Not necessarily…AKA “it depends.”
Choosing content to create, creating it, and distributing it takes a great deal of time and money. You’ll want to take great care in utilizing that content to its fullest. Here you’ll learn how to best repurpose your content. Simply put, get the most out of what you have.
What is Repurposing and Why Should I Do It?
It’s all about distributing what you already have in new ways, not about creating more.
If the topic is something you already know, it will be easy to re-word or re-address the same topic in different ways. You also display your expertise by doing just that. Be sure to always speak to your desired target market as well, and you’ll always be on the right track.
Whether your industry has 100 things you can talk about or 5, there are always new ways to talk about it, new perspectives to discuss, and new ways to explain it. The key is sustainability. Being able to both expand on a topic not only once, but many times allows you to always have something to share with your prospects and customers.
Perhaps you see social media as a difficult medium for interaction. The good news is, you can use that to your advantage knowing others probably feel the same. Make it easy for them to see, interact, and remember your content by repeating it in different ways — All. The. Time.
How Can I Repurpose Content?
Essentially: If you can dream it, you can re-use it.
When you’re working to repurpose content, think of it as recycling. You want to make something new out of something old. You can do it with your content, your videos, your knowledge, new audiences, and anything else you create.
The beauty of allowing yourself to recycle content is that it reminds you that not everyone sees your content when you post it. People’s lives change, their schedules change — their routines are not always routine. By repurposing content you’re allowing new people to see what you’re putting out there.
Example #1
You held a webinar all about a particular product or topic. You can now use the main points from that webinar and create an article about those same main points. Now that it’s an article, you can create 2-4 social media posts about it as well and post about it over the next couple of weeks.
Get ready; that example was just the tip of the iceberg.
Example #2
You created a white paper with 10 ways to boost data security for small businesses. Take each point and create a video — maybe even go live on your preferred platform — for each one and expand upon it even more. Display your expertise and do it over 10 weeks. You’ll begin to build a following before you know it.
Bonus: You get to learn what people are more interested in by who clicks on or views each section most.
Example #3
You’re starting from scratch and have nothing! Perfect: Create one post at a time on social media about one topic with multiple aspects. Build that out into a full article for your website. Now take that article and create a white paper with even more details people can download using their email.
Bonus: You’re now building an email list.
Where Can I Repurpose?
The options now are essentially endless, but I want to stress that you do not have to be everywhere. You want to start with what you’re most comfortable with. Then stick to the mediums your target audience is actually using as your main channel and expand as your capabilities and resources expand.
Webinar
Your content speaks volumes, but what will you say? How about the same thing you said in last month’s?
Yes it’s perfectly acceptable to do the same exact webinar repeatedly. New audiences who missed it before or weren’t around yet will be able to attend and ask their own questions. People who attended before and now have questions can also join. Make it as interactive as possible so they feel comfortable interacting with questions as well.
You’ve probably heard of marketing funnels. Well, most of those funnels utilize a recorded webinar for people to view any time. One caveat if you choose this style: Be honest. Don’t pretend like it’s live or you’ll only frustrate your customers and create distrust.
Video
Good news: You can record and disseminate videos from and to just about anywhere.
The better news? You can also dissect them and post over multiple platforms and days.
Whether you recorded a Facebook or YouTube live, created a video intro to your company, or a how-to/explainer video, you can save it and re-share to your heart’s content. Preferably you’ll post them with the best sizing for that platform, but even if you have to re-record, you at least don’t have to start from scratch with the content.
Even more resourceful is to create separate videos (or cut up the one you have) and post them to your website and social medias separately. This is especially true if you want to create Instagram reels or stories from them since they have shorter time frames.
White Paper
This is a document that your website visitors can download for free. Typically it is something of value, but also very relevant to what you do and relates back to that. It could be a checklist, a “how-to” tutorial, a report on the industry — whatever it is make sure you mention (not only talk about you) why or how your products or services could help.
The goal of these is typically to build your email list. Having people gain access to something very valuable means they will give a bit of their information in order to have it.
Key phrase here being “a bit”. Do not require their home address, income, or blood type! Okay, maybe I’ve never seen the last one, but it’s come close.
Another option is if you do want to require all of these details and the white paper is of very high value, you should be charging for it. Even if it’s a small amount because it will indicate their commitment and you can gain a lot of information (if only via the form they fill in).
Email(s)
Don’t let anyone tell you email is dead! Email marketing is still an incredible way to keep in front of your customers — past, present, and future. You can customize so much these days with the right tools and segmenting. This will drive engagement up as well as income because email still has a conversion rate of over 15% in 2020.
This will be especially helpful for product-based companies, but for service-based businesses, it’s vital just to stay in front of your clients. Sending emails is something they asked for, so give the people what they want!
If you struggle to know what to say, take inspiration from competitors or even companies nowhere near your industry. The cross-industry ideas can be some of the best because they’re unique to your audience. Though if you’re still challenged in finding ideas, here are a few:
- Company updates
- Product or service changes or additions
- Industry updates
- Discussions or topics complementary to your industry
Remember that you do not have to send these emails every day or even every week. An email as little as monthly may be right for you, your business, and your audience. Testing to see what works best will tell you when your engagement drops so you can find the right match when you repurpose content.
Through Partners
Your business is guaranteed to have other businesses out there that are complementary to yours. What’s important is to find other businesses that have the same values as you as well as a similar audience. Working together through partnership develops business relationships as well as customer relationships.
It’s highly likely that someone else out there (especially if you’re a solopreneur or small business because there are thousands out there just in your region) who want to partner up. Provide each other with discounts for referrals, a bonus for those who purchase from their referrals, or simply do it to help your customers in the best way possible.
Social Media
This one is best saved for last. Not necessarily because it’s the “best” tool, but because you can re-use everything else here in smaller pieces. For example, take a short clip (no more than 60 seconds) of one of your videos and share it with a discussion topic on LinkedIn.
Another option would be to create a long blog or white paper with a list of “12 ways to…” and talk about each way in a single post over a period of 2 weeks or more. Get creative with it if you’d like, but the idea is not to have to come up with a new thing to talk about every time you create.
Get Your Repurpose On
Now that you hopefully have some ideas on how to repurpose ‘old’ content and re-use it elsewhere, you have 6 times as many options! One important point to remember is that no one reads everything you put out on every channel, so don’t worry about sounding silly. In fact, repetition is important to becoming a trusted authority. Just don’t use the exact same wording or you’ll bore your readers.
If you’re looking to get the content created in the first place and would like some help to repurpose content, shoot me a message!