The golden rule of content marketing is that it’s not about the content itself as much as it is about its promotion. Since nearly any piece of content you produce can be repurposed and promoted again and again, you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to use existing assets in a new outfit, keeping them fresh and up-to-date with current trends.
Cleaning out the closet: which items to throw out and which to keep
Before you decide to give your old content outfit a new look, you should determine if it’s still even in fashion. We’ve all got a few items bought on a whim which now just take up precious closet space gathering dust; so it might be about time to get rid of them.
To get started, weed out any content that has become impossible to repurpose due to being related to old news or events. Look for evergreen content - topics that are still relevant and interesting to the audience, and shortlist the pieces that performed the best. If you’re using HubSpot, Magento, or a similar software tool, it will be effortless to find out which content had the most interactions - likes, comments, shares, etc. For content with a high level of interaction and a low CTR, try changing your CTA to something more that is more appealing for your audience.
Making shorts out of jeans: changing the content format
The easiest way to repurpose old content is to make it into another format. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of cuts with the editing scissors to make an entirely new piece out of an existing old one. Long formats, such as eBooks are great candidates for repurposing: you can make them into a series of blog posts, a SlideShare presentation, video, or pretty much anything to your heart’s desires.
Shorter content formats can be repurposed similarly; you can turn a blog post into a checklist or an infographic, or use a case study as a short customer success story. There is no wrong way to go about this, so experiment by playing with different lengths and types of media until you get positive feedback from your audience. If you don’t have the time or resources to turn a piece into a new one, you can take snippets such as quotes or visuals and use them as teasers on content distribution channels.
Bedazzling your denim jacket: updating the content
It was your favorite jacket a couple of years ago, but now it’s all worn out and shabby (and not in a shabby-chic kinda way). How about stitching those tears and giving it a new, more fashionable look?
No matter how good your article on SEO best practices was five years ago, most of the information in it is now outdated thanks to the mysterious ways the Google algorithms keep changing. Before repurposing content, make sure that every piece of information is still relevant and valid, and try to add fresh stats or research results whenever possible to help bring a modern feel to the piece.
Turning old clothes into Halloween costumes: changing the channel
Let’s admit it, there are some outfits from a couple of years (or decades) ago that we wouldn’t be caught dead wearing today.. Whether it’s a Hanson T-shirt or a blazer with padded shoulders you may have loved wearing it at the time, but now you’re kinda ashamed not to have given it to the Salvation Army already. Still, these old clothes could be used for something else, like a Halloween costume; it all depends on the context in which they are worn.
If some of your content assets caused deadly silence on your company’s LinkedIn channel, maybe they were meant to be used more informally, like on your Facebook or Twitter page. Adjust the tone, voice, and the length of the piece to the appropriate channel, and test how it performs. Get creative with the channels! There are forums and websites like Quora or Medium where you can reach a wide audience and attract new leads.
Finding the special occasion to wear that fancy dress/tux: changing the audience
If you were to wear a bespoke Italian suit to a BBQ, people would probably question your sanity (and getting ketchup and grease stains out of those is a serious hassle). There’s a time and place for every piece of content, and sometimes it’s just a matter of figuring out what and where that is so that you end up addressing the right audience.
Tailor your content to fit your buyer personas in order to increase the chances of piquing the interest of your audience. The amount of interaction you receive is a great indicator of how successful you are in your efforts, so if it’s not working, experiment with another audience by changing the approach and telling the story from another angle. At times, it is only a matter of the right format, some audiences prefer visual assets to textual.
Showing off your favorite outfit: promoting more
Want to get complimented on your most-liked clothing combo? Wear it more.
Same goes for content. If you only promote new blog posts when you publish them, chances are they’re not going be seen by everyone who could be potentially interested in them. Don’t be shy; every time you have a piece of content to promote, make sure to use a couple of different channels and promote it a few times in a row. Once again, teasers can let you get away with pushing the same content without boring your audience to death with the same messaging.
Curious about more ways to use content to its full potential? Check out our B2B Inbound Marketing Content and Channels ebook to learn more about content promotion.
