I grew up in content marketing on zero budget. If I wanted to do something cool, I had to find a way to do it myself, for free.
(I know I’m making myself sound like a poor, forlorn marketing orphan but I sure felt like one at the time.)
So I’m a great advocate for recycling. If you write a great blog, the benefit shouldn’t stop there.
I could probably think of more than five ways to reuse that content but hey – you’re a busy person and there’s only so many times you can stomach leftover turkey, am I right?
5 ways to recycle one blog post
You know how a hunter would say you should use every part of the carcass to honour a beast? Ick. Horrible analogy. But if you take the time to write a beautiful, noble blog post only to let it sit there, rotting…well. You should have more respect for that lovely creature.
Here’s just a few ways you can make a blog post go further.
1. Social media post, duh
Nearly any blog post you do can go on social media. If it’s not really customer-friendly (investment news or some other dull as ditchwater nonsense), it can go on LinkedIn or even Google+ if you’re still bravely posting there.
If it IS customer friendly, try to use different parts of it on different platforms. Of course you’ll tweet and post the link to the blog but you could also put an image, quote or stat from it on Instagram, or tweet a poll based on the subject matter.
2. A survey or poll
Polls and surveys (audience data!) are fabulous ways to get your community into a healthy debate. Whatever your blog was about, how could you ask your community for opinions in a way that’s sure to provoke discussion?
You can add the results from the poll or survey to your original blog afterwards, making that content even richer. And then Instagram the poll results, retweet them, post them on Facebook, use them in reports…and on and on and on.
Twitter polls are easiest (one question, up to four answers – and they’re already ON your social platform, in people’s faces) but Google Forms gives you more options for how you present questions and collect the data.
3. Advertorial or editorial content
If you’re doing any advertorials in print magazines (content that reads like an article but you pay for, to make your brand look good), you are totally cool to reuse your blog content. You might want to make it longer or change it slightly to appeal to another audience, but never fear recycling content like this if it’s going to be read by different people. Just make sure you only do this for PRINT so you don’t get picked up for duplicate content by search engines.
Some trade magazines will be interested enough in good content they don’t have to pay for to take your submission, so it’s worth forming relationships with the big print guys in your industry. If you have ads in any magazines, start there because they’ll trust you and hopefully trust your knowledge too.
4. Content roundup or newsletter
With tools like MailChimp, it’s very easy to build and send your own email newsletter, even if you’re not the person that doesn’t usually deal with customer emails.
Your newsletter could be an in-depth masterpiece or it could be a little round-up of what’s going on this week or month. You just need an image and short extract from your blog, with a link to read the whole thing.
5. Company report content
Every so often, your boss probably comes up to you and gives a rambling request for how things are going ‘with the digital’. They want it for an investor, or an industry event, or just to let everyone know you’re great.
Any company report you do should talk about your customers, which means community. Which means content. Having gorgeous stats, quotes and images to hand will just about guarantee that bonus. Or vague half-smile. Your blog posts give you a cause and a point around which to rally, and that’s just what any brand needs in their company report.
Reuse, recycle, rejoice
The aim of the game is to truly squeeze every last drop of juice out of your piece of content. It doesn’t take much more time or money to get five times the benefit from one bit of work, and your brand looks buzzin’.
