Chapter 13
Planning for Repurposing
To repurpose an old thought, idea or memory to a new purpose is the height of creativity.
Robert Rose, CMI’s chief strategy officer, teaches the marketers in all his master classes that “you’re not creating a blog post, a video or a white paper … you are telling a story. That story can be told a myriad of ways to help extend your content marketing strategy.”
Every content idea involves a story you are trying to tell. If you remember that the story can and should always be told in many different ways, you’ll have a leg up on the competition.
In the fall of 2013, I committed to publishing my third book, Epic Content Marketing. Between my blogging schedule (I published original content once a week) and my speaking schedule (approximately two speeches per week), I was having trouble making the time. I needed 60,000 relevant words in six months.
Enter the “blog-to-book” strategy. I figured I needed about 25 chapters of about 2,000 words a chapter over the next 6 months to complete the book. And I had about 25 weeks until due date. So every week I wrote an article that would be published on either Content Marketing Institute or LinkedIn. Each article filled a hole in the book’s table of contents and ultimately became part of the book.
In six months, the book was complete. I was able to fulfill two of my content creation obligations simply by planning ahead.
Most businesses simply don’t think about repurposing ahead of time. They think, “I need a blog post or a white paper.” They don’t think in terms of the strategy Robert discusses above—of how one story idea can be told in dozens of different ways depending on the content needs of the organization.
CASE STUDY: JAY TODAY
Jay Baer publishes a three-minute video show called Jay Today. It covers Jay’s ideas about business, social media, and marketing. Jay’s team at Convince and Convert publishes a number of content pieces, including daily blog posts, research reports, podcasts, and more, but according to Jay, “Jay Today videos are among the strongest performers … and [have] become a lynchpin in our initiative to further atomize our content.”
How does a three-minute video become the staple of a publishing empire? Because each Jay Today video becomes at least eight different pieces of useful content.
After each episode is complete, the company posts the show to five different places:
Its YouTube channel
iTunes as a video podcast
iTunes as an audio podcast
Its website
Its Facebook page
The company also transcribes every episode using a service called Speechpad, which costs about $1 per audio minute for transcription.
If that’s not enough, then Jay begins the process of atomization. He explains: “For each Jay Today episode that has been transcribed, my team and I rework the headline and copy three different ways, and post the video and written content as a blog post on LinkedIn, Medium, and on [our website], where I take the best episode of the prior week and rewrite it every Wednesday.”
All in all, Jay’s one video, encompassing all of three minutes in length, becomes:
A video on YouTube
A video on his Facebook page
An iTunes episode
A video iTunes episode
An episode on his website
A blog post (once per week)
A post on LinkedIn
A post on Medium
A Google+ post
2 to 3 tweets
2 LinkedIn shares
Nothing about what Jay does is complex. The difference from what most businesses do is that what Jay does is planned—that there is purpose behind all the content creation.
Next time you have an idea for a blog post or a video, just remember that’s not the case … you have an amazing story to tell. The next step is to come up with all the ways you can tell that story.
By Arnie Kuenn, CEO of Vertical Measures and Author of Content Marketing Works
Developing new materials for your content marketing requires a great deal of effort, from coming up with an idea and researching the topic to content creation and promotion. There are often multiple people involved in the process: copywriters, designers, SEO specialists, social media marketers, and others, which can make content marketing quite the investment. Fortunately, great content can be repurposed into something new and different, continually furthering your investment along the way.
Content repurposing requires altering a piece of content to make it fresh by changing the angle or switching up the format. Integrating repurposing into your strategy can lower costs, advance production, expand audience reach, and provide myriad additional benefits, including:
Expanding one idea into several content pieces. For example, the topic of a popular blog post can be used for a slide show, a video, a free information guide, a white paper, a podcast … you get the idea. Repurposing allows you to leverage the research you conducted for one piece of original work across additional content projects.
Substantially cutting content creation time. Certain elements that have already been created or curated—like images, quotes, or text—can be applied to new works.
Serving multiple different audiences. Some people are visual learners, while others may prefer reading a document. Further, some people love to read in-depth research articles, while others wish to quickly skim blog posts to gain information. Content repurposing allows you to appeal to multiple audiences with different content preferences. For example, if you’ve created great video content, your script can be used as the basis of text documents, such as blog posts or downloadable PDFs. Similarly, statistics, facts, and figures can be illustrated through data visualization and delivered as infographics or charts.
Cross-promoting content. Through repurposing efforts, you can cross-promote your great content pieces across multiple channels. For example, in a YouTube video description, you may link to a blog post, a slide show, and an infographic about the same topic, which sends traffic to your website or blog. This targeted traffic reinforces branding and increases the likelihood of attracting a subscriber.
Extending content’s longevity. With so much content being published every day, people are bound to miss a blog post or video once in a while. However, through repurposing, your audience may come across your content after it has been altered, through a different channel. Additionally, repurposing evergreen content expands the life cycle even further, as it can remain relevant for years to come.
Creating a repurposing plan at the beginning of your development will help you brainstorm and produce content efficiently, while keeping your repurposing process streamlined and in alignment with your other great content efforts.
Consider the following four steps:
1. Take one story idea. Begin to think of different ways in which the story can be told. In this initial phase, it is important to consider how one topic can be translated across multiple types of content. For example, if you have a store that sells sunglasses, your topic may be “sunglasses trends for 2016.” Though broad, this topic can be the focal point of many content projects.
2. Once you have a general topic, think of how it can be altered and applied across content types to appeal to numerous audiences. In the sunglasses trends example, a few content pieces you can create might include:
• Blog posts on women’s or men’s sunglasses trends for 2016
• An infographic illustrating different styles of sunglasses predicted to be popular in 2016
• A video interviewing your expert employees about 2016 sunglasses trends
• A slide show featuring images and descriptions of the top sunglasses styles for 2016
• An e-book on how to choose sunglasses for 2016 that fit your face and style
And that’s just the beginning. With a wide-ranging topic like sunglasses trends for 2016, it is easy to see how researching one concept can lead to multiple content pieces. Each piece has a different point of view and is transformed to appeal to a specific audience, but the core idea remains the same.
3. Now that you have assembled a list of different takes on your core idea, start researching, keeping the first piece you want to create in mind. Start with whatever piece makes the most sense. If you create a slide show, can you easily adapt it to create an infographic? Can a video script work as a blog post? The first piece of content you construct will take the most work up front, as it requires the greatest amount of research and development. However, know that when you’ve finished researching for your first content piece, you can undoubtedly apply your findings when creating additional content in the future.
4. After you have created your first piece of content, repurpose your research and other elements from the project to make new works. You may need to research more specific facets of your core idea as you go, but most of the grunt work should already be completed.
There are a variety of content types you can utilize in content repurposing projects, and it’s possible for one idea to be used across all media. Consider the following:
Blog posts. Every content idea you have should be featured in a blog post, if not multiple posts. Most Content Inc. models have a blog, and with good reason—as small businesses with blogs generate 126 percent more leads (subscribers). Blog posts are a great place to start when creating content, especially if you have an active blog with lots of audience participation. You may be able to garner feedback about your core idea from readers, and audience participation may spark additional inspiration on how to take that idea further.
E-books and free guides. You can create e-books and free guides by compiling all the blog posts you’ve written about a certain topic and adding additional components, such as a table of contents, images, more in-depth research, an index, etc. Often e-books and free guides are more detailed than blog posts and are considered high-value pieces. When offering a high-value piece, you may be able to collect visitor information in exchange for access. For example, you may offer an e-book to people who sign up for your e-mail newsletter, or make a free guide available for those who enter basic visitor contact information.
Video. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to have a professional recording studio to produce a captivating video. A smartphone or everyday portable digital camera can record compelling video to be used in content repurposing projects. When thinking of video ideas, consider interviewing your employees or industry experts or creating a skit based on a facet of your core concept. Keep in mind that you can also produce a video without recording anything live—through moving graphics and voice-over audio.
Infographics. Infographics are excellent vehicles for data, processes, and visual content. They can be used to explain a topic in a step-by-step fashion, showcase data in an interesting way, or illustrate a story. When a topic lends itself to visual interpretation, creating an infographic is the way to go.
Slide shows. Slide shows are not just for presentations anymore. Creating a slide show can often challenge you to simplify an idea, as you don’t want to create a text-heavy slide show. If someone wants to read a text document, he or she will seek out a blog post or free guide. Slide shows cater to visual learners, featuring images and short descriptions.
In summary, content repurposing is a very efficient way to make the most of your great content creation efforts. Numerous content pieces can stem from just one main idea, each catering to a different audience in a unique way. The process of repurposing can save you time and money and extend your initial content marketing investment, making it a worthwhile strategy.
A FINAL REMINDER
Remember, just because you are repurposing the same content many different ways, you are not duplicating content. Every story you tell should be unique in its own way. That means if you are leveraging the same content asset in a blog post versus a Facebook post or YouTube video, each story needs to be told in a different way. Ann Handley calls this “reimagining” the content.
The worst thing you can do is take the same content and spam it out over all your channels. That will never work. Be sure to focus on which audience uses which channel and adapt your stories accordingly.
CONTENT INC. INSIGHTS
Most repurposing isn’t planned … it happens after the content is created. Smart businesses plan out the different content assets in advance.
Remember, you are telling a story. That story can be told in many different ways.
Planning for repurposing means that every content asset you create needs to be different in some way.
Resources
David Gould, “Content Repurposing: How to Lower Marketing Costs and Expand Audience Reach,” VerticalMeasures.com, accessed April 28, 2015, http://www.verticalmeasures.com/content-marketing-2/content-repurposing-how-to-lower-marketing-costs-and-expand-audience-reach/.
Mike McGrail, “The Blogconomy: Blogging Stats [Infographic],” socialmediatoday.com, accessed April 28, 2015, http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/blogconomy-blogging-stats-infographic.
Jay Baer, “How to Make 8 Pieces of Content from 1 Piece of Content,” convinceandconvert.com, accessed April 28, 2015, http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/how-to-make-8-pieces-of-content-from-1-piece-of-content/.