Get the Most Out of Your Content Marketing

According to Demand Metric, “Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.”

Content marketing is a very important part of your marketing strategy. But how can you get the most out of the time you spend creating that content?

Startup Business Team Brainstorming on Meeting Workshop
Startup Business Team Brainstorming on Meeting Workshop

The key is that less is more. And more is not necessarily better.

How can you save time creating content?

How can you pique the interest of your audience using the content you’ve already created?

Try these tried-and-true strategies:

Repurpose long-form content.

Repurpose long-form content into other pieces, such as infographics, blog posts, or videos. This is also called recycling content. It’s best to repurpose your highest performing content. But, if you’re just starting out, try repurposing everything you can that makes sense for your marketing strategy. The key to repurposing content is to not just resize it so it fits better on the new platform, but also make it relevant to the new audience.

repurpose content

Actionable insight: Review what performs best on that second platform and feature details that will appeal to those specific readers and viewers. For example, if a quality blog post is read by many of your fans, try creating a video to share on social media. Say your Facebook fans like longer videos (because the analytics show that they watch videos to completion, but your Twitter fans don’t), create two videos: one for Facebook that goes through the big details of your blog post and multiple shorter videos for Twitter that each highlight a point each from your blog post.

Create adjacent content.

In addition to repurposing top-performing content, create variations of that content. Think of this as adjacent content. What do your prospects and customers like to read or watch the most? Create similar content that follows the same model or a similar path. This not only helps you develop more ideas for content creation, but it also helps you create better content because you are watching what your readers and viewers already enjoy.

Adjacent content helps you maximize your current content because it gives you ideas and suggestions based on the performance data. Plus, it gives your readers and viewers more content to consume that they are likely to enjoy.

Try creating content using:

  • Related topics
  • The same format
  • The opposite format
  • Opposite topics

For example, a tech company publishes a blog post titled “5 ways to use AI this year” and it performs well. They can then create blog posts titled “The worst 5 ways to use AI this year” and “5 ways to use machine learning this year.” By using related and opposite topics and formats (all three examples are listicles), you can link the blog posts together and likely receive similar views on each.

Create content that focuses on the customer journey.

customer journey

Do you have content for all phases in the customer journey? Many businesses focus on creating content for prospects instead of nurturing customers with content, too. To start utilizing this strategy, follow this plan:

First, map out your customer journey. Start with your customer learning about your product all the way to actively advocating your product online and with their friends.

Next, list the questions you receive during each stage of the customer journey. Then answer those questions. If you don’t know an answer, then ask someone from the appropriate department. Collect your answers for the next step.

Actionable insight: Having these kinds of organic, customer-provided Q&A or FAQ details are especially important for lead-nurturing campaigns. If you use email for your lead-nurturing campaigns, repurpose content for emails and set up trigger-based automated campaigns associated with the customer journey, such as subscribing to your email list, visiting your website again, or abandoning their cart.

Finally, draft content ideas based on the Q&As and the customer journey phase associated with the question itself. Determine whether each question should be answered on a FAQ page, in a blog post, or in a script provided to your customer service team. Often, the answer to where the content should go is based on where the question came from to begin with. You can also repurpose long-form Q&A content for multiple places, depending on the customer journey.

For more details on creating content that focuses on each phase of the customer journey, download our free ebook.

Create interactive content.

Try creating quizzes, surveys, calculators, and trivia games with your content to draw more traffic and engage that traffic in a new way. Even if your business is serious and professional, there is a way to encourage interaction with your leads by creating a useful tool that suits their needs, answers their questions, or solves a small problem. Think of this as a free service you provide your prospects.

content development team

Another way to make your content interactive is to make it shareable. Place social media share buttons on your web pages or add “click to Tweet” options. The key to this is to limit the viewable options to 2 or 3, or to have 2 options with an expandable third option for the rest of your social media channels. This way, they can choose how they want to share your content with fewer visible options, which can be overwhelming.

Create a content calendar.

You’ve heard it before, but do you have one? When you take the time to create a content calendar, you are naturally more strategic in your topics, formats, and platforms. Without a content calendar, your content strategy is not only lacking focus and direction, but you might miss important content opportunities, such as product launches and holidays.

Follow this simple 3-step process to create a content calendar laid out by Inc.:

  1. Find your themes.
  2. Choose your specific topics.
  3. Create your calendar.

Most businesses create a content calendar to follow their overarching marketing campaign calendar, which is typically done on an annual basis. However, if planning for a year right now seems impossible, take an hour to plan the next month. From there, plan the next 3 months, then 6, then a full year.

content calendar

How does creating a content calendar help you get the most out of your content? It helps you plan content ideas around what your audience needs to hear, what is happening in your business, and what is happening in the world in a timely, organized manner. After you create your tentative content calendar, you are freed of wondering what to write and create because you already know. From there, you know what to create or what to delegate. Plus, if something comes up, you can always hold off on publishing that content while it waits on the sidelines.

Update outdated content.

Having fresh content doesn’t just mean starting from scratch. It can also mean updating your existing, outdated content. This is sometimes called a “content refresh.” This particularly works well on your company’s blog, but it can also work on other channels like YouTube.

When you update the content and date on a blog post, Google views it as more valuable. Why? Because Google cares about a user’s intent. By updating outdated content, you can add or change information to make it more valuable to prospects and Google. You will also lose fewer visitors that stumble upon any outdated content.

Actionable insight: Review your blog posts and search for outdated content. You can find such posts by reviewing your Google Analytics. As Search Engine Journal says, “Posts that have a high number of unique views, as well as a high bounce rate, need updating.” From there, review similar blog posts that come up when you search your keywords. Is there anything those posts share that you’re missing? Consider adding those details from your experience and perspective.

Outdated information you may need to change:

  • Statistics
  • Images/screenshots
  • Broken links
  • Examples
  • Dates and times
  • Company or university names, especially if they close, change names, or are bought out

As for other channels, like YouTube, keep your outdated content online, but update the title and description to add the year or context. Then link your new content in the description. This way, if someone stumbles upon this outdated content, they can quickly see that it’s outdated, decide whether or not to continue viewing it, and easily click on a link to your new content. This helps that piece of content continue ranking while also helping improve the ranking of your new content.

Updating your content, depending on what it entails, may take a few minutes or a few hours, but this extra effort will help improve your overall SEO while helping your readers and viewers stay to read or view your content.

Remember: To get the most out of your content, you need to create quality content and distribute it to where your potential customers will consume and share it. With these tips, you’re ready to repurpose and share your best content.