Many companies dedicate thousands of dollars each year to their marketing and outreach efforts. They do this because they understand that marketing sells and can help them grow. But without utilizing the right approach, years of content can potentially be wasted. It can quickly become outdated, lose visibility amongst millions of other published pieces, or never reach its intended audience in the first place. You can maximize your return on investment by using these five strategies to make the most of your existing content.
1. Create a Content Strategy
Success doesn’t usually just fall into anyone’s lap. It almost always requires significant planning, strategy development, and effort. You need all of these components to make sure your advertising efforts have the desired effect on your target audience. That’s where content strategy comes into play. You’ll be more successful at reaching and engaging your audience when you lay out a tried-and-proven content strategy.
A good content strategy contains many moving parts. It’s a way of creating, organizing, and optimizing content to make sure it meets the needs and interests of your audience. Your content will make the biggest impact when it anticipates and answers every relevant question a potential customer may have. The overarching goal of your content strategy should be to target and engage customers in every phase of the sales funnel. Use third-party services if you don’t have the time or organization skills to create an effective strategy on your own.
2. Analyze Competitor Content
Many marketing managers and business owners find that creating impactful content feels a lot like stumbling around in the dark. You might think a piece of content will go viral, but discover upon publication that it barely garners interest. It can be time-consuming and costly to figure out through trial and error which subjects and writing styles appeal the most to your audience. Fortunately, you can take a shortcut by analyzing competitor content.
Why reinvent the wheel when you can learn from the successes and failures of other people? If your competitors have figured out how to make the most of their existing content, study their techniques. Never plagiarize or copy someone else though. Your goal is to learn from others, not become them. Create content that fills in the gaps your competitors miss and use similar optimization techniques to achieve greater online visibility.
3. Create Different Messaging for Various Publishing Platforms
Do you have a friend who responds to you via text message but always ignores your phone calls? It may drive you crazy, but it’s natural for people to prefer certain methods of contact over others. This is true in both personal and business-to-consumer relationships. You can’t make the most of your existing content if you aren’t creating different messaging for various platforms. Reach your audience more effectively by diversifying your messaging and publishing platforms.
Multi-channel messaging is a strategy that involves creating personalized content for audiences across different publishing channels. It improves your chances of reaching consumers on their preferred digital platforms. For example, if you sell strollers and other parenting supplies, you might publish content on social media, parenting forums, and mommy blogs. You can use the same content subjects and ideas, but tweak your messaging so it’s appropriate for each channel you use.
4. Repurpose Published Content
You may be surprised to discover how much of your old content can be repurposed to create fresh, new pieces. To begin your content repurposing journey, identify old published pieces that perform well online. Then, use the same general content topics and ideas to rework those pieces into different forms. This strategy can help you save money on your marketing budget by ensuring nothing you create goes to waste.
For example, you might choose to rework a popular white paper into a blog post, social media post, or Twitter thread. This technique will help you capitalize on the success and interest the original white paper has already garnered. Keep in mind that repurposing content involves rewriting it in a unique way. You never want to plagiarize any published piece—even if it happens to be your own.
5. Focus on Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of using strategies to ensure your content is visible, engaging, and helpful. Google currently holds over 90% of the search engine market share. What this means for you is that you should focus your SEO efforts on how to improve your rank in Google search results specifically.
Optimized content is more likely to rank well in search results so customers can find it more readily. If you’re serious about making the most of your existing content, review your published pieces and make sure they’re properly optimized. Check for relevant keywords, glaring errors, and overall content quality. Make improvements as needed to ensure your content is of high quality so it achieves favorable search engine visibility.
You put a lot of effort into the content you create. Unlike a birthday cake that’s designed to be enjoyed just once, published content can have a much longer lifespan. Use these techniques to make the most of your existing content and get the biggest return on your investment.