Everyone in digital marketing is now talking about the growing importance of content marketing, but how can B2B marketers actually create enough content to support their strategies? The key to this question is upcycling content – posting the same content on various platforms in different shapes, rearranging it so it appeals to slightly different audiences. Upcycling your content, you can be sure that it gains maximum visibility across the web and significantly helps you in building an online brand awareness. Here are 5 tips to help you upcycle your content right now.
1. Choosing content to upcycle
Not all your posts, videos or other forms of content will work every time. Some content is ‘evergreen’ and will be equally relevant even 6 months after the initial publication – it’s timeless, so feel free to include it in your upcycling strategy. Look for content with substance, such as exclusive insights, unique analysis or actionable takeaways.
When choosing your content, make sure that it can grow. When you repurpose content, you’ll need to add fresh insights and new information to what you originally wrote. Otherwise the upcycled content won’t be appealing and engaging.
2. Develop a strategy
If you want to become an upcycling pro, you need to have a plan for each and every piece of content you generate for your brand. Create a thorough catalog of content you’d like to repurpose and define their life cycle – this kind of workflow will help you to maximize the ROI of your original content.
Begin the life cycle with any kind of content – blog post, webinar, video, e-book. Establish a distribution plan for that piece. To avoid readers stumbling upon the same content twice, make sure to diversify your distribution channels.
3. Distribute
When promoting your content, consider posting it to less popular social networks and websites, such as Reddit or StumbleUpon. Consider industry specific sites like Inbound as well. Some social networks and platforms, such as Medium, LinkedIn and Visual.ly allow for discoverability within their communities and will promote high-quality content internally to their users.
4. Upcycling visual content
Here are some practical examples of how to upcycle content using visual techniques:
- Make an infographic with Canva (http://www.canva.com/)
- Create a video of the content and share it on YouTube
- Make a SlideShare presentation
- Turn your blog post or video into a series of short tips – you can accompany them with images and post them to your social networks
- Make a webinar or a talk out of your blog post and share it to your network
5. Upcycling written content
If you’re a fan of the written word, here are some methods you can use:
- Republish your blog post on Huffington Post, LinkedIn or Medium
- Participate in a content swap with other companies who boast similar audiences
- Create a special round-up newsletter at the end of December, which highlights the most interesting blog posts from your channels
- Make a Quora post out of your content
- If you vlog, turn your videos into blog posts
- Take some of your most popular and valued blog posts and turn them into an e-book or guide and use as a subscription gift
Upcycling content is the single most powerful technique for boosting the visibility of your content. By repurposing and rearranging it, you’ll get a chance to refresh its look and serve it as content of value to your audience.
Sophia Beirne, CourseFinder.com.au
