Take advantage of the summer slowdown to sift through existing content and determine ways to reuse it when the busy season returns.
Posting regular content throughout the year is a crucial move for search engine optimization and customer engagement, but coming up with content ideas, writing copy and shooting images can be overwhelming — particularly when life gets busy preparing for the holidays.
Good news! You can maintain visibility online and your sanity. The answer is repurposing — evaluating content you’ve already published and repackaging it to give it a second (or third or fourth…) life. “Having a repurposing strategy is just one way to take your content marketing to the next level,” said Karen Repoli, an Internet marketing expert and founder of HIT Virtual Assistants. “It makes the most of your assets and saves you valuable time, energy and money.”
Repoli discussed the art of repurposing in a recent article for Business 2 Community. Here’s her advice:
- Review your current content. Start by taking stock of what you have your hard drive, blog, Facebook page, etc., and assess it with the following questions:
- What content is completely out-of-date and can’t be salvaged? (“Top Wedding Looks for 2009”)
- What content needs to be edited or added to?
- What content can be kept as-is?
- What topics haven’t you covered that you could cover now?
- Evaluate which past content performed well. What posts got the traffic, likes, comments and so on. Now dig deeper: why do you think this particular piece performed so well? Use this information when creating new posts. For repurposing, you should give first priority to content that performed the best the first go around. It worked before and likely will again.
- Give old content a fresh new face. Here are a few ways to recycle past content:
- Pull key ideas from your content to create motivational graphics. For instance, you could show a close up shot of a flower, plant or arrangement with a tip (“Plants and flowers have been scientifically proven to improve physical and mental health and increase happiness.”) or inspirational quote (“A flower does not think of competing with the next flower — it just blooms.”) This approach would work swimmingly for a photo-centric platform like Instagram.
- Use key ideas to create a video. Have you written posts on care and handling tips? Easy DIY arrangements? Popular trends such as terrariums or flower crowns? Use it as a script and get behind the camera, providing a visual example.
- Compile memories from past events and share a highlight reel in a post (or several) for your next shop anniversary.
- Pair wedding photos with customer reviews to entice new clients.
- Connect your content with a large, national trend. For instance, repost a shot of a floral arch you’ve created with a link about the royal wedding or a picture of one of your flower crowns with a story about celebs’ favorite Coachella look
- Record events like webinars or videos and have them transcribed to create tons of written content to use in your newsletter, blog posts or social media.
- Pull key facts and statistics together to create an infographic.
