Post updated August 2015
You may also want to check out Repurpose Your Content and Create a Social Media Bomb or Drive Traffic by Repurposing Your Content
It doesn’t matter who you are or what business you are in, marketing can be a time consuming process. For many, the idea of writing a blog, using social media, creating a podcast, putting material up on YouTube and a host of other marketing tools can seem overwhelming.
However, with a little planning, it doesn’t have to be. The key is taking one piece of content or one idea and using it multiple ways. The initial concept and the initial creation of a piece of marketing content is the hardest part. Once it’s there, reusing it in other ways and on other platforms is simple and takes much less time.
Here are seven simple ways you can repurpose your blog posts to create some powerful marketing tools.
1. Link your blog with Facebook and Twitter.
This is the simplest way to repurpose blog posts and if you aren’t already doing this you are missing the boat. Use a plugin like “Jetpack” to automatically share your blog posts on all your social networks. This way people who never visit your website will still see your content.
Tweet about it. Jetpack will automatically send out a Tweet whenever you publish a new post. But that’s not the only way to repurpose yourself on Twitter. If you include an interesting statistic in your blog post, send a Tweet including the statistic plus a link to your blog post. If you answer a provocative question, ask the question in Twitter with a link to your blog post.
It’s okay to use multiple tweets with different content all linking back to your blog post. Just vary the days and times they go out to get a broader reach.
2. Edit blog posts for ezinearticles.com
Ezinearticles.com is an article directory site. “Expert” writers upload their articles about a variety of topics. Publishers of ezines, newsletters and blogs can use the content in their own publications as long as they give credit to the author, including a link to their website. Other people use the site to learn about topics they are interested in. It can be a great way to drive traffic to your website and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Depending on your writing style, you may be able to just submit your articles “as is”. In other cases, you may need to do some minor editing. Because I am a little long winded (and hopefully am giving some great value) my blog posts are often quite a bit longer than the usual articles on ezinearticles.com. As a result, I can often take a blog post and edit to create two or three articles.
3. Reuse your blog posts in print publications
Do you belong to an association that includes your target audience? Do they publish a newsletter? If so, this is the perfect place to reuse your blog posts. Newsletter editors are notoriously desperate for new content and will often be happy to know you have articles available to be published at a moment’s notice.
4. Record your blog posts
Take your best blog posts, read them aloud and record it with a digital recorder or directly onto your computer with a microphone. You can submit these recordings to places like iTunes, post them on your website or burn them onto CDs and give them out to prospects.
If you can’t read without sounding like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, get someone else to read the posts for you.
Either way, many people prefer audio as a way to consume content because they can multi-task.
5. Create a video
Record a video of you reading the blog post. Even a simple “talking head” video can be effective, particularly if not a lot of people in your industry are using video. By showing your face, you give people a chance to get to know you a little more than they can from just reading your blog posts.
If you hate the idea of being on camera create some PowerPoint slides and use Google Hangouts on Air to record the video using the slides.
6. Turn blog posts into a book or ebook
If you have several blog posts about a single topic, particularly if they are instructional, put them together in a printed booklet or an ebook. You can hand them out to past clients, prospects or offer them from your website. Having a book can seem like a real “value added” gift that you are giving people, plus it really shows the depth of your expertise.
7. Turn your blog post into a press release
Particularly if you are writing about something new in your industry or your personal spin on a current news topic, a blog post can easily be reformatted into a press release. Then send it to local media (newspapers, radio and television stations) as well as being published online. Even one mention in a news item can mean huge publicity for you.
These are just a few ways you can repurpose your blog posts. If you’re not using any of these idea, please make a plan to implement at least one in the next week. You’ll be glad you did.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Do you repurpose your blog content? Please leave a comment and share not only how you do it, but what results you’ve had.
