Content marketing is common practice at this point. Around 95 percent of businesses say they use content marketing in some capacity, and 93 percent create their assets from scratch every time. That’s a lot of content. In fact, there are 347 blog posts published every minute, every day – and it’s estimated that in the span of 24 hours, 2 million blogs are written.
With marketers pressured to keep corporate blogs populated, it’s no surprise that 69 percent say their biggest challenge is time. Marketing teams don’t always have the bandwidth to execute strategies they envisioned. In today’s SEO landscape, originality is of the utmost importance, but smart marketers realize they don’t have to start from square one every time they’re producing an asset. There’s hidden value in every blog post, interview exclusive and white paper that isn’t exhausted after initial publication.
Brafton’s latest infographic, The content cycle – Do more with less, explores how marketers can extend the value of their investments by taking high-value elements and turning them into the building blocks of additional assets.
The content life-cycle: Reduce, reuse and repurpose
It all starts with an investment in high-quality content – an in-depth blog post, an interview with a company executive, an infographic with lots of illustrated data points. The time and effort that goes into strategizing the project, conducting the research and drafting the asset turns into a polished end product.
However, there are byproducts created along the way that can be combined and used as the starter fuel for another resource:
- Research conducted for a white paper provides ample data for the piece, but there might be a handful of compelling stats that didn’t fit into the final draft. Those insights don’t have to be tossed away – they can become the fodder for a separate blog article, a series of social posts that promote the finished asset or set aside as data for a related white paper.
- The individual illustrations and data visualizations that go into a large infographic make a persuasive picture together, but they can also be broken apart and used in daily blogs, or shared as social updates to give the business’ feed more variety.
Turn staples into value-added formats
Part of the reason why marketers feel pressure to produce a high volume of content is that consumers demand variety.
Some leads prefer to learn about products or services in a long-form written document they can review in their downtime, but the majority of consumers are more likely to pay attention when you present the facts in visual formats like graphics or videos. (It’s estimated that 65 percent of Americans are visual learners, and brands that fail to deliver something these people find digestible could lose sales to competitors.)
When marketers have high-quality elements to start with, they can efficiently build unique content in different formats. An in-person interview with a subject matter expert could provide footage for a video testimonial, but also original quotes for a white paper or eBook. The same idea works in reverse – a skilled presenter can bring the research and quotes that were compiled for a text-based format to life in a visual way.
There are enormous benefits on the table for companies that can translate their editorial prowess into visual media:
- The audience is there – 85 percent of Americans watch video content on desktop devices and even more watch on tablets and smartphones, too.
- Search engines and social networks are rewarding content diversity – Brands that publish infographics generally get more traffic, while videos are taking up more SERP real estate. Facebook and Twitter have adjusted their news feeds to make room for images and click-to-play videos.
- Consumers click more visuals: Empirical evidence has shown that consumers are more likely to click something if there is a visual component, whether they’re looking at an emailed newsletter, a Twitter news feed or a search results page.
Brands that can produce diverse content at scale are reaping the additional traffic that comes from a healthy mix of text, graphics and videos in emails.
Take content off the shelf: Share to strengthen results
Marketers know social media marketing is crucial for generating greater brand awareness, and in turn, securing new leads. However, that understanding doesn’t mean companies are sharing the types of content that get results. A repurposing strategy can give marketers the power to make resources stretch further, so they can efficiently create an array of marketing materials that engages audiences better.
Go beyond the headline: Automated social posts will push out news and blog headlines across networks, but are those the titles the best click bait? Revise headlines to make sure they’re positioned to get the most clicks
- Highlight questions posed in the piece
- Call out an interesting quote from the body
- Create an original Tweet based on the best stat in the article
Turn popular writing into something visual: You know you’ve struck gold when you see that a white paper, eBook or interview is 
responsible for a flood of search traffic and social shares. Capitalize on that insight by creating additional assets on the subject.
- Pare info-stats from an eBook with compelling copy for social posts
- Build an infographic on existing research, culling new data to fill any gaps
- Produce something instructive (a how-to or list article) to share insights
Craft a repurposing strategy to do more with less
In the old SEO world, quantity matters. A brand needed to be consistent to keep its name above the fold in search results and stay on prospects’ radars in fast-moving news feeds. However, the current and future landscapes demand that top brands offer quality and variety at scale. To meet both demands, marketers must find ways to reuse the value they create with every asset to build something that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Want more insights on what a repurposing strategy looks like and how it brings value to marketing campaigns? Check out the full infographic. Brafton also has a free downloadable webinar with information about how to execute a repurposing strategy and tips for measuring results.
