TCC #2: What 2018 Joshua wished he knew about content repurposing

2018 me thought content marketing was:

“Come up with topics → Write them → edit/publish → share on marketing channels → repeat.

The same goes for longer-form content, right?

Create content → edit → design work → iterations → optimise/publish landing page → share → repeat.

Alas, these processes weren't sustainable.

Over time, I went from overexcited Joshua to grumpy, overwhelmed Joshua.

It was like being on a treadmill to no end.

And I was not exactly strategic with how I spent my time as well.

I was stuck in content creation mode, and didn’t spend enough time on strategic thinking or sharing the content I worked so hard on.

Distribution? Who's got time for that?

"You mean I’ve spent hours on this whitepaper and I need to spend even more time distributing it while I need to work on 50 other things? Mann…."

—

Maybe you’ve felt this way before.

I suspect you feel it even more if you’re flying solo (i.e the marketing department is Me, Myself and I) or you’re responsible for all content efforts within your department - from brainstorming, writing, publication and distribution.

If you are, I (and my past self) feel you.

Creating quality content takes a heck-load of time. You’ve got the brainstorming, the writing and research, the multiple iterations, the publishing, and then you do it all over again.

And again.

You’ve got that rush of exhilaration as a campaign you’ve been working on for weeks (or perhaps months) finally releases.

Promote it a few times, make it go the rounds on email and social media, see the leads come in (hopefully) and then it’s back to the grind.

What happens to that campaign you worked so hard on?

Slowly sit in a web archive slowly collecting digital dust as new campaigns and pieces take its place.

If I were to do it all again, I would think about creating fewer pieces of content, but spend more time repurposing existing content and distributing to get more out of the content pieces you worked so hard on.

But isn’t promoting your content just sharing a link to your article or landing page on social and hoping for luck?

Well, there’s more to it than that.

3 simple ways to think about content repurposing

1. Break big content into smaller pieces: E-books and reports can become blog posts, while blog posts can be broken up into social media posts. Or extract key takeaways from a report into an email series.

2. Combine smaller pieces of content into bigger content: Internal resources like sales enablement decks or customer case studies gathering dust? Turn them into a more detailed e-book with a narrative flow.

3. Share the same content in a different format: Give your blog posts the visual treatment and turn them into quotes and carousel posts on Instagram. Extract key insights from event speaker recordings and turn them into social media content or blog articles.

I’ve linked several more comprehensive guides to content repurposing and content distribution below!

3 thoughtful reads of the week

• The Quick + Simple Guide To Start Repurposing Your Content: If you’re brand new to content repurposing, this guide is both actionable and reassuring - perfect if you’ve been overwhelmed and need an easy way to start. Great for solo creators, small business owners and people who need to get from 0-1.

• Distribute Learnings, Not Links: Mindset shift for content distribution - “Don’t distribute content. Distribute the learnings and insights from the content instead. Show your audience the value.”

• Superpath’s 5-Step Guide to Creating a Workflow for Content Repurposing: More catered to B2B content brands, I love the step-by-step practical approach, complete with examples. Special mention goes to the mention of a ‘distribution-first mindset. If you’re planning a long-form piece, think about how you’re going to distribute it from the start and not at the end of the content brainstorming process.

1 recommended resource

• Ahref’s blogging for business course: Since 2020, Ahrefs made this course 100% free, no sign-ins required. Solid actionable tips for beginner content marketers and a handy refresher for experienced ones, all within 2 hours. Most video lessons hover around the 4-7 minute mark, making it easy for you to get to the section you need help with.

1 cool tool

Interactive calculators that make information more accessible. Context: Singapore just presented its latest Budget, and there were a lot of payouts and rebates for citizens announced.

That’s a lot of numbers to wade through, and I really appreciated this calculator tool to help me find answers quick.

Food for thought: how can you simplify and build an interactive tool that makes information more accessible to your target customer?

Examples from businesses.

• Interactive ROI calculator showing how much time and money you save with your solution. E.g: marketing reporting tool DashThis has a calculator estimating the time and cost savings of their solution on their pricing page (scroll to the bottom of the page)

• Helpful tools that do something for free, like HubSpot’s website grader or Unbounce’s SaaS landing page copy analyzer (Bonus, check out Unbounce’s interview featuring the behind-the-scenes of why and how they built their landing page analyzer. It’s a 2018 interview, but still fascinating to see their thought process behind the construction of the tool)

• Quizzes: Content strategist Brittany Berger turns something stuffy (a lead generation quiz on content strategy) into something fun by linking it with pop culture. Plus this approach appeals to our innate curiosity - which pop star will save your content strategy? I wanna know too.

Closing question:

What’s your favourite way to repurpose your content and extend your content’s shelf life?