Recycling and repurposing

You don’t need to start from scratch for every piece of content. Recycling and repurposing content are the easiest ways to get the maximum return on your content investment. There are two ways to do this. First, before you create a piece of content, plan how you can turn it into several others. You can potentially turn a white paper into something else; a blog series, an infographic, or a video, for example. When you work from this multiuse mindset, you’ll find your approach to content creation changes.

Another option is to look back at your existing content to try to give it new life. Maybe it just needs a refresh or a new angle. Or it could be that the information is still current, and you can repurpose it into a different format to make it feel fresh. The idea is to work smarter, not harder, to get your content in front of as many people as possible.

Using the right technology

There’s a lot of software and tech out there that can help scale your content. Programs like Google Analytics and BuzzSumo, for example, can help you identify the best keywords for a topic, and then show you top-performing web content that uses those words.

To scale up your content, you need to start with well-written source material. Better writing means better results. You could have content on a trending topic, presented with a fresh new angle. If it’s poorly written, though, you’re going to turn off your audience. Quality content is important, and if you don’t have an editor, think about investing in an AI-driven active content governance platform. This technology can help ensure that your content will drive the metrics that matter most to your business, in a highly scalable way. So you can actually predict and improve the impact of your content — from anywhere in your business — before you deploy it.

Software tools can also automate social distribution based on customer profiles, and send out content at the optimum time to reach your specific audiences. You want to deliver your content through the right channels, at the right time, to the right people. And lastly, you can use analytics to see how your content performs post-publication, and direct resources accordingly. There’s no point in creating and publishing specific types of content if no one is consuming them.

Having more efficient processes

Having efficient and repeatable processes will save you a lot of time and effort. Creating templates and workflows for each content format you publish will mean that people spend more time doing the work and less time figuring out how to do it. Brand guidelines and a style guide can be invaluable tools to ensure that your message is consistent across the board. You want to remove confusion, speed up the process, and keep your content on point. Another good idea is to do regular content audits and inventory reports, so you can identify any missed opportunities and avoid duplication.

Scale up for greater success

There’s enough pressure to create fresh and interesting content day after day. That’s why it makes sense to get the most out of each piece of work, rather than starting from scratch every time. When you create great content, you want to get it in front of as many of the right people as possible. So whether you’re turning an article into a white paper, a blog post into an infographic, or a research report into a video, you’re increasing your reach and visibility, and maximizing results, while working more efficiently. That’s a plan that should be music to every content team’s ears.

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