An Easy Way to Create Content With a Re-purpose

Once upon a time, Charles Dickens wrote “David Copperfield,” sent it off to the publisher, and moved on to his next book.

The end.

Not many ways for a content repurpose. As a result, there were no:

• Waterstones tours
• Sit-downs with Holly and Phil
• Insightful blog posts about his writing process
• Cryptic Tweets reflecting on his method for bringing Tiny Tim’s unwavering courage to the page

The process was finite and allowed no time for marketing and promotion: characters > plot > conflict > climax > resolution > printer…

That Might Be Your Perception

In actuality, Dickens was a pioneering marketer of his day. Releasing snippets of his book to drum up interest in a full book release, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, et al., got their boost in part because of his efforts to promote it.

The marketing profession indirectly owes a lot to Dickens, (though probably not as much as the so-called “Father of Marketing”, Philip Kotler). The only difference between him and you? There’s no publisher serving as your go-between in the process – once you can get it out there, it’s out there.

The next step is directly addressing any engaging, easily optimised content that might otherwise sit around without a much-needed touch-up.

Post-Dickensian Marketing and Ways to Repurpose Content

Times change, customer needs change. To the point that you’re keen to market your business. And the life of your content, in contrast to Dickensian Britain, is not so finite.

When a piece of content is researched, developed, and published, the process rarely stops there, and it rarely should. In marketing, one bit of insight offers so many ways of purposing for your audience, wherever they may be. An industry survey, for instance, offers a bevy of content options and topics. Take just one topic that arises from it. We’re talking about content marketing like:

• Blogs
• White paper, e-books or some other form of gated content
• Infographics, mini-infographics and interactive designs
• E-shot campaigns
• LinkedIn articles
• Outreach & public relations
• Videos
• A stream of concentrated social media posts dedicated to a receptive audience
• Boosted Facebook posts to a targeted audience ready to listen

Additionally, there is a technical goal that the survey topic should satisfy: the needs of an SEO goal the survey attempted to address.

A good strategy to re-purpose your content marketing relies on one thing: adaptability. Too often, I’ve become confounded by blogs, webpages and articles that do well statistically (conversions, unique page views, low bounce rates and discernible first legs in a journey through your online presence) and then sit around, waiting to take the next step.

We think you’d better think it out again.

What is That Next Step?

The next step is directly addressing any engaging, easily optimised content that might otherwise sit around without a much-needed touch-up.

If you run a financial business that faces a myriad of new laws and regulations you must stay compliant with, those laws and regulations can fly in the face of an evergreen post you wrote in 2013. The post in question had everything going for it in terms of search engine optimisation to land you in the Top 5 of Google. Keyword placement, searchable title, solid meta tags – you met the needs of the algorithm at that given time. Fact is, if you do the homework on any search term, you’ll see content from the last decade on there from time to time.

But as Dickens once wrote, “I have been bent and broken, but I hope into a better shape.”

That proverbial 2013 post being ranked highly is nice: if it gives off a hint of irrelevance and outdated knowledge, the UX and trust for your brand will suffer.

Artfully Dodge Old Hat SEO

It’s time for re-purposed content: an informed, relevant update, if you will.

As we all know, search algorithms change. Media forms (like ours) and an entire industry (us included) are dedicated to monitoring, following and staying ahead of such changes. This is why

• keyword loading becomes verboten;
• video carries weight now;
• poorly optimised pages featuring either a low-quality image or nothing of the sort will get left behind;
• alt tags are so important

For UX, there’s nothing more galling than having your website modernise into such a beautiful layout, you half expect young girls with rose baskets singing “Who will buy?” outside the door; meanwhile, your post shows signs and practices of the old site.

In short: bring the SEO practices of that content up to speed so that your top five rankings today won’t be penalised (and will possibly move to within the top three) tomorrow.

How Will It Help?

One thing we like to do here at SQ Digital is brushing up content that’s evergreen, is organically searchable, and/or shows such potential with a right good tidy.

Remember how we talked about new laws and regulations informing your content strategy moving forward? For posts like this (and even posts that had potential, but couldn’t quite get off the ground), it should be considered that new laws and regulations can inform the posts of Christmas past.

A touch-up of the wording to address new regulations that have arisen is a godsend for being found organically. Google loves an update, specifically one which:

• Adds relevant insight (i.e. addresses new rules and regulations)
• Updates SEO fundamentals (i.e. adds relevant, shareable custom imagery with alt tags)
• Enhances UX (i.e. visuals or video that breaks up the page)
• Tells the algorithm the page is trying to do more for the audience (i.e. increases in word count)
• Search engines like Google love it when pages or posts change with the times, for enhanced UX, new regulations and SEO purposes.

This is proactive content backed by good practical marketing theory. Something as simple as writing “UPDATE” within the body and keeping the original date is a trigger to search engines. Be sure to back it up with relevant additional content, and you’ve let them (and by extension, potential customers) know about a re-purpose of content with meaning, context and relevance to your world.

Or as Fagin would say it, you’re reviewing the situation.

If you would like to more about content marketing, feel free to get in touch and our team of experts will be happy to help.