QUALITY OVER QUANTITY: THIS IS HOW TO REPURPOSE YOUR BEST IDEAS
So here's the thing...your audience doesn't always need new ideas from you.
Yep, I said it.
Think about how many new ideas your audience sees on a daily basis. Everywhere they look they're being shown something - beneficial, not useful, and everything in between.
Look at it from your perspective as someone who consumes content - do you want to see more ideas?
It can get pretty overwhelming, I know.
That's why instead of focusing on all of your ideas, you pick your best ones. Your best ideas are all your audience needs.
Those big ideas that have reached so many people and really made a difference?
Those big ideas that have taken you so long to bring to life?
They're the ideas you need to focus on, and you also need to invest more time in sharing these pieces of content in different ways and different places. You don't just want to hit publish on an idea and then move onto the next. You want to repurpose the best ideas you already have.
This way, you're concentrating on what you know your audience likes and reaching new readers, but only with your best work.
I've been working on repurposing my content a lot in my new marketing strategy, so in this post, I'm going to walk you through an example.
START WITH THE CORE OF YOUR BRAND
So I'm a small business owner, a blogger, and a bride-to-be - let's just say I don't have a lot of extra time on my hands.
That's why whenever I create an idea for my blog, I want to maximise the impact and distribution of that idea.
So instead of just writing blog post after blog post, I've changed my strategy. I've focused on creating more in-depth, long form content and repurposing that into different types of content, which is distributed in different places.
Ask yourself these questions: what's the one type of content that underpins your whole brand? What platform represents you the most? What do you create the most of?
For me, my starting point is always a blog post.
The core of A Branch of Holly is my blog, so it makes sense for me to create the initial, big piece of content here on this blog.
My blog is how I reach the most amount of people and there's something about writing words that allows me to really connect with people and teach them.
I can think, write, edit and turn my idea into a piece of content that I feel confident sharing with the world.
Doing this also allows me to start thinking of how I might repurpose this content. For instance, if I'm about to start writing a tutorial, I can save this for a content upgrade. Or if I'm starting to go into too much detail on a point, I can turn this into a video and embed it within the blog post.
You might be different. The core of your brand might be your YouTube channel. You might feel most confident through talking to a camera. Whatever it is, make sure you put that first.
But for me, it starts with a blog post.
In terms of my process, I start off with the idea and create an outline of how I want the blog post to look. Then I do some research and write up the first draft.
After that, I'll edit, proofread and then get onto creating the graphic, adding internal links, writing the headline and so on.
All in all, the process usually takes me a good couple of hours.
Once all that is done, I've then got a blog post scheduled and read to share through my mailing list and social media.
Sound familiar? Pretty much what's expected, right?
But there's way more to it than that.
What's great about getting to this point is that the hardest, most time-consuming part is done. You've got a valuable idea that's out there in the world. You didn't just draft it up in 20 minutes.
Now it's time to get your piece of content and distribute the hell out of it.
WHEN THE BLOG POST BECOMES A VIDEO
Keep in mind that I'm using these examples purely from my own strategy and the channels that I use for A Branch of Holly. You don't have to use this exact method, but I hope it'll encourage you to think about your own strategies.
My YouTube channel is my newest introduction to my online presence. Video is growing and I knew I had to incorporate it into my strategy - YouTube was the best option for me. That meant that publishing more content to my YouTube audience became a top priority.
That might not be true for you. You might not have a YouTube channel. But that doesn't mean this article isn't relevant to you. What is relevant is the fact that combining quality over quantity by redistributing your best content in a strategic way will work for you. Follow the steps that I outline and apply them to your own online presence.
Within my content schedule, I've started creating four blog posts a week. Two are long-form, evergreen pieces of content...and two are blog posts that are turned into videos that I publish on my YouTube channel. That's a great example or repurposing content right there!
When there are so many channels to choose from you need to be strategic. It's about working smarter, not harder.
Here's the process I follow for the video blog post days:
- Write a script for the upcoming video (which I usually film a couple of days before)
- Get my camera and tripod set up in my office (I try to switch my background up every so often)
- Do a few test runs to see if everything looks/sounds okay and film the content
- Edit the video and upload it to YouTube
- Write a shorter version of the video and turn it into a blog post
- Embed the YouTube video within the blog post
- Upload the video to Facebook so it plays automatically when people see it
- Share links to the video and blog post on my other social media channels
Sometimes I might also create a content upgrade for the video, which I include in the description, but it usually depends how much time I have. This is something I want to do more of in the future. I just make sure that the blog post is brief and the video contains lots more information.
I was worried when I first started a YouTube channel that it wouldn't take off and nobody would be interested. Especially by just embedding a video within a blog, which is basically just repetition.
But I'm so pleased with how it's going so far.
My most loyal readers and mailing list subscribers have subscribed to my channel. I get comments and tweets from people thanking me for creating video. I've also generated new audience members who now only know me because of my YouTube channel.
It is a lot of extra work, but it's so much more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be. I love filming videos. I get so passionate and excited because I feel like I'm teaching someone one-on-one and that's where my passions lie.
And just think where I distribute each article and video:
- Blog
- YouTube
- RSS feeds
- Mailing list
And when I say Pinterest, that's not mentioning the 10+ boards that I pin each post to, as well as the group boards too.
But this is the best thing about repurposing content as video:
People don't even need to press play. They can scroll through their feed and there it is - it starts playing automatically. Those first few seconds are crucial.
Look at my most recent post on my Facebook page. All someone has to do is scroll down and the video will start playing right there. There's no pause between whether someone decides to consume that piece of content - it does the work for them.
THE SECRET - TURN ONE BLOG POST INTO A HIGH QUALITY, VALUABLE PIECE OF CONTENT
This is the different between your average blog post and a killer article.
You saw that list just then. We've already gone from one blog post to distributing it to 8 other online channels.
And you know what? That could increase.
Here are some other ways I could repurpose and distribute the content:
- Write a post within LinkedIn and publish it
- Do the same for Medium, or reuse it as a guest post
- Turn it into a piece of audio
- Extract clips of the video for Instagram Stories
- Make infographics or GIFs to share on social media platforms
I could go on.
I don't usually do the things in those list, the one reason being because I just don't have time. But they'd be really good to experiment with.
What's important is to be strategic. Be strategic about your online presence and the channels you use that will deliver the best results, not necessarily immediately, but over time.
How has this new strategy helped my online presence?
- I gained 70+ subscribers since starting my channel at the end of April
- I wont two blogging awards within the space of a year
- I more than doubled my pageviews (in just two months!)
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW?
Are you really making the most of distributing your content?
Not each piece of your content - but your best ideas.
If you have a brilliant blog post, but it's only being distributed as that, you're missing out on a whole load of traffic that could be coming your way.
Can you write a blog post and add a video to one section? Can you turn that into a piece of audio?
It might not be that formula for you, but I hope this encourages you to think how different ways that you can repurpose each type of content you create. Plus, it can actually be really simple to do.
The most important thing to remember is to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to content. Instead of creating 5-7 blog posts a week, half it and think of other ways you can repurpose that content and distribute it to as many channels as possible.
That's a guaranteed way to reach more people with your best ideas.
And that's definitely the best way to reach a breakthrough with your online presence.