You’ve created quality content. It’s posted on your blog. Now on to the next one, right?
Not so fast! You can get more value out of that investment of your time and energy.
For most small businesses, we recommend that you at least:
- Publish it on your blog.
- Share it in a newsletter.
- Post it on social media — Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You should also:
- Optimize your content, and
- Repurpose your content.
Quick Tips for Optimizing Your Content
Optimization. You’ve probably heard that word a lot. And a lot of people can get incredibly esoteric about what it means and how to do it. But many ways to optimize your content are fairly simple.
Install and use an SEO plugin to add META tags.
Why? Because they give search engines a little extra help “reading” your content. More importantly, they influence how it is displayed by search engines.
Add an image.
Images are more likely to grab attention, particularly on social media. Confirm that your blog setup allows Facebook and LinkedIn to grab an article preview that includes the accompanying image. For Twitter, use a tool like HootSuite to grab the images fast.
Add ALT tags to blog images.
This one sounds technical, but don’t be scared off by that. You can learn it in just a few minutes.
Make sure your content is web-friendly.
Use a conversational style. Write short sentences and short paragraphs. Pepper in bullet points and subheadings when possible.
Embrace white space.
Deliver consistency with your newsletter.
Testing can be beneficial, but don’t change up everything at once. Make sure readers know what to expect every time they open your newsletter.
Test your subject line.
Your relationship with your subscribers has the greatest impact on your open rate. But the subject line is the second most important element.
Include preview text in your newsletter.
Most email programs display a snippet of text after the subject. It’s another opportunity to nudge subscribers to open.
Boost your Facebook posts.
Few Facebook Pages followers will see your content if you don’t boost it. Worried about cost? You can run a boost ad for as little as $1.
Quick Tips for Repurposing Your Content
You already have it written, reviewed, and approved. Why not use it in as many ways as possible?
Use quotes from your article for social media updates.
If you share a link to your article, you get one update. If you also use quotes from within the article, you can fill up a week’s worth — or more!
Use blog posts as guest columns or posts.
Approach professional organizations that send out print newsletters to their members. Or look for online publications that syndicate content, such as BizSugar and Business 2 Community.
Create an eBook or white paper.
Have you been blogging for a while? Combine your best posts on a particular subject into a longer piece. Add a quick intro and maybe some transitions, and you’re done!
Make videos or a podcast.
Hire a small video or audio recording crew for a day, and get as many posts as you can recorded. You don’t have to get this fancy, but make sure the result is professional. Then upload to YouTube or iTunes.
Host a webinar.
Use your blog posts as the main content for the presentation. Then take questions.
Print it out.
Put the content into a print-friendly format. Then provide the handouts as a resource to your clients. And offer it as a PDF download on your website.
Create an email course.
String the blog posts together to educate clients on a particular subject. Set up a drip email campaign to deliver to those who sign up.
Make a slideshow.
Add images to accompany each point or section of your blog post. Upload it to SlideShare, and you have a new way for people to discover you.
Design an infographic.
The most time-consuming part of creating an infographic is gathering the data. So if you’ve already done that for a research-intense blog post, go the extra step and transform it into an infographic.
Plan blog posts for dual purposes.
That way, they’re written in a way that makes transitioning from one format to another easier.
For example, you can create an outline for your ebook. Each chapter can be a blog post. When it’s all done, it will fit neatly together as planned at the onset.
Or you can write blogs on topics that you know would be good print resources for clients.
The key is to keep your copywriter in the loop, so they can help you make the most of the content.
