One of the biggest challenges web publishers of all sizes face on a daily basis is creating fresh, meaningful content. That daily grind can, however, be mitigated slightly by the practice of reusing or repurposing older content. This is hardly a new practice, but it’s one that’s worth revisiting and re-thinking as your website, and its attendant archives, grow.
So what should you be thinking about as you look over past blog entries for potential repurposed content? That was the subject of a recent article by the director of product marketing and strategy for Adobe’s digital experience business unit, Kevin Lindsay titled, 3 Ways Content Reuse Can Supercharge Your Marketing. Here are a few of his suggestions.
The number one reason for repurposing content is probably the most obvious, it saves time and money. If you’re fortunate enough to have in-house writing staff, you know how valuable their time can be. If you rely on freelancers, you know how much time you spend finding and training them. Repurposed content allows your staff to keep working on fresh material, while making the most of what you’ve already got in the can.
Lindsay also suggests that content created for one audience can be used to market to another. For example, content that you’ve created for social media can introduced on a blog. If you’re like most organizations, you’ve probably got a big gap between your social media audience and your blog audience that can exploited for good.
In short, digging through the contents of your published materials in search of something that can be repurposed is something that every publisher who wants to make the most of his or her time should be doing.