Producing high-quality content is one of the best marketing tactics that any brand can master. As time goes on, you’ll build up an expansive database of knowledge that displays obvious competence in your products, brand, and industry to your audience. Some of your older content will inevitably get buried underneath the newer content, which is unfortunate because those posts may still be super valuable to your audience.
Rather than letting them sit rocking away on the porch, hoping for a visitor, you can repurpose and re-share this content, giving it a new and deserved life. You’ve put a lot of effort, time and money into the creation of your blog posts.
Don’t waste the potential of any of your content. Think Michael Jackson, not Milli Vanilli – there will be no one-hit wonders in your repertoire.
Get to know your audience. Figure out what they like and what they expect from you. Pinpoint which of your followers like certain content and then target them with this content. Mention these followers in your tweets and shares, presumably calling them out and asking for their opinions, and yes, their re-shares. “Hey, @soandso, I see you’re interested in recruitment. Check out this article on employee retention we wrote”. This personal shout-out will help your intended feel special and not like they are being sold to.
Don’t just stop at your own audience. Get out in the Twittersphere and find like-minded individuals to follow. If your content could provide value to them, send them a quick note letting them know about your blog posts and how it relates to what they do. When they check out your profile, they’ll see your most recent and relevant article at the top of your feed and follow you back, creating a very easy and symbiotic relationship.
So many brands are leery about retweeting or sharing previously-shared content. But, this is a great tactic for keeping your followers engaged and active on your channels. Rather than sending the same message, you can re-share past content in unique and engaging ways. Try taking a quote or an important statistic from your content and share just that, with a link back to the original article. This chunk of info will pique the interest of your followers who don’t have any interest in reading the entire piece. Let’s face it, we’re all busy. One of the main reasons Twitter exists is because people want their information in short, easy-to-read chunks. If the chunk really appeals to them, they’ll go on to get the rest of the info from the article. A recent study proved this fact and found that 59% of content is shared online without even being read.
If a post saw a lot of engagement when it was originally published, bringing that fact up will provoke interest in those who didn’t get to see it the first time around. “Wow! This article got 6,000 shares when we originally released it. This hot topic is even hotter now…” Not only are you recycling your content, but you are showing your audience how well-received your work can be. Your popularity can actually increase your popularity!
Reddit and Quora are both invaluable resources for any brand in 2018. User-generated content sites like these are one of the hottest ways for brands to get noticed, and the technique is very simple. On both sites, users are generally looking to ask or answer questions. If you can provide them with a valuable answer, and link to your previous content at the same time, this is a huge win. Not only will your content get a click and hopefully a read, your work will be more likely to be linked to someone else. Your visibility as a brand gets a definite boost.
Similarly, you can use this strategy by posting links to your older content in response to another brand’s content, both directly in the comments section or on one of their platforms. The trick is to only do this if your link will actually bring value to those reading this particular article. For example, if an article touches on the four most-important SEO strategies, but you’ve got a fifth, let their audience know what it is.
Undoubtedly, your readers will skip some of your emails. Shocking, I know. Send them a reminder email and see if they bite. Link to your older content, letting them know you think it could be of value to them and that they really don’t want to miss out.
If you can, send this mail directly to your most high-value subscribers with a personal note so they know they aren’t just one of your thousands of readers.
In the case of your most valuable content, which can include e-books, guides or pillar posts, you can make it part of your email signature. Those you communicate with each day will get the repeated message to click that link. The urge will be unbearable in some cases. And once they do, if what they find is valuable and relevant, they’ll be sharing it to their lists before you get an answer to your email.
You probably know by now that guest posting is an important part of any brand’s content strategy. It serves multiple purposes and one that you may not have thought of is to promote your content. Not only will adding a link to your older content add value to your guest post, it will be a natural and non-deceptive way to get readers clicking to your site.
Can’t think about something new to write? Take inventory of your current content offerings and give your readers a comprehensive roundup of all of your related posts on a topic. What’s even more awesome about this is that in doing so, you can also link these to your current pillar pages, effectively creating a topic and sub-topic cluster that will excite the search engines.
You know you’ve got something important to say, or you wouldn’t be trying to re-share your previous content. Why not say it in a different way? Create a short 60-second video espousing the most important points of your article, with a link to check out the full version of the content added in. Infographics are not only engaging, they are the perfect way to sum up the most important facts you are trying to get across.
Finding a new use for your old content is a very budget-friendly and effective way to show your audience that you are a thought leader, without constantly having to come up with something new to say. By re-sharing your previous articles, you’ll be sure that you are squeezing every bit of juice out of that lemon and making it into a very delicious lemonade (just don’t share the recipe!).
