So you’re sitting at your desk infront of your computer and keep getting distracted…OOh look….there’s a squirrel! You are trying to find content to write, something meaningful to justify your company’s existence, something to demonstrate your relevance and expertise by publishing thoughtful and valuable content to educate, inspire, and entertain your target audience. but nothing is coming to mind…….another squirrel……..you keep getting distracted. What do you do? It happens to the best of us, you are not alone. So, how do you deal with it?
You get smarter with content creation!
Yes you could use Guest Bloggers but how about trying re-using old content turning it into something new and improved? Let’s start with one of your blog posts.
There’s likely to be posts in your archives that you never want to see the light of day again, or probably aren’t ones that can be used at certain times of the year, ie a post about Christmas at Easter time is simply not time appropriate. Find out which posts you like and are worthy of another airing! Then ask yourself:
- Who are you trying to reach?
- What topics are most relevant to this audience?
- Which posts got lots of attention first time round?
- Is the post time barred or is it still relevent?
- Is there more to be said, or more value to add?
So you’ve found your post, what do you do with it to make it fresh again?
- Turn it into an on-line course
Convert your blog posts into individual e-course modules. This can be an effective place to start with premium content. You can get ‘payment’ for the course by way of email addresses in exchange for access to it, thereby building your database in the process. Mix it up by adding quizzes and incentives for completing the course or referring someone in. Your aim here is to educate, not sell to.
2. Make it into an e-book
This may be a little intimidating but you could always get the help of a graphic designer to help you. Having said that it is easy to create an e-book in PowerPoint and convert it into a PDF or use ibooks. Focus on a friendly format that’s easy to read. Something that has eye-catching visual elements like photos, graphics, and quotes will make it reader friendly. You can put several posts together to make one e-book, you don’t have to just use one blog.
3. Video
Oh yes, we all know that Video is HUGE and definately the way forward. People are becoming lazy and would rather watch that read nowadays. You have a smartphone don’t you? Well use it to create a short 15 second video snippets, Summarise key points of you blog by imbedding your video into your post. Ask people who’ve read your post to give you a video interview of their point of view on your blog.
4. Infographic
Turn your blog into an infographic. This turns complicated subjects into easy to read data and actually will probably get shared 3 times more than the actual blog itself. Infographics are not as difficult to do as they used to be. If you don’t have someone to design one for you, try using tools such as Canva, Infogr.am and Piktochart
5. SlideShare
This is a LinkedIn tool and is best used with blog posts that have lots of visuals, lists, quotes, charts, and actionable, bullet-worthy takeaways. To get the most out of this platform make sure that you;
- Integrate images, video, audio narration, and even infographics
- Use keywords in your title and keyword section for SEO
- Entice readers with a catchy headline
- Backlink to valuable posts on your site
- Include a call to action
There are other ways to resurrect an old Blog other than those shown above, including going over your old blogs and see if there are posts that you can cover in more depth, is there an outdated article you can bring back to life but refresh using suggestions outlined above or check out the comments or questions section of an old blog and see if there is something there that may give you a topic inspiration!
If you think we can help you with any of the above or is there something we should have included that you use to beat Content Marketing Fatigue, please get in touch with Mark at Marknorthall.com or email mark@marknorthall.com