How to make a piece of content go further

Against my better judgement, I am going to begin this article with some well known, perhaps cliched, phrases as all will become clear as you read on…

‘Don’t reinvent the wheel’ and ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – make it work for you’. I added that last part as it encapsulates the topic of today’s blog; how to make a piece of content go further by deconstructing it and using all the resources available to you to allow it to fulfil its full potential.

As a business, you will want to be seen in as many places as possible to:

1. maximise your exposure to your audience
2. for your search engine ranking and credibility

This is where you need to do some out of the box thinking, if you will, and imagine what you are trying to do is similar stretching a food budget.  As some of you will be probably be start-ups or small businesses the chances of you having a large budget at your disposal are slim, but that’s o.k. as these tips will help you get “more for your money”.

You’ll remember last week I said that the purpose of a search engine is to direct the user to the most relevant content based on their query, and the most relevant content is that which is easily consumed, sought after and shareable,  and that solves the user’s problem.

When providing content your aim is to be found, be valuable and be shared.  In order to give yourself the best chance of succeeding at this you will need to be accommodating as not everyone has the same needs.

I was asked the other day how I learned and retained information, was it through watching a video or reading a piece of text?  Good question, I thought, show me both and I will tell you…

And this is where you need to turn one piece of content into many channels of deployment in order to capture the attention of an ever exacting public.

First of all, you need to ask yourself the question “what is my most valuable offering”?, followed quickly by “how do I currently promote and advertise this offering?”.

Below is a list that you can use to tick off your current activity and see where you are missing a trick.  Most businesses will do two or three, some maybe even up to six, but not many are doing them all, or are even sure why they are doing them and what they can gain from using different channels.

• Infographic – this can be shared
• Tweets – these can also be shared
• Facebook posts – and these can be shared too
• Youtube video with a snippet of a webinar – Yup, you guessed it, you can share these as well
• Full webinar – in exchange for an email address so you can contact people in the future with more relevant content
• Downloads – again, in exchange for an email address so you can contact people in the future with more relevant content
• Newsletter – and once more, in exchange for an email address so you can contact people in the future with more relevant content
• Blogs – these will serve as a go-to for more refined information of the same calibre that brought the visitor to you in the first place
• Regularly updated and relevant content – this will not only help your search engine ranking but serve as a reflection of your work ethic and knowledge
• Clear messages and call to actions – this will provide a great user experience that they will want to repeat

These methods cover the spectrum of communication and give you opportunities to offer as much or as little content as you wish, with or without the promise of getting more in exchange for an email address which will be a valuable tool for you to build a lasting relationship now that you know the type of thing your “visitor” came to you for.

One final thing, you’ll notice that all of the above are inbound marketing methods and that is because customers are becoming more discerning with their choices as there is, quite simply, so much choice out there.  As they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink – you can put content out there but if it isn’t good, it won’t be consumed.

Next week I will talk about the key factors to making a lasting impression through your content.