Content Marketing Trifecta: How to Repurpose, Reuse & Refresh Content – Intel’s @PamDidner at #C2C14

We all know the importance of creating original content, but the reality is, it’s hard.

Out of necessity many content marketers have developed their skills at “re-imagining” (h/t Ann Handley) their content to extend the life and value it can deliver.

Beyond the value extension of content through repurposing is the function of personalizing content for different markets and using a modular approach to segmenting useful information for specific audience targeting. Reusing content is efficient and it’s also effective when architected through a smart strategy that sees beyond simply publishing the same thing 3 ways.

At the B2B Content2Conversion conference in New York this week, my friend Pam Didner (Global Integrated Marketing Strategist at Intel) gave an excellent presentation on repurposing content.

Before you repurpose, reuse, and refresh content there are a few things to think about first.

Personas: �Who is your audience?Editorial: �What topics will you use to engage with them?Content: �What materials to use to engage with them?

It’s essential to know who you are creating and repurposing content for in order to create a more useful experience for buyers and to be more effective as a marketer. A few ways you can better understand your target audience include:

Buyer researchSeller interviewsKeyword researchSocial listening – sysomosDirect observations

Intel created a CTO persona for sales engagement, but �marketing’s focus is on IT Managers. The CTO persona is used to help educate the sales team on how to talk to CTOs.�For marketing, the focus is not on the CTO, but on IT Managers. As a result, the targets for sales and marketing will probably need slightly different content. For customer targeting and persona’s it’s important to see the difference in who marketing and sales need to connect with.

In the case of Intel, the persona they created is global. How can you do that? Focus mostly on the commonalities across regions and countries for that segment.

When identifying personas, also include who their influencers are (roles, vendors, companies). �A good persona provides insight for content ideation, creation and marketing.

Creating Personas:

NamePersonal profileJob descriptionChallenges or desiresContent needsPreferred media to receive information

How Personals Provide Insight into Editorial Planning

Pain pointsKeyword researchJobs descriptionAttributesDesiresUsed to brainstorm content

Be focused, but understand you cannot please everyone. Say �no� with a plate of cookies.

Editorial Topics & Content Continuum. Talk about content that relates to what customers care about relevant to your products and services. When you have to create a large amount of content, start with broad topics. Find a balance between content that is helpful and content that sells.

Yearly – StrategicMonthly – StrategicWeekly – Social and Paid TacticsDaily – Social and Paid TacticsHourly – Social and Paid Tactics

And example would be to create a calendar of topics and overlay a calendar of events (if your company is active with events) as triggers for content topics.

Select content planning tools:

Divvy HQGather ContentKapostCompendium (Now Oracle Marketing Cloud)WordPressTrelloOpal Moments

An example��of�repurposing content

One 18 page white paper can be repurposed as:

1 podcast interview author1 shor video animationw white board video5 short blog posts3 infographics1 presentation

For social media – break down long form content into smaller pieces for social sharing.

Another example of “Hero Content” that is repurposed was the Sophisticated Marketer�s Guide to LinkedIn.

BTW, this campaign won a Killer Content Marketing Award at the conference! Congratulations to Jason Miller, Deanna Lazzaroni and the team at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions as well as�the agency teams (including�TopRank Marketing‘s work with the eBook) that produced this amazing campaign.

Elements of this campaign included a consistent visual them repurposed in multiple formats for multiple specific audiences:

eBookInfographicsWebinarPresentationsPrint bookBlog postsGlobal versions of the eBook�in�different languagesVertically specific versions – CMO’s, Healthcare, Event Marketing, etc

This was done over a period of months

Repurposing content�is time consuming and it can be expensive. With no budget, you need to wear multiple hats�and you’ll need to get partner support.

Resources to find freelancers:

fiverrtenrrscripted

Takeaways:

1. Evaluate your content, start with promotion in mind
2. It takes time, budget and effort to repurpose, reuse and repackage. You must�prioritize!
3. Create a RRR (repurpose, reuse, refresh) plan.
Start with flagship content�and connect the dots by pulling in materials form different pieces of content.

Here’s Pam’s full presentation below and a blog post as well (see how she practices what she’s preaching?).

How is�your company incorporating repurposing content in your content marketing planning? Have you seen any great brand examples of reimagined, repurposed, reused and refreshed content?

Graphic: Shutterstock