Even the most niche-oriente business owner has heard it: content is king. Yet, the truth is that only engaging valuable content is the most effective, and it is precisely this type of valuable content that takes the most resources to create. While every big box store enjoys the advantage of having an entire content marketing team at its disposal, local businesses operate on much more modest budgets, with some hanging on for years before the business owner even begins cutting himself or herself a check. As a rule, however, it is these smaller local businesses who stand to gain the most from effective content marketing. Fortunately, where there is a will there is a way, and for local businesses the way when it comes to affording to make full use of content marketing is to create quality engaging content once and then put it to work again and again. And yet, the majority of content that any business creates is only used once. Why should they change course? Consider the following:
- Recycling materials that already exist takes less work than starting from scratch
- Reusing content effectively succeeds in engaging the target audience again and again
- Turning existing content into something new expands the arsenal of marketing materials available to a small business
- New formats can succeed in presenting information to more people, since different people prefer consuming information in different ways
In order to get the most bang for every marketing buck, it is essential that every piece of content that a business makes an investment in creating is great content. What makes content great for a local business? Aim for content that:
- Presents the unique perspective that business brings to the table
- Is relevant to the business’s target market
- Is accurate and up-to-date
Assuming that every piece of content a business creates is valuable, should a local business decide what to repurpose? By looking at analytics to determine which pieces of content have performed the best. Information that is popular in one format is likely to prove popular in another. When making the decision about what to recycle, consider content that has received the most of the following:
- Likes
- Re-shares
- Traffic
Once a local business has made a decision about what content is worth recycling, there are myriad ways to transform that content. Here are 3 ways to consider.
1. Compile instructive blog posts into an e-book. A business’s blog often comprises the bulk of its content arsenal. Collect the posts that are informative or instructive into an e-book geared toward new readers. Create perceived value by offering the e-book only to site users who share an email address, or publish it as a book or audiobook through a publisher or by means of self-publishing. This can serve the dual purposes of monetizing content and establishing the business and those who run it as industry experts.
2. Post a webinar on YouTube. Putting on a webinar takes a lot of work, and while that work can pay off in the form of new leads and establishing authority, once it is over it is over. There is no reason that has to be the case. Most of the information shared in many webinars is evergreen and will remain useful long after the webinar has ended. Capture audiences that were not engaged the first time around by starting a business YouTube channel and posting valuable webinars to that channel. A particularly long webinar can even be posted as multiple videos in a series over time, generating viewer loyalty and demand and increasing views.
3. Produce a podcast. This is one field of content in which many a niche finds little competition. Turning high-performing content into a podcast allows local businesses to deliver information to consumers who are on-the-go, whether while on the train to work, while jogging before breakfast or while waiting at the airport for a flight. To target even those consumers with the least time to spare, content can be broken into multiple short podcasts rather than one long audio.
If you want to position your local business for success on the web, you must have an effective content marketing plan in place. Dialed In Web can help you master your content strategy to get more customers, grow your business and improve your bottom line.
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