5 ways to extend the life of your content
TRANSCRIPT
5 Ways to Extend the Life of Your Content
I’m Ryan
@ryan_axford
and I work here, at Falafel Software, managing our global marketing efforts
There’s a few things to know about Falafel
We have 3 major product types, all of which have entirely different segments
Some are products, some are services
That can get confusing sometimes, and it also requires a lot of work to build content for all those services and products
So how do we do it?
We make the most of what we have by extending the shelf life for as long as possible.
What is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing is the promotion of targeted content created to educate the customer before they buy, while they trial, and after they purchase.
The more a lead knows about your product, and the more they believe you know what you’re talking about, the more likely they are to purchase.
The better they understand your product, the longer they’ll be a customer.
Let’s say you’re buying marketing automation software.
Company A has a blog, a great website, lots of eBooks to download, and best of all great how-to videos on exactly how marketing automation can help you make money.When you call their sales team, they can point you to specific examples of how they can assist you.
Company B has a great sales team who is happy to answer everything about their product, but their value statement is lacking.
They just don’t have much material on why you need what they’re selling.
Who would you buy from?
Great content drives better search engine results, effectively known as SEO.
Content marketers are in a constant battle to produce the most content, and the best content.
Google sits somewhere in the middle with its Panda and Penguin algorithms – like another terrible Ford commercial saying, “Quality AND Quantity!”
On average, your tweet lasts 18 minutes.
http://moz.com/blog/when-is-my-tweets-prime-of-life
If one tweet can’t stay alive longer than 18 minutes, how are you going to keep your audience engaged?
While your content team is finding a way to eat, sleep, research, write, edit and publish at the same time, here are some things you can do to get the most out of their hard work.
Build a content library
Once you’ve started to produce content, keep a library of all of it.
eBooks
webinarswhitepapers
infographics
videos interviews
slideshares
Provide fantastic descriptions and use images of eBook covers, and even some social sharing as well.
In the past, I’ve seen eBook downloads increase from the website by 8x.
And that was just in a month or so.
Now you can have a year old eBook generate new leads every day without lifting a finger.
Utilize paid media outlets
Content =
You can have in-house writers, external writers, use outside companies or just contractors
So if you’re spending money on content, why not spend some money to promote it?
There are a plethora of companies that will send their audience your content for a price.
It’s a bit of trial and error, but the most important thing is to...
know your audience.
And always be testing.
The content you send must be as relevant as possible to that audience, otherwise you’ve wasted money.
Some audiences will respond better to an eBook and others an infographic.
Always gate the content, and always have a dedicated ‘no index, no follow’ landing page to track your ROI.
Either way,
Repurposing
Let’s say you’ve just spent $2,000 on a 2000 word eBook. Now you have the content, and you’re sending it to your email list (not paid).
What’s next?
1. Explore paid media for the eBook
1. Explore paid media for the eBook2. Create four 500 word blog posts
1. Explore paid media for the eBook2. Create four 500 word blog posts3. Create a Slideshare deck covering the contents of the eBook
1. Explore paid media for the eBook2. Create four 500 word blog posts3. Create a Slideshare deck covering the contents of the eBook4. Add the eBook to your resource page
1. Explore paid media for the eBook2. Create four 500 word blog posts3. Create a Slideshare deck covering the contents of the eBook4. Add the eBook to your resource page5. Write a guest post on a marketing blog highlighting the eBook
1. Explore paid media for the eBook2. Create four 500 word blog posts3. Create a Slideshare deck covering the contents of the eBook4. Add the eBook to your resource page5. Write a guest post on a marketing blog highlighting the eBook6. Hold a webinar and capture the registrants as leads
7. Split the webinar into a handful of videos for your website
7. Split the webinar into a handful of videos for your website8. Add the webinar to your resource page
7. Split the webinar into a handful of videos for your website8. Add the webinar to your resource page9. Later, follow up by sending those who
7. Split the webinar into a handful of videos for your website8. Add the webinar to your resource page9. Later, follow up by sending those who didn’t open the first email the webinar10. For those who complete the form for the webinar, have a secondary offer to
7. Split the webinar into a handful of videos for your website8. Add the webinar to your resource page9. Later, follow up by sending those who didn’t open the first email the webinar10. For those who complete the form for the webinar, have a secondary offer to download the eBook11. Add the eBook to your automated drip
Build an automated drip
As you get new leads, they are added to a database
This database needs to be nurtured. Assume that if they download one type of content, they’re likely interested in getting other similar things.
So as you build new content, add that content to the drip, nurture your leads, and turn them into customers.
Have a true social media strategy
Having a social media strategy is far bigger than what you’re sharing and when
Let’s just focus on the repurposing side of things so we can build a plan for sharing your content way down the line.
When the content is fresh, test different tweets. Use the title as one tweet, and a description as the other.
Test in different variations on different days at different times and take note of what works best.
Then while that data is fresh in your mind, schedule posts out far down the road with the winners.
You should only be automating what you know works in your social networks.
If you’re not, you’re just a spammer.
To recap
Build a content library
Use paid media sends to maximize your audience
Repurpose your content in every way
Build your company an automated drip
Build a social media strategy to help the content live forever
