Take a look below at the graph of Content Marketing Challenges from emarketer.com, but don’t take too long because the first two challenges tell almost the whole story: by far the largest issues facing content marketers are:
- Finding time for content marketing, and
- Creating original content
That’s the bad news and, as content marketers know, it’s not really news.
The good news is you can solve both of these problems with a single tactic. Improve your content mileage, or get more use from your content, and you will reduce the need to create more and, as a direct result, the time needed to create it.
Here’s a few ideas to get you started on improving your content mileage:
1. Put More of Your Content to Work – Presumably the idea of spreading content across a variety of digital channels and social media is an already part of your content strategy. When you post a blog entry, it should be tweeted, posted to Facebook, linked to from bookmarking sites, etc..
But, considering the time and effort you put into a relevant, well-written blog post, you need to get more from it than that.
Look closely at the blog post. Each paragraph or sentence has the potential to be the subject of a separate tweet, post or bookmark. And who are you to deny that potential? A decent blog post can be the source of a different tweet/post everyday for a week or more.
Now imagine how much more content mileage you can get out of a whitepaper, ebook or infographic.
(Want to see increased content mileage in action? I will use the content of this blog as the subject of a unique tweet, at least once a day, for at least a week, starting today, June 25, 2012. Please follow and re-tweet the hashtag #ContentMPG)
2. Find New Sources of Original Content – The thought of creating content usually brings dreadful visions of coming up with ideas, researching them, developing them, creating them, proofing them, posting and tracking. All tasks burdensome enough to be put off to another day.
New, original content is all around us, ready to go, but we don’t see it as such and we fail to take advantage.
Especially in ecommerce, a sector full of images, reviews and sales figures, there’s lots of low-hanging, fresh content fruit waiting to be picked.
You may need to go a little bit outside the box, but once you do, it’ll be easy. A product shoot for example. You’re doing it anyway and you’ll likely have some time during set-ups, etc.. In addition to being images for your site, each photo or the shoot itself is potentially content for your digital marketing. For example:
- Post images to Instagram and/or Pinterest as they are shot
- Check In on FB or Foursquare and quickly post an update
- Ask your customers for images they’d like to see
One photo shoot, countless original content opportunities. A sporting goods manufacturer we work with more than doubled their previous high Reach numbers on Facebook with a single “sneak peek” image from a recent catalogue shoot.
3. Amplify mentions of your business or products – Many ecommerce sites let shoppers rate and/or review products. Hopefully yours have received some positive mentions. If so, each mention is a very nice piece of new content created just for you.
Re-post positive mentions. Testimonials are powerful buying triggers, they’re not viewed as sales talk and there’s perhaps no easier way to get new content.
Want to go one better than that? Turn your negative reviews into positive content. Whether a complaint or dissatisfaction is well-founded or simply a misunderstanding, your response can have more of a positive effect than a straightforward testimonial.
There are lots of other ways to get more use from your content. A quick idea can snowball. The “sneak-peek” sporting goods image mentioned above also got more than the average number of comments, each of which could be a new content string.
It’s time to improve your content mileage.
