How to Squeeze More Value Out of Your Best Content However you choose to use content, there are two pivotal ingredients for your success.
By Timothy Carter Edited by Joseph Shults
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Content is a keystone of most modern digital marketing strategies. For some, it's a direct way to build an audience and improve a brand reputation. For others, it's a tool to boost search engine rankings and organic visibility.
However you choose to use content, there are two pivotal ingredients for your success. First, you have to study which pieces of content are most effective, then use your conclusions to improve your approach. Second, you have to find a way to get even more value out of your best content – the content already achieving popularity with your target audience.
How exactly do you do this?
The big picture
There are many ways to define content success, such as reaching a certain threshold of comments or shares or getting good reviews and feedback from readers. No matter what, your "best" content should be the content most likely to get you positive results, such as higher organic traffic or onsite conversions.
Related: 7 Reasons Why SEO Matters for Every Startup
Once you've decided which pieces of content represent your best work, you have a few primary options for getting more value out of it:
Transform. One option is to transform your content, such as by translating it to a different medium or republishing certain sections in new contexts.
Syndicate and promote. Another option is to push the content further, syndicating, advertising and otherwise promoting it to new audiences.
Make it work harder. You can also upgrade the content or change how you use it so it has a higher likelihood of generating the results you want.
Now let's take a look at some of the actionable tactics you can use to leverage these approaches.
Deconstruction or reconstruction
Consider deconstructing a massive post you've written or combining several small posts you've written. Deconstruction and reconstruction don't take long, but they can help you generate entirely different pieces of content. For example, if you've written a book, you can break each chapter out into its own blog post. Conversely, you can take a string of blog posts and edit them together to a more cohesive, comprehensive finished piece.
Writing for a new target audience
Does your business only cater to one specific target audience? Or do you have several market segments to reach? If you have multiple market segments, consider rewriting or reframing the article to better serve a different niche. For example, you could target someone at a different stage of the buying cycle, or someone of a higher or lower age.
Updating and revising
It's also not a bad idea to update or revise your work, especially if it's covering a topic that has changed recently or if your information is no longer up to date.
New information. The most straightforward option is to provide new information where relevant. This could mean updating the numbers you referenced with the latest statistics or providing a new opinion or new conclusion that you've come to.
New mediums. You can also transform the content by making it appropriate for a new medium. If it's a whitepaper, make it a podcast. If it's a blog post, turn it into a video. You will reach new audiences with the same content and not much extra effort.
Retrospective analysis. Revisit the statements you've made and conclusions you've drawn with an updated perspective. Were you right about the predictions you made? Why or why not?
Promotion and syndication
Promotion and syndication also present low-hanging fruit for maximizing your content value.
New channels. How much of your target audience is going untapped? You can reach a lot more people by investing in new channels for promotion, such as new social media platforms or new publishers.
Recirculation. Just because you've already promoted a piece doesn't mean you're forbidden from promoting it in the future. Repost your best work on a set schedule to keep it fresh and continuously introduce new people to it.
Advertising. You can also tap into new forms of advertising, or simply increase your advertising budget. While this can be an expensive option, it's also extremely reliable for generating new interest.
Adding value
How do you add value to your existing content?
Presentations. Don't just let your readers passively consume your content; actively present it to them. Seminars, webinars and workshops are great ways to get more value out of any individual piece. You can even charge for these interactive experiences and set up a separate line of revenue.
Workbooks and curricula. You can also make your content more engaging and more profitable by turning them into workbooks or curricula, as long as you're educating your readers on a particular topic.
Related: How to Plan Your Curriculum as a Digital Coach
Premium content. Make your content more attractive by adding a professionally designed title and packaging it to look more prestigious. You can offer this premium content to your readers in exchange for their personal information, or even sell it for a few extra bucks per download. If your content is already performing well while free, you can almost guarantee at least some revenue from it directly.
Related: How Content Creation and Content Curation Should Work Together
Additionally, better understanding your "best" content helps you identify the topics, styles and angles that best resonate with your target audience. The more pieces you identify and analyze, the better you'll be at coming up with new ideas in the future. As long as you're willing to continue investing, experimenting and growing, there's practically no limit to what you can achieve with your content.
