If you have great content, why not reuse it? Often people think that once content has been created and shared, that’s it, time to move on to the new piece of marketing content. The reality is that most people aren’t seeing the content you share the first time, the second time, or even the third time. The channels that most marketers use to share their content consist of:
- Major social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+)
- Email to customers and/or prospects
- Corporate websites (and blog if they have one)
- Paid advertising
The question you need to ask yourself is, do you see every Facebook post, Tweet, or LinkedIn status update that is posted throughout the day? How many emails from marketers do you read every day? How often do you go to the site of company whose product or service you use or are considering using? How often do you click on a banner ad?
Facebook optimistically estimates that about 16% of your fans will see your posts. Depending on your industry you may get a 15%-20% open rate on emails and still fewer clicks. Banners ads with a click through rate of 0.5% are considered a great success. Can you see the trend? Only a minority of people are seeing the majority of the content you are putting out there.
The Answer
The answer is simple: Share your content in all the usual places, then re-share, re-share, and re-share again. If you shared that great new white paper on Monday to all your social media channels, share it again on Friday, then share it again the following week, then share it again two weeks later, and then a month after that. You will be getting it in front of people who missed it without really bothering those who have already consumed it or decided to ignore it the first time (you may even convert them too). Additionally, as you add more people to your social channels and email lists, and get new visitors to your site, you will want to expose them to all the great content you have created. (An added bonus: for those slow days when you may not have something to post, you can easily re-share something from the past.)
You are taking the time to create content for your customer and prospects, so give your business the best chance to get it seen. Recycle that content and make sure you are getting the widest possible audience to consume it.