27 Ways to Reuse Blog Posts for Content Marketing

How to Up-cycle Blog Posts Into Effective Content Marketing

Earth Day aims to raise awareness for natural resources, by reusing and recycling products or up-cycling them into something new.  In terms of blogging, reusing blog posts translates to re-imagining the content from your blog posts into new forms of content marketing. It doesn’t mean copying since this would cause duplicate content issues for search optimization.

When developing your editorial calendar, maximize your content creation efforts by planning business blog posts and content marketing with related focus at the same time. Here are twenty-seven ways your business blog posts can be reused to increase your content creation’s effectiveness; categorized by owned media, social media and third party media. These suggestions can be used for personal, business (both B2B and B2C), not-for-profit and solopreneur blogs.

Owned media. These are media platforms under control of your organization.

1. Provide extended product descriptions. Enhance your online product catalog to encompass information covered in one or more blog posts.
2. Create a FAQ page to answer customers’ questions. Enhance your website with a FAQ page using content from blog posts focused on customers’ questions about your products and services. Source questions from customer service, social media and other customer touchpoints.
3. Provide recipes and/or patterns. Transform blog posts showing step-by-step instructions with photographs and/or videos into downloadable recipes or patterns. Include links to products in patterns and recipes.
4. Create engaging infographic eye candy. Incorporate relevant information from blog posts into highly shareable visuals.
5. Add blog posts to email and print newsletters. Blog posts can be used in full or as excerpts. To entice readers, add unique information to emailings you don’t offer elsewhere and don’t bombard them with promotions.
6. Compile an instruction manual. Show customers how to use your products based on blog post information. Incorporate useful photographs, videos and links, where appropriate.
7. Create custom magazines. Incorporate blog posts into custom magazines. Again, have a good mix of content.
8. Build a mobile app. Incorporate relevant how-to or other useful on-the-go information from your blog into a mobile or tablet app. Think about the information they want on a mobile device. It’s often complementary content.
9. Create a product catalog, either online or in print. Use blog posts to expand product descriptions and provide related information to entice prospects to read the catalog. Think magalog.
10. Produce in-store signage and handouts. To support sales, augment information available at your retail establishments. Incorporate it into product signs and handouts.
11. Create sales support materials. For more complex B2B sales, provide materials for your sales team in the form of correspondence that can be tailored and/or print or online brochures.
12. Plan a class. Create a stand-alone class from blog content. Given in-person classes, video education or webinars.
13. Develop conference handouts. Produce product and company related brochures using more engaging content from your blog. Provide company stories and product insights.
14. Write an ebook. Combine information from your blog with other content to engage prospects and customers. Incorporate new structure into your book. Leverage other methods of distribution.
15. Incorporate blog posts into your annual report. Give your annual report a human voice by including excerpts from your blog posts. Use interviews with your team and other company-related posts.

Social media. These options encompass the breadth of offerings from networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ to more targeted sites like Spiceworks, ITtoolbox and Ravelry.

1. Encourage readers to share blog posts on social media networks. Prominently post appropriate social sharing buttons to remind readers to share your blog posts with their social network.
2. Enable photograph, chart and graphic sharing (if appropriate). For bloggers who use lots of images, share them on Pinterest, Facebook and Flickr. If you own the rights to the images, allow readers to share them across a variety of social media networks and social sharing sites.
3. Distribute videos from your blog on YouTube. If your blog posts include original video content, then share it via YouTube to take advantage of its size and ranking as the second biggest search engine after Google
4. Create related, complimentary posts for Tumblr. Streamline your content creation with multiple related posts for different platforms.
5. Respond to customer inquiries on Q&A sites. Think Quora, LinkedIn Questions and YahooAnswers. Use blog posts with answers to customer questions to offer solutions on Q&A sites.
6. Write guest posts on other blogs. Extend your reach by writing a related piece for another blog. This helps build your audience and gets you a link back to your blog.
7. Post your presentations on slidesharing sites. Convert your blog posts into presentations, even if you never give them to a live audience.

Third party media. This consists of a combination of traditional media and newer digital options.

1. Create a social media friendly press release to attract media attention. Press releases are a form of content. Integrate links back to your blog and your website. Where appropriate include photographs and video, to enhance its allure.
2. Monitor HARO for media opportunities. Use your blog posts to respond to press inquiries through Help-A-Reporter-Out, a free service that matches journalists with information sources.
3. Write associated articles for media organizations. Share another perspective via an article or editorial on a third party media site. Draw on similar material to your blog posts.
4. Incorporate blog post information into presentations for conferences and events. Use these forums to expand your reach via real life events.
5. Collect blog material into a print book. While an old-fashioned media form, books provide offer a sense of authority. You can’t, however, just retro-fit your content into a book. The book must have a solid idea and structure as well as new and enhanced information.

Before you  create your blog content, think about how your posts can be reused for a variety of different content marketing offerings to help build your blog or business’ brand and extend your reach.

What other recommendations do you have for reusing your blog posts as other forms of content marketing?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles you may find of interest.

• 50 Questions To Determine Social Media Marketing Success
• Help no one reads my blog!
• Want to get your blog noticed? [Hint: It’s not just the content]

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/buenosaurus/3671215006/