So, of course, because you follow this blog, you’ve already been working on your content calendar (to reduce stress!)  and now you’re not just planning your content but you’re getting ready to follow through. We want that to be easier, and this post is about how to create content once and let it work for you a lot!

From One, Many

In its most efficient and effective form, content can be created once and then utilized in a number of places in slightly different ways. The goal is to maximize your content so you’re creating less and using it more. Thinking this way frees you to create better content less often but allows more people access to that content by presenting it across multiple channels.

The Month In Review: A Fictitious Business Example

Filene has a cleaning business and uses her website as a knowledge base in order to increase awareness of her expertise, including a blog where she posts articles. She writes four posts each month. A cleaning product review, a before and after story, a promotion or call to action for her business, and one post that contains three tips on cleaning a specific place, item, or category of things.

Maximization of Resources

Today Filene is writing about cleaning stainless steel in a residential home. In this case, she’s doing a “three tips” post and this is what her content maximization could look like.

You could do all or just some of these – or have other places you’d post your content that’s not listed here – there is no one-size-fits-all.

She’ll first write the content as a plain document and then she’ll work on using all of it to its greatest reach and potential.

• Video: Filene does a quick show-and-tell of her methods covering what she’s writing about in the article, adding it to the article on her website for the people who like video better. (Video may not work for all Filene’s content, but it’s great for this one!)
• Website short-term: Featured content as a website post on the blog
• Website long-term: Evergreen content on stainless steel for the knowledge base
• Email list: Email sent to “cleaning tips and hints” subscribers on her email list with the content and a link to the website where they can bookmark it
• Facebook: Share the post from the website, linking back to the site to read the full story
• Twitter: Each of the three hints is dolled out on Twitter with links to the article on the website provided
• Pinterest: Filene has a business account where she posts her cleaning tips one at a time, as she does with Twitter, with a link back to her website and the full article for each one
• YouTube: Show and tell video filmed on her phone, posted to her business YouTube channel with a link back to her website, and on social media
• LinkedIn: Since this is about residential clients and not commercial ones, Filene may or may not choose to post her content on LinkedIn
• Local Paper: Filene has a “tips” article once a month which features this same content, published in the local paper

Wow! That’s a lot of outreach from only one piece of content, eh? She only had to think about her content once, create the main content once, but she will get lots of mileage out of it.

Finding the Perfect Mix

Filene could choose to only post twice a month on her set topics, and then push out to different social channels each week, based on the success of her content. By looking at her website analytics and assessing how her business is going (Are people reaching out to her? Is her business getting busier?) she’ll know which methods are reaching the right people in the right places.

There’s always a little trial and assessment in the process, so check your analytics and revisit your plan regularly to be sure that things are moving the way you want.

And, if you need help with your content strategy, we’re here to help!