Whether you’re a small law firm that doesn’t have huge support functions (or a huge budget to outsource them) or a big hitter which does, working smarter not harder is always a sensible goal – who doesn’t want to be as efficient as possible or, even better, get something for nothing!? Repurposing your content will ensure it reaches as big an audience as is possible and there are lots of easy ways to do this.
What’s wrong with re-cycling?
In an age where we are all a bit more conscious about the environment, re-cycling should be second nature in every aspect of our lives. So why should there be a professional reticence around re-using carefully crafted content?
I know from experience the time and effort that goes into producing content for my own website and newsletter. But it’s well worth the effort – compelling content will build profile, drive traffic to your website, impress clients and generate leads. When considerable resource goes into creating content, there is no shame in wanting to extract as much value as possible out of every word! In a recent survey, 60% of marketing teams said they re-used their content between two and five times but, I think, with a little more thought, it could be even more.
Reasons to repurpose
The last few years has seen an insatiable appetite for content, with new platforms springing up, demanding a presence and new technology going mainstream. Getting lawyers to continually feed this beast, on top of their day jobs, isn’t always possible (or desirable). As internal budgets are likely to come under increasing strain, repurposing your law firm content could be a great way to keep costs down and profile up.
What not to do
There is a feeling that perhaps this is cheating and, I want to be clear that I am not advocating simply posting the same item across different media. For one thing, Google will smell a rat if you do! What I am suggesting is getting multiple uses from your initial effort with very little additional work. This broadly involves separating out a single piece of content into different formats.
Some tips on repurposing
Here are my ideas for using your content more than once:
- Video and podcasts : turn blogs, speeches or seminar scripts into videos and upload them on YouTube or another video-sharing platform. In the same way, could blogs and articles be turned into a podcast series? Remember that podcasts and videos can bring a dry topic to life and may well attract a different type of audience. Make sure to share the videos or podcasts across your social media platforms.
- Review conference speeches, webinar and seminar slides and see if any would make good themes for a blog or even for the press.
- Extract facts or statistics from your blogs and turn them into a series of Twitter tweets or posts on Instagram.
- Collate monthly blogs and include them in an e-newsletter for those who missed them first time round.
- Ensure that all media coverage (quotes, byline articles, interviews on radios or podcasts) are posted on your website, on social media platforms and referenced in external and internal newsletters.
- If you have written a best practice piece for a sector specific business title, can you repurpose it for another sector title? For example, a piece written for a general SME audience may also work for a tech title.
- Restructure an article or blog into FAQs, a “how to” piece or, a first person “top tips” Vlog, blog or podcast.
- Review evergreen content, i.e., that which is not tied to breaking news such as a judicial decision, update and reuse it. For example, blogs hooked to National Awareness Day can be updated on an annual basis.
In conclusion
We all need to get into the habit of asking, how else can I use this content? Much of the audience we would like to reach is time poor, and everyone has their own preferences when it comes to absorbing information – increasingly many people prefer to listen to a podcast or watch a video than read a blog. Repurposing your content into as many formats as possible increases coverage and gives you the best chance of being heard.
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