You wouldn’t trade in your car at 10,000 miles, right? It’s still “new” with lots of life left. Same goes for content. Many of us PR pros and marketers assume the content we create is “old” just weeks after it publishes; that the only way we can keep the content stream fresh is to develop...
You wouldn’t trade in your car at 10,000 miles, right? It’s still “new” with lots of life left. Same goes for content. Many of us PR pros and marketers assume the content we create is “old” just weeks after it publishes; that the only way we can keep the content stream fresh is to develop more and different. Not so. Do you know its actual shelf life? Hint: it’s much longer than you might think.
Yes, tools and tactics change every day, but the fundamental challenges we’re addressing through content remains mostly the same. For example, a post I wrote on responsive web design more than three years ago still rings true – even more so – today. So, stop throwing away perfectly effective marketing content.
In his popular post “Content Shock,” Mark Schaefer wrote, “the amount of available web-based content is doubling every 9 to 24 months.” That was more than two years ago; the pace will surely continue to increase. And in a recent Forrester report on content marketing, Michael Brenner, NewsCred’s head of strategy, was quoted as saying, “Many large enterprises see that more than 50% of their content is going completely unused.” That’s a whole lot of time, energy and resources seemingly going to waste that isn’t having any impact – or even being read at all.
A true content strategy employs an effective mix of channels across the entire PESO (paid, earned, shared and owned) spectrum. The next time you have a great idea for a new piece of content, don’t stop there. Consider where the topic fits within the buyer’s journey (what challenge are we helping our audience solve?) and think about how to create complementary pieces to extend its shelf life. Tapping a mix of other blogging platforms (e.g., Medium and LinkedIn), engaging social media influencers and creating complementary visuals (e.g., video, infographics or slides) will all help increase reach and impact.
While molding your content for new platforms will undoubtedly take more time – and likely team members with different skills – the impact will be immense. So, before you rush to write that next blog post, consider ways to maximize the mileage of those you’ve already created. Just like your car, I promise your content has life well beyond its first 10K miles.
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