When you pour your heart and soul into writing an article that really hits the mark in providing solid value for your target audience, it's sad to think of it only getting one chance to shine in the world. But that's exactly what happens for so many entrepreneurs who write articles as a strategy to build relationships, trust and credibility with prospective clients.
Maybe you send the article out in your monthly newsletter. Maybe you post it on your blog, if you have a blog. Maybe you post it to your website.
What a waste of your brilliance to only use it once!
Here is just a sampling of the many ways you can leverage your content in an integrated marketing strategy. This will not only keep you on the minds of your prospective customers, it will fuel your own creativity to think of more and more ways to play off that one original article.
25 ways to re-use a great article
- Put the words in a different order (explore your topic from another perspective and write another article about it)
- Read the article out loud and make a podcast (Audio Acrobat is a handy tool for this)
- Interview someone else about your topic (e.g., an expert, a colleague, a client)
- Create a poll about the topic (ask your blog readers and social networks to answer)
- Ask questions about your topic on your social networking sites
- Send the article out in a newsletter to your mailing list
- Post the article to your blog
- Link to your blog post on your social networks (you can set this up to happen automatically)
- Print your article out as a handout (add photos, graphics and your logo and contact information)
- Submit your article to a general article directory (e.g., EzineArticles)
- Submit your article to a targeted article directory (e.g., Coach Spotlight)
- Submit your article as a guest post to someone else's blog
- Present a tele-seminar about the topic
- Present a workshop about the topic
- Combine these words with other great words you've written and share them online (e.g., as an e-book or home study program)
- Combine these words with other great words as a printed book
- Create an actionable worksheet about the topic
- Start a debate about the topic (post a provocative statement to your social networks)
- Challenge another blogger to a duel (find someone with an opposing view and ask them to write about it)
- Send the article to clients or prospective clients who ask you about the topic
- Select some key words or phrases from your article and make them into a slideshow (add some photos and turn it into an online video)
- Discuss the topic in front of your webcam (and turn it into an online video)
- Create a diagram out of the topic (give your readers a visual map to follow of the topic)
- Make a word picture out of your article (http://www.wordle.net/)
- Link a song (http://blip.fm/) or movie to your topic and share the connection with your social network
Please don't be limited by these 25 things, my friend. Go forth and turn your content into new and wonderful solutions for the people you serve.
[Update December 31, 2012 – This article was originally posted on the snap! va marketing blog, until Karri Flatla moved on to a new career.]