Phil Cooke

Tips For Content Development: The Art of Repurposing

This is a really great article to read:

Phil Cooke

by Nancy Langmeyer
http://newsletter.imninc.com/e_article000519851.cfm?x=b6Frm6F,b1d4GF0m

As a freelance writer, I have been working with IMN for several years, both on their own e?newsletter, as well as several of their clients’ publications.  Besides writing and editing, I also develop editorial calendars and one of the biggest challenges that I share with almost every other e?newsletter publisher is the constant and perpetual quest for content.

There is no doubt about it – publishing an e?newsletter with content that is interesting and attention grabbing, issue after issue, can be a daunting task.  But I’ve learned a few tricks along the way and one of the easiest tricks is repurposing.

The Art of Repurposing

I have found repurposing to be a godsend, especially for those e?newsletters where I need just one more article to round out an editorial list for a particular issue.

What exactly is repurposing, you might ask?  The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines the verb “repurpose” as:  “to use or to convert for use in another format or product.”  From the perspective of an e?newsletter publisher, there are many sources of information that can be easily converted into a format that works well in e?newsletters.

I have my favorites, many of which I’m sharing with you below.  Some are obvious and you probably already use them…and others, well, you might just not have thought of them before.

I’ve divided the following options into two categories:  Direct, where you can typically ‘use’ 80% or more of the content as is, and Indirect, where you can ‘convert’ information from various sources and incorporate it into a new article.  With each suggestion, I’ve included a Quick Tip on what to look out for when you repurpose and how to best make it work for you.

Direct Re?Use

Here are some repurposing ideas that will need very little or no editing.

• Published Articles. Most likely, there is someone in your company, whether it’s your president or a technical guru, who has published a bylined paper, article, or opinion somewhere.  You can use these articles in your e?newsletter, with permission from the publication.  For example, IMN’s CEO David Fish wrote an article for DIRECT Magazine that you see in this issue, word-for-word as it was originally published in DIRECT’s November 9, 2005 issue.

  Quick Tip: If the article is lengthy (more than 700 words), I would recommend that you publish an excerpt and then link to the full article at its original source, or link to a PDF on your own website.

• Industry Articles. Along the same thinking as the suggestion above, often times there are articles in industry publications that either quote someone in your company or that would be of interest in a general sense to your subscribers.  These also can be published in your e?newsletter, with permission.Quick Tip: If someone in your company is quoted within an article, do a careful evaluation of the quote.  In other words, make sure it is positive and puts your company’s best foot forward.  Also check to see if your competitors are quoted.  If the competition shines just as much or more than your company, you may not want to use that particular article.

Indirect Usage

With these sources below, you will need to do some ‘converting’ but they are great as starting points or cornerstones for articles.

• Research Data and Industry Information. One thing that I search for when looking for content is meaningful research and industry data from well-respected sources.  I look for market trends, forecasts, or insights on challenges within the industry.  For instance, IMN recently made podcasting available to their e?newsletter customers.  Did you know that by the year 2010, industry sources expect more than 56.8 million people to use podcasting?  That compares to less than 1 million in 2004.  These numbers are from a study by the Diffusion Group entitled “Podcasting as an Extension of Portable Digital Media.”  Studies like this are often free and provide a tremendous amount of data that can be used as support in an article that you or someone from your company authors.  This particular report was not free, but the facts above were widely published, so I can use them within an IMN article, as long as I attribute the data to the source as I did above.  While not a direct repurpose, research like this can become a cornerstone of a powerful article that relates directly back to your products and services.  Industry sources of such data are plentiful – you can find them by either subscribing to public
  ations within your industry (which is where I found the podcasting facts) or you can do a Google search on the topic and you will most likely find several industry sources with information that you can use.

  Quick Tip: Make sure you source your information and, depending on your source and the data you want to publish, you may want to check any applicable copyright laws.

• Marketing Materials. Most companies produce a ton of marketing materials.  White papers, case studies, conference speeches, and user group or webinar presentations offer a plethora of good fodder for e?newsletter articles.  Most of these will take some editing, but they are worth it.  And because they often have a lot of information in them, you may even be able to create a series of articles.Quick Tip: Keep in mind that these documents were produced for other mediums.  They may be written in a promotional style versus the informative, straightforward style of an e?newsletter.  You may need to massage and/or edit these materials in order for them to become reader friendly e?newsletter articles.
• Other Internal Publications.  In this category, you’ll need to put your creative thinking cap on, for these are sources that you would not think of as typical input for an e?newsletter article.  The premise here is that your company has many resident “experts” right within its own walls.  If your company publishes an employee newsletter or if there are occasional memos from the executives in your company that you find interesting, think about how you can repurpose the information in these for your subscribers.  Your CEO has a strategy for the way in which your company will go to market versus the competition that he has included in a sales kick off meeting.  Your tech support and customer service personnel may have a repository of frequently asked questions that revolve around the day-to-day concerns of your customers.  Or, your R&D department may release a schedule of product enhancements.  While much of this information might be confidential since it is very company-specific, you could go to the author of the document and find out if any of it can be made public, either partially or in total.  As an example, you may be able to publish the fact that your company is going to introduce a certain technology, but it may be too early to publish details or release dates.  Telling your prospects and customers that you are committed to that technology may get them more interested in your company, or increase their loyalty.Quick Tip: Before publishing internal documents externally, make sure you have 100% commitment from the powers-that-be on the final draft of the article so that you’re not prematurely announcing anything or giving out trade secrets.

Well, there you have it – my secrets to the art of repurposing!  Since the sources for this kind of content are limitless, I’m sure you’ve thought of your own unique ways to repurpose information that’s come across your desk – please share them with me below…and I’ll in turn share them with IMN’s readers in a future article!

Nancy Langmeyer of The Write Words is a freelance writer and a member of the Informed Marketer News team.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 4:10 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.