Content marketing is a never-ending process. As long as you need to get your customers’ attention, you always need to refine your content.
Every content marketer knows about the commitment it takes to create awesome content. It’s not about time and money, but the efforts it takes to create an amazing piece of content from abstract idea to completion. They who have experienced this process will understand how hard it is to create a great content that sells.
This is where the rule of three Rs (Reorganize, Rewrite, and Retire) comes in. Displayed as an attractive and easy to understand infographic, it is a set of re-evaluation point that you can follow to get the most out of your content marketing efforts. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the infographic below.
Every content marketer knows about the investment it takes to create awesome content. We’re not just talking about time and money, but the blood, sweat and tears it takes to create an amazing piece of content — from ideation to completion. So you know that after you’ve traveled that path, and created great content you don’t really want it to fall flat, like a soda left out on the counter.
This is where the 3 R’s of content marketing come in – they put the pop and fizzle back into your content and make sure each piece has a good, long shelf life. So, in order to get the most out of your content marketing efforts, keep the 3R’s in mind:
Reorganize: Pumping out solo pieces of content can be exhausting. Take a look at the content assets you already have, and those that you plan to create and ask yourself, “How can I reorganize this information?” Reorganization can mean creating an infographic from an ebook, a cheat sheet from a guide, you get the idea. But the essence of reorganize is to give your audience different ways to consume your content and to work smarter, not harder.
Rewrite: Inevitably you will create content that goes a bit stale – it could be the design, or some of the predictions, statistics, or technology moved on. One way to fix this is to rewrite your content. Before you begin, look at a piece of content with a critical eye to make sure it is worth investing more time to rewrite – was it high performing to start with? Once you have decided to rewrite, identify the aspects of the piece that make it stale and fix them; take out language that dates your piece, update old statistics, and get fresh quotes and contributions for Subject Matter Experts. Also, don’t underestimate the power of a simple design refresh.
Retire: Even with an eye towards extending the life of your content, even good content does not last forever. Content that is past its “expiration date” can be brand damaging, and effectively undo the good work your content did in the first place. In order to avoid keeping content around too long, ask yourself these questions: Is the content asset performing well? Does the content cite reports or ideas that are no longer accurate? Was the content created to support a particular moment in time that has now passed? And, most importantly, does my audience still care about this topic?