Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today we are going to talk about repurposing your content. It is the smartest way to make your marketing initiatives work harder for you.
Today’s Quote: The beauty behind content repurposing? You get more mileage out of your content, a higher impact, and all at a lower cost. In other words – more bang for your marketing dollar. Rebekah Radice
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Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
You probably hear it all the time. As a Virtual Assistant, you should be blogging.
You need to be posting on social media every day.
Your clients need to see you to know about you, and know that you can help them.
Many VAs struggle with creating content that helps to get their VA business in front of their audience.
I bet if you added up all the time you spend ‘marketing’, it’s more than 5 or 10 hours a week.
Are you getting clients from what you are doing?
If not then you need to make some changes to your strategy.
If you aren’t blogging, I’m going tonfirst suggest that you start … even thkugh it isn’t the only way you can create content.
There is really one main skill you need to develop to get lots of content created for your marketing.
It’s called repurposing content. Repurposing content quite simply means to reuse something you have already created in a slightly different way. I’ll explain how to do that.
First things first, usually the thing that stops you from creating content is not knowing what to write about.
VAs who say they hate to blog probably don’t hate to write – they just don’t know what to write about.
What To Write
To figure out what you need to write, you first need to know what your audience wants to read about, or learn.
If you are a bookkeeper, your audience wants to know how to do their part better. So you can write about tax tips, organizing paperwork better, software to use, apps that are new, actual methods to categorize or post expenses, and so on. You are not trying to teach them to do their own bookkeeping. That’s what you want them to hire you to do. You are trying to showcase your knowledge and expertise so that they might want to hire you.
All VAs can write about online tools to use to build or grow your business, or work/life balance, or organization and productivity, and so on.
You need to figure out what it is that your audience wants to read about, that supports the services that you offer.
Choose two or three categories of topics to start with and then you can grow from there. Start simple and develop good content creation habits.
Repurpose
Ah here we are!
Repurposing content means to reuse it in other ways, so you don’t have to create something new every day.
For example, if you write one blog post, you can turn that into a number of pieces of other content. Here are 10!
- Put it in your newsletter and send it to your email list.
- Post it to your blog.
- Post it as an article on Linked In .
- Turn it into a Facebook Live
- Upload the Facebook live video to your Youtube channel.
- Transcribe your video, or take notes from it as you talked
- Go through the blog post and transcript to pull out short social media postings for whichever platforms you are on.
- Pull out advice from your videos or blog post that can be used to create custom images
- Post your custom images to Instagram (or any of your social media platforms).
- Look in the transcript for opportunities to expand on any areas – thus creating another blog post that you can link back to.
Do you get the idea?
One article gives you at least 10 other ways to use one blog post to create more content. And everything is about things your audience wants to read about.
Or Don’t Write
When creating content, it’s important to choose a delivery method that you enjoy. If you like to write, then blog. If you don’t like to write, try doing video.
Facebook Lives are easy. video in general is easy when you get started.
If you prefer doing video, then start there and use the transcript to create a blog post.
Look at your blog posts or videos so far. Have you written something once, posted it, and thought that was enough? It’s not.
I challenge you to take an existing blog post and repurpose it using the steps above.
One thing it will do is show you how much of your efforts you are missing out on.
The other thing it will do is let you figure out your favourite way to create content – so you can do more of what you like!
We all have the same amount of time to market our business. Wouldn’t it make sense for you to make the most of your time to do yours?
Daily content
Everything is content. This is truly great advice- and so true.
When you struggle to create content, you have to look at things differently. And when you do, you need to find the business lessons or the common thread to advice that you can use as a comparison to your business.
People can relate to daily activities and interactions – and while I don’t suggest you write all your content this way, it can be a great boost to adding your personality and some much needed relatability to your content.
Here’s what I mean.
I told a story recently of how I went to Costco and had a crappy customer service experience. Long story short, they told me the debit machines were down as I entered the store, but said they took cash and credit. So I went ahead in, did my shopping, and tried to pay with my Visa or Amex. Nope. They actually only take Mastercard, which the girl at the front didn’t tell me. So I had to find a bank machine and get cash to pay for my stuff. This is relatable, and you can link it directly to how you would have handled the customer service, if that’s a service you offer (even if it’s not – I always give my customers the right information).
When you go to the bank, they spin their monitor around and show you all your stuff and they tell you about the options they have for you – and they recommend what they feel is the best one for you. That’s how you can help your clients decide the best option to with you.
Laundry – we sort it to wash it, and we adjust the water temperature and spin force for different clothing. I also sort it to fold it. This shows people how you organize yourself – how your mind works, and how you use processes.
Client stories are great things to use in content. Tell people what the client was experiencing before they started working with you and how you helped them. The more clients you have, the more you can use this kind of content. You can even inject your humour into these, as a show of how you build relationships and get along with your clients.
I was recently talking with a client about repackaging and repurposing content. I had suggested that it would be a good idea to take an audio from a teleclass and repackage it into several other pieces that the client could use in her marketing.
She didn’t understand why I would suggest doing that – the audio itself was content so why didn’t we we just blast the link out for everywhere so people could opt in to it and therefore get the material – no extra work required.
It’s important to realize that people take in their information in all different kinds of ways. In order to reach them you need to find the way that speaks directly to them.
I love chocolate. But I’m not like most people. I like milk chocolate the best. You can give me the best Belgian chocolate you can find on this earth, and I will just think ‘meh’ … and still prefer a Mars Bar. I actually don’t like dark chocolate at all. Even though they are all types of chocolate, I prefer the more common kind versus the higher end, better quality, more expensive type.
I do not like cinnamon. I don’t like cinnamon buns, I don’t like it in apple pie, and I don’t like it any other way most people use cinnamon (I really can’t comprehend enjoying cinnamon hearts, cinnamon gum OR cinnamon toothpaste, but I digress … !). Having said that, I always put a pinch of cinnamon in my turkey gravy when I am cooking, and I do really like the Cinnabon cereal bar. (I don’t know why I like that and not cinnamon buns, but I do – it doesn’t seem to burn like the other things do). So again … repackage your cinnamon and I can actually say I like it.
These are silly (but true!) examples of how to look at something from another angle to see it through someone else’s eyes.
In the quest for our ideal client’s attention, we have to be aware that not everyone is looking for the same thing, but if you package it differently they might hear what you are saying and like it.
So it you take that audio and break it down into 6 blog posts, or 1 article, or 3 videos … it’s still the same content, but it’s a different way for someone to find it.
My client’s thought of sending the audio out more places was a smart idea – but by putting it into 3 or 4 new formats, we could reach people in different ways, and that could just make them jump up and pay attention. Try it yourself – and be sure to measure your results so you know what your audience is responding to (don’t just do things for the sake of doing them!)
Chocolate, cinnamon or marketing materials – they are all the same thing – give your audience something that appeals to them and you may just open a door that one of them has been looking for and make a sale.
Let’s circle back to today’s quote from Rebekah Radice. You get a higher impact and more bang for your marketing dollar. Make your marketing time work better for you.
And you won’t have the same content everywhere. You can use your categories and have the same theme across your platforms.
You don’t even need to do 10 things. Gary Vee’s staff creates 100 pieces of content from one video every day.
Bring your personality in to your marketing too. Be personable and relatable. Create regularly and work with a strategy.
I don’t know everything – and I get help in my business all the time with the things I don’t know.
You can too.
I want you to know that I can help you do this stuff in your business. That’s literally the reason I am here. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through challenges just like yours, and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of. That you dream of.
I’d love to do the same for you.
Reach out to me if you need to talk about it. It’s literally all I’m here to do is help you get there.
What You Need to Do Next:
I want you to know that I can help you do this stuff in your business. That’s literally the reason I am here. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through challenges just like yours, and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of. That you dream of.
I’d love to do the same for you.
Let’s work together privately to get you to your really big goal. It’s the fastest way to get results and we can start right away. Learn more about private coaching here.
The Virtual Circle (TVC) is a monthly mastermind group for Virtual Assistants just like you. We get together 3 times a month for group Zoom sessions to talk about what you are struggling with, working on, or celebrating. It’s a close knit community of your VA colleagues that provides the best kind of support for your VA business. Learn more about TVC here.
My self study program Getting Started as a VA can help you get your VA business started easily and quickly too. You can sign up right away and be on your way to getting clients by the end of the program, with all the right foundations in place. Check out the program here.
Reach out to me if you need to talk about where you are stuck and what the right option might be to get you moving. It’s literally all I’m here to do is help you get to where you want to go. Book a complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me here.