Stop Working So Hard!

You’re working too hard and you’re not making enough money.

I know that seems like a brash statement, but I’ve worked with enough small business owners to presume that it’s probably true for you. The problem is, you’re not taking advantage of one of your most important assets.

I firmly believe that your absolute most important asset is your current customer list. But your second most important asset is the information you’ve already produced. And chances are, you’re not putting it to good enough use. You should be using this same information over and over again in different ways and repurposing it into different formats, different presentations, and different products. You’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of effort in producing the content you have, so you might as well get the most bang for your buck, right?

If you have a written article, why not create the audio version? If you have any audio, why not turn it into a video? Repurposing your content has multiple benefits:

I’ve mentioned before that my background is in special education, and as an educator I have a definite appreciation for the different types of learning styles. By turning your written articles into audio files, you’ll be better equipped to reach your prospects who are auditory learners, or your web site visitors who are visually impaired. Generating videos from your content allows you to reach the visual learners. If you create written transcripts, it’s easier for you to reach non-native speakers since it’s usually easier to read a foreign language than listen to it. Various types of involvement devices will be appreciated by your prospects who are kinesthetic learners.

Repurposing your content also helps your prospects get to know you better (remember the “know, like, trust factor”). Reading an article you’ve written is great, but actually hearing your voice on an mp3 and seeing your face in a video is even better.

Let me give you a few examples of how this works in real life.

I have a client who is a business coach in Chicago (well, he’s typically in Chicago, but right now he’s headed to Orlando to run two marathons. Way to go, Mike!) He has some very in-depth pen-and-paper assessments he uses to help his clients determine which business stage they are in. We are in the process of turning those assessments into on-line quizzes that will be broken down into multiple parts. Same content, but we’re repurposing it.

Another client is very fond of creating “top 10 list” type of articles. We’ve taken one of her articles, expanded on each of the ten tips, and turned it into a 10-part podcast. And we’re doing the same with the rest of her articles.

You can turn your articles into press releases, autoresponder series, blog posts, ebooks, etc. Compile several similar articles into a transcript and create a teleclass. Record the teleclass, add a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet and now you have a mini-home study course. The possibilities are endless.

And what’s even better, once you have all this newly repurposed content, you can promote it all to your #1 asset – your current customers!

Action Item

1. Choose your favorite article (preferably one that you’ve written, but if you haven’t written any yet choose any article on your topic).
2. Write out 6 or 7 questions pertaining to the article, along with a brief script for the answers.
3. Ask a friend to interview you using these questions and answers. Record the interview and create an mp3 product to use as a lead generator.

You might also be interested in:

• Add Audio to Your Marketing Mix
• There Is No Such Thing as a Duplicate Content Penalty
• 4 Easy Ways to Improve Your Blog
• Google News: 8 Easy Tips for Getting Your News Crawled
• How To Craft Your Perfect Introduction

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 12:46 am and is filed under Business Success. 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.