In the last few months we have been writing about content marketing, talking about content management and teaching business owners how to use these strategies to bring prospective customers to their web site time and time again. We have also been sharing success stories about companies who have been successful using this approach.

We have spent a good deal of time writing all those blog posts, creating slides for seminars, recording podcasts and assembling white papers. We do it because we want to be considered  subject matter experts. To establish our authority we need to have more than just one or two pieces of information on the subject since both our readers and search engines are looking for proof.

While the work is important, it can be exhausting to keep coming up with new angles on the same subject. And since the average life of a blog post is a few days, it is vital to find ways to get a little extra mileage from some of the best of what we have created.

How do we do it without boring our loyal fans? Even with large followings on social platforms and a steady stream of visitors to our website, only a fraction of our community will see an individual piece of content. So, we employ strategies to reuse and recycle information to reach a wider audience, without reinventing the wheel. Here a few of my favorite tricks.

1. Create a round up post, like this one. Link to several related posts. Even your most loyal readers probably don’t read your content every day. They are sure to have missed a few things. These roundups give them a chance to catch up on what they missed.
2. Give your readers a mixture of new and old. When you create a list of links, don’t just pull an excerpt from the original post, write a new description. This will help you avoid any duplicate content issues such as the ones Jarred explored in “The Dangers of Duplicate Content.” Also, the new information prevents your summary post from being nothing more than a stream of links.
3. Record a podcast or shoot a video using the content of the blog post as your outline. Some people will enjoy reading, while others want to take information with them on the go. Don’t forget to post a transcript in the blog post to make the content searchable.
4. Create a calendar and use it to schedule related posts. It will also make it easier to write a roundup like this one.
5. Send an email wrap up. If you have built your email list carefully over time, it is probably significantly larger than the average number of visitors to your website. People are busy. Deliver your best content to them so they don’t have to come to you.
6. Create a compilation or white paper. Pull together your top posts into a Word document. Add a table of contents, an introduction and a cover. Next create a landing page and a download form. Use your content summary to build your email list. That is exactly what we did in our white paper on Why you should blog.
7. Give your content a second chance. Sometimes a blog post flops when you release it. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, maybe it was just a timing issue. Wait a week or two, and try re-sharing it on social media at different times, with different key words. Or try rewriting it, adding more, relevant examples. Not  everything will be a hit right out of the gate. Some content takes time to build an audience.

How do you extend the reach of your content?

Think you have a grasp on your content strategy? Download our Inbound Marketing Budget guide to start planning how to turn those leads into clients: