Blogs cost money to write, especially in B2B, and they're slow burning by
nature, leaving brands sorely in need of ways to maximize the reach and value they get out
of them, especially
startups (where your early
articles might get read by very few
people).
And I can think of six practical ways to do this that go beyond the
usual SEO
best practices.
1. Break Up Certain Long Blog Articles
I know this might sound like
heresy to some of
the more SEO-minded among you, but hear me out.
Long
consideration articles (8 min or more) meant to
be consumed on the buyer's journey,
that are explicitly focused on a product or your brand, may be good candidates for being
broken up into shorter standalone articles.
If you're wondering why, remember the goal of B2B consideration content generally isn't
to rank, it's to win. And winning means letting nothing get in the way of delivering your
key messaging, especially not a lot of overlong keyword-stuffed copy. You can't bore your
prospects into loving you. And nobody wants to consume an epic-length sales pitch.
Imagine two choices. A twelve-minute article titled "Twelve Freight Storage and Shipping
Problems Solved by the Model XYZ" or two six-minute articles titled "Six Warehouse
Management Problems Solved by the XYZ" and "Six Fleet Management Problems Solved by the XYZ."
Which choice do you think more likely to drive conversions?
I'm thinking it's the two shorter, snappier, more focused articles. I'm guessing a lot of you
would, too. But if you still don't believe me, remember how your prospects got here. While
B2B consideration content can be arrived at via web search, that's usually not how you're
supposed to get there.
Consideration content is generally meant to be consumed after prospects consume a piece of
awareness content, or a different piece of consideration content (like a product page). Or
it can be consumed as sales content presented via email. And sales content, while technically
still
content, is actually
copywriting, and copywriting is
persuasion. Human persuasion.
2. Repost Articles on Social Media Using New Angles
A
blog article doesn't have to be posted only once on
your social channels. It can be posted
multiple times (minimum three months apart). And don't worry about boring your audience. Not
enough of them will have seen the previous social post or read the article for it to matter,
and you'll have new followers the second time anyway.
The first time can be a simple link post (with whatever title visual you used for the article
itself), while the second time can use an original visual, perhaps a figure or table you
quoted in the article, or even better, some kind of original visual or infographic that
illustrates the article's main point (making it a good paid amplification candidate).
Of course, social channels loathe repetition, and they may decrease your reach if you post
again organically using the same link, but any organic post with a link is already relatively
handicapped compared to a linkless post, so a little more won't make much difference.
3. Repurpose Blog Content in a PDF Version
You can create PDF versions of high-value articles, maybe as a longer "director's cut"
dressed up with a few callouts, figures, factoids, and a glossy layout, which you can
post to social media and/or send out with an email.
This is particularly useful for
longer blogs, as the
option of downloading something and
reading it later is often an easier sell than insisting someone on their smartphone commit
to a twelve-minute read right on the spot. And longer blogs tend to be more special and
more thorough anyway, making them more amenable to this sort of embellishment.
You can also repurpose multiple shorter blog articles around a particular
topic by combining them into a longer PDF and giving it the same glossy treatment. This is
a good way to conjure up something epic without having to start from scratch.
4. Repurpose Blog Content as Audio or Video
Repurposing articles into audio-only versions can be good if you're selling to an industry
that isn't always at their desks, enabling them to listen while in a vehicle or on their
feet.
However, you'll need a more narration-friendly version of the text. For instance, if a
narrator were reading this article out loud, each bullet point would need to be written
out in a style of "Method Number 4: Repurpose Blog Content As Audio or Video," or
something similar.
And if you're planning on using an
AI to do this, you
may need to eliminate unusual words
that AI doesn't know how to speak. For instance, I like to use the word "salesy" in my
writing. But Microsoft's narration AI doesn't pronounce it correctly, instead pronouncing
it in a way that sounds like "sleazy."
As to video, yeah, you can do it. And now an AI-generated avatar of you can even read it
out loud. But don't expect people to actually watch such a thing closely.
A blog that takes ten minutes to read might take twenty to speak. So don't bother
including a lot of visual information with it, since people will often play it in the
background while they do something else.
5. Repurpose Blog Content as Personal Social Media Posts
If you're a
startup or
small company, your CEO and other prominent employees
might have
more LinkedIn followers than your company does. So you can get quite a bit more mileage
by condensing suitable blog articles to something the length of a personal LinkedIn
social post (where
long
posts can do well).
Listicle-type articles like this one are good candidates for such treatment. For
example, if I were to repurpose this article, I'd use most of the opening paragraph,
each bullet point, and a one-or-two-sentence section summary under each bullet point.
And as an added bonus, such personal-style content can be a good way to kickstart an
employee advocacy program. Because when the CEO or
other leaders make an effort on
social, it sets an example for others to follow.
6. Revamp and Rewrite Older Articles
When it comes to B2B and/or technology, nothing is truly evergreen. Information falls
out of date, often quickly. And your own views evolve and change over time.
Therefore, maybe once a year, at a time when you're
not
busy,
review your articles that are at least a year old and see if any of them can be given
a new lease on life by being updated, repackaged, or rewritten. Or revamped using an SEO
tool.
Now fly blogging eagle, fly.
