Repurposing Written Material: An Effective Way to Improve Your Bottom Line

• March 16, 2020

Today innovative c suite business leaders are getting the most out of the volumes of written material generated by their businesses and simultaneously increasing their outreach to customers and clients.

Many of the suggestions in this post work with the concept of providing a potential customer with free information. Whether you go with a download, mini-book or course, or video, I recommend including that you offer a discount on related products. That can turn a potential customer into a real one.

Your Company Blog

Whether your company generates blogs daily, twice weekly, or weekly, you’re accumulating material that’s ripe for repurposing, a function that saves both time and money. If you write or commission blog posts that relate directly to what you produce, you can focus this effort even more effectively.

If, for example, you have a company that makes natural household products, your blog can focus on advances in this field. You can extract material about the latest information about chemical-free products into podcasts and videos. Imagine a video that benefits of using products that will not harm the user or environment.

You could take material from a blog post that focuses on saving the environment and do the same thing. In addition, you could make available on your web site a download with about the benefits of natural products.

A home improvement company can find countless ways to attract customers and to strengthen the  loyalty of existing customers by using its blog to suggest ways to make DIY projects easier and by translating that information into both downloads (ideally illustrated) and videos.

Mini-Courses

People are interested in learning and especially in learning for free.

Companies that offer self-help and personal growth products can provide free mini-courses in written and podcast form. Always offer both a text and audible or audiovisual version of any such course or any way of giving free information. It’s now well known that people have different ways of taking in information.

A company making nutritional products can offer quizzes by which people can determine their nutritional needs.

A pet food company can have guest blogs by veterinarians that can be compiled into mini-courses about the best home care for your pets.

Reach the Next Generation

I’m always surprised that more companies don’t offer resources for children. They may not be direct consumers, but they are definitely influencers.

Some examples:

If you make environmentally-friendly products, you can commission a children’s picture book about the environment. Send it as a gift with a large purchase.

The above-mentioned pet company can produce a short video showing children how to kindly treat their pets.

Write or Compile a Book

Many written materials can form the foundation for a book: blog posts, training manuals, historical documents about your company, and more. What’s unique about your business, whether it’s your process or your products? If you’re the founder of that company, what’s unique about your business journey?

New entrepreneurs want to learn from those have succeeded. The audience is there if you have the product.

And if you’re worried about how to write such a book, you can choose to have it written in house or by a ghostwriter. The idea of writing and publishing a book isn’t necessarily for book sales but for further outreach and promotion of your company.

Adapt and Repurpose

Look at every piece of written material as a candidate for repurposing and also as the raw material that can trigger an entirely new way to reach your customers and provide valuable services to them.

Pat Iyer is one of the original 100 C Suite Network Founders. As a skilled editor and ghostwriter, she helps her clients shine. Connect with her through her website at patiyer.com and listen to her podcast: Writing To Get Business, hosted on the C Suite Radio platform.