Dos and Don’ts for Repurposing Content Across Channels

You’re an email marketer, but in addition to developing email messages and newsletters, chances are you’re also leveraging social media, a website and a blog to build and sustain customer engagement—or working closely with someone who is.Content development for every channel takes time and money, and you naturally want to get the most out of your investment. So for many of us, repurposing content across channels is a great solution. The trick is determining what content works on what channels.#### **When in social, keep it social**When a customer opts-in to receive email messages from you, they won’t be surprised to find some product messaging. But things are a little different in the social media arena.A “friend” or “follow” request on a social channel is not synonymous with a request for an endless stream of commercial messages. These channels are primarily about brand awareness and developing and nurturing a relationship with your customer. Ideally, the information you provide in these channels should be more about your customers’ success than yours. So, it’s likely you’ll want to keep any product related material you may send in an email out of your social media stream.In addition, most social media sites are governed by terms of service ([here’s Facebook’s](https://www.facebook.com/terms)), so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with them while you are developing your content strategy so as not to run afoul of the promotional guidelines they include.The same is not true of using social content in email, however. Adding social feed to any campaign is a great way to incorporate fresh and engaging content, while encouraging your customer to join your social community.#### **Be an expert, not a salesman on your blog**When a visitor comes to your blog, it’s likely they already know something about your company and your products and want to learn more about how to solve a need they have. A blog should provide value to the customer. Leave the sales pitch and boilerplate messaging on your site. Well-crafted blog posts gives you the opportunity to position yourself as an authority in your space. Use them to share industry trends, tutorials, success stories and other information that can help your readers be more successful.And once again, this is great content to repurpose in an email. Pulling articles from your blog helps fill the need to create new content and increases the reach of articles.#### **Live website content can add value to email**While you may not want to use your standard website content on social channels or your blog, live website content—like retail inventory or event calendars—can turn email into a valuable dynamic tool for customers.By using a web crop to pull in live data from your site, you can offer customers up-to-the minute information that allows them to make decisions—and you to drive action—right in the inbox.The bottom line: Repurposing content across channels is an effective and efficient way to communicate with and engage your customers, but make sure your using the right kind of content—in a way that creates the best experience for your customer—for each channel.