By Susan Guillory
As a small business owner, you need to maximize your efforts wherever you can. Writing is one of these areas, especially if you don’t consider yourself a writer. With a little ingenuity, you can take one blog post and expand it into several additional pieces of content that will help you attract your target market.
Use it as a Starting Point for Additional Blog Posts
This works especially well if you write a listicle (article with numbered items, as in a list, like this post). The initial post might have 10 points. You can then take each of those 10 points and turn them into their own articles. I did this for a client, where I first wrote a 12-month marketing calendar post, then expanded on one point a month for a year.
Best For: When you’re having trouble coming up with blog content ideas.
Turn it Into an Ebook
I like to look at my most popular blog posts and turn them into more in-depth ebooks. Since you already know that people are interested in this topic, it provides you with the opportunity to capitalize on your knowledge.
Best For: Adding a line of passive income to your revenue. Who doesn’t want that?
Create a Freebie
In the same vein as #2, you can also turn a blog post into a longer whitepaper or report, then use it to capture leads’ email addresses. Give away enough information to be valuable — and certainly more than you do in the blog post — but not so much that people won’t want to buy your product or service.
Best For: Boosting your email marketing list. It’s also a great strategy to act as a teaser for your paid download.
Develop an Infographic
Not everyone learns by reading. Some people prefer images or even videos to teach them. Hire a graphic designer who has experience working with infographics, or use a free infographics tool to design it yourself, and now you’ve got a new channel to attract fans who might not have found you through the initial blog post.
Best For: Creating variety on your blog.
Refresh as a Guest Post
Your blog isn’t the only place you should create content. Writing content for other blogs, or guest blogging, can put you in front of an even larger audience than your blog attracts. While you shouldn’t copy and paste your published blog post verbatim (Google frowns upon the practice), you can revamp it so it’s a new post on the same subject. Find a new angle to make it unique.
Best For: When you’re short on time but want to guest blog.
As you can see, a single blog post can be an inspiration for a slew of other types of content marketing!
