Reprinted with the author’s permission from her blog, Marketing Interactions.
Don’t you just hate it when you get an email offering what looks like a juicy white paper only to discover after filling out the dang registration form that it’s several years old? Do you feel duped? I do.
It used to be that information was scarce, so your content lasted longer, had less competition. That’s definitely no longer the case.
Companies may think they’ve gotten around the dating issue by not putting the year on their copyright notice. But they haven’t. All a prospect has to do is right click on a page of your PDF file and select “document properties” to find out when the file was created and/or modified.
Content is a big investment. Companies that want to maximize their investments need to consider methods for culling the most longevity they can out of that investment. Unfortunately a lot of great content past its prime gets relegated to file-server heaven. Though that’s better than when they just ignore it and leave what was once a great paper in a prominent place on their websites with a hyperlink like “Hot New Tips for…” when it hasn’t been HOT since 2006.
Instead, marketers need to put their content on a maintenance plan.
Based on how rapidly the type of information changes, schedule time to review and refresh your content. This doesn’t just mean PDF documents, either. If your Web page information stays static for too long, people notice.
But focus first on your meatiest content. The content you use as juicy offers for lead generation or at crucial buying stage transitions needs to deliver on your prospects’ expectations. The best part is that refreshing content is often cheaper than creating new content.
Consider the following options for refreshing your content:
- New Title: Can you update the title to give your paper more relevance based on how your market has evolved?
- New Section Headers: Headers have impact as directional guides as well as in carrying your theme throughout the paper. List your current headers to see what story they tell on their own and see if you can take a new perspective—likely in line with the ideas your new title evokes.
- Update Statistics: Many papers use statistics as validation for assertions made within them. Do yours need to be updated to current numbers? Can you draw inferences between the old and new stats to add new insights to the paper?
- Switch out Your Sidebars: Can you switch out quotes or call outs to highlight different information that will catch your readers’ attention? Maybe add a new list or update the wording used in the old one.
- Edit the Content: What about tightening sentences, updating phrases, and even looking for ways to change the wording a bit to get the focus closer to your readers’ perspective?
Those are just a few simple ways to consider refreshing your most valuable content to help it keep on doing what it’s supposed to do—engage your audience by providing recognizable value. Don’t let a date limit the use you can get from your content assets.
Ardath Albee is CEO & B2B Marketing Strategist for Marketing Interactions, Inc. Her new book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale was recently released by McGraw Hill.
