Managing your content so it stays relevant is the key to engagement and future sales. So aim to develop a strategy that incorporates the four Rs of content management.
As part of your content management calendar remember to review your content before you post, even if it’s performed well before. Here are the four Rs of content management that will help you structure your calendar:
Refresh
When you are looking to repost a piece of content that you created last year, read it through carefully and make sure that all of the content is relevant and up-to-date. For example, last year you may have posted that XYZ Website is the best place to find royalty-free icons, but you may use a totally different website now. If you use something else – update it to that website or check that your initial suggestion still provides the same quality icons at the time of writing.
There’s nothing worse than suggesting a helpful website when the link doesn’t work because they have gone out of business either. So for all reposts, check all of the links and recommendations.
Recycle
Recycling your content refers to you using parts of existing content, like parts from older ebooks or blogs, and expanding on that message to develop a new and exciting message. You can even use a blog that you’ve written a year or two ago – just rewrite it, keeping the message. If you have any links that are still relevant, such as a report you have conducted, keep it in!
If in one of your ebooks you have outlined a process, transfer it into a visual presentation. This could either be through a video or a series of images. It’s the same information, just using a different medium to get your points across.
Retire
Some content will become so outdated that the only thing you really can do is retire it. This happens on a daily basis to many companies. A process for gathering customer information through email a few years ago may be totally obsolete now due to the evolution of inbound marketing. Ensure your content is up-to-date with the current market – if the piece of content cannot be refreshed with a few new points, it’s best to retire it.
Replace
As mentioned above, you will need to retire content when it becomes irrelevant. It is, however, important to replace it with something new. It might be worth writing something on a similar topic, such as the best practices of gathering customer information.
All content pieces have value. When you replace an old blog post, try to update it with fresh information, while keeping the link that will most likely have some SEO value. When you look to publish the ‘new’ article, leave an editor’s note to say when the post was first published and that it contains updated information.
Read and comment on the original Entrepreneur article.