Repurpose Content and Make Fresh Lead Generation Quizzes

repurpose content and create lead generating quizzesContent. Such a simple word, but so powerful. So important. And, sometimes, so challenging.

It’s everywhere. How do you keep up?

Marketers are constantly feeling the pressure to create enough content without letting quality suffer.

The Content Marketing Institute released a recent report which covers North American marketers’ plans for the year — 2016 Benchmarks Budgets and Trends.

Similar to results from 2015, 54% of B2B marketers said their primary focus would continue to revolve around the consistent creation of engaging content, as shown in the breakdown of research below from the Content Marketing Institute graphic.

content marketing challenges

This study speaks to the critical role content is playing within the realm of marketing, but the results went on to point out something becoming a growing priority for marketers, along with general content creation.

57% of respondents went on to say that finding more and better ways to repurpose content was a top objective.

Here we’d like to point out that it’s not just B2B marketers feeling the content squeeze. Compare these two charts, both of which are from the Content Marketing Institute, and you’ll see concerns are very similar among B2C marketers as well.

challenges that b2b marketers face

Content marketers are looking for ways to more effectively capture quality leads, but at the same time, they need to be more efficient in their content creation, particularly as it becomes increasingly important to produce consistently and at a top-quality level.

Take a look at the chart below, also from the Content Marketing Institute’s research. With content producers striving for delivery at a minimum multiple times a week and often even daily, it highlights the challenge to remain creative and unique with each bit of content.

content creation and distribution

Content marketers are bombarded with the idea they constantly need to be churning out fresh and innovative content, yet they often find themselves left with the feeling that they’re just not doing enough.  

Even if they can keep up with what they feel is enough content, it may not be as engaging as it needs to be to speak effectively to the audience and capture those elusive qualified leads.

The Benefits of Repurposing Content

So we’ve shown you the challenge. But what’s the solution?

One big answer that’s becoming an increasingly crucial part of marketing strategies?

Repurposing existing content.

Repurposing content is one of the best ways marketers can ensure they’re maximizing the value they derive from each and every piece of content they produce.

Take a look at this graphic from Birdhouse. It’s a simple visual representation of the benefits of content repurposing, which we’ll go into more detail on below.

content derivative strategy

This is where we stop to make an important point that sets the tone for the rest of this guide. Fresh content doesn’t mean you’re coming up with revolutionary ideas every time you create new content.

Instead, it means you’re being smart and making the most of what you have. If you have a fantastic blog post, you’ll be doing yourself and your marketing strategy a favor to get the most possible mileage from it through repurposing.

The advantages of repurposing content include:

  • You’re improving efficiency. It’s as simple as that. You’re only human and the old days of turning to content farms to pump out low-quality content at an astounding rate no longer cuts it in the eyes of Google or your audience. You need to look at ways to not just keep up the quality, but also to do it in a way that’s time-efficient and realistic. That’s why repurposing is the direction you should be moving in.
  • Reusing strong content or even general concepts can help you reach a broader audience. Maybe you had a great bit of content and it performed well in terms of engagement, but it only reached a sliver of the audience you’d like to have gotten. Repurpose it, re-style it and expand your audience.
  • Boost your authority. Everyone wants to be seen as an authority in their industry, and the more content you can produce around valuable ideas and concepts, the more likely you are to position yourself as a go-to resource.
  • When you’re creating something that feels entirely new from existing content, you’re able to repeat core concepts, yet you’re still going to be able to maintain the interest and engagement of your audience. Even though the core is there and you’re again delivering your primary message, your audience is going to feel as if they’re getting something new. Many content marketers worry about how to effectively reinforce concepts without becoming boring or seeming as if they’re repetitive.

If done incorrectly, repurposing content can backfire on you with negative side effects and consequences. It’s important to take note of what not to do, which we’ll explore next. 

How Not To Repurpose Content

When we say repurposing content, we don’t mean you bombard your audience on social media with the same link over and over again. Repurposing isn’t as simple as just promoting something more often, or even expanding the channels by which you promote it.

It also doesn’t just mean you’re writing the same blog post with slightly different wording and resharing it in the same place. You may end up tweaking a blog post to tailor it to a different channel—for example, your tone may be different depending on the site where content is being shared, but this doesn’t necessarily address the strategic objectives of content repurposing.

Repurposing content is more about taking a core concept and using it as a foundation around which to build a variety of types of content. One of the many options is using existing content to create quizzes as a lead generation tool.

Moving From Static To Interactive

Before we explore the specifics of turning existing content into compelling quizzes, the first steps involve taking something that’s static and turning it into something interactive.

The chart below from Ion Interactive below offers some different options for repurposing content that’s static into something interactive, giving you an idea of where you can get started.

static to interactive content chart

Static content covers a wide range, from blog posts to infographics. Interactive content, on the other hand, is something that draws the user in and makes them part of the content. Namely, a quiz.

Take a look at the figures below, compiled by Ion Interactive, which show the jump in conversion rates possible with a shift from static to interactive content. Those numbers make it clear that repurposing existing static content into interactive quizzes are probably worth a try.

interactive to passive content stats

The first step on your journey to creating fresh, interactive content is to sift through your evergreen pieces of content. Evergreen content is that work that always seems to be relevant, even if it was written years ago. Your audience can look at evergreen posts, whitepapers or other forms of content and feel like they’re as engaging and relevant as they were when you initially published them.

This is the content that tends not only to be ageless but creates a real sense of value for your audience. If you can find these pieces of content for repurposing, you’re going to have a strong foundation to work with.

The following graphic from 60 Second Marketer shows some of the most pertinent features of good and often reusable evergreen content.

dos and donts of evergreen content

Once you’ve found the right bit of content, you should cut down to the most important areas of detail, and these will become the core of your interactive content — including lead generation quizzes.

The below graph, from Convince and Convert, highlights the intersection of written and educational content along with visual and interactive content. You can pull from elements of both written, educational, and visual materials to deliver engaging interactive materials for use in quizzes.

content marketing chart

When you have those essentials that will make for an excellent quiz, you should look for opportunities to personalize them, because as we’ve mentioned in previous posts, great lead quizzes should feel like personalized conversations happening between yourself and your targeted audience.

We’ll talk about how to specifically repurpose content into quizzes in our next section, but before that we wanted to share this infographic with you, because it’s a really helpful guide to repurposing compiled by Blue Crow Studio.

Creating Quizzes

While the above steps cover the generalities of going from static to interactive, you may be wondering how to specifically create quizzes.

We mentioned identifying evergreen content, but a few things to keep in mind here:

  • Look for your top-performing content. There’s no value in trying to revive content that was always struggling. You want to capture attention and generate leads when you use quizzes as a marketing tool, and if your audience didn’t find content particularly appealing the first go-around, they’re not likely to now either.
  • Your quiz title is your top priority. Don’t just add a question mark to the end of your existing content’s title and think that’s going to cut it. If you want to generate leads with your repurposed quiz content, create a title that feels unique from the original blog post and really challenges your audience to uncover answers or gain insight about themselves, their lives, or their needs.
  • Build your questions around the essential components you identified as you selected content that could be repurposed. Make them short, friendly, and to-the-point, much like the style of your title.
  • When users finish a quiz, give them the opportunity to explore the topic more by linking to the full blog post or original piece of content. Try to create quiz results that are directly related to the information found in the post or piece of content. Using a quiz as a starting point to get users engaged and interested is an excellent way to not just repurpose content, but also draw your audience in and have them read more. 
  • Along with blog posts and other traditional forms of written content, remember that infographics are an excellent resource to use in the creation of quizzes. If you’ve already invested in the creation of an infographic that seems to be popular among your audience, use the data it contains to create a quiz testing the knowledge of the audience. You can show users how they performed at the end, along with a link to the original infographic which will provide them with more information on a subject they’ve already shown interest in.

As a final note here, we’d like to point out that creating a quiz is your most likely method to achieve viral status. We discussed Buzzfeed quizzes in our previous post, and these concepts hold true when you’re repurposing content as well.

You may have a fantastic, informative blog post that has performed really well, but it hasn’t come close to viral status. Why not take the concepts and repurpose them into a quiz, which will then be shared on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites?

Think about how successful corporate publishers are becoming with their quiz sharing results, and consider the advantages you can enjoy for your own brand, simply by taking static content, repurposing it and sharing it with your audience in the form of a quiz. The below graphic from News Whip shows the prevalence and popularity of quizzes.

quizzes and corporate publishers infographic

If you do reach viral status, your original content is going to get a tremendous boost as a result.

Repurposing existing content into quizzes is one of the fastest, simplest ways to deliver interactivity to your audience, expand your reach, and generate more qualified leads. So why not give it a try?

LeadQuizzes provides you with the tools you need to simplify quiz creation and share your content across social media channels. Get started by taking our quiz to see how much LeadQuizzes could help your business!

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Build Your Email List By 100K This Year Using Quizzes

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