Cherry Blossom Management are going to be regularly featuring Guest Blogs from fabulous experts in their fields. Today’s blog is from Melissa Hobson who is a consultant and copywriter for mission-driven business owners.

Reuse, repurpose, recycle… your content!

From writing blogs and newsletters to creating Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts, does it sometimes feel like you spend all your time trying to create content? If copywriting feels like a total time sap, read on for some top tips on how to save time and stress while maximising your results.

Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose!

Lots of business owners find creating copy incredibly time intensive. This is especially true when they start from scratch with each social post, blog or newsletter. But did you know you don’t need to start with a blank page each time? In fact, I recommend reusing and repurposing your content – not only will this save time but it also helps with brand consistency and makes it easier to gauge what works best for your audience.

Make a plan

It’s important to have a plan when creating content for your business. If you’re thinking “but I don’t have time… I just need to get some posts out asap!”, remember you’ll save time in the long run by getting organised. If you don’t know who you’re trying to reach and what they want to learn from you, it’s easy to miss the mark with your content: meaning you’ll probably have to spend time later trying to work out what’s going to perform well.

Be clear on who you’re trying to reach and what you want to say. Then, map out the topics you want to cover. Think about any relevant key dates to tie your posts too. This could be an upcoming product launch, relevant holidays such as Christmas, Diwali or Hanukkah – or even an awareness day such as sea turtle day or national popcorn day!

Start with the longest piece

With your plan in place, it’s time to get writing. You’ll be pleased to know you don’t need to start from scratch every time. Instead, think about how you can tweak and reuse the content you create.

I find it’s helpful to start with the longest piece and break it down. Imagine you’re writing a blog with 10 tips to help your customers reduce their single-use plastic consumption in Plastic Free July. Could this be adapted for your July newsletter? And don’t forget social media: each of those 10 tips could make a standalone social media post, tweaked slightly to be suitable for, say, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. With the blink of an eye, your blog post has become one blog, one newsletter and 30 social media posts. A much easier way to create a month’s worth of content than starting over each time, right?

Use it again

Once your posts have gone out, is that the end? Not so much. Lots of people think a post can’t go out more than once. But did you know each of your posts is usually only seen by around 10% of followers? So, reposting gives more of your followers the opportunity to see your content.

Use your data to see which social posts performed best, which newsletters had the highest open and click-through rate or which blogs were most-read. This will help you determine what to repost, repurpose or build on.

There are some great scheduling tools – such as Later and Hootsuite and – to help you plan ahead: another great way to save time and remain consistent. It’s more time efficient to bulk schedule rather than logging on each day to put up an individual post. It also means posts are going out consistently even if you’re busy with other things.

Tweak it

Repurposing also gives you the opportunity to learn what works for your audience. When posting, try mixing things up to see how changes affect views and engagement. For example, switch up your hashtags, use a different image or vary wording. You might find your Instagram followers love short posts with an amazing image while Twitter engagement is higher when you ask a question. Have a play and see what works best for you.

I hope these tips help you maximise your content while saving time and stress. Good luck!

Melissa Hobson is a freelance sustainability copywriter and PR consultant. For more information, visit www.melissahobson.co.uk