In today’s digital world, there are more targets for your content than ever: social media, websites, blogs, video, newsletters – the list goes on. With each of these platforms comes the task of content creation.  While content creation is important, it is also time consuming. Planning content for each release takes time, but with smart planning taking into consideration content reuse, it can take less time.

What is Content Reuse?

According to The Content Wrangler, content reuse is the “practice of using content components in multiple information products.” Reusing content allows for:

• Using What You Have: Take existing content and use it as the foundation for new content.
• Smaller Chunks: Content is broken down into shorter, more easily consumed pieces.
• Consistency: Write once and make sure everyone is sharing the same, accurate information.
• Quality: Less copying and pasting and stitching together of content.
• Reduced Cost: Less development, review, and maintenance time.
• Better SEO: Search engines look for repetition and new content to rank their results.

One example of content reuse is to take a webinar your company has given and breaking it into shorter videos or expanding on its content by turning it into an eLearning opportunity with questions, feedback forms, completion tracking, and additional documentation such as companion guides for more information using the script you already wrote. If your webinar covered more than one service your company offers, take each chunk of information about a service and develop it into its own, new eLearning module for your employees, or into an informational video for potential clients. Adding captions and a transcript of your video will help improve SEO as well.

IDT, recently took on such a project, converting a video webinar with no graphics into a more visually interactive experience by adding music, transitions between sections, and graphic overlays to show timelines, numbers, pie charts, and screenshots. These additions not only added visual interest, but also aided in information retention for the viewer. Doing so also personalized the content and will contribute to the client’s SEO by giving them a new piece of content to share.

Overall, content reuse provides value by saving time, reducing effort and cost, and boosting SEO while adding to content quality. Contact IDT , to see how we can help you expand your content reuse efforts and turn your webinars into eLearning opportunities.