This sponsored post is produced by MailChimp.
Last month at the San Diego stop of Facebook’s Boost Your Business tour, I got to meet hundreds of small business owners and talk to them about their challenges.
The most common response I heard was this:
“Running a business is hard! It would be nice to have the time and resources to write lots of original content every day, but that’s not realistic for many marketers and business owners.”
If you struggle with the same thing, keep in mind that your email content doesn’t always have to be new. You can reuse and repackage content you already have to create useful emails that are new to your subscribers.
Here are 6 ways you can repurpose existing content to create effective email marketing campaigns:
1. RSS-to-email
If you regularly update your blog, you can automatically send your subscribers new blog posts whenever you publish them. This makes it easy for customers who want to hear what you have to say, but don’t check your blog often. Set it up once, tell us how often you want new posts to go out, and we’ll take care of the rest. If you’re a busy entrepreneur, this is a great way to get the most out of your content without a lot of effort. And it’s nice for your customers, too, because that content is waiting for them in their inbox.
2. Roundups
Send your subscribers roundups of blog posts, articles, guides, and other existing content you have on hand. We do this with our quarterly MonkeyWrench newsletter. Every issue has a theme, and we combine existing content with original content that supports the theme to create a fresh newsletter.
3. Best sellers
If you sell products online, send periodic emails sharing your best sellers. You can even segment by customer behavior and purchase data to send your subscribers recommended products that are relevant to them. You can use an image and product description you already have on your site. It’s a great way to introduce your customers to items they might not think about while giving your best sellers a boost.
4. Curated newsletters
Are you a leader in your industry? Send out links to articles as recommended reading for your customers. If they look to you for insight and best practices, they’ll be interested in what you’re reading. Just make sure you source your links and give credit where it’s due.
5. Photos from social media
If you’ve got something new to show off, a photo and a quick caption may be all you need for a great campaign. Share photos of products, completed projects, or works in progress. With a product like MailChimp Snap, you can create and send a photo campaign from your phone in moments. It’s practically as easy as sending a text message. You can even pull photos directly from Instagram if you’re already posting there.
6. Popular posts
Your email subscribers may not know about your most popular articles and blog posts. Show them what you have to offer. You could even use automation to welcome new readers by sending them an exclusive guide or whitepaper when they sign up for your newsletter.
You’ve probably got plenty of evergreen content sitting around that would be as good as new to your email subscribers. Of course, you also have different audiences on different channels, so your newsletter subscribers might like a peek at what you share on your blog or social media. This can be a great way to fill in the gaps when you don’t have time to create original email marketing content. And if you click through the links above, you’ll see it can also be a great way to create articles about email marketing content.
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