Recycling Your Marketing: A Guide to Reusable Marketing Material

Digital marketing is constantly expanding, making it easy to feel overwhelmed in the never-ending cycle of creating new content. What if I told you that there's a way to promote your brand and save valuable resources? Meet the world of recycling your marketing material, where you can breathe new life into your old content.

5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Marketing Material

Repurposing your marketing material is not only cost-effective but also extremely efficient. Today, we are going to focus on digital marketing through different social media platforms. Now, let's explore how you can make the most out of your content by repurposing material or even ideas.

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1. The Video Remix: Remember that great video you created for last year's project? All the work going through production? Instead of letting it gather dust on your hard drive, give it a second chance to impress your audience. Trim it down into bite-sized clips and add some new captions for a simple refresh. You have a series of engaging social media posts ready to release throughout the year. This is one of the easiest ways to use your content again. You save money, time, and effort!

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2. The Timeless Photo: It’s time to go vintage! Everybody loves the nostalgic feeling of photos throughout the years. This is a great chance to do a #throwbackthursday or #takemebacktuesday. Think about how many photos come out of events. Don’t you want to use some of the photos that weren’t originally posted? Reusing or repurposing photos is great for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn in particular. It’s an added bonus when your followers repost these photos to their stories or feeds.

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3. The Blogging Rewrite: Do you ever reread your favorite blog from a couple years ago and think to yourself, wow, I wish more people still read this? Just give it a facelift! Update the statistics, add some current insights, and republish it. Recycling your blog content also helps spread your message for a second time. Another opportunity is to use smaller portions of your blog post for informational captions on other social media platforms. If you can add the link to the full article below the post, that’s even better!

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4. The Infinite Infographic: Infographics are a great way to share information quickly and visually. If you've got any unused data from past reports (which there always seems to be), turn them into new infographics. Add trendy graphics or fun animations, and you have a shareable asset that can educate your audience while reminding them of important concepts.

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5. The Perpetual Podcast: Podcasts are quickly becoming many people’s go-to while driving in the car, cooking dinner, or even in the shower. Posting the behind the scenes of the podcast on YouTube is such a simple way to recycle your content. You already have the video, and many people prefer to watch podcasts anyways! You can also take individual scenes to promote the new podcast on Instagram or TikTok. Then, when the podcast is officially released, there will be extra buzz about it. Hopping on this trend now can take you far with your social media presence.

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Real-Life Digital Marketing Examples

Let's look at some real-world examples of companies that are leading the way in recycling their digital marketing materials. These companies are running full campaigns on different social media platforms AND are focused on green initiatives!

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1. Patagonia's "Worn Wear" Campaign: Patagonia encourages customers to buy used gear and clothing from their "Worn Wear" website. They've created a whole marketing campaign around the idea of reusing and recycling outdoor clothing, complete with inspiring stories from customers about their well-loved gear. This not only promotes sustainability but also builds brand loyalty.

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2. IKEA's "Second Life of Furniture" Initiative: IKEA launched a campaign in which they encourage customers to repurpose and reuse their furniture items in creative ways. They share user-generated content on social media, showcasing how old IKEA furniture can be given a new lease on life. It's a wonderful example of recycling content ideas to promote sustainable practices.

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3. National Geographic's "Planet or Plastic?" Campaign: National Geographic used stunning visuals from past issues to create a powerful social media campaign that highlights the plastic pollution problem. By repurposing their extensive library of images, they've raised awareness about environmental issues on a global scale. This is a perfect example of “The Timeless Photo.”

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Now, a quick recap of key points.

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You need to take a deep dive into your existing content library to identify pieces that can be repurposed, updated, or given a fresh twist. Developing a strategy for how and where you'll reuse your content is important. Consider the different social media platforms and the best formats for each (TikTok probably isn’t the ideal platform for sharing your favorite blog post). It's not only about creating content; it's about creating reusable marketing material—one post, one image, and one video at a time. The final thing to remember is that while recycling is great for marketing, it’s even better for our planet. Like the businesses above, do your part to embrace sustainability. ?