The customer journey is changing. Content repurposing can help you stay ahead of the curve and have a greater impact on, and relationship with, your customers.
And ‘customer journey’ isn’t just a marketing buzzword, it’s something we all participate in as consumers – even if we aren’t fully aware of it.
Before we buy a product or service, we will have most likely interacted with the brand – whether that’s in the form of browsing their website, receiving emails, or following them on social media.
So how can content repurposing improve your customers’ journey? And why is it becoming more important?
By the end of this post, it should be abundantly clear why we all need to focus on repurposing our content into amazing short-form content for social media. It’s the first step in the new customer journey, and it could help you take your business to the next level.
Short-form mobile-friendly content is the future
Did you notice that all of my examples of steps in the customer journey are performed digitally? (Website, emails, social media).
The chances are, your customers are doing those things on their mobile device.
There are so many stats I can point to that exemplify why the way we browse, research, and shop has moved completely towards mobile, so let me throw a few key figures at you from We Are Social’s Digital 2020 Report.
- Over 5.19bn people use mobile phones globally
- 92% of internet users browse on mobile
- Mobile accounts for 53.3% of total web traffic
- Mobile internet browsing is up 8.6% year-on-year, laptop and desktop browsing is down 6.8%
- 3.8bn social media users in the world, up 9.2% year-on-year
- 2hrs 24m a day spent using social media on average
It’s safe to say that, as our lives are becoming ever-more digitized – especially through mobile – the customer journey is following suit.
If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourself! Open up your Screen Time feature on your iPhone or Android users can go to Settings > Battery > Battery Usage and take a look at how much time you spend on social media apps, web browsers, and email. Warning: you might get a nasty surprise!
Clearly, mobile has become the primary way we get on online.
If people are finding you when on their mobile, the chances are, they’re going to find you through social media or on your mobile-friendly website.
Have you ever considered that, no matter how much time you put into your long-form content, your videos, blog posts, and podcast episodes are not likely to be the first interaction that people have with you? People will find your short-form content first… so how are you getting them from short-form to long-form?
Short-form and long-form content need to work together
We’ve all been told that long-form content is the most important. That remains true… to a degree.
Long-form content is seen as so important because, well, it takes a lot more time to craft SEO-rich, detailed blog posts than it does to write a couple of tweets.
It takes more time to create a really impactful YouTube video than to shoot a quick Instagram Story.
And it takes more time to plan, record, and edit a podcast episode than it does to put together a short audiogram.
However, the truth is, both long-form and short-form content are equally valuable. They just serve different purposes in your customer journey – and one can’t exist without the other.
In a mobile-first world, your short-form content is going to be the first thing that customers see of your brand. You need to make sure it looks great, sounds great, and ties in with your longer content.
The right blend of short and long-form content is different for everyone, but whoever you are and whatever your plan, both types of content should complement the other and tie into your wider content strategy.
Let me give you an example of how this might look…
Example of a short-form, engaging Instagram Carousel post from Episode 131 that leads to long-form blog post and podcast
An example of the customer journey with content repurposing
Alex sees a social post from you. Maybe they saw you tagged somewhere, follow a hashtag you’ve used, had your post sent to them by a friend, saw you speak at an event, listened to you on a podcast, saw you on a live and decided to find you on social media.
Alex likes your post and decides to follow you so they see more, more consistently. They’re consuming more of your short-form content through their phone – watching your Instagram stories, liking your tweets, all these little engagements.
Alex see you post a teaser video from your latest podcast episode and it answers a question they’ve been wondering about for a while. Alex finds your podcast on Spotify (or any other app…) and starts listening regularly.
After a few episodes, Alex hears you mention a blog post that answers another relevant question. At this point, Alex’s trust in and affinity with you has grown a lot because of all the ‘quality time’ you’ve spent together!
Alex reads the blog post you mentioned, loves it, and sees the content upgrade at the end of the post.
Alex now really knows you, trusts your expertise, and is happy to download your content upgrade.
Alex, after having seen how great and helpful you are, then goes on to buy your product/service!
It all started with short-form content, then long-form content, a bit more content, and then… Alex became one of your customers.
It wouldn’t have happened if all of those steps weren’t synchronized and joined-up.
How to create a great customer journey with content repurposing
Content repurposing is your superhero here… with a content repurposing mindset and a great plan, you can make great things happen for your customers!
Rather than having short-form and long-form content that don’t make any sense together, start with your long-form content (because it is still vital, remember!) and repurpose it into smaller pieces for social media and elsewhere.
Repurpose your long-form blog post or turn your podcast episode into social media snippets that point viewers back to the original content.
This way, your short-form content reflects your core, long-form content, and the customer journey is smoother. Everything joins up and makes sense, you are staying true to your core message, and it’s easier for customers to ‘get’ you.
The best short-form content is interesting, engaging, relevant, mobile-friendly, platform-specific, standout, and clearly tied to your long-form, core content. Make sure there is a clear CTA.
If you want some quick tips on best practice when it comes to content repurposing for social media, I’ve got just the blog post for you!
How will you repurpose your content for mobile users?
Hopefully it’s clear now that, just because it’s shorter, short-form content is no less important than long-form.
If your short-form content doesn’t stand out and interest people and convince them you are the real deal, then they never make it to your long-form content. All that hard work on your longer, core content will have gone to waste!
Next week, I’m going to go deeper in to the customer journey and give some real-life examples of how to make it work… all through one very tasty analogy!
For now, though, just think about whether you are putting as much time and effort as you should be into your desired online journey for your audience.
Writing great blog posts, recording knockout podcast episodes, and crafting perfect landing pages is all well and good, but your customers are likely to find you on their mobile in short-form first…
Are they getting the experience you want them to have?