Be Like Madonna: The Case for Repurposing Content

Most people think the “content job” is done once a post goes live. They post a beautiful piece of content to their blog – something that took hours of research, approvals, and nit-picking over the placement of a comma – and then they let it die.

Great content is nothing without great distribution. But, just because you built it doesn’t mean they’ll come. Content needs to reach your target audience if you want your efforts to usher in significant business growth. That’s why you need to develop a comprehensive distribution plan from the onset, in tandem with your content strategy and editorial calendar. 

Need a real-world example? Take a page (or several) from Madonna. She took voguing beyond Harlem’s queer ballroom scene in the late 80s and immortalized the dance style in her 1990 music video. Sampling “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” for her disco-inspired single “Hung Up'' caused an uptick in ABBA fans in the early 00s – Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia didn’t stand a chance. Madonna’s decades-long track record as a successful pop star boils down to one thing: her ability to reinvent herself without losing her swagger. Here’s what we can learn from her.

1. Repurpose Content Across All Channels

Think of your long-form content like an album, while snippets of your key messages and supporting data are its singles. Making an active plan to release shorter-form, repurposed content (each directing your target audience back to the original piece) in parallel ensures that your content marketing assets will work as hard as possible to reach your business goals. 

When you’re developing your distribution plan, consider your target audience. What are the relevant demographics and their content consumption habits? Repurpose your content in such a way that it easily integrates with their current behavior. Identify where your audience spends their time and post on that platform in their preferred format of choice. For example, if you’re targeting Gen Z gamers who are constantly on Twitter, then take a snippet from that 1,500-word article and turn it into a thread or carousel. Breadcrumbing sucks when it comes to dating, but we’re all for using repurposed, shorter-form content to drive traffic to an asset we’ve worked hard to write up.

2. Measure and Track Key Performance Metrics

While Madonna has dropped some absolute bangers over the decades, well all know that not every single an artist releases is going to be a hit. This is why it’s important to track your repurposed content and how each format performs on different platforms over time. If analytics is unfamiliar territory, here are a few metrics you should be looking at to start with:

Growth Metrics

• Impressions/Reach
• Followers

Engagement Metrics

• Likes
• Shares
• Comments
• Click-throughs
• Time spent on page/Average watch time

3. Find What’s Working and Go All-In

The reason she’s 64 years old and still voguing is because Madonna knows how to milk a needle drop for all it’s worth. Once your content suite (the flagship piece and repurposed assets) has gone live and you’ve analyzed your key performance metrics, it’s time to identify your greatest hits and get ready to remix.

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When going over your content insights, ask yourself the following questions:

• Which are my top performing posts?
• When am I posting them?
• Which are the most engaging formats?
• What are the targeting settings on these posts?

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The answers will help you identify which assets to double down on. Once you find the messages that resonate most with your audience, experiment and have fun with new ways of expressing them. Like Madonna, great marketers have mastered how to reiterate the same key messages and supporting proof points in a thousand different ways, ensuring that their narrative reaches their target audience exactly where they’re looking for content.