Whether it’s webinars, articles, online courses, or in-person sessions, providing quality content to members is one way that associations deliver on their mission.

But creating the kind of valuable, quality content that members expect is time-consuming, so associations looking to get more mileage out of their existing content will often repurpose or repackage it.

Although this tactic—and then either selling it or extending it to members for free—isn’t new, it’s a good way to remind members and nonmembers about the relevance of the association, said Kara Adams, CAE, client success manager at learning technology company Blue Sky eLearn. “Maintaining your value proposition to your members through your education is really important because you want them to always think that your association is providing the best content and whenever they need to learn something new, they go straight to you first before just googling it and looking at something that might be free,” she said.

Good marketing is the key to making association content feel shiny and new. Here are a few tips for effectively marketing your repurposed association content:

Ensure repurposed content is relevant. Before associations start marketing their repackaged content, they need to check that it’s still timely. “You want to make sure your content is relevant and that you’re not selling something that’s not accurate,” Adams said, adding that pricing it correctly is important too. Do “a bit of research on what other organizations or associations are doing—what they’re offering and how much they’re selling it for,” she said. Also keep in mind that there’s a lot of free stuff out there that can be hard to compete with.

Bundle similar content. Bundling content—perhaps some magazine articles, webinars, and a couple of live recorded sessions—into one package and doing some clever email marketing can pique interest. For instance, a restaurant association might push out a dairy-related bundle during June’s Dairy Month, while another association might market a bundle that includes practice tests and an exam training course in the months preceding its in-person certification exam.

Associations can also package some of the most exciting moments from last year’s annual meeting to generate excitement (and new registrations) for their upcoming annual conferences. For instance, associations can send an email to members who missed last year’s conference that reads, “Don’t let moments like these pass you by again. Register now!”

Segment your messaging. It goes without saying that associations will have the most luck marketing their repurposed content if they target and tailor their messaging to different audiences. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all thing,” Adams said. “There are so many groups that are trying to bridge that generation gap, where they’ve got some really young members, … and then they’ve got the opposite end of the scale, … so they’re trying to meet the needs of both of those, and you can’t send the same marketing message to both of those groups.”

What are your marketing tricks for repurposed content? Please leave your tips below.

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