Carving Up Your Popular Content to Reach and Satisfy Your Audience

Right now, imagine your popular podcast episodes, blog posts or keynote messages as a delicious, juicy turkey sitting in the middle of the table at Thanksgiving dinner. Like that turkey, developing your podcast, blog or keynote required a lot of preparation. When it was ready, you made a big deal of getting it out there, and then you stood back with a smile as your audience oohhhed and ahhhh’d over it.

At the end of Thanksgiving, no one would leave the leftover turkey on the dinner table and say, “Welp, that was nice. Moving on.” No! We grab that turkey and prepare it to be enjoyed in other ways. The same goes for your big-style content.

You worked hard creating that content, so carve it up and serve it again to your hungry audience in multiple ways.

When it comes to carving up your content, I propose a progression that looks like this:

1. Main Meat
2. Slice & Dice
3. Sandwiches and Snacks

Here’s what this can look like below. I’m also sharing an example from a recent presentation that I did on the “Five Things that Agents Look for in a Book Proposal” for Books & Such best-selling author Tricia Goyer’s Write that Book writer group.

1. MAIN MEAT 

• Blog post
• Podcast
• Facebook Live
• Keynote Message
• Webinar
• Online Course Session

2. SLICE & DICE

• Highlight key quotes, principles, application, tools
• Capture 30-90 second audio/video clips
• Save reader emails or comments from your audience – make sure to ask them for permission to share.

IMPORTANT: There are two Pro-Tips to help you do this smarter, not harder!

1. Create a file on your computer or a program like Trello where you post the original “Main Meat” content and can add the “Slice & Dice” pieces to the file.
2. Do this sooner rather than later. Once your audience starts providing feedback on which portions of your content resonated with them, capture it and store it before you move on. 

SAMPLE: Here’s video clip that resonated with the listening audience. So, I used my iPhone to screen record a 90-second clip that I could quickly edit and save.

3. CREATE “SANDWICHES & SNACKS”

• Design social media posts with Canva and use Canva’s content calendar to post.
• Create a freebie or lead magnet that you can use as a giveaway or a list builder at your website.
• Drop into your newsletter with links back to the main content, preferably directing them to your website.
• Post audio clips with graphics designed with software like Waave.
• Post video clips with a link to the entire episode on YouTube, Facebook Live or Website.

SAMPLE: Here’s a graphic that I created in Canva of one of the main points that I shared in that clip. Again, I noted that the audience really responded to that sticky-statement so I made a graphic with it.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: What would you add to my list? In the comments below, tell us how you “carve up” your popular content and reuse it with your audience.