The Do's & Don'ts of Recycling Website Copy

Guiding Principles for Repurposing Your Small Business’ Website Words

The hardest part of writing – even for writers – is likely writer’s block. But how do we avoid staring at a blank page for hours on end? 

We lean on our previous work and use words we’ve already articulated to build new content. 

We hardly ever start from scratch. 

Unless you’re a copywriter or marketing specialist, you probably didn’t start your small business with hopes and dreams of writing copy and content. Alas, writing and rewriting the text for your website, email newsletters, social media posts and more are necessary tasks to grow your business. 

If you’ve ever been tempted to copy information from one spot on your website and paste it onto another page or into an email or social media post, then keep reading. These principles are for you!

Don’t Recycle Copy When… 

You’re using the same copy, word-for-word on multiple pages of your website. 

This is called duplicating content and search engines don’t like it, and real-life humans don’t love it either. 

For potential customers, more information about the same subject can be great, but the same information over and over again feels frustrating more than anything. 

Each page on your website serves a different purpose and answers a different question. For that reason, the copy should reflect that purpose and answer questions related to it. 

Not to mention, search engines identify repetitive information as a potential red flag for plagiarism. 

Consequently, the bots crawling your site – the ones looking for valuable content to suggest to users searching the web – communicate to Google and other search engines that your site’s authority has been compromised. And, yes, that means you’re less likely to rank in keyword-targeted searches. 

Do Recycle Copy When … 

You’re pulling copy from your website to use in emails, social media posts or printed materials. 

Why is it not just okay, but encouraged to repurpose copy and content throughout the rest of your marketing platforms? 

Well, it’s a lot like choosing a billboard to advertise your small business on a highway where you know your target audience will see it as they compute to work. 

While your audience may not be visiting your website daily, you can bet they’re visiting their inbox and social media accounts. 

Really, you and I know that your small business can help them, but they may not know that yet. 

What if one of your friends recently added a tiny new life to their family and you made them a homemade meal, but you didn’t take it to them? 

You’ve got to take your products and services to your audience. 

It’s not too salesy. It’s necessary. 

Let’s look at a few examples of the types of copy you can repurpose to save you time and communicate clearly.

• Your Brand Message

• Topics that Resonate with Your Audience

• Offers and Promotional Information

• Educational Blog Content

• Inspirational Blog Content

How to Recycle Copy

Now that we’ve talked about when to recycle copy and what types of copy are most recyclable, let’s look at a few examples of how you can repurpose your website copy to save you time and communicate clearly. It’s all about squeezing your copy for what it’s worth! 

Step 1: Start with your website. 

Once your website copy is up to date, you can use it to serve your audience in many ways and on many platforms. 

No matter where they hear about you, when they come back to your website, they’ll find information that’s consistent with their experience of your business. 

Step 2: Serve your “raving fans” first. 

Victoria often talks about your hot leads as your raving fans. These are the people who are fully engaged with you online and repeat customers. Often, the best place to serve this audience is in their inbox. 

Yes, I’m another marketer telling you to create, grow and serve your email list, but hear me out. 

Writing emails to your audience is 10X easier when you’re able to recycle content from your website. 

When you need an email topic for the week, all you need to do is look at your website with eyes for email topics. You can break down your website into email-sized, easily digestible topics that serve your audience, introduce them to who you are and remind them that you’ve got what they’re looking for.

Step 3: Share your messages far and wide!

Now that you’ve served your raving fans, you can widen your net and reach out to potential customers or clients who are hanging out on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and whatever the next social media platforms will be. 

With this content strategy, you’re not relying on social media to be the home base for your business. If your preferred platform crashes (or for whatever reason you can’t log in, etc.) you’re still in control of your business and brand. 

But why not recycle the words you’ve already written on your website and in your emails in even smaller chunks of educational, inspirational and FUN content? 

Step 4: Put it in print. 

Truthfully, the only reason I recommend this step last is because it involves a bigger design and printing investment. 

However, if you’ve tested your words on your website, in email newsletters and on social media already, chances are you’re confident in it and you understand what types of evergreen content you can print without tossing beautiful brochures, postcards or posters that contain outdated information. 

And, even though it’s the last step I recommend, it can be the most exciting step. There’s something incredibly energizing about seeing your writing printed and permanent. 

Bonus Tip: If you’ve gotten this far down the page and you’re thinking, “Sure, but I don’t want to recycle words from the blogs I wrote in my early days online.” I highly recommend looking at that content and updating it to match your ever-evolving brand and changing audience. 

You’ve already got a template to work with. Instead of focusing on new content, spend a season updating the content you do have to better serve your people today.

Okay, that’s it for now! How are you feeling? 

If this content helped you, would you let me know? You can message me on Instagram @local.type or email me at sarahstricker@localtypeco.com. 

Of course, you can always find more Local Type information at localtypeco.com. This is an especially good resource for you if you’re a small business within a 3-hour driving distance from Greensboro, North Carolina. I’m a big road tripper. In fact, I’ve had to limit myself lately (burnout comes in all shapes and sizes). 

Until I hear from you, go forth and recycle copy to show up consistently for your community!