I love cooking and trying new recipes, so over the years I’ve signed up to have recipes emailed to me from a bunch of different companies. These companies and their emails are as different as can be. For example, one of the companies that I currently get emails from is a grocery chain that sends seasonal recipes that make use of local ingredients quarterly. Another company is a prepared food delivery service that sends emails biweekly with recipes for elevated weeknight meals. Still another is a cooking school that sends pretentious weekly recipes that I would need to make a special trip to the grocery store and set aside an entire afternoon to make. And then there’s Betty Crocker, which provides a daily roundup of fast, easy recipes that use simple everyday ingredients.
One thing I’ve noticed is that Betty Crocker outshines all of the other food-related companies when it comes to their email marketing. I make their recipes more frequently than any of the other recipes I receive from different sources, and I’m more likely to share their recipes with friends and family (even before I’ve even tried them). I also prioritize their emails above most of the other noise in my inbox. Why?
The main reason why Betty Crocker’s emails are so successful is because they do a remarkable job of repurposing content! Their approach is something that businesses can learn a lot from and mirror in their content strategy. Here’s how your business can take the Betty Crocker approach:
One thing I’ve noticed is that Betty Crocker outshines all of the other food-related companies when it comes to their email marketing. I make their recipes more frequently than any of the other recipes I receive from different sources, and I’m more likely to share their recipes with friends and family (even before I’ve even tried them). I also prioritize their emails above most of the other noise in my inbox. Why?
The main reason why Betty Crocker’s emails are so successful is because they do a remarkable job of repurposing content! Their approach is something that businesses can learn a lot from and mirror in their content strategy. Here’s how your business can take the Betty Crocker approach:
Turning Existing Content into Best of Lists
Betty Crocker is like queen of lists! They frequently take their best recipes and make them into attention grabbing lists that encourage email opens and click-throughs to their site. Here are some examples:
Using the Same Content to Target Different Audiences
The good people at Betty Crocker have stumbled something incredible – the same recipe can serve a wide variety of different functions. One recipe might be great to make on a weeknight because it’s fast to put together, or bring to a pot luck because it scales up well, or freeze to eat later for convenient meal planning. So they take the same recipes and put a different spin on them from time to time to ensure that they get the most mileage out of each recipe.
You can take the same approach by looking at your blog posts, whitepapers, videos, infographics, and other content and coming up with a way to pitch the material to different audiences. You can also repackage the same meat of the content in different wrappers to suit different audiences. Retitling the content and highlighting various areas differently can put a whole new spin on the same information. As a word of warning though, if this content lives online be sure that you change it enough that it doesn’t get viewed as duplicate content by the search engines because that can affect your organic ranking.
Reminding Subscribers of your Top Content
With each month, season, and year Betty Crocker reminds subscribers of their top content in different categories with emails titled things like:
It’s easy to mirror this example by setting up engaging surveys and poles on your website, and letting your audience know what the results are. You can use these results to bring back popular content and drive your content strategy moving forward.
Pairing Content
Nothing pairs more easily than food, and Betty Crocker knows that. This is why with each recipe they suggest recipes for side dishes, dessert and sometimes beverages as well.
But food isn’t the only thing that can be paired! Your content can be paired as well in the following ways:
Updating Old Content
Sometimes certain ingredients become harder to find or go out of style, which is why Betty Crocker updates their recipes regularly. You’ll see evidence of this in the comments section because users will complain about not being able to find an ingredient and asking about substitutions and then the current version of the recipe won’t actually have the item in question list and other users will explain that the recipe has been changed.
If you have content that’s been popular historically, but the tools mentioned aren’t popular anymore or the statistics cited have changed substantially, you may want to go back and update that content. This will ensure that you’ll still reap the benefits of any link juice that content has acquired, while still remaining relevant for current searchers.
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
Betty Crocker is like queen of lists! They frequently take their best recipes and make them into attention grabbing lists that encourage email opens and click-throughs to their site. Here are some examples:
- “9 Unbelievably Fast Dinners for Busy Nights”
- “Betty’s Best Chicken Dinners”
- “10 Crowd Pleasing Soups”
- “7 New Dinners That Won’t Break the Bank”
- “10 Cozy Casseroles”
- “29 Slow-Coker Showcase Recipes”
- “10 Twists on Family Favorites”
Using the Same Content to Target Different Audiences
The good people at Betty Crocker have stumbled something incredible – the same recipe can serve a wide variety of different functions. One recipe might be great to make on a weeknight because it’s fast to put together, or bring to a pot luck because it scales up well, or freeze to eat later for convenient meal planning. So they take the same recipes and put a different spin on them from time to time to ensure that they get the most mileage out of each recipe.
You can take the same approach by looking at your blog posts, whitepapers, videos, infographics, and other content and coming up with a way to pitch the material to different audiences. You can also repackage the same meat of the content in different wrappers to suit different audiences. Retitling the content and highlighting various areas differently can put a whole new spin on the same information. As a word of warning though, if this content lives online be sure that you change it enough that it doesn’t get viewed as duplicate content by the search engines because that can affect your organic ranking.
Reminding Subscribers of your Top Content
With each month, season, and year Betty Crocker reminds subscribers of their top content in different categories with emails titled things like:
- “Our Most Downloaded Recipe of the Year”
- “31 Easy Meals for March”
- “11 Spring-y Chicken Recipes”
- “Betty’s Best Winter Desserts”
It’s easy to mirror this example by setting up engaging surveys and poles on your website, and letting your audience know what the results are. You can use these results to bring back popular content and drive your content strategy moving forward.
Pairing Content
Nothing pairs more easily than food, and Betty Crocker knows that. This is why with each recipe they suggest recipes for side dishes, dessert and sometimes beverages as well.
But food isn’t the only thing that can be paired! Your content can be paired as well in the following ways:
- Suggesting additional related content
- Analyzing data to tailor future content offerings to users based on previous behavior
- Offering the same content in a variety of formats to appeal to a wider audience (for example, a whitepaper’s main highlights can be shortened into an infographic and also presented in a brief video)
Updating Old Content
Sometimes certain ingredients become harder to find or go out of style, which is why Betty Crocker updates their recipes regularly. You’ll see evidence of this in the comments section because users will complain about not being able to find an ingredient and asking about substitutions and then the current version of the recipe won’t actually have the item in question list and other users will explain that the recipe has been changed.
If you have content that’s been popular historically, but the tools mentioned aren’t popular anymore or the statistics cited have changed substantially, you may want to go back and update that content. This will ensure that you’ll still reap the benefits of any link juice that content has acquired, while still remaining relevant for current searchers.
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
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