Developing great content and doubling your marketing efforts go hand in hand. My clients know that I preach “There’s no shame in using it again!” It you own the rights to your original content (writing) you have first time publication rights, next time publication rights, and the right to use it again and again.
When I opened up Rolling Stone magazine I found a brilliant example of the “redirection” practice I’ve encouraged. RS is an established print publication much like the printed newsletter that some of my clients use and should continue to use when it works for their customers. RS has an index of excerpts from their online articles with links to read the complete article on their website.
A redirect from print to a website or blog achieves two powerful tasks. First, it trains your “paper” customers to start using the web where they can easily print, email, and forward your articles to others interested in the same subject, forward to directories like Digg.com, helping your message to propagate across the web.
The second accomplishment of redirecting content through a link is that you’ll be getting paper readers to your website for another marketing opportunity. The longer you embrace them in your paper or web content the longer you’ll hold them to complete a business transaction.
If your paper marketing is working for you then by all means don’t give it up. For those who have made the leap to Constant Contact or iContact for e-newsletters, consider adding excerpts with a link that leads your readers to your website or blog.