How Can I Use Modular Content in My Digital Marketing?

Modular content is content that you can easily repurpose to satisfy an array of needs. Creating content that you can slot into multiple platforms and channels (with just minor tweaks to fit the venue) is an excellent way to reach various audiences. It’s also a great way to make your content work harder for you, especially after you’ve put in all the effort to create it.

A Versatile Whole

So modularizing your content can mean taking a single piece and presenting it in many places in its entirety. It’s moveable, portable, and whole.

Strategically presenting subdivisions is another modular flavor. 

Repackageable Parts
Modular content can also refer to a lengthy, robust piece that you chop into many smaller, self-contained pieces—modules—that you then present in various venues.

The idea is to create content that works as a whole or in its parts. You want to structure your content such that internally coherent chunks can be separated from the whole and used on their own.  

Let’s say we have a ten-gallon bucket of ice cream and a house filled with hyperactive toddlers (or adult creatives, same difference). 

We need to use that bucket of ice cream to get all those toddlers into the living room for nap time, but they’re toddlers (or, again, adult creatives), and they’re very particular about how they consume frozen sugary treats. 

One modular approach to this problem would be to take bits of that ice cream to create ice cream bowls, ice cream cones, and blended cups of ice cream smoothies. 

Each repurposing of the core ice cream content will attract different audiences. By utilizing all of them, we can gather all the little rascals into the room and … (ice cream drumstickroll, please!) … mission accomplished. 

Of course, now they’re all hopped up on sugar, but that’s a different problem. 

Modular content can also work in the opposite way. Using the same example, we can put together a couple of treat trays from various little pieces of candy and snacks from around the house. So, you can build a variety of content from smaller, granular content. 

The important thing is that modular content can, with a little creative application, appeal to different audiences. 

Here’s How You Can Use It

Your ace content writer has just created a definitive 2,700-word blog that relates maverick marketing techniques to how Tom Cruise’s character in the 80s blockbuster hit movie Top Gun managed to pull off a negative-4G inverted dive in an F-14 Tomcat. 

It’s a brilliantly written blog. It hits all the SEO checkmarks. It’s long, it’s informative, it makes great use of keywords, headers, and subheaders. The problem is that it’s a blog in a sea of blogs on your site, and you want it to pull more weight for you. 

Well, no problem. Let’s see how we can make it work for you elsewhere.

“This is what I call a target-rich environment.”

Before you start creating your modular content, you’ll want to identify your target audiences. 

Your LinkedIn audience is definitely looking to your company as a thought leader in the world of marketing, so their attention is a must. 

Then there are the social media platforms. You think your Instagram account has a little bit of reach, and a support Tweet couldn’t hurt either. Both audiences will also probably be more excited about the Top Gun spin. 

You wonder if maybe you couldn’t go for a more visual audience as well. Could YouTube work for you somehow? Absolutely. Jet fighters and video content work like peanut butter and chocolate.  

Targets locked. Fire away.

For the LinkedIn content, pulling a particularly interesting passage from the blog and making a post out of it will draw interest from the professionals in the audience. The blurb should contain information that gives it value on its own, but also entice people to follow a link to the full blog. 

Now, in consideration of our audiences on the other platforms, we might want to jump ahead to YouTube content. 

If you think of the blog more as a script, suddenly you have the foundation for a video. Cut together stills from the movie along with free-use jet fighter footage, add a narrator over it, and now you have a video. Optimize the description for best results, and don’t be afraid to add in some explosions for extra punch. 

When you’ve got your video uploaded to YouTube, it’s time to talk about it on Twitter and Instagram. Link the video on both platforms along with a clever line like “Here’s why buzzing the tower can pay off in your marketing strategies.”

Remember, it’s important that all your modular content drive the audience back to your site. 

You Probably Already Know This, But…

The thing about modular content creation is that you’ve probably already been practicing it to some degree. Any marketing strategy worth its salt is going to involve reaching as many audiences as possible with content. 

The real strategy is in identifying those audiences you want to reach and then piecing out the modular content in an appropriate manner to reach those audiences. 

Content Creator’s Takeaway

Modular content helps you work smarter, not harder. Creating content that you can repackage (in whole or in parts) to best fit the destination marketing channel means more people will see your content, and it means you don’t have to start from scratch and design a piece for each platform. 

CMO’s Takeaway
Modular content helps maintain brand identity. Communicating a strong, consistent message is key to establishing and maintaining your brand. Modular content ensures that the tone and substance of your publications is unified.

At DOM, we’re experts in reaching audiences. If you’re looking for help with your modular content strategy, be sure to get in touch and find out what we can do for you.