We can all agree that “content is king,” but not all of us have the time to constantly create increasingly more content.
This is where repurposing your existing content can come into play.
Repurposed content involves adding to or heavily revising your existing content to add more value. It gives you the option of potentially targeting a different audience than originally intended as well. However, repurposed content could also simply be a way of reaching whomever you missed the first time around.
Repurposing your original content:
- Saves you time
- Improves your search engine optimization (SEO)
- Helps you reach a larger audience
- Boosts your authority on the topic
- Makes the most of your past effort
The following are 13 tips to repurpose content like a rockstar marketer.
Identify your best content
Ideally, you’re starting with quality, evergreen content (typically blog articles), looking for the timeless gems that have multiple angles that can be broken up and repurposed in different ways.
Take some time to review your website analytics. Depending on how far your data goes back, look at your top content by month for both page views and time spent on page.
The key is that you identify all your best pieces of content and compile them in an easy-to-manage format where you can spin-off and repurpose content easily.
To stay organized, consider these eight tips for creating an effective content calendar.
Create new blog posts based on what you’ve already done
Without grasping at straws for what to publish next, remember that great content can spinoff more great content.
For example, you can break up a past listicle into individual pieces of content. On the flip side, you can take a group of similar posts and compile them into more of a summary post.
Refresh and republish out-of-date content
Similar to spinning off your original content, you also can update and republish any out-of-date content you already have.
The hard work is already done for you in the core of the blog article, but things can change after a few years or even a few months, depending on the topic.
Depending on your blog article publisher, you might want to either update the existing article and include a note up top. Or, you can publish an all-new article and simply reference and/or link back to the original article.
Convert into a presentation slide deck
Any blog article with statistics, quotes and advice can easily be converted into slides, which can offer a more visual way to engage audiences with your original content.
There are a number of tools that can help with the slide deck creation, including Canva, PowerPoint and Google Slides. Once created, you could share on websites like SlideShare.
Summarize key points in an infographic
Infographics are essentially a visual outline summarizing some or all of your content.
If your content typically includes a lot of data, infographics are a great way to go. They can make that data much easier to understand and fill in as visual posts on your social media channels to capture the attention of your followers.
Of course, infographics aren’t just great with specific data points. Truly, you can represent any summary or key points of your content visually in an infographic.
When designing, keep your branding in mind (colors, fonts, so on) and maintain a consistent look throughout as much as possible. That will only strengthen your branding.
Some tools that make creating infographics a breeze include Piktochart and Visually.
Teach through an instructographic
Similar to infographics, instructographics are graphics that represent how-to content. In essence, you’re using the visual format to show your audience how to do something.
These are a great option to convert your content into, especially if you have a lot of how-to articles.
Instructographics are particularly popular on Pinterest, but don’t stress if you don’t have a business profile on Pinterest. These visuals can be engaging almost anywhere.
Don’t be afraid to repost on social media
There are a couple of facts about social media that many brands can forget:
- Not everyone sees everything you post.
- Even people who have seen something in the past likely won’t remember now.
This leaves your social media publishing efforts ripe for the resharing of your best (i.e. timeless) evergreen content.
For example, a tire shop could easily repost its winter driving tips before every major storm in its region.
However, you can always mix things up by changing up your chatter on the post and/or the visuals used.
At a loss? Consider leveling up your social media skills with any of these 17 free online courses.
Develop an email series for new subscribers
A well-developed blog article can easily be converted into an automated email series.
For example, you could leverage a tips article into one tip per email. Be sure to flush out each email with additional visuals to make it more engaging. Then, you can offer this email series to new subscribers. The pace can be up to you (daily, every three days, etc.), but be sure to communicate this in your initial email so that email recipients know what to expect from you.
This not only repurposes your existing content but acts as a lead generation tool for new email subscribers.
Not sure how to make an automated email series happen? You’ll want to check out DailyStory.
In other words, you’ll want to dive deeper into these 14 best practices for email drip campaigns.
Create an ebook
Often referred to as premium content, many ebooks actually began as blog posts once upon a time.
Identifying a blog article where you can dig a little deeper is perfect for developing an ebook. Guides are a common approach for many ebooks out there: “The Complete Guide to…” Another popular approach is compiling a series of interviews with industry thought leaders into an expert advice ebook.
But it all just depends on what you’re an expert in and what you believe your target audience will most value.
Remember that you’ll likely want to include an introduction, table of contents and conclusion, which is a bit different than the typical blog format you might be used to. High-quality visuals also are imperative.
You’ll also want to keep your branding present on every page in some consistent way.
Canva or Papyrus are great options for designing an ebook, even if you don’t have a lot of design skills.
This too can be used as a lead generation opportunity on your website. (Consider checking out our 12 strategies to capture leads without annoying everyone.)
Learn more about premium content and how you can leverage it in your marketing.
Consider a presence on Quora
Quora is essentially a question-and-answer platform that can be an easy opportunity to repost your existing content.
You can either use it in your replies to questions or as posts to existing user blogs.
If you’re not familiar with the free platform, create an account and start following “spaces” that are related to your brand and expertise.
(Of course, Quora is also a great place to see what people are asking about that can help you brainstorm new content topics for yourself.)
Speaking of Quora, check out our 18 low-cost marketing ideas for small businesses.
Consider guest blogging
At first, guest blogging might sound like a requirement to develop a lot of new material. This doesn’t have to be the case.
You can easily break out an angle of an existing blog article you already have for your guest blog, for example, and then link back to your bigger piece of content for anyone intrigued to find out more.
See our 10 tips to build up your personal brand and grow your business for more.
Think multimedia
Videos or podcasts are a great way to repurpose content. Not everyone has the time or wants to read.
Adapting some of your written content pieces into a video or podcast series is a great way to reach new audiences. You can use this existing content as a jumping off point for larger conversations that make sense in a podcast format.
Of course, we have more reasons why businesses should be creating more videos as part of their marketing strategy. But you don’t have to be a video-editing whiz to get started. Check out these video-editing apps.
And if you’re stumped about where to go with your videos (even when basing them on existing content you already have), check out these 10 types of marketing videos to inspire you.
Host a webinar
This is a bit of a combination of our presentation and video suggestions, but webinars can be a very effective way to engage your audience on a topic that matters to them that you’re an expert in.
You’ll likely want to make your first one or few free to test the waters, practice before going live (even if it’s on a platform like Zoom that you’re familiar with) and plan a promotion campaign around each webinar.
However, it’s important to know that it’s okay if no one shows up. Why? Because you can still record it and then reuse that recording in different ways moving forward, such as a video tutorial on YouTube.
Check out our 12 expert tips for hosting your first webinar.
In conclusion
Your effort to repurpose content should be a regular part of your normal publishing process. Sometimes, we get so locked into creating new content, we forget the value of what we’ve already done.
If you can commit to reviewing past content for new repurposing opportunities, you’ll benefit from the saved time and the new audiences you can reach.
Want to save even more time with your digital marketing process? DailyStory specializes in automation, email marketing, audience segmentation and more. Level up your process, and schedule a free demo with us today.
