Maximize the Content You Already Have by Repurposing it

Creating content is hard. When it comes to thinking of what new bit of content to create next we often stumble along the way. What can we do to work through that?

Digital marketing is full of fancy terms that often confuse business owners. For example, take repurposing.

repurpose | rēˈpərpəs | verb [with object] adapt for use in a different purpose: they’ve taken a product that was originally designed for a CD-ROM and repurposed it for the Microsoft Network.

Does repurposing refer to changing the way you conduct business? No, it means taking some of the best content you have presented online and revising it to fulfill another purpose.

Hence, repurposing.

Let’s take a look at why is important to repurpose your online content, before diving into the most effective ways to get an old message out in a new format.

Why You Should Repurpose Content

Business owners have more than enough things to do than to figure out how to make old content work as new and improved content. So, why should you repurpose your online content?

Let us count the ways.

• Achieve more than one content marketing goal
• Reach more members of your target audience
• Increase recognition for your products and services.
• Presents content in more than one way
• Gives your business more authority
• Improves your SEO strategy

Although you want to focus on presenting your most popular content in new ways, repurposing can also be for your less popular content. In fact, you can revive content that is flat-lining online into content that goes on fire virally.

Methods for Repurposing Content

Let’s make one thing clear about repurposing your online content. It does not mean you repurpose an old article or blog post repeatedly in the same form. Authentic content repurposing involves changing the content to make it appear fresh and more important, appealing to both new and loyal customers.

One Piece of Content Spawns Another

There have been countless successful television show spin-offs. Think the CSI series, as well as how Cheers was the brainchild behind the development of Frasier. The point is your popular articles and blog posts can spin off other articles and blog posts that provide numerous benefits for your target audience. A prime example of the content spin-off idea is by taking one article that is a listicle and expanding on each part of the list by creating separate articles. For example, if you present a listicle of the 10 best restaurants in Chicago, you can write 10 different articles devoted to each of the restaurants on your list. The same principle applies to other pieces of content that summarize ideas that you can break down into more detail by writing separate articles and blog posts.

Refresh Old Content

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Well, that does not apply to content marketing. Although you might have uploaded a post last year that 100% reflected what was going on at the moment, some things most likely have changed. A simple analogy is by referring to the planets in our solar system. If you wrote a post five years ago that discussed the nine planets, you could update the post today by writing a website article explaining why we now have just eight planets.

Poor Pluto.

Post the Same Content on Social Media

Sometimes, all you have to do is expand the number of formats you can use for presenting your business message. Let’s say you wrote a compelling article last week about how the China-United States trade war is hurting American farmers. You can tweak the article if you want, but you can also upload it verbatim to your Facebook page to create another platform for getting the word out about your business. Online marketer Tom Tunguz conducted research that demonstrated that by reposting identical content on a social media platform, you can generate at least 75% of the engagement that accompanied the original posting of the content.

Write an eBook

You write a blog post that presents an overview of a complex topic. Why not expand on the blog post by writing a detailed eBook that addresses every sub-topic raised in the blog post. For instance, a business owner writes about the components of an auto inspection. The article summarizes each phase of a car inspection and now, members of the target audience for the business owner want a more detailed presentation of what exactly goes into a state-certified auto inspection. The owner of the auto service business can offer a free eBook describing in detail that components of a typical car inspection.

Videos are Content

Ever since Google bought YouTube, the online video platform has become an integral part of search engine results. Google a topic such as the Chicago Bears and you can expect to see at least a couple of Chicago Bears YouTube videos on the first search engine result page. By taking a ‘How to…” blog post and transforming it into a “How to…” YouTube video, you can use essentially the same content, except that the new content is in audio, not in written form.

Send an Email Blast                                                                                                                        

Maybe some members of your target audience did not find an important article you uploaded to your business website. The best way to reach the members of your target audience that missed the original article is to send the same content out in an email blast. Services like MailChimp and Campaign Monitor can make developing an email blast an easy thing to do. Simply ask your target audience to opt-in and you can repurpose your website content into influential emails.

Meet the new content, not quite the same as the old content, and you will make your content marketing program a more effective way to get the word out about your business.