It’s safe to say that most companies have an idea of their best-performing content. The marketing team may even be able to rattle off the top 10 pieces of all-time. How many of those pieces now just live on your website collecting dust? That’s where repurposing comes into play. A repurposed or derivative content asset can breathe new life into your highest performing content, bring a whole new audience to your site, and become a true lead magnet in its own right.
The best part about repurposed content is that you don’t have to start from scratch. Most of the creative process is done for you as you’ve already identified a great topic that resonated with your audience. Save yourself some valuable time and stop focusing on creating content day in and day out. Instead, turn your attention to your highest performing content assets and start thinking about new ways to represent those ideas.
The repurposing advantage
Other than saving precious time in the content creation process, repurposing has a number of other benefits too.
- Talk to new people – Much like re-entering the same party, a new derivative asset can make a different first impression on a whole new group of people. If you consider different mediums and channels for that content, you can serve it up in a whole host of other places – places in which these new customers might actually be searching.
- Building credibility for search engine optimization (SEO) – Do you know what search engine algorithms are always on the lookout for? Topic clusters. Multiple pieces of content around the same topic gives your website an instant credibility boost as well as favorable SEO rankings for your targeted keywords that are sprinkled in your content. That’s why it’s ok to have lots of content covering the same topic.
- Consistency – If you’re hoping to have your message really sink in, then hammering it home with repetition across multiple pieces of content can achieve just that. There’s even a well-known marketing rule that supports this theory, stating that buyers need to hear your message seven times before they’ll close the deal.
What to repurpose?
Not all content assets are winners, but some definitely deserve some extra time in the spotlight. Ask yourself a few questions before diving into creating a derivative asset:
- Is it still relevant? There’s no sense dusting off an outdated article on technology that’s seen many iterations since publication. You want to look for evergreen content that will be valuable and relevant for months or even years to come.
- Did it perform well? Popularity contests are actually worthwhile in this case, as you want to look for pieces that performed exceptionally well. Dig into your analytics to see what content sparked the most engagement, scored the most downloads and ultimately helped move your prospects down the funnel.
- Can it be tested? If you plan on repurposing content in a variety of formats, you’ll need to determine if you can accurately review the analytics for each format. Then maybe after some A/B testing, you can determine which ones to go all-in on updating.
5 ways to repurpose content
Before diving into some great examples of repurposing content, it’s important to remember that repurposing does not just mean reusing content. It’s all about altering it and making changes to the content so that it’s fresh and appealing to a new audience.
Updating content on the regular should be part of your content strategy. Comb through blog posts and update them for relevant new information and remove any outdated references. You can even write follow-ups, new facts or quick summaries of existing content to give it a new flavor.
Here are some other ideas for how to spin out derived content from your existing assets:
1. Create an eBook from blog posts and articles
Good quality blogs take a lot of hard work and dedication, but that’s precisely why they should be repurposed. The easiest and most effective way to turn those blog posts into conversion magnets is to compile them into an eBook.
Your readers will thank you because you’ve taken the time to combine all that information into one comprehensive resource. This will be your readers’ go-to asset, plus it’ll be easier for them to navigate to exactly the info they need rather than searching through multiple posts.
With every download, you’re gathering new leads and helping to increase your conversion rates while bringing more attention to your content and messaging.
This same strategy actually works in reverse for your high-performing long-form content as well. Stripping white papers and long articles into a series of shorter blog posts means you have more material for regular updates.
2. Build an infographic from your data reports
Numbers and data are all well and good, but sometimes they need a little help to tell the story. That’s where an infographic can step in and showcase that same data in a much more appealing and eye-catching way.
If you’ve got a detailed or technical report that’s got lots of facts and figures in there, repurposing those very key stats into an infographic can help guide your audience to conclusions. Let’s face it, as humans we process visuals better than text – 60,000 times faster in fact.
Infographics are great awareness stage assets that are easily shared and highly linked to on social media platforms, helping you bring in a whole new group of prospects that might be unfamiliar with your brand otherwise.
3. Turn your technical white papers into podcasts
A lot of companies are turning to webinars and webcasts to deep dive into technical concepts, thinking that sharing this in real-time with a live audience will spark better engagement. That might be true, but there’s more power in providing convenience. Instead, think about turning that technical content from a white paper or report findings into an on-demand podcast that your listeners can digest anytime they want.
Consuming content on-demand is all the rage for television, so it stands to reason that consumers are looking for new ways to ingest written content as well. Podcasts are climbing in popularity, with over half of the US population listening to at least one.
Promoting podcasts on social media is commonplace, so it is a great way to share deeper technical content that otherwise would have never seen the light of day on your Twitter feed.
4. Slide decks make great videos
If video isn’t already part of your content strategy, it needs to be. Think beyond YouTube as well to all the videos you consume on your social media feeds, it’s where your content is going to capture the most attention.
Capitalize on the growing video trends by repurposing your presentations as explainer videos- either animated or live action- where you walk through the presentation. Explainer videos are one of the most popular and effective ways to relay production information to your audience.
Fine-tuning your sales pitches and product presentations will be key to developing a solid storyboard for your explainer video. Focus on how your solutions solve customer problems and remember to stay consistent with the look and feel of your brand.
5. Slice a blog 80 different ways
Your high-performing blog posts are going to be the content you’ll want to repurpose most often and it just so happens that they’re the easiest assets to turn into new content gold.
Identify your best blog post and rewrite it as a script for a short YouTube video or as an interview Q&A for a podcast. Focus on the key takeaways from the blog and there’s your social media posts to promote it.
If it’s really valuable content, feel free to share it across your newsletters or even link to it in personalized emails or LinkedIn In-Mail.
Final thoughts
Every business is looking for ways to up their content marketing game and at the most basic level, repurposing your existing content can be a key component to keeping your content fresh and your brand top of mind.
There is some work involved in repurposing content and updating existing assets might mean some effort and focus on new mediums and identifying distribution channels, but at the end of the day repurposing content should save you time.
Key takeaway: never spend as much time repurposing as you did creating in the first place.
