Imagine buying a fresh tomato to use only a quarter of it for a sandwich and then disposing of the rest. Or purchasing a 30-day subway pass when you’re only going to take two trips that month. Or washing one shirt in a load of laundry.
Of course, doing these things would feel like a waste of time, money, and resources, so we look for ways to maximize our return and reap the economic and practical benefits.
We make a pasta sauce. We buy two subway tickets. We wait until there’s a full load.
It’s no different when it comes to content.
But for some reason, we often dismiss the idea of stretching content to its fullest potential.
Why? Digital marketing moves fast. The constant production of new information, emerging formats, and our collectively weakened attention spans have driven us to feel the need to constantly pump out new content to keep up.
So we write a blog, maybe share it once on social media, and then we move on to the next - even though there is so much more we can still do.
Let's look at what repurposing your content means, why you should do it, and how to get started today.
What is content repurposing?
Content repurposing simply means taking something you’ve already created and reimagining it in a new way.
It could be a blog post, a video, a podcast episode, a successful social media campaign you ran, or copy from your website or your marketing materials.
By breathing new life into something you’ve already put time and effort into creating, you can consistently release something new without the stress, helping you to reach new audiences each time and maintain your presence in the marketing world.
Why should you repurpose content?
Constantly launching new content without repurposing what you have is not only a surefire path to madness and burnout; it's also a weak point in your marketing and communication strategies. Here's why.
It takes a few times for the message to stick.
Research shows that people need to see a message at least seven times before they absorb it. If you’re releasing new content regularly with varying concepts and ideas, you could be missing an opportunity to reinforce your brand message. That’s why television commercials don’t air once and then disappear; you might see the same commercial repeatedly for months and not even fully realize it until it’s started to become a part of your regular programming.
It helps you keep up the pace.
As we mentioned, digital marketing moves fast, and it is in your best interest to keep up with it so you don’t get left behind. Repurposing your content can help you maintain a solid schedule that doesn’t make you feel like you’re drowning by having to research and create something new from scratch every time.
It's good for SEO.
Search engines prioritize fresh content. Taking old and outdated content and giving it a little facelift can help resurface it so that it shows up near the top of the list when someone conducts a search. Also, refreshing old content gives you the chance to include any new SEO tactics and best practices that might have changed since you initially created it. Examples of this could be optimized keywords, formatting styles, or including new internal and external backlinks.
It keeps you relevant.
While it’s good to prioritize creating some evergreen content that won’t date itself, you also want to ensure you’re staying relevant with emerging trends and ideas related to your industry. Repurposing is a chance to bring life to old concepts with a new idea and evolve your content to match your brand - and what’s happening in the world.
How to repurpose your content
These are some quick and easy ideas for repurposing your existing content.
Blog Posts
Break it down into bite-size chunks: Break out long-form blog posts into smaller, separate pieces that dive deeper into each sub-category.
Add new photos: See where you can update images for a more eye-catching post (and remember to add meta tags to your photos for an extra SEO boost!)
Create social content: Extract a few sentences from a blog post to use as captions for your social media accounts. You can also turn really snappy one-liners into graphic images you can share on your grid.
Turn it into a newsletter: Build an email around the blog and send it to your audience to bring more traffic to that post.
Update it with new ideas: Spend a little time (or enlist the help of a team like ours) zhush-ing the language and injecting a new perspective to provide more value for the reader.
Website Copy
Build upon your values: Each of your company values can be a springboard for new content by digging a little deeper into what the value means and showing examples via client testimonials.
Create case studies: If you have some impressive stats and client testimonials living on your website, you can spin them into case studies that you can repurpose on your blog.
Email campaigns: Adapt sections of your website for your mailing list. Examples could be pulling from your services page for drip campaigns or your about us/mission/vision page to create a welcome email when someone subscribes to your newsletter.
Videos
Work a video into a blog post: Share your videos far and wide. If they only live on a YouTube account, bring them to your website by embedding videos into relevant blog posts.
Make clips for social: Break longer videos down into short, snackable clips for social media.
Create a transcript: This works particularly well for Q&A interview videos. You can run it through a transcription service (we love rev.com), and you have a new post for your blog! The same idea goes for podcast episodes.
There are so many more ways to reimagine your content. If you already have lots of good things to share and need help coming up with new ways to present them, reach out to the team at toth shop and see how we can support you.
