It's easy to lose inspiration when creating content for a dozen different channels.
The answer: Stop producing so much.
Help more people see what you already have. Repurposing existing content extends its life and expands your reach.
It's All About Recycling
There's a lot of digital clutter out there, so the kitchen is not the only place to become more serious about recycling.
You’ve spent a lot of effort on your content, and it typically doesn’t lose its value over time — if you handle it wisely. So, why not get as much out of your efforts as possible?
Benefits of Repurposing Content
It’s time to dive into your archives and stop trying to reinvent the wheel. In fact, go ahead and cancel next week’s brainstorm session. Bringing old content back to life has great benefits for your business!
You save time and money
Sure, you will have to invest some hours in tweaking your content, but at least you don't have to start from scratch and even worse: think of new ideas.
You can reach a new audience
Repurposing your content for different mediums allows you to meet people where they are. We consume different kinds of content throughout the day: a podcast on the train, a blog during lunch break, vlogs at night. Each piece of content and each platform caters to a different audience segment, giving you more views, traffic and exposure.
You gain authority
You want your audience to think, or rather know, that you are the expert in your field, and you're the one they should work with. Posting high-quality content in different places helps you establish yourself as an industry expert.
You reinforce your message
If you say it once, you should say it again. There's no point in putting out a few pieces of content one time only and then calling it a day. If you want to be seen and to be taken seriously, it's key to spread your message continuously.
Source: www.distel.co
Ideas for Repurposing Marketing Content
Maybe you started with blogging but got stuck coming up with new topics. Or you made a few great videos in the past that were received really well, but you simply don't have time to get in front of the camera again.
Even though it seems challenging, it's important to continuously put out content — which can be anything from an Instagram post to a full podcast. The idea is to start with your bigger pieces and break them down into smaller things that you optimize for different channels.
A king in content repurposing is Gary Vaynerchuck. From one piece of pillar content, such as a video of him delivering a keynote, he manages to make 30 different pieces of micro-content, from Snapchats to memes. And you can too. Let’s get started.
A blog is not just a blog
Not even this one. Blogs are the little black dresses of digital content: there's nothing more versatile than a good blog. Here are some ideas on how to rock them as many times as possible:
- Repost it on different channels: Let’s start easy… Show off your blog! The exact same blog you post on your website can also be posted on Medium, LinkedIn, or Quora. This will boost your views and traffic and requires zero effort.
- Use the contents from your blog for a presentation: You can see a blog as the written out version of a spoken presentation. Use it to educate colleagues or impress clients or share them on LinkedIn or SlideShare.
- Bundle blogs up into an e-book: If you have several blogs on connected topics, you can bundle them in an e-book and sell it, or make it available as a free download to anyone who leaves their email address. Double score!
- Make a quiz about the contents of your blog: Want to interact more with your readers? Turn your blogs into a quiz to test how much of your info has stuck to them! Send it a while after publishing it to remind them of the great info you provided.
- Update blogs: Perhaps something has changed, or technologies have developed. Make sure the content in your blogs is up to date and the most reliable source of information for your readers.
- Turn the information in a blog into an infographic: If the topic is suitable for it, you can summarize the information of a blog in an infographic. These visuals can be used on social media, your website, presentations, or anywhere you see fit.
Source: www.distel.co
Other smart ways to reuse content
Of course, there’s more to life and marketing than blogs, we know that. If you have other forms of digital content, here are some ways to give them a new life as well.
Video
Turn your vlogs or videos into social media content: snippets of your previous vlogs are great to use on channels like Instagram. Use small parts to generally boost your content, or piece together parts of earlier videos around a specific theme.
Podcast
They’ve risen in popularity, and that won’t stop anytime soon: podcasts are the next big thing, and they’re more versatile than you’d think. You can use quotes from your podcast to make posts for social media, to lead traffic back to it.
Also, film it! Yes, we know that podcasts are about sound, but by making a video out of it you can also reach an audience on platforms like YouTube. It works the other way around too: if there’s a video you made, strip the audio and post it to Spotify and iTunes.
Last but not least: Don’t forget to turn on your speech-to-text software when recording your podcast, to easily turn it into a blog … which, of course, you can then repurpose in other ways!
Long story (or blog, or ebook) short …
There are many ways to break bigger pieces of content into small ones. Then, you can use this smaller piece of content to drive awareness and traffic back to the original piece, whether that's a video or a blog.
Don't just make content: get more out of it. If you’re on a tight budget marketing-wise, you want to spend every dollar and every minute wisely. Repurposing content is a big step to saving money and gaining more exposure.