Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in 2020 and has been refreshed.
When the economy gets shaky, budgets get tight — and many marketers become leery of investing their precious resources into creating new assets.
As Clariant Creative's resident thrifting queen, I know all about stretching a dollar. And just like "shopping your closet," reusing and repurposing the content assets you already have is the perfect way to stretch your marketing budget dollars while still getting amazing results — if you know what you’re doing.
In fact, in a ReferralRock survey, 65% of respondents said repurposing existing content for different channels is more cost-effective than refreshing existing content or creating net new content.
In this blog post, I’ll explain why reusing and repurposing your content can be such a game changer, and I’ll show you how to do it right, no matter the size of your team — or your budget.
First, I need to clarify a key point: Reusing and repurposing content requires high-quality content to start with. This strategy won’t work with mediocre assets; you need to start with a piece of content that informs, delights, and maybe even surprises.
But once you have that, the sky’s the limit. Put on your thinking cap and get creative: Refresh, remix, slice, dice, and squeeze every ounce of value out of that fantastic content asset.
The idea here is to take your best content and transform it into something new.
Let’s walk through what this might look like in practice. Starting with your favorite blog post, here’s some quick brainstorming on all the ways you can repurpose it — at a fraction of the cost of creating all these new assets individually.
Republish your post on multiple channels: Let’s start easy. The exact same blog post you publish on your website can also be published on Medium, Reddit, or Quora, or as a LinkedIn newsletter. This will boost your views and traffic and requires almost zero effort.
Create a video explaining the blog post. Video content typically performs excellently on social media but can be challenging to create. Your blog post gives you the perfect head start. Using your smartphone or a webcam, record yourself either providing an overview of the blog post or diving deep into a single element from the post. Add some captions and maybe tack an animated logo on the end as an outro, and boom: instant social media reach.
Create an infographic from the blog post. Custom visuals also tend to perform great on social media — so take one of the key concepts in your post and visualize it with a compelling infographic. Definitely share the infographic on social media, but also add the infographic to the blog post for a smart visual update to the original content. (Here are some great infographic templates for inspiration!)
Create a quiz about the contents of your blog: Want to drive more engagement with your readers? Turn your blog post into a quiz to test how well they retained the information you’ve shared. You can embed the quiz at the end of your post, or consider sending the quiz as a marketing email a few days after initially sharing the blog post as a fun new touchpoint with your readers.
Record yourself discussing the blog post with a colleague. Open up a genuine conversation with someone who is a subject matter expert on the blog post topic, and the ensuing discussion becomes the perfect hassle-free podcast episode. This works particularly well with controversial topics.
Bundle related blog posts together. Take advantage of any common themes running through your content by consolidating the related blog posts into a more comprehensive and therefore more valuable content asset. This new content asset could manifest as an ebook, a website pillar page, or even a webinar.
“OK, fair enough,” you say. “But how should creating net new content fit into my content marketing strategy?”
Great question. It can be tricky to know the best approach, especially if you want to share fresh viewpoints with your audience or capitalize on new trends or developments in your industry.
Ultimately, what marketers should aim for is content that is deeply helpful, expert-driven, and trustworthy … and my goal here is to demonstrate that it doesn’t always have to be new content to check those boxes.
Here’s a quick guide to help you figure out how to update your content strategy:
In short, you might need less new content than you think. So, take a good look whether you can update, refresh, or repurpose the assets you already have. If you identify that you do need to create something new, focus on quality over quantity.
"But how am I supposed to do all this with my limited budget/team/bandwidth?”
Another great question, and one you're not alone in asking. Unless you’ve been blessed with a large team and a generous budget, the thought of trying to navigate all of this might be making you feel a little queasy. (I’m sorry!)
To make it up to you, I have some excellent news: If you have a HubSpot Content Hub subscription, all of this will take just a few minutes of your time.
Our Chief Strategist, Beth Carter, recorded this short video that walks you through how Content Remix works:
At first, repurposing content might feel like cheating or like taking the easy way out. Or you might be worried about overwhelming (or worse, annoying the heck out of) the very people you’re hoping to attract and engage with.
But the thing is, you’ve put a lot of effort into your content, so why not get as much value from that effort as possible? That value can manifest in many ways:
That last bullet point is possibly my favorite. A teacher at my high school used to say, “Repetition works. Repetition works. Repetition works. Repetition works. Repetition works.” (Hi, Mr. Rogers!) He was right, and science backs it up: Not only does repetition strengthen memory, but it can even make people like your message more.
It’s why radio ads repeat their phone number so many times.
It’s why Nike has stuck with “Just Do It” since 1988.
And it’s why you need to repeat your message much, much more often than you think.
Does that mean you need to barrage your email list daily? No, thank goodness. Instead, it’s all about finding smart ways to repurpose what you’ve already built and test new formats, target new audiences, or try new approaches.
I know it can be tough to balance a tight marketing budget against the need for better, more expert, more relevant content — especially for small teams.
Fortunately, reusing the content you have is a fabulous way to stretch your budget while also greatly expanding your reach. And with HubSpot’s helpful new tools, it’s incredibly easy.
Want to keep reading on ways to level up your content marketing strategy? We’ve built a 9-step guide to set your team up for success!