We all do create high-quality content to gain high rankings, but that's not the only purpose because sometimes we create good content to make users or readers aware. And, we all know that managing a blog with constant valuable and high-quality content might be difficult sometimes as it is a resource-consuming process. Plus we also know
how essential is web content development for any business.
Hence, why not make the best out of the content that we already have? Not clear? Well, here we are talking about "Repurposing Content." It is a little-known secret that all smart marketers are using to reach a wider audience.
Undoubtedly, good content can
channel more quality traffic to your website, encourage more web visitors to convert, and also strengthen your brand’s reputation. But the problem is, creating such content takes time and effort.
But what if your old but best content could work for you, once again, without creating anything new?
And, that is what we call repurposing the blog content. It takes a post that you’ve already written and repackage it so that it does double duty.
It helps us:
1. To reach more potential customers
2. Stop thinking over an appropriate subject to write on
3. Help to get more organic search engine traffic
4. Devote more time towards making sales
The above mentioned are such benefits that you cannot ignore. No wonder, you are missing out on a huge opportunity for your business, if you are not repurposing your content.
Thus here we will discuss smart ways to get more mileage out of your already written blog posts by repurposing them. But before that, let's begin with more reasons proving why we need to repurpose content plus what content we should repurpose for better results.
Why Should You Repurpose Content?
1. Time Saver
As we all know, it is not easy to create quality content, it takes a lot of time because there are several things you need to prepare before writing an article like you may need to conduct keyword research, write a video script, brainstorm article ideas, gather expert quotes, and the list of tasks goes on and on. And, the whole process can take up a significant portion of your week.
No need to say that this cycle repeats and repeats, and for most of us, whenever we focus on the next piece of content. But at the same place, you can save your time by repurposing content by drawing from past articles, videos, or other assets. As a result, it cuts down the time it takes to produce new assets.
2. Help to Reach a New Audience
It completely depends on the individual how they like to go through the content. Some like to consume content by reading articles or blog posts, some like audio-only content (e.g., podcasts and audiobooks), while others prefer to watch videos.
That implies you could be missing an entire group of potential customers if you only publish written content. But at the same place, you can reach each of the different groups of people only by reformatting content.
But make sure that not every type of content will make sense for your target audience. Therefore, to outline the types of content your customers enjoy, it is very important to create buyer personas.
That enables you to get the most out of your content, and you will ensure that you receive the most return on investment when it comes to each content piece.
3. Making the Most of Your Efforts
When any writer puts a ton of effort into a piece of content, they’re immensely proud. But this is obvious that pride and quality aren’t all that is required for success. Many kinds of unseen factors are there that affect how well a content piece performs.
Therefore, repurposing of the content assures that viewers who missed your epic blog post when published first will also get a chance of seeing it for round two. That means it is nothing but a second chance for content promotion.
How to Decide What Content to Repurpose?
This is the question that anyone can ask while thinking to repurpose the content. So, there are two things to look for when deciding whether a specific piece is worth repurposing:
1. Choose Your Evergreen Content
Regardless of how much time goes by, evergreen content is always relevant. Here evergreen content refers to the topic that will continually be searched and receive a genuine interest from your readers. It does not involve time-based information or trending topics (like a Google algorithm change from 2012).
That means you should use only your evergreen content when deciding which of your content to repurpose. Because in this way, your efforts will pay profits for years to come.
2. Use Your Most Popular Content
Apart from that, you can go for your most popular content for repurposing. It includes-
a. Content which has resonated with your viewers the most
b. The piece which was shared the most on social media
c. The content which receives the most monthly traffic
d. Videos which have received the most views on YouTube
Keep an eye on your stats to know which piece of yours has been well perceived by your audience. So, narrow down your top-performing blog posts and videos by shares, traffic, and even comments. And, any piece with a big number in any of these areas is good stuff to start.
14 Smart Ways to Repurpose Blog Content
So, here is the list of proven blog content repurposing techniques that one can use to enhance traffic or reach a new audience. Take a look:
1. Turn Popular Posts into Podcasts
Podcast popularity has doubled in the past few years. Around 12% of the population used to listen in 2008 every month, which has increased to 24% in 2017. And in 2019, around 14 million people describe themselves as weekly podcast listeners.
So, all you need is to take your most popular posts, especially those that are lengthy in size and turn them into podcast episodes. You can also try this process with your older video posts to engage new viewers.
Even people can embed the link into your blog post once you have a podcast set up. It will surely offer your readers an alternative way to understand your content.
But what if you already have a podcast, then choose the other direction. Yes, by transcribing and adding notes, create a blog post from your podcast.
2. Use Internal Data and Testimonials for Case Studies
Even if you keep on shouting the statistics of your product that why it is better than others, no one will agree. But at the end of the day, the recommendation of someone else will be more convincing. At this place, case studies come in.
So why not build a case study out of all positive customer stories for your brand? In all, case studies offer you a chance to share from the perspective of your client and yourself.
Through case studies, one gets information on how your company’s products or services have helped someone. Ideally, with the case study, a potential customer will be able to identify how your services will be useful to them as well.
3. Publish Same Content on Different Platforms
To use up a new-to-you social media platform, one of the easiest ways is to reuse well-performing content. It is quite similar to crossposting the same link across networks, i.e., republishing for a new platform suggests possibly adjusting a blog post’s title, graphics, and voice for your new audience.
It could be seen that many blog posts available on LinkedIn are also available on Medium but with minor changes. And, often it’s associated, so the post’s content is identical.
You need to keep a few items in mind when you’re republishing:
a. Rearrange the title a bit for your audience.
b. Revamp the voice, which means if you are writing for LinkedIn, you need to start with more statistics.
c. Most importantly, keep an optimum amount of time between posts because an immediate republish would not give Google much time to index your original article.
d. Make sure you link back to the original article.
Many big organizations follow such practices. They wait till a year and a half, and further, change up the title and publish it on some other medium.
Well, the editors make sure that the content is still relevant as when they first wrote it to find a new audience. Copy, paste and check on the formatting, and your content is ready for different platform.
4. Create an Infographic
Infographics are nothing but an image full of information. Still, they are one step beyond the lengthy sized quoted article. So, now you can start repurposing currently available content into an infographic.
Once a study suggested that an infographic is 30 times more likely to be read rather than a text article.
A few days earlier, the Search Engine Journal created an infographic about infographics. That graphic declares that marketers who use infographics increase traffic 12% faster than those who don’t.
Undoubtedly, you’ll discover that such infographics will find their way to other brands’ posts, advancing your reach. Also, we can use parts of the graphic for a presentation or share on social media.
5. Cut Down Videos to Shorter Videos or GIFs
To understand it well, think about the trailer of the movie. That is what you need to make out of your lengthy videos.
Are you thinking about why so? Well, the answer is in your question. Think, don’t you want to get the most out of the effort, time, and money into producing a video?
If the first few seconds are not attention-grabbing, then a viewer on Instagram would not stick around. And a YouTube viewer might be more open to having opening credits.
Well, do not worry at all. Yes, you can still create a bite-sized video to lead to a full video and can reuse your already created video content.
For example, New York people make short highlight reels of their full-length episodes. Still, the video message gets across in the clips. And if anyone clicks through it, they get to watch the longer videos.
6. Convert Blog Post to a Whitepaper or eBook
There are many people out there who like to read their content online, but at the same place, there are people who prefer to download the same doc to read it slightly later.
And as we know, there is no facility to download the blogs. So, what can we do for that part of the audience? Hence, the solution is eBook. Yes, this is the easiest way. So, why to waste time; start publishing an ebook from your most popular posts.
You can either group all of them together by topic or can also convert a lengthy post into one short book.
7. Make Roundup Posts by Combining Best Articles
Whatsoever you say about listicles; still, readers prefer a good roundup. Yes, rather than constantly producing new content, you can choose to write a roundup post that serves up the best of the best.
Well, you can also go for an alternative to the roundup post that is a Get Started section on your site. Those are cornerstone articles or videos that give the user a good idea about what you are. And when you link it from a frequently read page, it gives the content a new life.
8. Refresh & Republish Old Posts
On the website, there are several excellent articles held back by a couple of bits of information that haven’t aged as well. But since the technologies are growing faster, it means changes happen, so even those posts written with 100% accuracy a few months back might not be that apt today.
Especially for such cases, you might find it important to repurpose this content into a fresh article. You can do one thing that tries keeping a Dropbox folder filled with every blog post you have ever written. Then use this folder for ideas and to track what posts might be best for follow-up or modifications.
No wonder, modifying old content will surely be a somewhat straightforward process. You can start by changing a few details only or salvage the majority of the content. Also, to let readers know about the post’s origins, you can add a quick note at the beginning or end when you publish.
9. Tips Newsletter
Consider promoting your blog posts in a weekly tips newsletter to get the most output for your blog post. But before that, make sure you already have a solid list of email subscribers.
Well, if you’re posting multiple times a day, even the most dedicated of fans won’t catch every post you write. This is the place where your newsletter helps!
A friendly tips-oriented newsletter can provide an extra nudge to get users on your site, and you can showcase your best blog posts of the week to make them read your cream of the crop content.
10. Convert Old Blog Posts into Guides
It happens that we write various blogs only about a specific topic. So, this time, all we need is to repackage those blog posts into a fresh new guide. Yes!
Well, must say, this could be the best way to update your old blog posts a bit and give them a new coat of zinc so that your old iron shines in new and does not get rusted. In all, you don’t want them to become lost and forgotten when you work hard on crafting quality blog posts. So, do not wait to recycle those old blog posts so that they remain immortal forever!
11. Change Slideshow into Infographic
Another thing you can do to give a new look to your website is transforming slideshow into infographics.
You may not believe, but it is true enough that infographics are the darlings of the content world. They’re attractive, easy to read, as well as they’re informative. Infographics can be needed for extensive design and research for huge undertakings. But not all infographics do ask for a major undertaking. So, begin with a good chart or graph and pretty it up a bit.
Above all, remember that the initial data or graph should be solid enough to make your infographic very useful.
12. Turn a Numbered Summary into Individual Posts
The posts with numbered lists are always a hit.
You can say that the bite-sized information or tactical tips are attractive enough that people love them so much. They’re like a guilty pleasure for them so they cannot resist clicking when they see “
11 Ways to..” or
5 Steps to...”.
Keep in mind that you are giving a new life into these posts by turning them into a full post and drilling down into each topic.
So the next time you write “
8 Tips to ...”, try to summarize each point, and then also flesh out each post into a longer explanation with more background, helpful examples, and most importantly, relevant information.
And as always, you could surely do the opposite. Vice Versa thing.
13. Turn One Post into a Series
Why write a single but huge post on a topic when you can create a series of small posts? Consider dividing up an extra-long post into smaller posts to turn it into a themed series. It's simple to do, and also a series will build up anticipation for your audience and spread the idea out over time.
For example, one famous American author Jeff Goins recently wrote a life tips series, in which each post has a link to the previous posts in the series. So you could always return to the beginning if you stumble into it in the middle. After all, it keeps readers on your site for a little longer.
14. The ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ Method
The Hub and Spoke method is where you create one huge, in-depth piece on your blog, and write additions, follow-ups, summarizations, or related news on other sites or platforms like Quora and then link them back to your main piece for further reading.
This technique is advantageous in various ways:
i. No matter how old your posts are, it helps to extend the life of each article by continuing to bring it up.
ii. As you already know the important things to say, it helps you create additional content quickly.
iii. It helps you getting targeted referral traffic and will convert even better than other online marketing channels.
iv. Besides, all relevant, high-quality links back to your site also improve your SEO.
There’s no downside as you can see.
And, as additional posts don’t need to be as in-depth as your original article, this could be the final benefit. So you can try such a tactic to give your content a new spin.
Closing Words
Content repurposing will continue to work for years and years. The best part about the content repurposing is you don’t have to publish new content always. Yes, you will save time, reach a wider audience, and can get the most value out of every new piece of content you produce, just via repurposing.
That time is gone when it was enough to focus on creating content and bringing in new visitors because turning those audiences or leads into customers is what counts.
