Content Inception: The Benefits of Repurposing Content
We all recognise the importance of good quality content, so why let a great piece of content be forgotten about just because it’s served its initial purpose?
Taking existing content and giving it a new lease of life by repurposing it will reap more results than simply filling a gap in your content calendar, and with a minimal amount of additional resource too!
Let’s dive deeper into what repurposing content is, and why it is such an integral tactic to build into your marketing, content and/or social media strategies.
What is Repurposing Content?
Content Repurposing is a tactical way to maximise your content output by expanding its lifespan through optimisation. But what does this really mean? Effectively, you’re looking for opportunities to reuse existing content in ever more topical ways, disseminating it across your channels is a fresh and timely way, using the resources you already have to hand
Repurposing challenges you to look at your high-performing existing content with fresh eyes, and to re-use it without repetition, by giving your audience more content on that topic based on what’s already in existence, delivered in a fresh and engaging way.
By repurposing content, you might even reach new niches in your target audience that your original piece of content missed!
Content repurposing should be used selectively, but it’s a great way to support your SEO efforts, while streamlining both content creation and social media management workstreams.
Have you thought about repurposing content as turning…
– A blog post into a LinkedIn post, infographic, newsletter, or white paper
– A podcast into a transcript, long-form video, blog post, or social video teasers
– An e-book into a blog, social or newsletter series
– An infographic into an animated social graphic, blog post or e-book
– A social media post into a long-form blog, or short-form video
– An interview into an animated graphic, short-form video, or quote-based social post
– User generated content into a social post or video montage
– Content from thought leaders into brand-relevant social content
– Data-heavy reports into statistic-led social graphics
– Webinars into blog posts, short-form video, or written transcripts
The list could go on…
By thinking about how you can create variety to your multi-channel content output though diversifying and recycling existing content, you’ll be able to hijack high-performing pieces and give them legs to extend audience engagement.
Top Tip: Keep it topical. Content repurposed to tie in with the latest conversations on that subject, niche, or sector, will more likely gain organic momentum.
Why Should We Repurpose Content?
Time & Resource
Picture this.
You’re sat at your desk attempting to schedule enough exciting social media posts for the month ahead. Time is ticking on and you’re getting increasingly frustrated because fresh ideas just aren’t springing to mind as you’d hoped.
We’ve all been there.
But what if we told you it doesn’t have to be that complicated?
It’s time to maximise your existing resources and give it a new spin.
Getting creative with repurposing your existing content will get key messaging or category content back in front of your target audience simply by switching up the format it is presented in or by tweaking the original focus to fit a refreshed topical theme – maybe even in ways you didn’t imagine possible the first time around!
Time and resources = saved. Content = repurposed.
Beat the Writers Block
Creative juices running low? It happens to the best of us.
Revisiting familiar material will help loosen the kink in your content-creating machine. You might find it sparks inspiration for something completely new or just encourages you to sprinkle a little glitter on old content to give it a new lease of life.
Whatever it is, old content is your friend – welcome it in!
Rule of Seven
The Rule of Seven suggests that a consumer needs to see a message at least seven times before they are prompted to take action.
A concept developed by Hollywood execs in the 1930s, the Rule of Seven claimed that moviegoers needed to see a movie poster at least seven times before they would consider going to watch it. And the same rings true for marketing – that the consumer needs multiple exposures to your brands messaging before they engage with your call-to-action.
By repurposing your content, you are doing exactly what the Rule of Seven claims is imperative, creating multiple familiar touchpoints. Whether that be to buy your product, visit your website, or go to your event, seven is the magic number.
Reframing existing content into new formats or mediums will help to maximise marketing efforts, building trusting relationships with your audience in turn through more consistent exposure to your message. You will also take leaps in building important brand awareness, too.
Boost SEO
Repurposing content can be extremely beneficial for your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
Put simply SEO is the process of improving your brands visibility across search engine results pages (SERPS). Tactically reusing content that is already optimised for SEO will help to improve brand visibility and engagement whilst having to use minimal resources.
Search engines like Google prefer websites they can trust. Refreshing and developing existing content into content categories means you are building a repertoire of quality information and as a result can over time become recognised as a credible source in your sector by the search engines.
Meet Your Audience Where They Are
Instead of letting quality content gather cobwebs, simply for the “crime” of having been shared once before, or worse still, copying and pasting the same content across multiple platforms, consider how you can tailor your content to meet the varying needs of an evolving audiences across the different channels and mediums in your arsenal.
It’s important to remember that people use different platforms for different purposes – a tweet isn’t going to have the same narrative or format on Facebook and is probably nigh-on impossible to pick up and place on Instagram without any repurposing.
Diversifying content across channels helps your audience digest your message in the way that suits them best.
Not everyone will absorb information in the same way but offering consistent touchpoints in varied formats, tailored to the relevant platforms, will help you achieve wider reach goal and help make your brand positioning more dynamic.
So, we’ve talked about why it’s invaluable to repurpose your content, let’s dive a little deeper on how you can extend the lifespan of content that is already working for you…
1) Turn long-form content into short-form content
- Don’t let the hard work put into a blog, newsletter, podcast etc. go to waste – you’ve got at least three different social media posts wrapped up in there!
- Take key sections in a long-form piece and break it down into something a little more digestible in an engaging visual format.
2) Turn short-form content into more short-form content
- Short-form content – such as a tweet on Twitter – can cross-pollinate your platforms so long as the content is tweaked to suit its final resting place.
- REMEMBER: Don’t post the same thing across all platforms at once! Content needs to be crafted to work for each platforms audience. Your consumer on Facebook will be quite different to your user on LinkedIn. And don’t forget what we said about reinforcing the message and the Rule of Seven?!
3) Text can become a video, and vice versa
- Got a successful post on LinkedIn that got great engagement? Tweeted something that led to a huge thread of conversation? Posts like these don’t have to be limited to text. Consider communicating that same message as a video or reel. Given that video content is a must for 2023, make the most of every piece of content you have generated!
- It’s all about noticing what is working for you and finding different ways to communicate that material to your target audience.
4) Same platform, different time
- Coping and pasting content is practically social media suicide, but that’s not to say you can’t ever re-use content.
- If a piece of content has landed well once, it’s probably going to again. Give it a good few months of air time before you revisit and tweak it slightly, so the duplication police don’t come for you! Keep it topical and linked to current trends – evolving the theme naturally in line with current conversations in your sector or niche.
Conclusion
Chances are, you have material ready for you to use at your fingertips.
So, with that in mind, we’ll leave you with this quote to summarise the art of repurposing content:
“You don’t have to create content day in and day out. You just have to work on getting the content you already have into the hands of more people.” – Derek Halpern, founder of Social Triggers.
Remember, optimisation in key! It’s time to get creative with re-freshing your content.
