Content Repurposing: Why You’re Missing Out if You Don’t
Producing fresh content consistently is both time-consuming and resource-intensive, and not just that: what a shame is it to have spent hours, if not days, researching planning and writing content, for then it only having a short life. By strategically repackaging and reusing our existing content, we (marketers) can maximize Return on Investment while maintaining a strong online presence, getting some sleep, eating home-cooked meals (while sitting), and having a life!
If you are a marketer, you are probably doing the job of 3 people and are in desperate need of a 48-hour day.
Even the best still needs more time, more ideas, more hands, and more brains…. That on top of having a life…and some sleep…
However, as a marketer, you will be a big fan of working smarter and not harder.
And content repurposing falls right in the “working smarter” pot.
Producing fresh content consistently is both time-consuming and resource-intensive, and not just that: what a shame is it to have spent hours, if not days, researching planning, and writing content, for then it only having a short life.
By strategically repackaging and reusing our existing content, we (marketers) can maximize Return on Investment while maintaining a strong online presence, getting some sleep, eating home-cooked meals (while sitting) and having a life!
What’s Content Repurposing Really About?
Content repurposing is not just about recycling old material; it's a strategic approach to marketing that can maximize your ROI and adapt your ToV and messaging to different platforms, ultimately reaching broader audiences.
Let’s be clear and careful though: this is not about duplicating content but rather recycling, refreshing, and reusing it in creative ways.
It makes the most of the time and effort you’ve put into creating it by extending its lifespan and creating a great bundle of valuable materials.
Why Should You Do It?
Although Jeff in sales might be claiming that anyone can do marketing because it’s so easy and that he could write a thousand blogs in a week if he wanted to, because anyone can write content; the reality of things is much, much, much the opposite.
Creating new content from scratch is time-consuming and costly: you need to do your research on the topic, understand your audiences, get the ToV right, adapt your writing style to the brand’s, come up with a clever title, do your SEO homework, write, rewrite, rethink what you’ve written, review, amend… and so on.
1. Leverage Existing Assets While Saving Time and Resources
Repurposing allows you to make the most of your existing content library.
Start by identifying your evergreen content—pieces that remain relevant and valuable over time or just need some minor tweaking. These can be in-depth guides, case studies, or comprehensive how-to articles.
When writing new content, think about other ways it could exist in the marketing realm.
When looking at old blog posts, videos, or infographics think about ways to give them a new life.
For example:
- Turn your blog posts into visually appealing content like infographics, slideshows, or videos. Visual content often performs well on social media platforms and can attract a broader audience.
- If you have written content that discusses industry trends, expert interviews, or informative insights, consider turning them into podcasts or webinars. This format is convenient for busy audiences who prefer audio content.
- Gather related blog posts, whitepapers, or articles into comprehensive eBooks or guides. These can be used as lead magnets to grow your email list and generate leads.
- Share snippets and excerpts from your blog posts, videos, or podcasts on social media platforms. Create engaging visuals and captions to pique the interest of your followers.
- Periodically revisit your older content, update statistics, and refresh the information. Republishing it with the latest data can help improve its relevance and SEO performance.
- Translate your content when relevant to your audience.
2. Reinforce Messaging and Boost SEO
Repetition helps reinforce your brand's message and ideas, making it more likely for your audience to remember and engage. It will help your audience better understand your brand and its values.
Additionally, search engines love fresh content (mind you, this is fresh quality content, it’s not changing the opening sentence of your website homepage every week).
While updating your blog with entirely new articles every day isn't feasible (especially if you’re a one-person marketing team), repurposing can breathe new life into the existing content, making it more attractive to search engines and potentially improving your search rankings.
3.Reach a Wider Audience
Everyone consumes and engages with content in different formats.
By repurposing your content into multiple forms such as blog posts, infographics, videos, and podcasts, you can reach a broader audience with varying content preferences. (Obviously, this is different from the topic of which platforms a business should use, repurposing content comes after the main and best platforms have been identified and should be done accordingly).
Still Not Convinced?
Let’s look at some real-life (well-known brands) examples:
Buffer: The social media management platform turned its blog posts into podcasts, significantly expanding its audience and establishing thought leadership in the industry.
Gary Vaynerchuk: The marketing guru repurposes his keynotes, interviews, and blogs into micro-content for various social media platforms, allowing him to reach a broader audience and reinforce his personal brand.
HubSpot: HubSpot transforms its blog content into webinars, ebooks, and videos, catering to different learning preferences and generating leads.
So, dive into your content library, unleash your creativity, and start reaping the benefits of content repurposing today.
And don’t forget:
- Know your audience
- Monitor and measure
- Revise and update
- Experiment
- Have fun
- Rinse and repeat.
PS: If you are like Jeff in sales and believe that writing content is easy, and marketing doesn’t take much. Please rethink your position. If you’re really interested, ask questions and take some time to sit with your marketing person and watch them work. I can assure you, you’ll change your mind.
And even if you’re not interested, just don’t do that: no job is easy and every job requires skills, experience, upskilling and a lot of knowledge, don’t undermine people based on your own perceptions and preconceptions.
PPS: Jeff in sales is a fictitious character that I’ve made up for the purpose of this blog. The described attitude is very real though and can be observed quite often in the workplace.
Alessandra Atria,
Marketing Strategist.