8 Ways To Repurpose Old Content

Before we launch into repurposing tactics, let’s get a few things straight. First, repurposing content is not lazy writing; it’s smart marketing! Not only are you lowering content costs and production time, but you’re also cross-promoting different types of content across multiple channels to reach new audiences and capitalizing / expanding upon hot topics that your audience wants to read about in greater depth. As Marketing Genius Seth Godin points out: “Delivering your message in different ways, over time, not only increases retention and impact, but it gives you the chance to describe what you’re doing from several angles.”

Secondly, repurposing content is not a practice reserved for small, cash-strapped brands only. Sure, in some cases, you can get more mileage out of your blog by taking a couple minutes to re-post on social media or blast the message out to your email subscribers — and it doesn’t cost you another copywriting dollar. However, in other cases, it’s worth re-investing to transcribe old content to a new medium to reach more prospects.  Top brands like Marvel Comics, Disney and Red Bull are all doing it — and so should you! 

Thirdly, repurposing content is not a stale, ineffective tactic that only serves to repeat the same tired message to the same audience. Even your most dedicated fans will miss a post or a message somewhere along the line. Consider this: in one case study, Marketing Sherpa found that repurposing content from prior email campaigns helped Evo, an outdoor lifestyle product retailer, increase email open rates by 160 percent and click-through rates by 904 percent! To get these fantastic results, the Evo team borrowed from past posts to create helpful email guide series aimed at specific target markets. For instance, they had a three-part “Ski Boot Guide” series that included an instructional video on how to try on ski boots, an article on how to customize boots to get a better fit, and information on ski boot accessories like ski socks and liners — with helpful links to buy, of course!

Image Source: ContentEqualsMoney.com

So now that we’re on the same page and totally clear on the value of breathing new life into old content, here are eight ways you might do just that:

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1. Create a “resource list” on your website, a “guide” blog post or an email series.

If you have a ton of content on a particular niche, then it’s time to start consolidating! You can create an “Ultimate List of ______ Resources” on your website with links to all your old posts. This tactic not only gives your audience an easy, concise directory to help them find everything they need, but it also improves SEO for your website! These pages also tend to get a ton of shares via social media, so don’t forget to share your new page on your micro-sites as well.

We find that many of the topics we discuss cannot be adequately explored in just 500 or even 1,000 words. It then stands to reason that a provided link can take information-hungry readers to longer discussions. To best achieve this goal, you can create a “Guide To ________” that summarizes the main points discussed in other blogs and provides links to more in-depth discussion.

Like Evo, you can consolidate different types of content for a particular audience to provide the right message at the right time to help move consumers along the sales cycle through an email series. With your CRM software, identify people who are in the early stages of browsing your site and send them Part 1 of your email “Guide To Buying _______” with trust-building content. From there, automate the next parts of the series to provide more information and help consumers choose the product (or service) that is right for them.

2. Turn old blogs into an eBook.

EBooks are not the cheapest form of marketing, as they could possibly take up a lot of time to fill out in book form. However, in some cases, each blog can serve as a chapter of your eBook and the only additional writing needed is an introduction and conclusion to tie everything together. As HubSpot points out, you want to choose topics that have resonated well with audiences in the past. You’ll also need to invest a bit of time into making the eBook attractive-looking and user-friendly for your readers. Once your eBook is finished, you can then sell it for a profit or use it as a valuable giveaway to build your targeted subscriber list (which will often translate to a large increase in sales!)

Hey, speaking of eBooks, you can find our FREE eBook on generating quality leads online here!

3. Turn a blog post into something visual.

Not everyone shares a love of reading. Some people are blog readers, while others may be more interested in perusing a graphic or slideshow. It’s been said that people generally only remember about 20% of what they read, but retain about 83%of what they learn visually. So by translating blogs to more visual mediums, you’re not only reaching new audiences, but you’re driving your points home and remaining fresh in the minds of people you may have already reached as well.

• Make an infographic with stats from a past blog. Piktochart is a neat tool to create them.

• Convert blogs into power point presentations or PDFs by uploading them to Slideshare for free.

• Create a video using points from your blog using Wibbitz or Animoto.

4. Share an old blog post on social media… again.

Everyone knows that social media is the ideal repurposing machine. However, most brands just tweet their blogs once when they first come out. They worry that posting the same blog again will be a turn-off to fans and look redundant in their feeds. What business owners tend to forget is that their reality is not the same as their prospects’ reality. People are busy and consumed with their daily lives, bombarded with different stimuli from all angles. It takes a considerable amount of poking and prodding to connect with the same person twice.

You may or may not have noticed, but we often repurpose the same blog in our social media feeds — in fact, we’ll post the same blog an average of 7 times on Twitter, three times on Facebook and twice on Google+. We space them appropriately and post at different times of the day to reach new audiences and we’ve found this tactic is very effective at reaching a larger audience and ensuring a longer lifespan for our most useful and evergreen content.

You might like: 8 Steps to a Solid Social Media Strategy

5. Bring the outside world online.

Digital marketing does not need to exist in the vacuum of cyberspace. There are so many methods of marketing a business online that businesses often overlook connecting offline realities with their online marketing efforts. One way we’ve seen clients effectively bridge the gap is by posting “behind-the-scenes” videos from their day-to-day operations. This type of content resonates particularly well with buyers.

Other ways to bring the offline world online include:

– Videos from street marketing promotions or tradeshow events to showcase what you sell or what you do

– Public speaking engagements uploaded to Slideshare

– Public speaking events translated into blogs using a free program like Voicebase

– Public speaking event turned into a webinar and used as an opt-in to draw more subscribers

6. Use social media feedback as a springboard for new content. 

Have you had interesting dialogues with clients, prospects or consumers via social media recently? Are common questions popping up? Social media can be an ideal source of blog-worthy topics. Another approach would be to host a contest on social media that asks fans to submit photos or stories associated with your products or services to win a prize and use that information in a future blog or press release (after receiving permission from fans, of course!) For more ways to find blog topics using social media, check out Social Media Examiner’s post. 

7. Turn a blog post into a podcast.

Here’s a Tweetable statistic: Did you know that, in 2015, 46 million Americans over the age of 12 are listening to podcasts every month? That’s 17% of the population! This percentage has increased 5% in just two years. According to MaximizeSocialBusiness.com, 10% of the population listens to podcasts on a weekly basis, listening to an average of six shows per week. These people are generally young (12-34), intelligent (24% college-educated), affluent (twice as likely to make $100K/year) and extremely active on social media (56% use it at least once a day, if not more).

If those aren’t compelling reasons to convert old blog posts to podcasts, then we don’t know what is! There are many ways to approach the “how” of podcasting. BlogTyrant breaks down the step-by-step process if you’re looking to really knock it out of the park. If you want to do a little experimenting and get something up quickly with minimal effort, try out the free Podcastomatic conversion tool. In recent years, Twitter has made it pretty easy to share podcasts through their platform, so be sure to take advantage of that!

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8. Break down your list posts.

As we’ve mentioned, you can turn past posts into lists… but you can also work backward and break your lists down into individual posts! For our other blog at Mod Girl Marketing, we often expound on some of the finer points glossed over in the 8 Ways blog. The goal here is to get you a bunch of fresh, inspiring ideas to turbocharge your marketing efforts over the next week or so. On our other blog, we can take things at a more leisurely pace, with our end goal being to have you contact us to help execute some of the digital marketing tasks you’d like to achieve. It helps to have an overview, but as you can tell by the number of links included in this article, readers are naturally looking for the breadcrumb that takes them to learn more — or, essentially, to turn ideas into actions.

So there you have it — 8 ways to repurpose existing content and get more mileage from your marketing efforts! But wait — before you go, have a gander at this amazing infographic that details the secret ingredients to successful repurposing:

Image Source: DigitalInformationWorld.com

Want More Help With Content?

Digital Marketing Consultant Mandy McEwen and her team of copywriters at Mod Girl Marketing specializing in helping businesses successfully create and market content that turns into increased brand visibility, targeted leads and long-term sales. Contact us for more information.