Ask content marketers what they’re up to and they’re likely to be thinking about the next piece of content they plan to create. As content marketers, we’re all so busy running behind producing a “new” piece that we fail to realize that we might already be sitting on a goldmine of content.
This is where content repurposing comes in.
Content repurposing refers to reusing your old content and presenting it in a completely different manner. It involves re-creating them in different formats to reach new audiences and engage them.
Unfortunately, not many marketers are pursuing this actively. According to a study by Curata, only 29% of leading marketers are repurposing content.
- What are the Benefits of Repurposing Content?
- 8 Ways to Repurpose Blog Content and Drive Traffic
- Bottomline
TL;DR Here’s a quick summary video of this article.
What are the Benefits of Repurposing Content?
Considering the time, money and effort spent on creating quality content, you certainly don’t want to just use it once. You rather maximize it and put it to better use by repurposing it. If you haven’t considered repurposing content, here are five key benefits that will make you change your mind.
Improves SEO rankings
When you target a specific keyword and create multiple pieces of content (in various formats) around it, it improves your search engine rankings and boosts organic visibility. Apart from that, it also gives you more opportunities to build backlinks to your website which in turn boosts your SEO strategy and drives organic traffic too.
Expands reach
Let’s take a simple example – when you write a blog post, it helps you reach people who read your blog but what about those who are more active on social media?
On the other hand, when you break down that blog post and create snackable social media posts, you’re able to reach your potential audience on social media platforms too.
That’s how repurposing old content lets you reach a wider audience who consume content differently, enabling you to meet them where they are.
Cater to different stages of the buyer’s journey
The buyer’s journey is made up of three stages – awareness, consideration, and decision. People in every stage exhibit different behaviors and have different requirements.
Source: HubSpot
When you choose to repurpose content to cater to different stages of the buyer’s journey you’re able to reach each of them and satiate their respective needs.
For instance, for someone in the awareness stage who’s assessing options, a blog post might be enough but for someone in the decision stage who is looking for more concrete information, it would make sense to transform the post into a comprehensive webinar as that is more likely to help them make the final decision.
Optimizes time
Why spend hours and hours creating new content when you can repurpose old content and spend that time in content promotion instead? Time is precious and when you repurpose content, you’re just being more efficient and making better use of your time.
Establishes credibility
With every content you create, the goal is to build trust and establish authority. So, when you create different types of content on the same topic, it helps position you as an expert in the field and adds to your credibility.
8 Ways to Repurpose Blog Content and Drive Traffic
As blog posts are one of the most common types of content, here are eight smart ways to repurpose your old blog content and maximize its potential. AI content repurposing can help you do this 10x faster. Try using a tool like Narrato’s AI content repurposing tool to turn your blog posts into summaries, social posts, newsletters, or anything under the sun for that matter. And not just blog posts, you can repurpose any other content like videos, podcasts, and even images.
That said, let’s take a look at what you can create from your existing blog posts with AI repurposing.
1. Create spin-offs
There are so many movies and TV shows that are considered to be popular spin-offs so why not do the same for your blog posts?
Whether it’s finding another angle or elaborating on each of the points stated under a listicle you published – the idea is to identify a well-performing post, doing a dive deep and breathing new life into it.
You can choose to publish the spin-off blog post on your own blog or even submit it as a guest article to another website while strategically inserting a link back to your website.
2. Publish an eBook
If you’ve published a wide range of posts on your blog, this idea is worth a shot. An eBook is a valuable content asset that can help you generate leads and drive traffic to your website.
Converting your blog posts into an eBook might sound intimidating but it isn’t that difficult. Start with identifying blog posts that fall under the same umbrella topic. For example, as a nutrition blogger, if you have written several blog posts related to the ketogenic diet, you can bundle all of them together and create an eBook out of them.
However, don’t just stop at merging blog posts. eBooks are expected to be in-depth so make sure you build upon each of the blog posts and add more value through images, case studies, statistics, etc.
You can choose to sell the eBook from your website or distribute it on small and large eBook retailers such as Amazon, Scribd, Apple Books, and Kobo.
Founder of ProBlogger, Darren Rowse tried this tactic. One of his best-selling eBooks, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is an amalgamation of a series of blog posts on the same topic.
3. Create a video
There are many people who prefer watching videos to reading articles. Moreover, as per a Cisco study, video will account for 82% of all internet traffic by 2022. Hence, it’s a good idea to convert some of your top-performing and evergreen blog posts into a video series.
Videos work because they manage to capture attention and keep the viewer engaged. However, it’s important to be mindful of the length – the optimal length is considered to be under two minutes. You should also consider adding captions as most videos are watched on mute.
What’s more, you don’t have to worry about video creation because tools such as Wistia and Lumen5 make it incredibly easy to turn your blog posts into videos.
Once the video is ready, you can upload it on YouTube, Vimeo, post it on your other social media platforms or include it in your email marketing campaigns to reach more people.
An example of a brand that does this is Moz with their Whiteboard Friday video series wherein they turn some of their blog posts into videos.
Source: Moz Whiteboard Friday
4. Design an infographic
Infographics are a powerful visual tool because they hook readers and have the ability to present the most complex information in an easily digestible manner. They attract more attention and enable people to skim content with ease.
So, pick the blog post you want to repurpose, pick the points you want to include in the infographic and use an infographic maker such as Piktochart to design it.
Once it’s ready, apart from posting it on your channels, you can also pitch it to external sites and earn backlinks back to your website.
5. Craft social media posts
If you’re struggling to have a steady stream of posts for social media, you should look at repurposing blog content and breaking it down into smaller social media posts. Not only do you save time, but you also ensure you maintain a packed social media content calendar.
From videos and infographics to noteworthy statistical data and quotes – the idea is to create engaging posts tailored for the social media platform and leverage them to start conversations and engage your community of followers. You can use tools like Visme, Animaker and EDIT to create stunning visuals to go with your posts.
6. Create SlideShare Presentations
SlideShare is a platform that lets you upload presentations but did you know that you can also leverage it to boost your content marketing efforts?
With 80 million users, SlideShare gives marketers ample opportunity to attract traffic, gain visibility and position your brand as an expert.
Instead of creating presentations from scratch, you can repurpose your blog content and transform it into a presentation that can be uploaded on SlideShare. What’s important is using visuals to master storytelling and not keeping it text-heavy.
A winning example is that of CopyBlogger. They converted a blog post titled The 3-Step Journey of a Remarkable Piece of Content into a SlideShare presentation that has attracted over 85,000 views to date.
7. Post on Quora
People go on Quora to actively search for answers which makes it an effective tool to share your expertise and knowledge.
So, let’s say you’ve written a blog post on personalization in email marketing. Log on to Quora, search for people who have asked a question related to this topic and post your answer which can be a condensed version of your blog post.
You can also insert a link to the blog post and direct traffic to your website. However, it’s important to be strategic while adding links and deliver insightful answers in order to be taken seriously on this platform.
8. Produce a podcast
Underused but effective, podcasts are an important content marketing tool, especially for B2B companies. This content format lets you educate and engage your audience, helping you nurture leads and take them further down the sales funnel.
What’s more, through podcasts you can reach out to a completely new audience, attract traffic and generate leads.
So, look at your previous blog posts and check if you can tie some of them together to produce an informative podcast out of it. The topic needs to be interesting enough to attract an audience.
Bottomline
Repurposing old blog content is all about looking at the right places and being creative. While you should have a plan for creating new pieces of content, it’s equally important to set aside some time every month to look back at your past blog content and find clever ways to repurpose them into new formats.
Author Bio
Adela Belin is a content marketer and blogger at Writers Per Hour. She is passionate about sharing stories with the hope to make a difference in people’s lives and contribute to their personal and professional growth. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
