Why Should You Repurpose Content?
Repurposing content (aka finding new ways to recycle your existing content) has a number of benefits, such as:
- Reaching a New Audience. Some users prefer visual infographics over text statistics. Some choose podcasts over ebooks. Reformatting your content for different mediums means appealing to more audiences and extending your reach.
- Dusting Off Forgotten Tales. We all have that book that hangs at the back of the bookshelf. It’s an old favorite, and when you eventually come across it, you might think to yourself “Hey, I should really read that book about flying whales again. It was great.” It might be months or even years before you stumble upon that old treasure. Repurposing your content puts that old favorite up front and center, ensuring that great content is never forgotten.
- Making the Most of Your Efforts. When you put a ton of effort into a piece of content, you’re immensely proud. But quality and pride aren’t all that’s required for success. There are all kinds of unseen factors that affect how well a content piece performs, and sometimes lady luck is on her lunch break. Repurposing content ensures that users who missed your epic blog post the first time around have a chance of seeing it for round two. It’s a second chance at content promotion.
What Content Deserves A New Lease on Life?
Some people are just so great that we can’t stand to see them leave the earth. Buffy was brought back to life so she could keep staking vamps. Gandalf was resurrected and given a color change. Your top notch content deserves the same treatment, but only the best will do. Cipher out the best contenders by considering:
What’s Evergreen?
Reformatting a blog post about the first Google Panda update into an infographic or podcast about the first Google Panda update won’t do much. Why? Because it’s outdated info that is no longer useful. Only repurpose content that’s evergreen in nature, aka content that continues to be valuable and relevant over the months (or ideally years).
this infographic about the 2012 Mayan apocalypse prediction is not evergreen
What’s Popular?
Dig into your Google Analytics and see what your most popular posts have been over the past year. Why did those posts perform so well? Figure out what works to help influence your repurposing game plan.
What Need Updating?
Do you have content that is largely relevant and evergreen, except for a few outdated references to Google Buzz, Angelfire sites, Hotmail accounts, and other ancient fossils from the internet’s prehistoric period? Repurpose those suckers and give them a stylish new makeover!
11 Genius Ways to Repurpose Content
Take a look at our eleven ways to repurpose content for new audiences. There’s bound to be something here that will work for you!
1. Webinars –> Video Tutorials
You host a kickass webinar that gets tons of attendees. It’s a huge success! But of course not everyone will make it to your webinar, and months later you’ll have new site visitors and leads who don’t even know what they missed out on.
Don’t let that great webinar go to waste. You can repurpose that webinar as a YouTube video, ensuring that your great content lives forever. Not only will that asset be great on your website, but you may drive new visitors to your site via YouTube!
webinar turned YouTube video
2. Old Blog Posts –> Guides
Once you’ve blogged a lot about a specific topic, consider repackaging those blog posts into a fresh new guide. For example, you may have written in the past about how to upload images to Pinterest, how to use hashtags on Pinterest for better searchability, and how to upload cover pics to Pinterest that use text over images for improved click rates. Take those blog posts and turn them into “The Complete Guide to Pinterest Perfection,” which you can then use in your email marketing and lead gen efforts.
Depending on how old your blog posts are, you might want to update them a bit and give them a new coat of polyurethane so they really shine. When you work hard on crafting quality blog posts, you don’t want them to become lost and forgotten. Recycle those old blog post and they’ll remain immortal forever!
3. Internal Data –> Case Studies
We talk a lot at WordStream about the values of testing. Whether you want more traffic, more subscribers, or more email signups, testing is always the way to go!
Portal understands the value of testing
When you’re running tests on your own website, hang on to that data and turn it into a case study to share with your fans.
If you do an experiment to see which button color brings the most clicks, share that awesome info with your readers!
4. PowerPoint Presentation –> Slidedeck
You’ve prepared a lovely PowerPoint presentation to share at your next team meeting. Now the presentation is over, and you hate to see your PowerPoint perfection wasted. The beautiful charts! The glorious graphs! Oh the humanity! Well lament no more – those great PowerPoint presentations can be repurposed into slide decks with the help of SlideShare.
Just edit your slides for a consumer audience, upload your PowerPoint presentation to SlideShare, and embed the presentation in one of your web pages. Now you have a new piece of content you barely had to work for. Not bad!
5. Interviews –> Expert Advice Ebook
Interviews are a popular form of content for blogs. They’re easy to conduct (just email industry experts a quick question or two), easy to edit (mostly just a matter of copy and pasting), and usually get a ton of traction (as the folks you’ve interviewed share and promote the article they’ve been mentioned in).
Repackage those interviews into a new form in the way of an expert advice ebook. You’re taking the exact same content and changing the medium. There’s no problem with this – some people prefer ebooks to blog posts, as they are easier to download and read later. Plus, your new expert advice ebook may get the attention of those who missed the interviews series the first time around.
6. Visual Content –> Pinterest Board
Do you have some blog posts that are especially image heavy? Make the most of your picture posts by repurposing those images on Pinterest.
One example could be a post detailing the best brand logos in a given industry. Upload pins of the best brand logos, or even create whole new board dedicated just to the greatest brand logos. Those pins can drive referral traffic to your blog post, adding a new segment of traffic to your site!
7. Quora Q&A –> Blog Post
Quora is often cited as a great source of content inspiration, providing real user questions on a huge range of categories.
The best way to use Quora? Find a question that sounds promising (ideally one with several upvotes, showing it’s in high demand), write a blog post detailing an answer, and then answer the question on Quora while including a link to your more in-depth blog post answer.
You’ll get traffic from those wanting a thorough answer, plus you’re establishing yourself as a leader and engaging with community members.
Two interesting blog post ideas for a travel blog
8. Slideshow –> Infographic
Remember those stunning graphs and charts we mentioned earlier from your PowerPoint presentation? They really are stunning! In fact, we have another way you can repurpose those class act elements – turn them into infographics!
infographic from ethos3
Infographics are the darlings of the content world. They’re sexy, they’re informative, they’re easy to read, and boy do they get around. Infographics can be huge undertakings, requiring extensive research and design. But not all infographics need to be a major undertaking. Just start with a good graph or chart and pretty it up a bit. Go My Fair Lady on that graph. Add a little lipstick and blush with free content tools like Canva, Piktochart, or Infogram.
Just make sure that initial data or graph is solid – no amount of powder or foundation can cover an ugly heart, although Ursula got pretty damn far in her Vanessa girl getup (Prince Eric isn’t the brightest dude in the world).
never trust a brunette
9. Statistics –> Twitter Posts
Let’s say you’ve got a solid stats post, sharing some cool interesting facts or data points about your industry. Want to get more leverage out of those stats? Turn them into individual tweetable elements. You can do this is a number of ways:
- Add a click to tweet link to the end of some stats
- Use most interesting or compelling stats as tweets
- Create Twitter-friendly image stats (these will probably perform the best)
Repurposing your stats into tweetable highlights makes them much more sharable and is sure to give your content better reach.
10. Blog Posts –> Tips Newsletter
To really get the most bang for your blog post, consider promoting your blog posts in a weekly tips newsletter. You (hopefully) already have a solid list of email subscribers; but even the most dedicated of fans won’t catch every post you write (especially if you’re posting multiple times a day). That’s where your newsletter comes in!
A friendly tips-oriented newsletter can showcase your best blog posts of the week, providing an extra nudge to get users on your site and reading your cream of the crop content.
11. Blog Post –> Podcast
I’ve been a huge fan of podcasts ever since I installed a new Bluetooth-friendly radio in my car. Listening to podcasts is the best – it’s an easy way to make that limbo in-between time more productive (e.g. commuting in the automobile).
Does the idea of starting a podcast sound daunting? Maybe you don’t have the dulcet tones of NPR’s Tom Ashbrook. Not a problem – you can hire a melodious tongue for a farthing or two!
Just hire some voice talent to read one of your blog posts and, like the most wondrous of magic, you’ll suddenly have yourself a podcast! For best results, I’d suggest editing your blog post so that its tone is a bit more relaxed and conversational.
With these tips on repurposing content, you’ll be getting the most value out of your content efforts. Soon you’ll have more content variations than the Keep Calm And Carry On slogans that have finally begun to loosen their suffocating grasp on the internet.
Do you have any other methods of repurposing content? Share your ideas and thoughts in the comments!
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: 11 Genius Ways to Repurpose Content
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