Content creation isn’t always easy. You have to constantly think of new ways to interact with your audience and keep them engaged. However, once you have an idea, it makes sense that you’ll want to get the most out of it – and that’s essentially what repurposing content is all about.
Repurposing content is something you can quickly and easily implement, as part of your overall content creation and marketing strategy. With the opportunity to glean a whole host of benefits for your business, it’s a sensible and time-saving solution to content creation and marketing, one that I strongly advise you start implementing now.
Why repurpose content?
But why is repurposing your content such a good idea? Well, repurposing content is all about making use of the content you already have. If you’re taking time to carry out research for a blog or status update, it makes sense that you’d like to get as much as possible out of that research. If you have a repurposing strategy in place, it can make content creation easier and less of a hassle for you (see my 8 simple steps below, if you’d like to know how to get started!).
Here’s a breakdown of the benefits of repurposing content:
Repurposing content saves you time
Content creation does take time. It’s the number one reason why many VAs don’t have a blog on their site – they feel that creating a blog takes too long. However, what if you switched that view and realised that one blog post actually opens up the possibility of you creating many pieces of content, quickly and easily, as a result of that one blog post. Wouldn’t you then see it as a good use of time?
Makes use of the different mediums
Repurposed content gives you an opportunity to capture your words and thoughts for the different types of learning style. We all know that not every person likes to read written content – so take that written content and repurpose it as a visual or audio piece as well.
Gets your content in front of more people
You need to be visible on the social media platforms you’ve chosen to use. Visibility isn’t just about ensuring you’re seen, it’s about ensuring your message is getting out there, more often. By repurposing your content into different formats, you’re giving yourself more content to share – and the chance to get it in front of more people.
Raises your profile
Repurposed content means you have more content to share, on a more consistent basis – meaning you’re putting your name out there more often too.
Reinforces your message and brand
No one wants to see the exact same message over and over. However, if you want to reinforce your message and brand, you need to come up with different ways and formats for saying the same thing. Repurposing your content is a great way of doing this!
You don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel
We all know it isn’t a simple case of sharing a piece of content once – you need to share it multiple times, if you want people to remember it. Repurposed content is a great way of sharing things more often, without having to resort to saying the same thing over and over, and without having to keep thinking up new things to create from scratch. Why reinvent the wheel? If you have some good content, use it as much as you possibly can!
How to get started repurposing content – in 8 simple steps
I’m going to focus on the two easiest things to repurpose – blog posts and statuses. Why are they so easy to repurpose? Because they’re already written down – it’s really easy to copy and paste from text-based content. Here’s a quick and easy get started guide to content repurposing.
Of course, you don’t need to do all eight steps. If you’d rather, you could pick out the ones that most appeal to you. The key here is to start thinking about how you can repurpose your content and make the most of what you’re already creating.
Step 1: See what’s already popular
Take one of your popular blog posts or social media statuses. If you’re not sure which are your more popular blogs and statuses, take a look at the interactions, comments, likes and shares, for an indication of what’s popular for your audience. It’s also a good idea to check your Google Analytics and see what blog posts had the most visits.
Step 2: Create a video or go live
This isn’t essential, but video and livestream are both great ways of repurposing content and raising your profile. Not to mention, YouTube being one of the biggest search engines for video content – so, why not do both! You can use your original blog post or status update as your script and simply read it as is. Alternatively, use it as a basis for your video, but expand on the topic further. Another option is to take snippets out of your original written content and use them to create a series of shorter videos and/or livestreams.
Step 3: Create an audio file
Whilst you have that video to hand, you could separate the audio file and you have an almost instant podcast. You can add your intro and ending credit to the file and you’re done!
Step 4: Expand on what’s already there
Talking of expanding and taking snippets – don’t forget, you can use your original content to create new blog posts and status updates that are either based on, or expand further, on that original content, as well!
Step 5: Repurpose as top tips
If you have a relatively decent amount of text (such as a blog post or long status update), print it off and read through it, with a highlighter to hand. You can then highlight tips and short snippets that can serve as stand alone tips for new status updates and/or graphics. I’m sure you can find anything between 5-15 tips per blog post, if you’re lucky!
Step 6: Create quote graphics
Quote graphics can be sourced from anywhere – they don’t just have to be from well known celebrities. Have you shared a post from an influencer? Do you have customer reviews and recommendations on your site? How about a quote you’ve said yourself? There’s also people you’ve interviewed, and even phrases you’ve used in your blogs and status updates – they can all be used to create new quote graphics for your business.
Step 7: Rewrite for Medium
You can easily tweak or rewrite your existing blogs and long statuses for new platforms. Medium is a good example of one of these platforms. You can set up an account quickly and easily, ready to start sharing your already created blogs and/or tweaked content.
Step 8: Don’t forget LinkedIn
LinkedIn is another platform that you can utilise quickly and easily, when it comes to repurposed content. As with Medium, it’s perfect for rewritten and/or tweaked blog content.
Repurposing content doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time. In fact, a lot of the above steps can be implemented whilst you’re writing the original blog or status. It’s more about being intentional with your content creation, so you have a set routine that you can implement quickly and easily. You can also use these techniques to fit into your planning of social media to get your through the summer holidays.
If you’d like more ideas on how you can quickly and easily repurpose content, check out these two great posts. Blogging Wizard has a list of 24 ways to repurpose your original blog posts, whilst Sprout Social has an awesome article on 11 clever tips to repurposing content – both are definitely well worth a read!
Recommended Tool: One of my favourite tools for sharing content across the various platforms is Missinglettr – as someone who blogs regularly, I constantly find that I’m either not dedicating enough time to promoting my blog posts across my social media channels, or I just forget entirely! So for the past few years, I have been using Missinglettr and pretty much takes care of all of that for me. Now, whenever I publish a blog post, I get sent an email (within minutes of me hitting ‘publish’) inviting me to review a full 12 month social marketing campaign for the blog post I just published. All I need to do is review their suggestions, making edits to make it sound in my voice and that’s it. My blog post is then marketed across my social channels for the next year – driving traffic back to my site. I’ve managed to secure a special deal with them, exclusively for the VACT audience 50% off ANY plan for the first 3 months!! Click here to access the promotional deal.