A Guide to Repurposing Content to Save Time and Money

Did you know that repurposing your existing content could be the key to generating more leads in less time?

If you’ve never done it before, you’re definitely missing out on a big opportunity, and now is the perfect time to change that.

Read this guide to learn more about the benefits of repurposing content and take steps to take your business to the next level.

The Key Benefits of Repurposing Content

Whatever industry you work in, repurposing content will be beneficial for you.

It saves money

High-quality content is expensive. So it’s important to repurpose content to get more bang for your buck.

Let’s say you wrote a series of blog posts about snake plants: how to care for the plant, how to propagate it, how to choose the right pot for it, etc. Now you can transform this blog post into an e-book and use it as a lead magnet to grow your email list.

Using online editing tools, you can create an ebook for little or no money. You can get a new valuable, informative piece of content without making any extra investment and benefit from it.

It saves time

Modern life is busy, and we should use each and every minute wisely. And you should repurpose evergreen content instead of creating new content from scratch, where possible.

Let’s say you wrote a great article on the topic “How to take care of the Devil’s Ivy plant”. Now you need to make a choice: to write a new article on a new topic, for instance, “How to care for pineapple plant” or to repurpose the existing piece of content – to turn the article about the Devil’s Ivy plant into infographics.

How much time will it take you to write a new article? It will take you from four to eight hours: you will need to research topic in detail, check different sources, write around 1000 words, then proofread and format the text.

How much time will it take you to design infographics? Depending on your graphic design skills and the software you’re using, it will take you from 30 minutes to a few hours. Basically, you already have all the necessary information. All you need to do is to find a few relevant icons or vector images and put them together.

Repurposing content will take you less time and effort.

Image source: Poshpennies

It helps to reach a wider audience

Different people prefer to consume information differently. Some people like to read blog posts, and others prefer to watch YouTube videos or listen to podcasts. When you create only one type of content, you can reach out to only a small part of your target audience.

If you have created a fabulous article, it will be a wise idea to use it to create a podcast, video, or other non-textual content. It will help you to engage more potential customers and get your brand more visible.

How to choose the right content for repurposing?

Not all content is worth repurposing – you shouldn’t waste your time on tweaking the “wrong” content.

Analyze the past results

To boost your efforts, you should assess the quality of existing content and answer the following questions:

• Which piece of content was read/viewed the most?
• Which piece of content was shared the most on social media?
• Which piece of content helped to drive the most traffic?

Focus on evergreen content

After that, you should identify “evergreen” content, the content that stays relevant in the long run.

You should understand that some of your blog posts and videos that worked well in the past are no longer relevant – there is no sense to repurpose them. You should focus on the most relevant topics to boost your efforts.

Let’s say you wrote a fabulous post that reveals the meaning behind key moments from Shakira and J-Lo’s halftime show in February 2020. Your post went viral online, and you believe that this article is one of the best content pieces you have ever created. Is it worth it to repurpose? The answer is NO. Shakira and J-Lo’s show was a hot topic for discussion in February, but it’s irrelevant now.

Let’s consider an example of evergreen content. Imagine you wrote a blog post on the topic “Jennifer Lopez’s worst fashion fails of 2014”. This piece of content can be repurposed. Six years, ago as well as today, people are searching for the “celebrities’ fashion fails” on the web. So if you update your blog post and name it “Jennifer Lopez’s worst fashion fails of 2014-2020”, it’s highly likely that your content will go viral again.

6 Brilliant Ideas For Repurposing Content

Finally, let’s discuss repurposing content ideas in more detail.

Depending on what content you want to repurpose, you can choose one of the following options.

Create an e-book

Have you ever consider creating an e-book? It’s simple. Take a few relatable posts from your blog, put them in one file, write an intro, make some edits, and voila – your first e-book is ready to be used.

Your e-book doesn’t have to be 300 pages long. If it adds value to the reader, it doesn’t really matter how many pages it has.

Let’s say you run a blog about interior design. You have published a few articles about creating the Scandinavian interior design:

• Rules of combining wood and metal finishes in Scandinavian interior design
• Ideas on how to decorate a bedroom with plants in Scandinavian style
• Tips on how to keep the interior clutter-free
• Light muted colors as a basis of Scandinavian interior design

Now you can use these articles to create a comprehensive guide or e-book on the topic. And you don’t have to be a professional writer to do it. If your target audience loves your articles, your e-book will be a success.

There are so many tools out there that allow users to create an e-book in a simple way. So even if you have never worked with this type of content before, it will be an easy task for you. In case if you feel like you lack skills to edit your e-book, you can use a freelance graphic designer to complete the task for you.

How to use an e-book? You can use it as a lead magnet on your website and social media. Also, you can send it to your customers via email to boost engagement.

Turn a blog post in a short video

The consumption of video content is on the rise now. And if you want to drive more traffic to your website or increase brand awareness, you should think about creating short videos. Basically, any article or blog post can be turned in a short video.

Do you feel comfortable in front of the camera? That’s great. Here is what you should do:

• Dress nicely
• Find a spot with good lighting
• Declutter the space
• Set up the camera and microphone (if you have one)
• Turn the camera on
• Say hi to your viewers, smile, and retell your blog post
• Once you finish the recording, edit the video and create a final file.

Do you have a fear of being in the camera? You can ask your teammates or friends to participate in your video. Provide them with an article, make sure that they read it at least three times, and let them create a great piece of content.

How to use videos? You can publish videos on YouTube, your website, your blog, social media, or other video sharing platforms. It will help you to raise brand awareness and make your brand stand out.

Record your post aloud to create a podcast

Podcasts are gaining more and more listeners. According to the recent survey, more than half of Americans have listened to one podcast, and nearly one out of three people listen to at least one podcast monthly. It’s expected that number of podcast listeners will keep growing in the coming years.

So if you have been thinking about creating podcasts, it’s time to bring your ideas to life. You can hire a freelancer who provides professional voice over services to turn your evergreen content into a series of fascinating podcasts. It will not cost you a fortune but help you to create a new type of content and reach a new audience.

How to use podcasts? Share your podcast on one of the popular podcasting platforms, for instance, Buzzsprout, or Simplecast. Do it to attract new customers/followers/blog visitors and monetize your content.

Create a slide deck for SlideShare

Did you create a great piece of educational content? It will be a good idea to repurpose it – create a presentation for SlideShare. Some people do really love this type of content, so you have a chance to win the attention of a new audience.

Do you know how to create an effective slide deck? There are a few important rules to follow:

• Make sure that each slide presents one key point or idea from your post. Let’s say you wrote an article “7 Must-Eats in Italy”. Each of your slides should present one “must-eat” option.
• Don’t overload slides with the text. Try to be as concise as possible.
• Use relevant images. It can be stock images or visuals form your blog post.
• Once your slide deck is ready to be published, upload it to SlideShare and share the link on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

How to use slide decks? You can use them to educate your target audience and to build your thought leadership.

Design infographics

Humans process visual data batter. That’s why infographics always work better than long reads.

Talking about repurposing content, we focus mostly on “evergreen content that performed well in the past”. But the truth is that you can repurpose not-that-popular content in some cases to give it a second chance to grab the audience’s attention.

Let’s say you conducted a comprehensive marketing survey. You polled more than 1,000 people and wrote a 50-page-long report – you did a great job and created a valuable piece of content. But the problem is that not all people like to read that many pages. And the chances are your report remained unclaimed not because your survey was “not good enough”, but because people prefer to see the results of the survey in a visual form.

If you take the most important findings of your survey and design infographics, you will achieve outstanding results. Once you create a piece of content that is easy-to-consume, your survey will get noticed and discussed.

How to use infographics? You can use it to present findings of the research or to enhance your blog posts that cover sophisticated topics. Infographics can help you to grab the audience’s attention and draw it to the valuable content you create.

Update existing content

If you are not ready to experiment with visual and audio content, think about updating and editing your current textual content. You can update and improve it in multiple ways:

• Add more visuals: images, infographics, animated GIFs, memes, etc.
• Expand on the information. Try to discuss the topic in more details
• Provide new examples that are relevant to current events, trends, etc.
• Rewrite subheadings using high-traffic keywords
• Proofread and edit the text to improve readability

Your existing content can work better than it works now. You just need to understand what is currently lacking and fix it.

Final thoughts

Content marketing is not about getting results right here and right now. It’s about creating real value to the audience and achieving success in the long run.

Repurposing content is one of those strategies that help to keep moving toward long-term goals.

If you are stuck with ideas and don’t know what content to create next, take a step backward – think about how you can use content that you already have.

Your customers are not looking for “fresh” content. They are looking for useful and informative content that resonates with them. Think about that and find a way to get the most from the published content.