Content creators are aware that not all of their posts are going to receive the same amount of traffic or engagement. There may only be a handful of posts that get a large number of views. Maybe those posts were targeting low competitive keywords, or the topic was trending. Whatever the reason may be, you should maximize the opportunity by repurposing that content to create more popular ones.
As defined by Hubspot, “When you repurpose a piece of content […] you’re doing one of two things (or both): changing the format of the content, and/or changing the target audience for the content.” For instance, this may entail turning a regular blog into an infographic.
This is essential to give those top posts a second chance to get more views and generate more engagement. On the other hand, you can repurpose content that did not get as many views as it deserved, to give it a new chance to gain traction. Note that a piece of content does not have to be bad to perform poorly. It can merely mean that it needs to be displayed in another format, for example.
Before enumerating effective ways to repurpose old content, let’s walk through the benefits that this strategy can bring:
- Give less successful content a second chance to succeed — Sometimes it is not about the content, but the context in which it was presented. Maybe it was not a successful blog post, but it can be turned into an interesting YouTube video or series of Instagram posts where only the main ideas are displayed.
- Get an SEO boost —Getting an SEO boost is one of the main benefits. If you repurpose different pieces of content around the same topic, you can get additional opportunities to target a specific target keyword, which can generate more traffic to your website.
- Reach a larger audience — Yes, maybe your e-book did not generate the downloads you expected. However, imagine what can happen if you turn it into a blog where you release information little by little? You will have more chances to reach your target audience. Additionally, if you release it through other mediums such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, your content can reach more people and it can also work as a catalyzer for those people to download your e-book.
- Maximize your time — Repurposing content also means saving time since you do not have to invest in generating new ideas. At the same time, you are maintaining the quality that should always characterize your brand, while investing your efforts in working on new marketing ideas that can help to grow your business.
- Reinforce your message — As writer André Gide once said: “Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens, we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.” Repetition is of extreme importance if one wants their message to sink in. We all need boosts when it comes to purchasing a product, hence why remarketing campaigns work. Repurposing your content will help your audience remember it.
Now that we have learned about the benefits that repurposing content can bring, let’s focus on how to embark on this task effectively. Use these seven helpful tips to get started!
Tips For Repurposing Content
1. Reformat content for different social media channels
If you have a piece of content that generated high engagement and that you consider valuable, reformatting it in different ways–tailoring different social media channels–is the way to go. For instance, you can use a different image on Facebook than on Instagram and change the caption according to the platform. Instagram can have more hashtags and be shorter, while Facebook can have a longer format. This will also help you reach users in different channels.
2. Host webinars or YouTube videos
Not everyone likes to read. Some people prefer to consume information by watching a video. Fortunately, we have the option of repurposing written content and turning it into a webinar or a YouTube video. Taking this action will make your content attractive to a significant portion of our society that has been conditioned to receive most pieces of information through images. Below is a screenshot of how engaging videos can be:
Notice how Facebook even gives it preference and helps it reach more users.
3. Create infographics
If you are not about being in front of a camera, you can always break down your valuable content into easy-to-digest pieces of information. Infographics are a great way to share your content through images (which a large part of every audience loves) without having to go through all the hassle that a video production implies. A handy tool to design infographics, which does not require any previous experience, is Spark. It allows you to create images that are already fitted to your desired social media platform.
4. Create a Pinterest account
Many brands are making the mistake of only creating content for Instagram when it comes to social media platforms. It is true that Instagram is the fastest growing platform right now and that it is a huge part of promoting businesses. However, limiting ourselves to only publishing content through this platform deprives us from reaching the incredibly large audience that Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest represent. Pinterest is an ideal platform for posting infographics. Since it is entirely image-based, your well-designed content will be highly appreciated by its users.
5. Send Newsletters
As mentioned before, maybe you wrote a post about six months ago that generated much engagement, and you want to share it again. Newsletters are very useful to spread content because they bring it directly to your desired audience’s respective inboxes. Come up with a clever subject line that leaves the recipients curious and wondering what is inside and make your old content new again! To send newsletters, I highly recommend using MailChimp. It provides you with very useful analytics on the open rate, click rate and compares it with the average of openings and clicks that email from the same field of interest as yours receive. Below, you will see some of the average numbers of openings and clicks per industry. If you want to see the rest of the numbers, click here.
6. Refresh old posts
Here we are, talking about resending and republishing old successful posts. However, it is essential to re-read those posts before sending them away in a newsletter. Maybe, there are pieces of information that are outdated or just irrelevant at the present moment. It is crucial to edit, replace or just get rid of those sections to share information that is relevant in its entirety. One single sentence of outdated information can damage a whole blog regarding the opinion of its readers. Attention to detail is of the utmost importance here.
7. Post a question on Quora
Create an engaging question related to the piece of content you want to repurpose. Users will start answering and commenting. However, some will want to read a “real answer” rather than just the comments. Include a link to your post and that is when the clicks will start.
Now you know what to do when it comes to old valuable content that needs nothing more than a boost, some refreshing or just a change of image. Start working on repurposing your content and comment below to let me know how it goes!
Photo via Shutterstock