Repurposing Content: What is It and How Can I Do it Effectively?

If you follow the social media accounts of a well-established restaurant, store, marketing company, etc., then you’ve likely asked yourself the following question: How do they come up with such great, detailed ideas for content every single time they post?

We’re about to let you in on a little secret… and it’s that they don’t!

More than likely, the posts you’re viewing on a regular basis are chock full of repurposed content — and after you read the remainder of this blog, you’ll be well on your way to implementing this trade secret into your own social media marketing plan, saving yourself tons of time, solidifying your messaging, and achieving the goals of your content quickly and easily.

Repurposing Content: What is It and Why Should I Do It?

Repurposing content basically just means taking content you’ve previously written (like a blog) and breaking it down and forming it into something else (like a caption).

But it’s more than just reposting an old photo with a nice #throwbackthursday tacked on for good measure — it’s about taking previous ideas and creating a new vehicle in order for you to continue to deliver valuable information to your viewers.

Think about it like this: 65 percent of people are visual learners (Inc.). While they might not be able to absorb all the information from your blog post, when you take it and break it apart to create, say, an infographic or a short explainer video, what you have to offer them will resonate on a deeper, more impactful level.

You’ll also be able to get new sets of eyes on your content, as your follower count has likely grown since you shared the original piece of content.

In addition, repurposing content allows you to solidify your messaging by providing you with more chances to achieve your content’s goals while diversifying the content you have without needing to spend hours and hours researching new ideas. 

So repurposing your content also saves you tons of time! As they say, work smarter — not harder.

But you can’t repurpose just anything — you need to ensure the content you’re revamping is evergreen in nature, meaning it continues to be valuable in today’s world no matter how much time has passed. If you’re looking for more information on what evergreen content is and how you can go about creating some yourself, head to this blog by Kinsta: How to Create Evergreen Content That Lasts (17 Tips and Tricks).

To get started, you should take a look at your data and analytics to see which types of content did best and which did worst. The ones that did the best are always great to reshare as you already know they’re the type of content that your viewers want to see —  but you can also give the content that didn’t do as well a second chance at life.

Whatever route you decide to take, here are two essential vehicles you can use to repurpose your content.

 

Option No. 1: Repurposing Videos

If you’ve recently created an awesome company video, you might want to consider repurposing it into a series of shorter videos.

Shorter videos tend to do better on social media anyways — in fact, Facebook says you should make your video 15 seconds or less so people are more likely to watch until the end. 

You may also want to consider using your shortened video within your promotional endeavors, as video ads were the No. 1 way consumers discovered a brand they later purchased from (Animoto).

In addition, you can take a still shot from the video and use it in a graphic/branded design or use a quote from one of your video subjects as a jumping off point for a caption.

If you’re looking for more ways you can go about implementing video into other areas of your digital marketing plan, head to our blog: How to Use Video to Increase the Power of Your Digital Marketing Plan.

 

Option No. 2: Repurposing Blogs

Since writing a blog requires a lot of upfront research, time, and effort, repurposing your blog is a fantastic way to get heaps of content ideas in no time at all.

Something we’ve seen a lot in 2021 is the increase of video marketing as a tool to gain new followers, increase engagement and interaction, and close sales — and so a great place to start is by taking your blog and turning it into an explainer video or video script.

You can also take your blogs and incorporate them into your email marketing campaign or newsletter, break them down into a series of social media posts, or take quotes from the blog and turn them into a graphic.

Or an infographic! Especially if your blog is a step-by-step, how-to, or education-based piece. Infographics actually improve reading comprehension by 50 percent, and people following directions with both text and illustrations do a whopping 323 percent better than those following directions without any illustrations at all (Visme). 

Repurposing your educational blog into a topic for a podcast is also a fantastic idea — especially since 75 percent of podcasters listen to learn new things (Semrush). 

In addition, you can take several blogs and create an ebook to offer as a downloadable goodie on your website. Just have your visitors enter their email to claim their copy, and boom: Now you’ve got a lead generation tool as well! This can also help increase the amount of email subscribers you have — just ask the 51 percent of today’s B2B businesses that incorporate ebooks into their content marketing campaigns (Content Marketing Institute).

And did you know that 73 percent of B2B marketers say webinars are the best way to generate high-quality leads (Outgrow)? So, as you might guess, turning your blog or series of blogs into a webinar is a great way to get more leads and close more sales.

The last thing you might want to do is take your old blog and revamp it with modern info — for example, if you wrote a blog about what the top 5 video trends in 2020 were, you can write one comparing and contrasting those with the top 5 video trends from 2021.

Whatever way you decide to repurpose your content, you should strongly consider implementing this tool into your marketing strategy if you’re looking to save time, increase the scope of your efforts, and achieve the goals of your content seamlessly and easily.

 

Thanks for Reading!

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog! We hope you enjoyed learning about the power of repurposing your content.

But if you still think you could use a hand in creating on-brand, high-quality content that engages your audience, sets your business apart, and closes sales, our team at OpticTour would love to lend our hands!

Our creative writers here at OpticTour have years of experience researching, writing, and cultivating creative and original articles for countless different types of businesses out there, and are ready and willing to use their skills, expertise, and passion for the craft to help you share your message with the world in the most effective way possible.

Whenever you’re ready, you can schedule a free consultation with us by heading to this link.

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