Content is hard to come up with on a regular basis. Trying to blog weekly or send out a newsletter monthly is not easy. Furthermore, we all know that pressure to constantly produce content for our social media platforms, websites and other channels. And we all know that giving into that pressure doesn’t always work. A better way to relieve yourself of the pressure and still produce content is to repurpose the content you already have.
What does it mean to repurpose content?
To repurpose content is to present it in a different format, platform and/or style that engages your target audience in a fresh way. By doing this, you get to take a closer look at your content and identify what is still relevant and interesting. We call this “evergreen content“. Specifically, it’s content that still retains its relevance well after its publish date.
There are many reasons for repurposing content, including:
- increase visibility
- reach a new audience
- establish expertise
- save time on content production
- boost messages, campaigns, ideas etc.
How to create your repurposing content plan
While everyone approaches repurposing content differently, there are some general steps you can take now to get content that’s (seems) new, fresh and exciting for your audience:
Step 1: Identify your goals and objectives
The content you have and the content you want to create are likely going to have different objectives. So set new objectives to guide your decisions and use of time and resources. Repurposing content shouldn’t be a source of stress. It should be a source of relief (because you won’t be starting from scratch)!
Step 2: Reevaluate your audience
Even though your target audience probably hasn’t changed, I’m sure you’d like to draw a new crowd. Evaluating what you already know about your audience will help you figure out how you will approach repurposing content. Furthermore, this step will help you gain new insight and ideas about what topics your audience will most likely engage with.
Step 3: Brainstorm and select your topic
Now that you know more about your audience and your prospective audience, you want to choose content topics. Firstly, consult your website analytics, search SEO keywords and other date. After that, do some social listening to make sure that there is enough evidence to support the topics you choose.
Step 4: Choose your format and platform
This step is the fun part! Here, you’ll figure out which format and platform makes sense for the way you have repurposed your content. For example, if you want to repurpose a blog post, you might consider making it into a podcast, a newsletter, infographic or whatever makes sense.
NOTE: Consider the limitations of sharing across platforms and using specific formats
Ideas for repurposing content to get your started
It’s hard to come up with ideas quickly. I totally get it. So, to help you out, I have five examples of how you can repurpose your content:
1) Transform a blog post into a blog series based on a theme
2) Turn your webinar content into a slide deck
3) Take quotes from your research and reports and make them visual posts on social media
4) Change your Twitter/LinkedIn/Instagram poll results into infographics
5) Use blog posts with similar themes and topics to create a toolkit
Over to you
Now that you know how to repurpose content, your next step is to take a closer look at your content. You’ll be surprised to see the endless opportunities to draw in a new audience.
Still stuck?