The Repurposing Toolbox Your Content Strategy Needs

Bernadette Mung

November 16, 2015   Follow
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Acquisition

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Time and energy are your two best resources when it comes down to the pre-Christmas time crunch. Inboxes are overflowing, to-do lists are growing and all those days on the beach are calling.

A rock-solid content calendar is indispensable for attracting and nurturing future customers. Unfortunately, crafting killer content can also be a time killer. However, it doesn’t make sense to start from scratch all the time. Why do we have to start from square one?

Hitting publish is only the beginning of the journey for your content. Repurposing extends the lifetime of your efforts and saves you bucket loads of time. (All the more to enjoy a proper holiday!)

It’s time to ask yourself…

Why should ‘REPURPOSE’ be my new content motto?

Imagine that awesome blog post you published a week ago. How would that look as an infographic? Or a short animated video? Maybe an ebook? With a little twist, you can transform great into even better using a fraction of the time.

Repurposing has all the benefits of:

  • Reaching more people

Shaking up old content will help you to cater for different personas and their varying preferences. While one segment of your audience may love the blog post format of your content, a mini-transformation will help you reach even more people. For example, 6 out of 10 millennials prefer watching a company video, rather than reading a newsletter. In this case, more time and money may be better spent on video marketing.

The visual learners will love a beautifully designed infographic, the podcast listeners will enjoy a solid half hour of engaging and informative dialogue. Compiling several blog posts into an “ultimate guide” will also help your content stand out from the over saturated blog market.

Social media continues to be one of the most popular tactics used, however email marketing and blog content remain two favourites for B2C marketers.

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Image credit: Contently

  • Capitalising on past success

Sometimes innovation requires a few stabs in the dark. Facing the uncertainty of whether your content will succeed is a reality we all have to face. However, when it comes to a great content strategy in the long run, repurposing is an essential ingredient.

Leveraging past success allows you to celebrate and maximise those wins. Sometimes you’ve just got to ride the wave of success for a little longer and maximise the opportunities. If the advertisers at AAMI had called it a wrap after the first ad, we wouldn’t have the epic love saga of Rhonda and Ketut!

  • Researching best performing content formats

Experimentation with different formats and platforms is also helpful for researching what actually resonates most with your customers. Across the spectrum of content types and stages of the buyer journey, there are plenty of options.

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Image credit: Hubspot

Often the best way of creating authentic buyer personas (to help you make these important decisions), is all in starting a dialogue with current customers.

  • Increasing social sharing

Spreading the love on socials is all part of maximising your content efforts. No one likes flogging a dead horse, and repurposing your content breathes new life into your content. You can share your efforts across your social channels even more, without sounding like a broken record.

Tip : If your persona’s are predominantly on Facebook, try testing some of your blogs as videos. Facebook favours video content, so your content will do well here.

How do I choose what to repurpose?

Choosing the right content to repurpose is all about identifying which content:

  • has experienced the most success
  • has the most potential in a different format / on a different platform

For example, turning a blog post into an infographic is a great way to make your website more Pinterest friendly. This is especially important if your ideal customers are a Pinterest-ed bunch!

Of course, it’s not always about what did well. It’s important to think about the content you felt didn’t achieve its target or was received poorly. Maybe that content is just bad content, or maybe you just need to give it life in the right way.

It’s best to look at who you crafted the content for and research what suits them best to repurpose it well. If it’s not a time saving exercise, you might as well start from scratch. If it still isn’t performing in it’s new shiny medium, put.the.camera.down.

The Content Canvas

The marketer’s repurposing tool box

Republishing

Perhaps the simplest way to repurpose your content is republishing on a different platform. Medium and Linkedin offer great opportunities for businesses and individuals. Consider publishing a shortened version of your original content, with a link to your website. The SEO opportunities on Google+ also offer a valuable chance to post a micro-blog version of the original.

The infographic

Infographics are visual representations of information. They’re often used to convey statistics in a way that’s easy to consume. With awesome tools, like Canva, creating a great infographic doesn’t have to be a time-consuming endeavour. Listicle blog posts are especially suited to an infographic transformation.

Best places to publish your infographics:

  • Your blog
  • On Pinterest
  • On Visually

The Podcast

Podcasts have made a comeback! No longer for the niche communities on the internet, there’s a podcast for nearly everything. They’re great for conveying information in a more conversational tone, often in 30 to 45 minute segments. Old blog posts are a gold mine for podcast material.

The Webinar

Webinars are an amazing format to experiment with. The focus on educating and workshopping creates a strong incentive for people to hand over their emails (and become leads!) and start a real conversation with you. Face to face opportunities also help to build connections far better than plain text on a website. Like podcasts, all your educational material may be lying in wait among your old blog posts.

The Ebook

In a market saturated by blog post after blog post, a well designed and robust ebook stands out from the crowd. The best ebooks are the “ultimate guides” that are awesome and indispensable enough to live permanently on your desktop. A great ebook could be as simple as gathering 5 to 7 of your best blog posts, into a streamlined story.

The Slideshare

Some customers may always prefer great visuals over lengthy text. In this case, it’s time to consider a killer slideshare for your content strategy. Conveying statistics through a visual format is always more engaging and less dull, than mere words. A slideshare takes the infographic to the next level, becoming almost like a shorter and visual-heavy ebook.

The Email course

An email course is as simple as a series of emails delivered over a period of time. The objective is to educate your subscribers on your area of expertise. If your email newsletter is lacking a strong subscriber base, consider offering a free email course to drive subscriptions.

Where to go from here?

Now you’ve got a new content strategy motto (REPURPOSE) and marketing toolbox to try, it’s time to dive in and craft more killer content! Repurpose old content, save time, and start planning for your dream holiday!

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