Content repurposing is one of the smartest ways to stay in front of your target audience using content marketing. It’s just one of the many reasons that repurposing your content is becoming more and more popular these days. But how do you breathe new life into something that was already written a while ago? It’s easier than you might think. The first step to content repurposing is choosing and evaluating your existing content. Next, we’ll be adding a twist of freshness to that old content so that it feels new and exciting.
There are many ways that you can freshen up what you’ve already created and make it relevant right now. In fact, there are so many methods that it can be quite overwhelming. To make it easier, here are some ideas on how to repurpose content:
Add a fresh twist to old content while keeping it relevant and useful.
- Take an old blog post, add a twist or angle to it and you’ve got yourself a new blog post.
- Turn a long list post into multiple short, succinct ones.
- Select a controversial topic and write about the other side of the story.
- Switch things up with your tone and present it as a conversation instead of an authoritative voice.
- Edit a guest post from another source to include in one of your own posts.
- Take just-okay photographs of something ordinary and make them extraordinary with your photo editing skills.
Content recycling gives you content marketing superpowers
Create a series of new pieces using the content of an old blog post. You can do this by dividing the overall conclusion of your first post into the separate steps that got you there. Write about one concept in each post, then tie all the posts together at the end. When you post a blog that reveals your conclusion, the whole concept will make sense. Building impact this way is a great idea to increase retention of all your content marketing. You can also create a series that is not directly tied together but has the same tone (or theme). An example of this is writing posts about a summer reading list. You can repurpose these posts by changing the theme and wording. That way, you can create a reading list or to-do list focused on keywords or any other objective you choose.
You can generate more content by updating an old post. This is an excellent way to do your content recycling. You may already have some outstanding blogs that cover single topics in great detail. Those topics may still remain relevant to your blog’s audience today, especially if you update them. Add some additional details and value and you’ve refreshed your content to be reused again. See? It’s not so hard to become a content recycling expert!
Don’t forget, adding graphics can freshen up your words
Slideshows, infographics and series of charts can be created from older content and are very effective in your content marketing campaign. People love visuals as they are easier to view and are more interesting. For example, you can take an idea from a previous blog and make it more visually appealing by adding some graphics. The visuals will even emphasize your text. Charts, graphs and infographics will provide evidence to support the copy you have written. When you have the relevant visuals, you can compile them into one slide or a series of slides. Your new creation will work because you’re adding value to the information from an old post that gained attention before.
Another fabulous way to respin your previous creations is to create a guest post. Take previous content and have someone else write about the same topic, aspect and/or angle. Invite this person to guest-post on your blog. You can ask your friend(s) to guest-post on their own blogs to get the word out for you. They can be the expert testimony of who you are and what your blog is about. Use this approach to interview someone else so that they can talk about what relates to your business in their own unique way. Then post the refreshed content at your site. You can then also rewrite what they did for your social media posts and other places you appear online.
You’ll find that there are tons of benefits that you can gain by recycling content. It helps you save time and attract new readers while keeping your current followers engaged. Repurposing content also creates more value for your audience. Readers like familiar things because they are comfortable with what they’ve read before. Therefore, it makes sense to them when you re-publish something that was popular in the past. Also, you’re increasing your chances of doing well in search engine results by adding more content and thus more keywords.
When you’re recycling, content must bring your readers added value
Here are a few tips on what not to do when recycling content. Do not recycle content without adding value. This is the biggest mistake people make when repurposing their content. You can’t just republish old blog posts as they are and expect them to do well. Remember, you’re creating new information out of stuff that’s been seen. So the refreshed version should be improved if you want it to be successful.
The benefits of content recycling are obvious, for you as well as your followers. The biggest benefit is that you can save time, which in turn allows you to create more content for your business. By re-publishing old posts, you will attract new readers and also keep those who liked your posts originally. Recycling your content will give your site a library of related articles so people have more content to read. This keeps them coming back for more.
We hope this gives you inspiration for recycling your content into new experiences for your audience.
Got questions about content repurposing? We can help! We offer this through our Marketing Production services. Read more about what we do and contact us to discuss ways to repurpose your content and keep your business fresh.
