Coming up with new content ideas to keep your small business blog active can be a challenge. Savvy marketers know that one way to keep content fresh and exciting is to repurpose content you’ve already published. By putting a new spin on the content, you can engage new audiences and establish yourself as a subject matter expert on the topic you’re writing about. Learn more about how to repurpose content and reach more customers.

What does “repurposing content” mean?

Repurposing content essentially means recycling content you used before, but doing so in a fresh, creative way. Essentially, you take a piece of content and change it so it serves a different purpose. Some might mistake this effort for revamping content, but that’s not the case. The difference between revamping and repurposing content is that one simply freshens content up, while the other breathes new life into the content, opens up new audiences, and gives it a new purpose.  When you revamp a piece of content, you’re continuing to use it for the same purpose it was originally intended, but updating it so it remains relevant and attractive to that audience. Repurposing content changes not only the format of the content, but possibly the target audience for the content as well.

Why repurpose content at all?

newsletterMany people think that repurposing content is a lazy way to create new content, but there are several reasons why small business marketers should repurpose their content. First, as mentioned before, you can potentially reach new audiences. Since people absorb information in different ways, repurposing an article as an infographic for example, may make the content more appealing to more audiences and extending your reach. Another reason to repurpose content is reiterate or reintroduce a previous topic. If you’ve written an informative blog post in the past and feel the content is still very relevant, reformatting it into a new content piece like a video or podcast can help reintroduce that content and support the previous content piece. The most powerful reason to repurpose content is simply to do more with less.  If you put a significant amount of time, effort and research into a content piece, why not get the most mileage out of it as you can?  Take that same piece, repurpose it into a different format, and reach more audiences. Why not get the most you can out of the content you created? It’s a smart way to market.

How can you repurpose content?

As with any marketing tactic, the best way to approach repurposing content is to have a plan. If you’ve created an editorial calendar, you’re already well on your way! One step in creating an editorial calendar is to identify which format you’ll create you content in. So, for example, you may have a list of topics where you’ve identified the best format is a blog post. Now go back to that topic and add a few more lines to expand how that same content can be repurposed. For example, take the concepts from your blog post, and turn it into an infographic. Or take that blog and create a video on the concepts you presented. You can even take a series of related blog topics and create a white paper. Or perhaps you can create a checklist of actionable items from a post. Here’s a list of content formats you can use to repurpose your old blog posts:

  1. Videos
  2. Infographics
  3. Checklists
  4. Case studies
  5. Email blasts
  6. Memes
  7. Podcasts
  8. Webinars
  9. Presentations

Really, the skies are the limit if your original content had good information. Again, the idea is to reach new audiences and gain new clients.

Can any content be repurposed?

Unfortunately, not all content can be repurposed. Some content has a limited shelf life and once it’s done, it’s no longer useful. You want to be sure that the content you repurpose is evergreen content. Content that is always relevant, regardless of how much time goes by, would be considered evergreen content. This often includes posts that go back to the fundamentals, as well as how-to content.

Learning how to effectively repurpose content and reach more customers will go a long way in your overall marketing efforts. Need help with your content efforts?  Strategic Marketing Services can help you create an effective overall marketing strategy.

Patty Hughes
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