Top 9 Ways to Repurpose Old Content to Increase Your ROI

All content marketers have too much to do and too little time to do it. Likewise, they’re under pressure to provide the high level of content that audiences desire. Distributing that content across a variety of channels has become increasingly important.

The pressure is especially heightened when you work on a small team. If your resources are limited, you must stretch every resource you possess to succeed.

So how do you produce high-quality content when you’re short on time? 

The answer is simple: you repurpose old content.  

What is Content Repurposing?

Content repurposing, or “content recycling,” is the process of reusing existing content in a new way to reach a larger audience. A repurposed piece of content is typically converted into another format, like an infographic from a blog post.

There are numerous benefits to repurposing content. You’re more likely to make something great if you focus your attention on one specific piece of content, like an in-depth blog post or video. 

This blog post from the route planning software Track-POD is a great example of content that can be repurposed every year and updated with new data.

You can reuse content like this without making customers feel as though you’re cutting corners. That’s because a piece like this is created with repurposing in mind, so updates feel natural and expected. 

Benefits of Content Repurposing

There are three major reasons why repurposing content is beneficial. 

First off, it saves time.

There is simply no time for most businesses to create new, engaging content every day. It might even be difficult for you to produce one piece of content each week. Taking advantage of existing content and adapting it to accommodate a new format or audience will give your audience the impression that you’re constantly turning out fresh new content weekly.

Second, it gets you more traffic.

In social media marketing, one primary goal is to drive people to your website. This can be a difficult task, which might cause you to create overly promotional posts on social media. Repurposed content shows a snippet of what people expect to see on your website and entices them to visit.

And lastly, it’s good for SEO

The more visible you are on the Internet, the more likely you are to be found by Google. 

9 Ways to Repurpose Old Content

Now that we’ve gone over the basics, here are nine ways you can repurpose your old content.

1. Turn existing blog posts into video 

According to surveys, 81% of businesses that use video marketing see an increase in sales. 

However, developing videos for small businesses and bloggers can be tricky because of a lack of time. In addition to running your business, you have to write the script, record the presentation, do the voiceovers, and edit the footage. 

The process is tedious, but with existing content, it can be a lot easier.

Create your videos using existing blog posts as a foundation. Look at this blog post from SnackNation about PEO Companies as a prime example of content that can and should be turned into a video. It contains a lot of insightful information, however some people may find it difficult to read. It becomes easier to understand if you turn it into a video for those who learn best visually. 

2. Turn webinars and long-form videos into insightful snippets

The first step toward publishing frequent, high-quality content is to host webinars. A webinar can be repurposed and reworked into several other valuable pieces of content when it’s successfully produced.

If your company hasn’t created webinars before, don’t let fear stop you. A strategy like this indeed takes a lot of planning and work, but with the right tools and platforms, you can master this process in no time.

The first step is to store your webinars and organize newly-created content associated with them. Fortunately, storage isn’t super expensive for entrepreneurs and small businesses. If you’re not already using one, it’s a good time to switch to a cloud storage platform like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive. In addition to file sharing, they make collaboration between team members easy.

A video streaming platform will allow you to convert webinars into small snippets and stream them over the web. 

3. Turn articles into podcasts 

When you have a blog, you might want to open it up to a broader audience of internet users who engage with audio media more than written content.

One way to do this is by using your old blog articles to start a podcast. You can make several episodes out of one blog article and even invite guests to elaborate on the topic further. This can be done by taking highlights from your articles and discussing them at length with guests or fellow employees. 

4. Turn internal data into case studies

An organization’s internal data is information, statistics, and trends that it discovers. The information is compiled from internal databases, software, and reports. While this data typically informs marketing decisions, you can also repurpose it into blog content.

Making a case study out of collected information has the benefit of showing readers that you are adept at analyzing data. The more credibility you give your blog, the better. Furthermore, you can figure out the causes and effects of your business’s important decisions by doing the study.

5. Turn compelling data into shareable infographics

Infographics are known for taking large amounts of information in a visually appealing and easily digestible manner.

Developing an infographic begins with gathering the information you want to share. After gathering the necessary information, consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your infographic and what audience you’re looking for. 

To create an infographic that motivates your viewers to take action, it is paramount to understand your target audience. A great example is an infographic like this one that helps students learn English online. It makes your content more engaging and easy to digest.

The stated objective of your infographic will drive the rest of the creation process, whether it’s to inform your audience, generate more site traffic, or raise brand awareness.

6. Turn long-form content into detailed (but shorter) how-to guides

You can work with various teams and departments throughout your business to structure how-to guides based on your blog posts.

One way to do this is by tagging and categorizing your content to create a series. For example, this post on tax-deductible gifts is part of a series on financial literacy. It’s categorized with similar articles on student loans and custodial account taxes. 

By taking these longer topics and fitting them into shorter how-to guides, you give something valuable to the audience.  

7. Turn customer reviews and Q&A sessions into blog posts

You can use customer reviews as potential content to address audience concerns.

When you take good reviews and add them to your content, it shows what people like about your company and that they trust you. A bad review can also be a learning opportunity or an open conversation about ways to improve. This shows your audience that you value their feedback. It also gives you easy content to produce.   

8. Turn content clusters into e-books

As a content offering, eBooks build credibility for your business. 

A self-published ebook reduces the amount of work you have to do because you already have most of the content written. The only remaining task would be to organize the content, publish it, and distribute it.

Create an ebook to provide information on highly technical or complicated topics, like this ebook on data center infrastructure management. 

You can also roll out a LinkedIn content strategy as part of your ebook’s promotion. Due to LinkedIn’s professional networking capabilities, announcing your ebook to business contacts will attract prospects in your industry.

9. Turn a similar topic for a different audience

Knowing your audience is the first step toward creating content. Making decisions based on a clear understanding of your audience is essential. Once you understand your audience, you can modify it for any number of different audiences.

It’s also important to consider the goal of your article. You could be trying to inform, entertain, spur a discussion, or motivate your reader to take action. Writing for different purposes requires different techniques. 

All of these considerations have one thing in common: the audience. 

Conclusion

When repurposing content, nothing is forbidden so long as the target audience or format is changed. The only rule is to make sure you end up saving time. If you’re spending more time repurposing content than you do creating new content, you’re doing it wrong.

Author Bio

Jenna Famiglietti is a freelance writer for the company Codeless. Although she originally studied psychology and earned a Bachelor’s degree in that field, her true passions lie in writing and reading. Her content is written both for business and casual blogs. 

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