Marketers often overlook content repurposing, which is an important element of any content marketing strategy. After all, done well, it can breathe new life into old assets, diversify content formats, and deliver a satisfying ROI by reaching larger audiences over time.
Here are three simple strategies to help you streamline your content repurposing process and extract the most value from your existing work.
Step 1: Analyze your existing content
Audit your content library before optimizing your content repurposing workflow.
This will help you understand what’s been produced and what can be updated or repurposed based on relevance, timeliness, adaptability and alignment with marketing goals.
As part of your content audit, you’ll need to work out:
Which content has performed well in the past…
…And which content hasn’t been received as well as you’d liked.
The easiest way to do this is to review the most common (and essential) performance metrics using third-party tools like Google Analytics, SEMRush or Ahrefs.
The following indicators will demonstrate how popular or valuable the content piece was:
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- How much traffic was generated to the page/asset – this indicates the appetite for the content
- How many times the page/asset was viewed – this demonstrates the attention the piece received
- How much time your visitors spend on the page/asset – this reflects the interest users had in the content
- The bounce rate of the page/asset – this reflects the stackability of the piece
- How many social shares the accompanying social media posts generate – this reflects the content’s potential reach
- How many comments the piece generated and what users have been saying – this demonstrates active engagement
- How many conversions the content produced – this reflects the content’s direct value to the business
Which type of content brings people back
Valuable content includes anything your customers or peers might treat as a helpful resource now and in the future, whether they’re at the top of the sales funnel or inching closer to making a purchase.
Think about the types of content that bring audiences back time and time again. Typically, they’re looking for anything that will educate them on how your products or services work and convince them that what you provide is better than what your competitors offer.
How-to guides, whitepapers, case studies, testimonials and product demos all deliver useful information and actionable advice – and they’re often timeless in the sense that, while they might need to be reviewed for relevancy, the bulk of their messaging will remain the same. If you have created a longer report – like our annual ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report – you can repurpose much of this content into webinars, infographics, blogs, social media posts and any other formats that convey the data in an engaging, easy-to-digest way.
Which content has strong repurposing potential
Perhaps a new industry development has occurred since the piece was created, and it needs to be updated. Or maybe you’ve gained more insight into a topic and want to share your latest experiences. Either way, updating older content with new insights can improve its value.
Stuck for inspiration? You could ask new hires or people who are external to the business for their thoughts on how a specific piece of archived content can be improved and repurposed — they will often have some interesting ideas to share that might not have been considered previously.
Which content can be easily transformed into different formats
Certain content formats lend themselves to easier repurposing. For example, a single webinar can generate video clips, social media posts, polls, surveys, slides for sales and much more — and that’s before you even start using generative AI.
Step 2: Choose the right formats and channels
If a piece of content is published in one format, it should be reused and republished in another. This goes back to our earlier point of ensuring your message reaches as many people as possible by catering your content the formats they prefer.
As part of your content repurposing workflow, you could consider:
Breaking down longform content into bite-sized chunks
Begin by identifying key sections, quotes or statistics from a longform blog post, e-book or whitepaper. Then, create a series of social media posts, infographics or short videos that make these points more accessible.
Expanding shortform content into more in-depth pieces
Take a popular social media post — like a post that drove a lot of engagement or a poll — and expand it into a more comprehensive article, video or podcast episode. This approach will allow you to delve deeper into the topic and provide even more value to your audience.
Converting written content to visual content
Videos or slideshows appeal to target customers who consume information visually rather than through the written word. You can easily use tools like Camtasia or Lumen5 to convert text-based content into audio or video formats.
Bundle similar content
Many digital marketing activities are designed to get audiences to engage with content — and keep engaging. That’s why, when repurposing content, you should also consider the audience’s next step in their content journey and bundle similar content together.
For example, if someone is reading up on webinar marketing basics, you should have a content hub ready. This hub should be filled with different content formats and content for various experience levels.
Match your content to the right channel
Next, you’ll need to ensure your newly engineered content is shared with the right people in the right places – otherwise, it might not achieve the reach or the engagement you’d hoped for. This applies to everything you create, from emails to blog posts to social media posts.
Every resource has its own formatting rules that need to be considered, and certain types of content will typically achieve more engagement on different social sites. For example, you won’t see much success publishing an hour-long video on a platform like LinkedIn, where users favor shorter-form content. However, 30-second trailers will help to direct traffic to the video’s source, so LinkedIn can still have a part to play in promoting your latest work.
Remember, requirements and best practices change constantly as these platforms evolve, so research before committing to a new approach.
Step 3: Create and implement a content repurposing plan
You’ve reviewed your existing content and decided how to repurpose it for the platforms you’re using. It’s time to develop and execute a structured content repurposing plan that your entire team can follow in the months and years ahead.
Develop a content calendar
Every business’s content calendar looks slightly different, but you’ll need to consider the following when creating your template:
Key dates
From national holidays and popular awareness days to industry-specific conferences and much-anticipated team-building days, you’ll need to ensure your content output complements – and doesn’t clash with – milestones in your company calendar. You’ll also need to be aware of any events outside your control – such as general elections – and ensure any pre-scheduled content isn’t released at an insensitive time based on current affairs.
Content availability
If it takes a little while to repurpose a particular piece of content, give yourself and your staff enough runway to deliver it. Avoid placing unnecessary pressure on contributors and give everyone enough time to prepare for its launch.
Engagement patterns
Certain types of content will perform best on specific platforms — but you need to go deeper than this. The time of day the content is posted can affect its performance, and the frequency at which updates are shared can impact your content’s success.
Assign roles and responsibilities
Consistency is key when it comes to delivering a flawless content repurposing strategy. So, to manage tasks efficiently, hit deadlines without fail and ensure no missed opportunities, you’ll need to get buy-in from your entire marketing team and make sure they each play their part in the process.
Delegate roles to employees or contractors with the right skills, and make sure your staff knows who to turn to for feedback or final approval on each piece. Collaborative tools like Trello, Asana, and Monday can help you monitor the status of each repurposing project. Ensure somebody is responsible for monitoring content performance so you can learn from your approach and report your wins to leadership!
This three-step content repurposing workflow provides a tried-and-tested framework for reusing high-performing content and generating a better ROI from your content marketing activities. Try it out and see how it can save you time, reach a wider network, and connect with your audience at a deeper level!
