Content Repurposing for Higher Marketing ROI

Content repurposing (or “content recycling”) is the process of taking existing content and transforming it into another medium or format. It’s an effective way to maximize the value you’re realizing from your content marketing efforts and get the most out of every piece of content you create.

With repurposing, you can take an existing blog post or article, for example, and turn it into an infographic, podcast episode, and a series of social media posts. Or, you can take a webinar, and extract short video clips covering each subtopic and sprinkle them into targeted blog posts, plus release each clip individually in your YouTube channel.

There are several reasons why repurposing content is important.

More Bang For Your Buck

You put a lot of time and effort into creating a piece of content. You invest your creativity, energy, and even money. Given all that you put into content creation, don’t you want to get as much out of it as possible?

By repurposing, you get more mileage out of your content. Rather than constantly churning out new content, you can make use of what you already have. You’ll more cost-effectively scale your content production. You’ll do so more efficiently. And faster.

From an SEO perspective, you’ll be able to produce topic clusters more easily with higher SEO ROI.

From an awareness perspective, you’ll reach a larger audience and gain more exposure for your message.

From a sales support perspective, you’ll be able to arm your sales team with different assets that can be supplied to prospects at targeted times in the sales funnel.

Reaching Different Audiences

Content repurposing also gives you the opportunity to reach different types of audiences. Not everyone consumes content in the same way. Some might prefer reading a blog post, while others would rather listen to a podcast. By repurposing your content, you can cater to different types of individuals and reach more prospective buyers.

You can also target certain audience segments by crafting content specifically tailored for them. For example, if you’re selling to the team responsible for a large, complex corporate website, you may want to customize content pieces for IT executives, IT team members, and UX directors, along with brand marketing executives, product marketing leaders, conversion specialists, etc.

Utilize Different Marketing Channels

Repurposing content allows you to utilize multiple marketing channels. If you try to create 100% unique content for each channel, you’ll find it both time-consuming and expensive. By repurposing content, you can easily push the same message across multiple channels without having to create a brand-new piece of content from scratch every single time.

Additionally, by using different channels, you can reach more people and drive more traffic to your website or landing page. You can also more easily increase your brand strength. Sharing across multiple channels allows you to be “omnipresent”. No matter what channel people use, they’re hearing your message.

At Stratabeat, we make a conscious effort to utilize multiple marketing channels with our content. We regularly publish in-depth content on our blog, but we don’t stop there. We take that content and transform it into different formats that can be posted across various channels.

For example, we recently published a blog post about B2B growth strategies. We also took some of the insights from that post and created a video, which we published to our LinkedIn profile and YouTube channel.

By publishing across multiple channels, we connect with a greater audience than if we only published blog posts.

The book Rethink Lead Generation by Stratabeat CEO Tom Shapiro begins with a powerful example of repurposing content. The software company SAP was faced with a serious marketing challenge. Namely, how to create content in support of 25 industry verticals?

To tackle the problem, they created what they termed the “Digital Chop Shop.”

The Digital Chop Shop team identified an initial core topic to work with and then started with a single whitepaper. But they weren’t content with that.

They then created a template from that whitepaper that would allow them to create industry-specific versions of it. The lion’s share of the content remained the same, with approximately 20% being tailored to the specific industry. This allowed them to scale up their production of whitepapers.

That still wasn’t enough for them. They extracted key content from each whitepaper and used it to create dozens of additional pieces of content for each industry. That content included:

• Blog posts
• Infographics
• Tweet cards
• Podcast
• Video
• Audiogram
• Webinar
• “Ted Talk” style video
• And more

On top of this, they customized the content for the following audience segments:

• Technical users (advisors)
• Middle management (influencers)
• Executives (decision makers)

All in all, this process allowed SAP to produce a whopping 650 content pieces from their core concept. They were able to scale their content production to the point where they effectively supported 25 different verticals, each with a range of content types.

All of this led to $23 million in new pipeline for the business from just this single, first attempt at content repurposing at scale. The Digital Chop Shop has gone on to repeat this process for many campaigns.

This is what’s possible with content repurposing.

Some content is better for repurposing than others. Typically, the best content for repurposing is long-form content that is broken down into standalone subpoints. Blog posts and ebooks are prime examples of this. They usually take a broad subject and break it down into smaller, related topics.

Long-form content like podcasts can also be repurposed relatively easily. While the content may not be as neatly broken down as with an ebook or blog post, you can easily pull choice quotes and share them across a variety of channels. You also can create a transcript from a podcast and edit it into a blog post or series of posts, for example.

When choosing content to repurpose, make sure the core concept of your original piece is still relevant. You don’t want to repurpose outdated information. You may also want to weigh the longevity of the topic. In certain cases it’s good to be opportunistic with shorter-term relevancy, assuming the effort will pack a powerful marketing punch. In other cases, though, you’ll want to target evergreen topics for longer-term ROI.

It’s tempting to just take a piece of content and repurpose it across multiple channels without any substantive edits. For example, you might copy a section from a blog post and post it “as is” on LinkedIn. This can lead to subpar results.

Repurposed content must be customized for each channel. For example, when you share a snippet from a blog post on LinkedIn, it should be punchy, attention-grabbing, and formatted so that it can be easily read and digested. Posting a large block of text will turn off readers and won’t drive any engagement.

Also, different audiences favor different channels, and your content should be customized for those audiences. People on Instagram are looking for short, bite-sized video content. Those on YouTube tend to be looking for longer, in-depth content. By customizing your content for the channel, you can make sure it resonates with the audience.

Now let’s talk about specific ways to repurpose various types of content. This is not an exhaustive list. Get creative when repurposing your content. There are many ways to do it.

How To Repurpose Blog Content

Blog posts are versatile and can be repurposed in multiple ways. When considering what type of content to create, it’s important to know who you’re targeting and where they are in the customer journey.

For example, if you’re targeting people at the top of the funnel (TOFU), you might consider repurposing your blog post into something shorter and attention-grabbing, like an infographic. This is something people can quickly absorb and share.

If you’re targeting those at the bottom of the funnel (BOFU), you might consider creating a comprehensive video from your blog post that overcomes objections and moves prospects closer to purchasing. Or perhaps you want to offer them a calculator or other tool to help them understand your value more clearly. The content should be tailored to their needs.

The best type of blog posts to repurpose are typically evergreen posts that will always be relevant and valuable, as that will translate into a longer lifecycle for all of your repurposed content as well. Take a look at your analytics and identify which pieces get the most consistent traction. These are candidates for repurposing.

Create a YouTube Video or Series of Videos

Creating video from a blog post is relatively easy. You have various options:

• Transform the entire blog post into a video
• Create a high-level summary
• Convert a subtopic (or several) into a video
• Build a series of videos that enable your audience to go into greater depth on each of the subtopics throughout the post
• Interview the author or the SMEs whose insights were included in the post

Each has its advantages. Transforming a full blog post into a video allows you to create lengthy content that covers a subject in-depth and from multiple angles. Longer videos usually have a better chance of ranking for specific keywords than shorter ones do.

Converting only one or more sections into a blog post allows you to create shorter, punchier content. This works better for people who are looking for quick answers to their questions.

Whatever type you choose, it’s essential to optimize your video for search. This includes writing a clear title that includes the SEO keyword, crafting a detailed video description, adding a few relevant tags, uploading an SRT video for closed-captions, etc. Your description should contain both the primary keyword you’re targeting, along with additional related keywords.

Create a SlideShare

SlideShare is an excellent platform for repurposing content. It allows you to share content from a blog post in a more condensed, visual format. Like creating videos, you can transform an entire blog post into a SlideShare, create a summary of key points, create a SlideShare from a subtopic, etc.

The key with SlideShare is that your slides need to be visually appealing and formatted into short, punchy points. You can’t just copy the text from a blog post and slap it into a SlideShare presentation. Rather, you need to create an interesting narrative that people can easily follow.

Be sure to optimize the description of your presentation, as well as the titles of each slide, and tag your presentation with relevant keywords. This will help people find your content more easily and increase the chances of it appearing in search results for the specific keywords.

Create an Infographic

Infographics are a highly effective way to summarize data in an easy-to-understand visual format. If your blog post is a list of items, you can create an infographic that summarizes that list and makes it easier for people to remember. It is also possible to take information from a single point in your blog post and transform that data into an infographic.

Infographics have the added benefit of being highly shareable across social media and on other websites. In most cases, if a website posts your infographic they will link back to your site. These backlinks are highly valuable for SEO and can help boost your rankings significantly.

Another added benefit of infographics is that they can be embedded within the original blog post the information came from. This can help keep people on your site longer and provide an incentive for them to share your post with others.

Create an eBook

If you have multiple blog posts on a topic, consider consolidating them into an eBook. This is a great way to repurpose content and offer it to your audience in an easily downloadable format. eBooks also are effective as lead magnets and can be used to build your audience.

Creating an eBook is relatively straightforward, but does require some time and effort. You’ll need to combine the various blog posts into a single cohesive document that reads like one piece of content. Additionally, you may need to add additional content, such as images and diagrams, to illustrate the points you’re making.

Extract Thought Leadership Quotes

Many blog posts you publish will have choice quotes that deliver value and a punch. You can extract these quotes and share them via email, sprinkle them in other posts, and distribute them across social media platforms as a way of establishing thought leadership. Depending on how many quotes you extract, you can generate weeks worth of social media content from a single blog post.

Create a Podcast Episode

Podcast consumption has exploded in recent years, and you have an opportunity to take advantage of that explosion. Blog posts can also be transformed into podcast episodes.

You essentially have two options here. You can use the blog post as a basic outline that you will speak from by yourself. Or, you can use the points in the blog post as jumping off points for discussion between you and guests.

The key to podcasts is that they can’t sound artificial or like you’re just reading from a script. People don’t want to listen to you read a blog post word for word. Insert your personality into the podcast. Expand on important points. If you have guests, make sure that the conversation is engaging and dynamic.

Craft an Email Series

Blog posts can also be repurposed into a series of emails. This is an effective way to reach people who might not read your blog but are subscribed to your email list. It’s also a way to drip value to your email list and keep them engaged. Depending on the content, you may also be able to use these emails as part of your onboarding process.

One option is to turn a blog post into its own email. However, you can’t just copy and paste the content from your blog post into an email. That will be far too much information for readers to consume. Instead, distill the blog post to its most important points. At the end of the email, point readers to the full post if they want more detail.

You can also take longer blog posts and break them into multiple emails that are sent out over a period of days or weeks as part of a series. This will keep readers engaged.

No matter which option you choose, make sure that each email contains value. That’s the key to any successful email marketing campaign.

Update and Refresh Old Articles

You most likely have old blog posts that have at least some outdated information. Instead of just deleting them, you can use the opportunity to update them with new information and fresh perspectives. This is a great way to repurpose existing content and give it new life. It’s also an opportunity to add more value to articles and optimize them for SEO.

When refreshing an old article, ask yourself these questions:

• Can you add more value?
• Can you add more content?
• Can you optimize for additional, secondary keywords?
• Are there new perspectives or stories you can add?
• Can you update outdated information or statistics?
• Can you merge multiple articles that are cannibalizing each other and diluting organic search results?

By updating old articles, you’re giving them a fresh look, improving the user experience, and improving your SEO results. It’s also an opportunity to ensure that you’re providing fully up-to-date content to readers.

What is content repurposing?

Content repurposing is the process of transforming a piece of content into other formats that can be shared across different platforms and marketing channels.

What are examples of content repurposing?

Content repurposing can include turning blog posts into podcast episodes, podcasts into videos, webinars into eBooks or infographics, and so on. It’s all about taking existing content and transforming it into other formats that can be used across different platforms.

How does repurposing content expand reach?

Content repurposing allows you to reach new audiences who may not have been exposed to your original content. It gives you the opportunity to engage with potential customers or followers in a variety of formats, across a multitude of channels.

How does content repurposing increase marketing ROI?

Content repurposing increases ROI because it allows you to leverage content across multiple platforms without having to create new, original material from scratch. Instead, you take existing content and slice and dice it into different formats. This saves time and money while providing valuable content to your target audience.