Content repurposing
What is content repurposing?
Content repurposing involves recycling, reusing, and even rescuing an existing piece of content by republishing it in a different format to new audiences across varying channels. What it doesn’t mean is simply re-releasing the same content. And it definitely doesn’t mean borrowing content from another brand and publishing it as your own.
Why is content repurposing becoming so popular?
Audiences are more content-hungry than ever. On the journey to forging ever deeper connections with customers, the obvious response is to crank up the net new content production. Yet we all know just how much time, effort, and expense goes into creating just one single high-quality text, video, or audio asset. So, what a waste to use it just the once.
Content repurposing offers an easier, cheaper, and smarter alternative to the traditional create-publish-forget approach. Creating new, channel-specific versions of great content allows you to extend its lifecycle, work smarter, and squeeze the most value possible out of resources you’ve already published.
What kind of content should you repurpose?
It goes without saying that not every piece of content will lend itself to repurposing. For example, anything connected to current events or short-term trends may be highly useful right now, but it won’t stand the test of time and will quickly reach its sell-by date.
So what assets will work? Evergreen content makes an obvious place to start. Evergreen content covers topics that will stay relevant in the long-term. Case studies, ‘how to’ videos, process checklists, guides, FAQs, and glossaries are all great examples of content that continues to offer value to your customers over time.
Another obvious source of material is your trusty analytics dashboard. Can you identify your best performing assets based on metrics such as views, dwell time, social engagement etc.? If certain topics are striking a chord with your audiences, driving traffic to your site, or generating impressive numbers of views or downloads, then they’re obviously prime candidates for repurposing.
You can even repurpose user-generated content. For example, those golden five-star reviews can work really well as testimonials to share on social media. Or why not take a number of positive reviews and use them to create a new page on your website?
What is an example of repurposing content?
The possibilities for repurposing content are almost endless. You can simply update an existing asset with the latest facts and figures. Or take content in one format and edit it to fit another. Break up a large asset into multiple smaller ones. Amalgamate smaller pieces to create one large one. Even insert one kind of asset into another.
Let’s take a blog for example:
- You can update it with the latest facts and figures.
- Summarize the essential points to create a series of social media posts.
- Use it as the basis for an infographic or video script.
Or maybe you have a long-form article or eBook in mind? You could:
- Use it as the basis for a LinkedIn post or Instagram carousel.
- Split it up into a series of blogs or social posts.
- Turn it into a workshop or podcast.
- Create a slide deck for SlideShare.
You could turn a video script into a blog. A blog into a slideshow. A slideshow into a workshop. A workshop into an eBook…. The point is that one great piece of content can provide the foundation for a whole suite of engaging communications.
What are the benefits of repurposing content?
Repurposing existing content is obviously way faster and more efficient (= cheaper) than creating a piece from scratch. But that’s just the start.
Extract maximum value
There are no limits on the number of times you can recycle an asset or on the number of formats it lives on. If you have a great piece of content that you know is performing well, repurposing allows you to squeeze every drop of juice from it.
Reach new audiences
Repurposing content can help you to reach new audiences and expand your online presence. Maybe your target market has grown since you first published the original piece, in which case repurposing offers an easy way of connecting to new people.
Improve SEO rankings
Repurposing content can help to improve its visibility – and not just in terms of reaching new audiences. Publishing multiple pieces of content around a single keyword will boost your position in search engines. Plus, by linking the repurposed asset back to your website, you’ll also help to improve your content ranking for different keywords.
Get more personal
Personalization is what marketing is all about these days – and that means publishing relevant content across relevant channels. Repurposing allows you to republish existing content and engage different audience segments in the formats they prefer.
Stay on message
If your original asset is on brand and on message, then repurposing is going to let you create, publish, and promote content that amplifies a consistent brand message across every format and channel.
Maintain publishing frequency
One of the key pillars for a successful content marketing strategy is the regular publishing of fresh content. Repurposing content allows you to keep pushing out high-quality materials on different channels without having to stress over creating new content around the clock.
Is it professional to repurpose content?
More formats. More channels. More demand. We live in content-hungry times and modern brands face the need to create more content than ever. Not only that, but most expect they’ll be generating even more content in the future. But in most cases, creating net-new content from scratch simply isn’t a viable option. It takes too long. It costs too much.
Content repurposing can help to meet that demand more quickly, more cost-effectively, and a lot more efficiently. And while it may seem like you’re cheating the system, actually you’re not. You’re simply updating and reshaping good quality content to fit different formats. So yes, it’s a quick fix. But no, it’s not a cop out and it most definitely isn’t unprofessional. Just remember the aim is to repurpose, not repeat.
Is it illegal to repurpose content?
In a word, no – as long as it’s your own! If you want to copy, use, or share content created by somebody else then sure, you need to go and get permission. If you don’t, well that’s basically plagiarism. But here we’re talking about recycling your own work, and that’s fine. You and your teams have created it. You own it. And now you’re breathing fresh life into it.
How do you build a content repurposing strategy?
We’ve already touched upon the kind of content that lends itself really well to repurposing. But remember: it’s not simply a matter of copying a stat from a blog and pasting it into a social media post. You need to formulate a strategy to make sure your content repurposing isn’t simply a matter of content repeating with a fancier name.
Fit the format
First of all, not every piece of content will lend itself to use across every kind of channel and format. An asset that works like a dream on Facebook might not be so suitable for LinkedIn, so make sure you build the unique characteristics and audiences of each platform into your repurposing strategy.
Keep content up to date
It’s essential to make sure any original statistics, references, or time-sensitive information stays up to date. Otherwise, your newly repurposed content is going to be irrelevant, inaccurate, even misleading. None of which are particularly great for your reputation.
Add something new
As we’ve mentioned, repurposing content does not mean repeating it. Is there any way to freshen up your asset beyond changing the format? Is there a slightly different perspective, a new quote, a useful stat, a recent update that can add a little extra value without costing a whole lot of effort?
Optimize your SEO
Following on from the above, one easy way to freshen things up behind the scenes is to optimize every repurposed piece for search engines. Add keywords, update meta descriptions, and avoid duplicating content, which can damage your rankings.
Track performance
As we’ve mentioned, your current highest performing assets are going to provide a pipeline for your repurposing strategy. Yet even if they’re effective in one format, they aren’t necessarily going to work equally well in another. It’s also important to monitor what works and what doesn’t when it comes to repurposed content too.
Can you use AI to repurpose content?
As AI becomes more widespread, it can also play a part in content repurposing. Say you already have a large amount of existing long-form content such as blogs. AI tools can repurpose that information into a whole variety of short-form content pieces including social media posts, infographics, carousels, emails, or even new sections for a website.
It can also work the other way around of course. Why not take an existing series of blogs based on the same subject, then let an AI writing tool transform it into a longer piece such as an eBook or white paper? Sure, you’ll have to edit it into your tone and inject some personality, but you’ll be well on the way to a valuable new asset in the minimum amount of time and effort.
AI is equally adept at turning transcripts from videos or podcasts into written content like blogs or social posts. Again, you’re going to want to edit the final results and add some personality. But AI does all the heavy lifting, and you’ll end up with a brand-new set of assets ready to roll out and engage new audiences.
Why do you need the right technology to repurpose content at scale?
Once you’ve decided to go ahead and start repurposing content, you need to make sure you remove any barriers that might stand in your way. These usually take the form of an inadequate CMS or a lack of cross-functional content management capabilities.
The right platform will allow your teams to store your organization’s content in a central repository, make sure it’s accurately tagged, and manage it through a format-agnostic headless delivery model. That’s going to give your teams the capability to find, edit, and publish content as quickly and easily as possible.
Your system should also offer the capability to add metadata to your content. That way your teams are going to be able to pull it from multiple areas inside and outside your technology stack.
Beyond making content easier to find, a CMP that helps you to COPE (create once publish everywhere) will also make it easier to extend the life of your assets. Your system will also integrate, so your teams can push content out to more channels without having to re-create assets for each specific one.
Is that where omnichannel marketing comes in?
Omnichannel marketing fits a content repurposing strategy like a glove. But don’t be fooled into thinking of it simply as multi-channel marketing, because there’s a lot more to it than that.
Integrating strategy, technology, and operations, omnichannel marketing delivers relevant, consistent, and seamless customer experiences across all formats and channels. Plus, it makes it really easy and really efficient by allowing you to create content once, then save it as a module ready to deploy across all your channels. That in turn empowers you to create the kind of focused, personalized experiences that drive brand loyalty and revenue growth.
That’s why omnichannel represents a make-or-break moment in the future success of a marketing organization.
How does omnichannel marketing help to repurpose content?
In brief, an omnichannel marketing model makes it possible to create content once and deliver it anywhere. You’ll save your content as a component in a central depositary or library, from where you can easily pull it out for use across all relevant formats and channels. Need to make an update? It really couldn’t be easier. You just need to make the changes to that one centrally-stored asset and all connected content will update across all formats. Instantly.
How does omnichannel marketing benefit my content repurposing strategy?
Creating quality content for one channel is hard enough. Doing it for multiple channels can take weeks. We’ve seen how repurposing content can take away a lot of the strain. An omnichannel marketing platform is going to make life even easier.
Equipped with AI-enabled ideation and generation, SEO analysis, and collaborative tools like workflows and inline commenting, omnichannel platforms make the whole process really, really efficient. And thanks to integrations, once your content is created and approved in the omnichannel editor, you can push it to, well, pretty much anywhere — all without ever leaving the CMP.
Omnichannel marketing is built to engage your audiences on the right channel, with the right message, at the right time. That in turn keeps your campaigns tightly focused, increases customer satisfaction, and leads to more sales down the line. Next time they need to buy anything related to that product or market, your brand is going to be front of mind.
Enhance the customer journey
The customer journey is about holding a conversation rather than pitching a product. Omnichannel marketing lets you do just that by combining customer data, technology, and personalized content to deliver experiences that truly resonate, because they deliver information that is truly relevant.
Increase revenues. Improve retention.
Omnichannel marketing allows you to deliver experiences that keep people engaging with your brand - whether that’s an explainer ad on Facebook, a how-to video on YouTube, or an expert guide on LinkedIn. By creating relevant and personal customer journeys, you’re making it way more likely that people are going to buy from you – and keep on buying from you. As a result, you’re going to increase revenues and boost customer lifetime value.
Safeguard brand consistency
Omnichannel marketing also helps to deliver a consistent brand experience across every channel. By making sure your logos, colors, typography, content, tone, and messaging aligned, you’ll strengthen brand recognition, increase stand out, and be more likely to become one of those brands people know, trust, and look out for.
Maximize customer data
Omnichannel marketing also helps you to track customer interactions across different channels and touchpoints to form a detailed picture of their preferences and pain points. That’s the kind of highly valuable information that helps you to continuously fine-tune every step of the customer journey, by making science-based decisions on your content, campaigns, products, and services.
Increase visibility
Are you spending way too much time creating and editing content, getting the messaging right, optimizing for SEO, waiting for approvals etc. etc.? Then having to jump through hoops just to get a preview? Omnichannel marketing changes all that, because your system will let you preview your content before distribution - with zero need to access the destination platform. Want to see how a Marketo email looks? No problem. Just click a button. Want to double check the messaging on a landing page? It's right in your editor window.
