10 Key Ways to Repurpose Content for Your Business
Duplicate content gets a bad rap, and it can cause problems in some situations, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t re-use your content. By Google’s own admission, nearly a third of the content on the web is duplicated – and they’re okay with that.
Instead of duplicating it, find ways to repurpose content so you can compound its effectiveness. Let’s look at 10 effective repurposing ideas to make the most of your content.
Combine Articles Into Round-Up Posts
Longer posts can make your site stickier for your visitors as well as helping with search engine optimization. Instead of writing new long-form content, why not combine several of your most popular articles into new a new round-up post?
Look for posts that are getting the most engagement from your readers or use the information from your website analytics system to see what posts get the most traffic. Choose several related posts to combine into a single longer round-up.
Don’t simply paste them together though. Massage the content to make it work as a whole. You may have something new to add but even if you don’t add anything new, changing it up a bit will help reduce any chance of duplicate content problems.
Convert Posts into Audio
Podcasting is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach a new audience but coming up with ideas can be challenging. Your most popular posts are an ideal solution. You already know your audience has an interest in them so all you need to do is convert them to audio format and use them as the basis for your podcast.
Podcasts aren’t the only option, mind you. You can create a Powerpoint slideshow based on the post and combine it with the audio to create a video presentation. Or even use the audio as custom on hold messages for clients calling your business.
Republish to Another Platform
If your content only lives on your own website, you’re missing out on a large potential audience. Take your most popular posts and republish them to other platforms where new people will be likely to see them:
- Medium
These platforms give readers the ability to share the post with their followers, so reach out to your best clients and ask them to share it with their networks. Make sure the republished version includes links back to your own website so you can get those new readers into your lead capture system.
Content for Your Newsletter
If you publish an email newsletter, repurpose your existing content in those newsletters. Newer subscribers may not have seen the post on your website but even if they have, they might get new insights when they see it again in a different way.
You can also use your existing content in an autoresponder series that gets sent to your new subscribers. You can either include a snippet in the email with a link back to the full article on your website or include the full text in the email itself.
Create an Infographic
Infographics are a popular way to share information in an easy-to-digest format. They’re popular with readers, they tend to get a lot of social media shares, and Google and other search engines love them.
Just like the round-up tip, find several popular, related posts on your website and pull some important points from each of them. Combine those points into an infographic that will give your readers a quick overview of the topic. Be sure to include links back to the original articles on your website for anyone who wants to get more in-depth information.
Convert Articles into Videos
YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine behind Google. If you’re not using video in your content strategy, you’re missing out on a big potential audience.
Converting your most popular articles into video format is an easy way to break into video creation. You can convert them into a Powerpoint deck, record it as a video, and upload it to YouTube.
Or use the content in the article as the basis for a script that you can then use to create the video. You already know the topic is popular so one of the hardest parts – choosing a topic – is already done for you.
Turn Videos into Other Formats
You can also go in the other direction. If you’ve already created video content, convert it into text or audio formats. You could have the video transcribed, tweak the text a little bit, and upload it to your website as a new article.
Or use the audio track from the video as a podcast episode or some other form of audio. If you create the video with this in mind, you can record it in such a way that it will need little or no editing to use as audio-only.
Transcribing your audio also gives you the ability to use the content alongside the video. It could be in the description field on YouTube, for example, or use it to improve the closed captioning on the video. This can improve your video’s visibility in the search rankings on both YouTube and Google as well as helping with its accessibility.
Create an eBook or White Paper
Take several related articles from your website and combine them into a longer ebook or white paper that you can use as a lead-generation giveaway, a bonus for another product, or even a stand-alone product that you can sell.
You could also use an ebook as a cross-promotional tool to reach new audiences. Convert it into different formats, such as Kindle and iBooks, and offer it through Amazon’s and Apple’s digital bookstores. Or get some physical copies printed that you can use as giveaways at trade shows or other face-to-face events.
Use Pull Quotes as Tweets
Similar to the infographic tip, you can take highlights from your most popular articles and post them to Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites. Twitter is the most effective for short, easily-digested posts so it might be best to focus on it first but go where your customers are most likely going to be.
When you post the snippets of your article, include a link back to the main article for more detail. And be sure to include a link to your website on your profile page on Twitter, Facebook, and anywhere else you post it. Some of the people who see your post will click through to your profile so you want them to be able to get from there to your website.
Promote Your Popular Social Media Posts
Some of your content may only live on social media. Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn let you post longer articles on their sites. The articles that get the most engagement are perfect to use for promotion.
Facebook and LinkedIn let you create ads to promote your posts to people interested in similar topics. Running these ads to posts that you already know are popular saves you the trial and error of figuring out what people want to see.
And if your existing network is already liking and sharing the post, it will have some built-in social proof when people start clicking on the ads.
Convert Webinars into Video Tutorials
If you run webinars to promote your products or provide information to your customers, use a webinar service that can record the live event. You can use the recording as a video tutorial for people who weren’t at the live event.
If it’s an evergreen topic, in other words, information that isn’t going to change drastically over time, the video could be generating new leads for years to come.
And all the repurposing ideas we’ve already covered still apply. Use the webinar recording as the basis for a new article on your website, a new podcast episode, etc.
Webinars also have the advantage of live interaction with your audience so you may get questions that inspire various pieces of new content.
Repurpose Content to Work Smarter, Not Harder
One of the main benefits of repurposing the information you’ve already put out into the world is the time you’ll save. If you only use something once, you’ll be on a treadmill of having to constantly come up with new ideas and new content for your audience.
When you repurpose content you already have, it frees you up for other things. You can find new ways of promoting your content to different audiences, spend more time connecting with the clients you already have, or spend less time working.
You don’t have to be afraid to “duplicate” your content. The fear-mongering around duplicate content penalties in the search engines is overblown. And even if it doesn’t help your search engine rankings, there are more ways to reach new people than just Google. The more content you put out into the world, and the more ways you share it, the more likely you are to reach someone who would have never heard of you otherwise.
