Let’s admit it. The Writing / Creation Muse doesn’t have office hours.
He/ she/ it- or howsoever you reference your Muse- isn’t available 24*7 to inspire your best blog posts, your hit podcast ideas, or your viral video concepts.
Most of the times, you are on your own in this. As is your content creation team.
So, what do you do? Do you sit around and wait for the Muse’s arrival? Of course not. You’ve got a company to run, a brand to build, clients to satisfy, and employees to pay. You cannot rely on a frivolous entity like the Muse all of the time.
Which is exactly why, in this content-driven marketing paradigm of 2020, you need a bag of your own tricks. You need to know how to produce high-quality content consistently.
So, today we reveal one absolutely must-have trick that you need in your arsenal. And that trick is — repurposing content.
In simple words, you recycle and renew. Recycle some, renew others.
But before that,
Why repurpose content?
As you can see, more than 50% of B2C content marketers admitted to increasing spending in content creation and distribution. For most businesses, this creation is an ongoing struggle along with other challenges.
Repurposing content might just help to reduce that expenditure since you’ll be recycling, renewing, and not birthing something extraordinarily original every time.
Apart from the obvious benefit of making lives easier because new content doesn’t have to be rolled out like hot cakes, repurposing content serves the following benefits:
- Helps to build authority
When you publish a high-quality article on a variety of relevant platforms, it can help to build your authority in that domain. And what does this translate to? More people seeking out your services and help since you are the expert.
- Helps to build a new audience
If you published a blog post on your website and it was well-received, it still only managed to reach a limited number of people- your blog readers. After the hype around it has died down, you can take that same post, change it up a bit to suit different platforms, and get these renewed pieces published there. When you repurpose content this way, it will help you to connect with a new segment of readership in a language that resonates with them.
Benjamin Hardy is one such writer who succeeded in getting 20,000 subscribers through Medium in 6 months by copy-pasting blog posts from his website to Medium.
- Helps with SEO
Supposing you come across a trending keyword that is hot in the news. You incorporate it and a few of its variations in a blog post. However, a single post made once-upon-a-time doesn’t make much of a difference.
Multiple pieces and types of content centred around the same topic but using keyword variations will increase your chances of getting a ranking.
David did the same and changed the targeted keywords for 40 pages on his website. The result was a 54% increase in traffic.
Further, if you spread that content out on different platforms with backlinks to other related articles on your site, the traffic will increase and result in a lower bounce rate.
- Helps to reinforce the message
Marketing’s Rule of 7 stipulates that buyers need to hear your message 7 times before they will have fully absorbed it and purchased from you. Repurposing your content will help to reinforce your message to buyers and crossing that golden 7 thresholds.
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What to repurpose?
Having seen the benefits of repurposing, what exactly to repurpose? Begin with the following:
- Most popular posts
Look as far back as your last year posts to winnow out the most popular ones. There are pieces that you would have published 2 years ago and would still rank as one of the most-read posts. The reason for this? It falls into the following category as well.
- Evergreen posts
These are the posts that are independent of trends. For example, the core values of building and connecting with your audience will more or less remain the same irrespective of the changing algorithms.
Posts that speak of these timeless things through high-quality writing manage to garner reads no matter how old they get. So, when you set out to repurpose content, make sure that you make the most out of these evergreen posts.
- ‘I have more to say about this’ topic
Sometimes, one post or one podcast episode isn’t enough to say all that you want. Even after making a video series about how to keep up with the changing Instagram algorithms, you might want to speak about how, changes aside, people need to focus on increasing content quality and truly engaging with audiences. Pick those topics up and spin them off to create new content.
How to repurpose content?
After laying the strong foundation in the form of why and what, let’s tackle how. How do we go about repurposing content?
The basic principle to follow: make it valuable, fresh, and appealing for your audiences.
With this principle firmly cemented in your mind, pick any one of the following methods to revamp your content:
- The Derivation Formula
Follow the greats. Did you know George R.R. Martin has written 3 novellas set in the Game of Thrones universe where events take place a century or so prior to the time of the novels?
In the same vein, J.K. Rowling, apart from writing the 7 books in the Harry Potter series, has also written associated works like Tales of Beedle the Bard, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, etc.
In the offline realm, this is a smart way to repurpose content.
Takeaway: pick up a topic that is rich in angles and layers. Tackle each of those angles and layers individually.
For example, if you have written a lengthy post titled ’10 ways to make your headlines stand out’, then over the next 2 months, you could write a weekly piece tackling each of the ways in detail complete with real-life case studies and statistics.
- Do a podcast episode
Podcast episodes have become increasingly popular. People prefer listening to a lot of content while they are working, cooking, driving, etc. Here is a glimpse of how you can repurpose content with podcasts market and fuel growth by reaching a global audience:
You can again use the derivation formula here and do another episode where you invite another industry expert to speak on the subject. The episode can have all the bells and jingles of a great conversation or narrative through music, voice modulations, etc. Or you can do a blog post for those who would like to sit with the topic and ponder over it. Endless creative possibilities.
- Infographic it
No, that is not a word but it is sure as hell a beneficial repurposing practice since infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than textual material.
More powerful than word or audio format is the visual format and publishers who post them increase their traffic 12% quicker than those who don’t. If you have a statistically laden piece about the relationship between the dramatic rise in phone usage and a decrease in satisfactory offline connections, then the numbers will take on a whole new meaning through the use of infographics. Also, they’ll be a lot more impactful.
- Quora it
Surrounded by the strong tidal waves of social media, who would spare their energy on Quora? People who are looking for solutions and answers. Isn’t that a character trait of your customer?
So meet them where they are. Repurpose content from your website in the form of Quora answers and let the readers come.
Find topics that relate to your industry and see what kinds of questions people are asking. Pick up valuable snippets from your blog posts, weave in an anecdote, and post it to Quora. When you repurpose content this way, you’ll be reaching a new audience. A new audience which is ready for answers so you don’t have to create a sales funnel from the start. They are ready to receive.
- An email series for n-number of days
Source
Another underdog when compared to social media, email is one of the best ways to grow and retain a dedicated customer base, and most businesses fail to utilize the full potential of it. But not any longer because you want to repurpose content that has the greatest ROI.
Pick up a ‘rich’ topic. Rich in terms of content and solutions, and then break it down into easily digestible, bite-sized, daily emails. Add in a dash of photos, a funny gif at the end maybe, links back to your own website, and bam! You just brought together 2 powerful methods for customer retention and engagement. Trust us, it will work.
It’s time now to see what works for you. For beginners, give each of these methods a full-fledged go, either individually or in combination. Depending on your audience and industry, the response will be different for each. So, do not lose heart if a method doesn’t work out. One of the others surely will.
PS: If you want to repurpose content or want to create content that can be repurposed in the first place, then it’s time to get in touch with people who are absolute ninjas at doing this. Yes, we are ready to be your Muse until the other one is on break.
