Repurposed and reworked content make the most out of valuable assets that you already have in your marketing arsenal. You’ve already done the hard work—researched the topic, wrote the copy, designed the final piece—so don’t let it go to waste on just one platform.
Use that hard work to either update older sales enablement pieces with newer and more relevant thoughts or recycle it to supplement your content strategy with different media versions of the same messaging.
Adapting owned content is not difficult to do—but it isn’t as simple as posting the same content on multiple platforms. There is planning, strategy, and creativity involved in reworking and repurposing content for maximum impact.
It’s not to be confused with sharing old content or as a replacement for producing new content. And it’s definitely not about using others’ content for your own campaigns.
Repurpose and Rework
Do you have an older blog that had substantial shares? A presentation that resulted in a new client? An eBook with record downloads? Or a video that went viral? Maybe you’re working on something that is timely and relevant that you know could work across multiple channels.
These are the pieces you want to repurpose and rework to maximize your content strategy. One asset can become many:
- If there are some new data points to include for a current audience, update your blog and pull it back to a featured spot on your website.
- Look through and see if there are any bullet points or lists that could become a visual piece from an eBook to create a checklist, tip sheet or infographic.
- Subheadings can make for great pull-outs in short-form video production or social media posts.
- Statistics or quotes found in your long-form content pieces or blogs are perfect for social media posts.
- Draw people back to your site with a teaser sentence from the blog in your next newsletter.
- A section from a blog could work perfectly in an annual report or eGuide.
- Copy can be recast for podcast or video scripts.
It's Not A Copy-Paste Strategy
When you start to look at your content with a repurposing mindset, the possibilities are endless.
But there are things to consider. For instance, a transcript from a webinar does not automatically become an amazing piece of content to read. It needs to be finessed. And a blog is an excellent basis for a script—but would sound robotic and off-putting if read verbatim.
You also need to think about tone and context. When you give a presentation, your tone is usually crisper, and you use body language and visual aids to convey your message to the audience. Taking that presentation and turning it into a podcast would need a more personable tone and descriptor text added to replace visual content.
Calls to action differ from platform-to-platform. Where a blog may be a lead generation piece, a video may to lean toward brand awareness, social media encourages engagement, and a newsletter could entice the audience back to your site for a sale.
When repurposing and reworking content, ask: What action is the target audience most likely to take?
Squeeze The Most Juice Out Of That Fruit
Maximize your valuable content in as many ways as possible to reach and meet your target audience where they are.
Examples:
- An image can be used in multiple pieces of content. Post it on social media, use it as a background in a newsletter, make it a feature photo for a blog, or tie it into a video.
- Take short snippets of text or soundbites from long-form videos and use them as teasers or engagement boosters on social media, in a newsletter, or other audio productions.
- User-generated content like publicly posted customer reviews is perfect for use in social media posts, reports, or lead generation campaigns.
- If a tweet doing well, share it on other platforms. But don’t just repost the same copy—try taking a screenshot of the tweet and share it on LinkedIn.
- Want a YouTube video to reach your Instagram audience? Post a dynamic thumbnail with a catchy caption and hashtags.
- Transcripts are gold. Clean them up and publish them with all audio/video content for accessibility and boosted SEO. Take quotes and talking points and turn the spoken word into a series of blogs or smooth them out and use them as podcasts.
- Update older, relevant content by embedding videos or downloadables.
Now Leverage Your Work
This mindset will take your repurposing strategy to expert-level in no time. Soon, you’ll create content with a multi-piece production structure in mind.
As you sit down to copywrite, think ahead, and ask yourself which SEO keywords can I utilize, how could this make a good video or presentation script? Is there something here for my monthly newsletter lead-in or social media snippets?
By taking one asset and reworking or repurposing it into many valuable pieces, you are building an arsenal of rich marketing materials for brand awareness, audience education, lead generation, thought leadership, and data analytics gathering.
It becomes easier (and even fun!) as you go—and the benefits of maximizing your work are worth it.
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