What happens with all the content you’ve created after it has stopped being read, listened to or watched?
So much effort went into creating that two-minute video and five-minute read, it would be a shame to just let them fade into nothingness, doomed to exist only in the darkest regions of Google search.
The great news is you can repurpose your content to give it a new lease of life – and it’s a lot easier than you think.
Whatever the content type – video, podcasts, tweets, photos or blogs – it can live again and again with smart repurposing. Podcasts become blogs, blogs become videos, and videos become podcasts.
As the great philosopher Mufasa once said: it’s the circle of life. Here are five ways to help your content live again.
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Republish
Lots of marketers will syndicate content to boost reach but will focus efforts on promoting through one or two platforms. One way to reuse content would be to republish content on a different platform and promote its latest home.
A few different images, a title change, and maybe a few editorial tweaks to give it a new voice and voila, an old article becomes shiny and new – and if you link back to the original article you’ll get a few new hits on that too.
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Make podcasts from popular posts
Podcasting is one of the fastest growing media platforms in the world, with research showing that an average of 33% of Australians with almost 80% of new downloads coming from repeat listeners.
Turn old content into podcast episodes (start a podcast if you don’t have one – seriously, you need a podcast); invite guests on to discuss the content, offer a fresh take or add something new, or even to argue against.
You can embed the link into your blog to give your audience an alternative way to access your content. It’s also great in reverse; transcribe your podcast into a blog post for quick, written content.
Not only is this a great way to repurpose your content it also makes it more accessible.
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Turn your content into graphics
Images are processed faster than text so by turning attention-grabbing quotes or shock statistics into graphics or whole blog posts into infographics you’ve created unique and easily shareable content.
The great thing about graphics and infographics is they can be repurposed again down the line by creating new articles or videos around them.
Each statistic can be broken down and discussed in a paragraph, turning a screen-sized graphic into a four-page article with a completely different feel and angle from the original blog that sparked the graphics.
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Supersize and minimise
Content can be reinvigorated and made anew by lengthening or shortening.
A podcast that loses 20 minutes of audio because the episode length is usually 30 minutes can be re-released a few weeks later with ‘bonus content’, or an interesting point that was a bit off-track for one episode can be properly explored as an ‘exclusive extra’.
You can attempt to condense blog posts into a tweet or turn a 600-word article into a 3,000-word series of five articles.
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Round-ups
Round-up posts are great for creating new content out of nothing. It’s almost like the sorcery chefs use on those cooking shows to make a restaurant quality meal out of wilting salad, a sprouted potato and “some store cupboard essentials”.
The popular online cooking channel, Tasty, is a mega example of repurposed content and round-ups. It will condense videos to create new ones like ‘5 Vegan Junk Food Recipes’ or ‘Game Night Snacks’.
You can do the same with podcast clips, blog posts, videos and even photo galleries. Something similar can be done with your flagship content to introduce people to your content.
There are many ways to reuse your content and introduce it to a bigger audience. A good place to start is with your best-performing content as it has a proven audience.
However, don’t for a second think that only popular content can be reused – previously underperforming content is great for getting creative with your repurposing and it’s even sweeter when it bangs the second time around.
Looking to maximise the impact of your business? We investigate the popularity of podcasts and why you should consider starting your own.
