How to create and repurpose content with intention

It’s 4.57pm on a Friday and you’re racing to schedule Instagram content for the weekend so you can switch off from your business for 48 hours. But the words aren’t flowing and you’re fresh out of ideas. The last time you blogged was months (or even years) ago, because who has time for that amongst doing All. The. Things. 

Yep, it can feel like a struggle to create new content week in, week out for your business. It seems to be something that either gets pushed to the bottom of your to-do list, or it feels like you’re just churning out content for the sake of it. Maybe you’ve heard you can repurpose content, but no idea what that actually means – or how to do it.

Is it time to look at content creation differently?

You know it’s important to connect with your audience, and you want to deliver value. Creating great content is a fantastic way to build your brand authority, but only if the process energises you. It’s time to look at how we create and repurpose content through a more intentional lens. One that helps protect our time and energy.

It’s about creating content with purpose, on purpose

  • How would you feel if you could make your existing content work even harder? 
  • If you could create new content mindfully with the understanding of how to use it best across multiple audience touchpoints?
  • Imagine if you could start to actually enjoy content creation?

Enter content repurposing

In simplest terms, repurposing content means taking one asset – like a blog for instance – and reusing it in multiple places and in multiple ways. Content repurposing works best when you create content with repurposing in mind. This helps you more easily chop it up and rework it in different formats. While content repurposing works best with evergreen content, it can work for any piece of long form content. 

Why repurpose my content?

Here are five great reasons to prioritise this task:

  • Save time

Content repurposing means no more creating content day in, day out (or coming up with new ideas constantly). Instead it’s about getting your existing content in front of more people. 

  • Reach a new audience 

Content repurposing can help you reach a new audience. Your original piece of content may have only reached a particular segment. Multi-channel marketing puts your content where different users are searching for it.

  • Build your brand authority

Publishing quality content in a variety of places on a single topic can help raise your profile in your particular industry. It can also develop your status as a subject matter expert.  

  • Get an SEO boost 

Multiple pieces of content on the same topic give you bonus opportunities to target particular keywords. By taking your repurposed content beyond your own site, you can also get quality links back to your site.

  • Reinforce your message 

People need to hear your message many times before they act. While your message might sound repetitive to you, it doesn’t to others. Repurposing your content is a helpful way to achieve this reinforcement.

What kind of content can I repurpose?

Content repurposing works best if you start with something meaty such as a blog post of 1,000 words or more. The idea is to have a piece of content you can carve up a number of ways, so it needs substance.

How does content repurposing look?

We all consume content differently. While some people might read a long blog post, others would prefer to watch a video or listen to a podcast. If your audience sees your content in more than one place, that’s a good thing. Repetition helps to reinforce your message.

Here’s how to turn one hero piece of content into 10

STEP 1: Start with a hero piece of content 

TIP: Before you write a new post, review your archive for existing evergreen content (timeless + good quality). You can also look for your most popular, best performing posts. 

STEP 2: Email your newsletter subscribers to let them know 

Get the top tips from your blog post and compile them into a quick, easy-to-read newsletter to drive more traffic to your post. Include just a snippet with a link to encourage people to come to your site and read the full article.

STEP 3: Social media sharing

The next step is to share your article on all your social media platforms. Write a hook to capture people’s interest, so they click and read your post in full. Share it again a few days later, in case some of your followers didn’t see it the first time.

TIP: You can continue to share evergreen content for as long as it’s valuable – days, weeks, months, even years! 

  • Post to Facebook with a clickable featured image
  • Create Instagram sharing snippets 
  • Share Instagram stories with relevant hashtags

STEP 4: Create an amended version and post to LinkedIn as an article

Tweak your blog and publish it on LinkedIn, including a link back to your site. You can reach a broader audience on LinkedIn, build your authority and start a conversation.

STEP 5: Link to your new post from some older posts

After you publish a new post, add links from your old posts to your new post. Internal links have some SEO value, plus they help drive traffic to the new post from people reading your older content.

STEP 6: Ask others to share or link to your new blog post

You can reach out to specific people, especially if the content is aligned with their offering, and ask them to share or link to your post. These inbound links to your website are great for your SEO and increase your visibility in search engines.

STEP 7: Use a blog post as a video or podcast script

Your blog can be turned into an outline for YouTube videos, a LinkedIn or Facebook live or for IGTV, or a podcast episode. Podcasts and videos open up a whole new way to connect with others who prefer to consume their content on-the-go.

STEP 8: Build an infographic or SlideShare 

An infographic is a visual way of presenting your content, particularly if there is data involved. You can also use LinkedIn’s SlideShare feature to turn a blog post or other content into an engaging visual version.

What next?

  • Track the performance of your blog content using Google Analytics 

It’s one thing to write your content. Tracking its performance is the best way to find out which of your pieces resonate with your audience. Use Google Analytics to keep an eye on traffic, bounce rate and time on page. Google Search Console can also give you insights about keywords your article ranks for. 

  • Periodically update and refresh your blog post

Google wants to show users the most valuable content on a particular topic. That’s why it’s important to update content, especially the blogs attracting search traffic. Reviewing and updating your older content is a great way to work with what you already have, making it even more valuable for your audience.

On a roll? Here are five more ways to repurpose your content:

  • Turn it into new pieces of content

Just like a great TV spinoff, your hero content piece can springboard ideas for new pieces of content. For example, an article or guide on content repurposing could also springboard content pieces on:

  • How do I choose my content pillars
  • How often should I share content? 
  • Tips for making content easy to read online
  • A list of blog post ideas.

You can also reverse engineer a hero content piece by weaving a series of smaller, related content pieces together.

  • Create a lead magnet

Consider turning blogs into checklists, workbooks, challenges or other valuable opt-in content to bring new leads into your funnel and grow your email list. 

  • Repurpose blogs into guest posts

While you can’t share an identical piece on different platforms, you can use the original content to guide you. Writing guest content for other sites can help drive traffic back to yours, while building valuable SEO backlinks.

  • Host a webinar

A webinar gives you the opportunity to present on a topic and also to engage your audience in conversation. Existing content can be a great jumping-off point in terms of coming up with a topic. If you’d rather not do it alone, invite an expert or collaborator to join you to chat about something of interest to your audience.

  • Create an online course

Consider turning blog posts into some kind of free or paid online course. Past blogs and other lead magnets can be transformed into a high-value free email course to help grow your email list. 

So, what’s next?

How can you start to create and repurpose content through a more intentional lens? I’d love to know which of these tips or thoughts has sparked something in you. Need some help to get started with content repurposing? Why not book a co-writing session and we’ll tackle it together.