Good content marketing isn't just about the quality of the content. It's about learning how you can write less and promote more. This may sound counterintuitive, but the best content marketers create one piece of content and use it in several different ways.
The end result is that they spend less time agonizing over blogs and social media posts and instead are able to focus their efforts on engagement and sales.
The benefit of repurposing content
Some people are unsure about repurposing content because they fear Google penalizes for duplicate content or that customers will notice similar content across multiple platforms.
However, when you repurpose content the right way, you have nothing to fear. Search engines love to see valuable, updated content that serves your audience. And it's unlikely your YouTube followers will care that you posted similar content to Instagram.
In fact, the benefits of repurposing far outweigh any of the risks. When you repurpose right, you’ll benefit in three big ways.
- SEO boost. Search engines want to see that you're updating your old content. It shows that you care about improving the user experience. You can get more SEO juice to an old blog just by updating it for 2019.
- Save time. Everybody is strapped for resources. You don't want to spend 10 hours a week writing blogs that few people will read? Repurposing requires less time and gives you amazing results. It also means you don't have to crank out new content all the time so you can focus on other things.
- Get more views. You can reach new audiences on a variety of platforms by repurposing your content. Repurposing content allows you to get more traffic to your website, pull more customers into the funnel and ultimately see a spike in sales.
How to repurpose your content
Repurposing takes little time and reaps big rewards. Here are four steps that will allow you to find the right content, audience, and repurposing method for your brand.
- Locate your best content. The first step is to review Google Analytics data to find your best performing content. Adjust the date range to find your most successful content. You can compile a list of your best content at the one month, six months, and one year mark. You should be looking at total page views, social media shares and comments to determine your most successful content.
- Tie the content to your audience. All brands have a variety of customers. These customers have different needs, assumptions and pain points, all of which you can address with buyer personas. Tie each piece of successful content to one of your buyer personas. This helps you write less generic content and more relevant, specific content that urges someone to take action. The more specific your targeting, the better your repurposed content will resonate with your audience.
- Choose a platform. Where are your customers when they decide to buy from you? Go where they are, so they'll actually see your content. For example, if you target Gen Z customers, your content will do better on Instagram or YouTube. Choose three to five channels where your target audience will see the content.
- Map out a plan. This when it is time to jazz up your old content based on your desired audience and platform. If you have a blog post, consider repurposing it as an infographic, a video, a blog roundup, social media post, PPC adds, an e-book, a podcast or an email. Of course, you'll need to beef up the original post, too. Update it to be more valuable and insightful. Add an infographic to the blog or include reader testimonies. Data and authoritative quotes will also boost your authority and the content’s value.
If you have an old YouTube channel, don't let that video content go to waste. Instead, give those old videos new life as:
- A mini video series. Chop up a one-hour video into smaller, 15-minute videos for easier viewing
- A podcast
- A blog. Simply transcribe the audio and post it on your website.
- Social media videos
- A video course
- A webinar
What's important is that you repurpose content in a way that is engaging, relevant and convenient to your audience. After all, if your audience isn't interested, the content won't succeed.
You invest a lot of energy into your content. Don't let your blogs from 2015 disappear into the ether. Get the most out of your content investment by repurposing it.
You don't need to reinvent the wheel every time you write content. Instead, get more views, engagements, and sales with content that works for you again and again.