How to repurpose marketing content: 11 ways to refresh your ideas

Writing and optimizing kickass content is tough. You have to come up with a creative idea, do the research, polish the prose, then promote it on multiple platforms… all told, it’s a lot of effort. Not surprisingly, most people find it hard to find time to share original insights on a regular basis.

But you don’t have to keep on reinventing the wheel, because not everyone is going to check out everything you publish every time. By repurposing your existing content, you can continue gaining value from your best work — and you’ll already have done most of the heavy lifting involved in the creation process.

What is content repurposing?

When you repurpose content, you’re putting a new spin on content you’ve already created in order to reuse it elsewhere. Typically, you’d refresh the work by updating old information or changing the format.

Refresh these pieces with the most current data, statistics, or even something as simple as new graphics that reflect your brand of today.

Consider refreshing:

• Evergreen content: If it discusses a topic that’s always going to be valuable and relevant in your industry, it’s likely to attract new audiences over time. 

• Top-performing content: There’s a reason why it’s been working so well!

• Content containing outdated references or old data

4 benefits of repurposing content

Refreshing your content helps you earn more eyeballs with less effort, which benefits your business in the following ways:

• Work smarter: Trying to write an original 1,000-word blog post every other day is a foolproof recipe for burnout. By repurposing already-existing content, the hardest work is already done — and you’ve got a head start on your next piece of content.

• Attract new audiences: Different people consume information in different ways; for example, some people prefer videos to eBooks. By presenting your content in different formats, you can reach folks who might have missed it the first time.

• Reinforce your message: Don’t let your best content go forgotten! It never hurts to remind people of your key message, especially since it can take up to eight marketing touches before a lead is ready to buy.

• Boost your SEO: If you’ve got lots of authoritative content on a particular topic, your organic visibility will improve — driving new traffic to your website.

11 ways to expand your idea into multiple content pieces

Finding multiple uses for a single idea can result in big marketing wins: lower costs, faster turnaround times, increased reach, and a higher overall return on your investment.

And when it comes to ideas for repurposing content, the sky’s the limit. To get your creative juices flowing, here are 11 of our favorite ways to breathe new life into your best content ideas.

1. Combine a series of blog posts into an eBook

If you’ve written a series of blog posts that go in-depth into various aspects of a single topic, consider combining them into one big eBook that folks can turn to as a definitive guide to the subject.

So how does an eBook differ from a pillar page? Both centralize information so that readers don’t have to search through your website to find everything you’ve written on a topic.

An eBook offers two additional advantages to readers: They don’t have to open multiple pages, and they can always access it offline. And for your business, an eBook will typically be gated, meaning a prospective customer has to fill out a form to access it — giving you an opportunity to market to them later on.

What’s not to love?

2. Convert a blog post into a SlideShare presentation deck

Most marketers don’t use presentations much (or at all) — but this is a missed opportunity. Because each slide presents information in digestible chunks, presentation decks are easily created and easily shared.

Better yet, social platforms like SlideShare have made it easier than ever to use slide decks to engage with a community. Today, 80 million users are on the platform, and 41% of B2B marketers have started incorporating it into their content strategies.

If you’re serious about adding SlideShare to your marketing toolkit, we recommend checking out Kissmetric’s guide to SlideShare.

3. Present internal data as an infographic

If you’re sitting on a trove of useful data — whether from original research, or by aggregating other people’s research — you might want to plug in the numbers into an infographic.

According to the Social Science Research Network, a majority of folks (65 percent) are visual learners, and infographics are a prime tool for visual storytelling. The format is especially helpful when you’re working with lots of numbers.

For example, our infographic on the state of blogging visually lays out the key statistics from an Orbit Media Studios survey.

Click the image to view the full infographic!

4. Answer your prospects’ frequently asked questions in a blog post

Your sales’ team email inboxes are a direct line into what your website visitors really want and need — but may not be able to find on your website.

This content plugs existing holes in your marketing materials, and you’ll also win favor with your sales team — and aligning your marketing and sales efforts can only benefit your business’s bottom line.

5. Expand an email series into a blog series

If you’ve been consistently delivering helpful content to your prospects’ inboxes, it may be worth expanding this information in a longer blog post.

Blog posts offer more real estate to flesh out important details — and you’ll be able to draw in folks who haven’t given you their email addresses yet.

In fact, this very blog post is an expansion of the 10th email in our 6-Week Content Detox email series. Like what you’re reading? Sign up to start the course yourself!

Never let it be said that we don’t practice what we preach!

6. Compile interviews into an experts guide

People love reading original insights, especially if those come straight from the mouths of industry leaders.

If you’ve been talking to influential folks (perhaps to create your buyer personas?), consider compiling their advice in a roundup guide.

Aaron Orendorff (who now works at Shopify Plus) used this strategy to make a massive splash at Content Marketing World — proving that great roundups are not only valuable to your readers, but can also help to massively boost your brand’s authority and visibility.

7. Add your visual content to a Pinterest board

If your marketing strategy relies heavily on visual content, it’s probably because your target audience loves visuals too — making it a good bet that they can also be found on image-centric social-media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.

In particular, Pinterest boards are great tools for putting image-heavy content in front of new audiences, and driving more referral traffic to your website.

8. Take the opposite stand from an existing blog post in a guest post

Every business eventually wrestles with the dilemma of whether to publish their best content on their own website, or submit it as a guest post to someone else’s.

On one hand, it’s nice to reap the fruits of increased traffic for yourself; on the other hand, if you play your cards right, guest posting will give you additional visibility and new traffic.

The excellent Andy Crestodina over at Orbit Media offers a great workaround: For your guest posts, simply submit the “evil twin” of an existing blog post.

So, for example, if you published “10 best practices” to your site, tackle “10 top mistakes” for a guest post.

This tactic offers the best of both worlds — and you’ll have heaps of opportunities to link back to your original post!

9. Expand each point in a listicle in individual blog posts

Written a killer listicle? Unless it offers expanded examples, chances are your listicle’s taking a fairly broad approach to a particular topic.

Practically, this means that each point you’ve made could be expanded into a more comprehensive look at each subject. Why not turn each point in your listicle into its own blog post?

This is a valuable way to deepen your authority on a given subject, and also offers you endless internal linking opportunities.

10. Share popular blog posts in an e-newsletter

Not all of your subscribers will regularly check back to hear about your latest content offerings.

Remind them by sending your subscribers a e-newsletter that summarizes your latest insights.

11. Turn blog insights into a video series

There’s always someone out there who prefers content they don’t have to read. This isn’t just a conjecture either: Folks these days prefer video over every other content format, as videos are shared 1,200% more often than even posts containing text and images combined.

Using video isn’t as scary as you think! You don’t need professional-grade equipment to produce a compelling video — especially if you’re just getting started.

Most smartphones and digital cameras have powerful video recording functions that will be more than adequate for your needs. (Just be sure to use landscape mode, not portrait, for heaven’s sake.)

Saying that video marketing is on the rise is sort of an understatement — 81% of businesses now rely on it, and 72% of consumers prefer it over text and images.

If your existing content is word heavy, we strongly recommend including video in your repurposing strategy.

Looking for more “insider insights” like this?

Need more content repurposing inspiration? We love Orbit Media’s clever Periodic Table of Content that outlines many ways to repurpose content.

And if you’re ready to overhaul your overall approach to content, sign up for our 6-Week Content Detox. This FREE email course will help you skim the fat off your content creation process. Register now and get our best tips sent straight to your inbox!