Repurposing and reworking content can unlock the full potential of valuable assets already in your marketing toolkit. The effort you invested in researching, writing, and designing a piece of content shouldn’t be confined to a single platform. Instead, leverage that hard work by updating older pieces with fresh insights or transforming it into diverse media formats to enrich your content strategy.
Adapting owned content requires more than a simple repost—it demands planning, strategy, and creativity to maximize its impact. It’s not about recycling old content or substituting the creation of new material. Above all, it’s not about appropriating others’ content for your campaigns.
Repurpose and Rework
Identify content pieces that received substantial engagement—be it a popular blog, a winning presentation, an eBook with high downloads, or a viral video. These are the assets ripe for repurposing:
Update Blogs: Integrate new data points for relevance and feature it prominently on your website.
Visual Elements: Transform bullet points or lists from an eBook into visual assets like checklists, tip sheets, or infographics.
Short-Form Videos: Use subheadings as pull-outs for engaging short-form video content or social media posts.
Social Media Content: Extract statistics or quotes from longer pieces for impactful social media posts.
Newsletters: Tease your blog content in newsletters with a compelling sentence to drive traffic back to your site.
Annual Reports or eGuides: Sections from blogs can be seamlessly integrated into comprehensive reports.
Podcast or Video Scripts: Repurpose written copy into engaging scripts for audio or video content.
It’s Not a Copy-Paste Strategy
A repurposing mindset opens up endless possibilities, but it’s crucial to consider nuances. Transcripts from webinars may need refinement, and a blog turned into a script requires a conversational tone. Consider tone, context, and adapt the content for the platform’s unique characteristics.
Tailor calls to action based on the platform’s purpose—whether lead generation, brand awareness, engagement, or driving sales. Always ask, “What action is the target audience most likely to take?”
Squeeze the Most Juice Out of That Fruit
Maximize your content across various platforms to meet your audience where they are:
Multifunctional Images: Utilize a single image across social media, newsletters, blogs, or videos.
Snippet Usage: Extract short text or soundbites from longer videos for teasers on social media, newsletters, or other audio productions.
User-Generated Content: Publicly posted customer reviews are valuable for social media, reports, or lead generation.
Cross-Platform Sharing: Share successful tweets on different platforms, but modify the copy for context.
Dynamic Thumbnails: Repurpose YouTube video content for Instagram with an eye-catching thumbnail and relevant captions.
Transcripts as Assets: Clean up transcripts for accessibility and SEO. Turn spoken words into blogs or smooth them for podcasts.
Embedding Videos or Downloadable: Update older content by embedding videos or downloadable for added value.
Now Leverage Your Work
Embrace a multi-piece production structure in your content creation. As you write, think beyond the immediate platform—consider SEO keywords, envisioning it as a potential video or presentation script. Transforming one asset into a variety of pieces builds a robust marketing arsenal for brand awareness, education, lead generation, thought leadership, and data analytics.
As you become adept at repurposing, the benefits of maximizing your work will become increasingly evident.
