5 Ways to Repurpose Content and Save Time In Your Business
Hey, entrepreneur! Do you have time to create new content every week? Probably not, hey? Girl, I get it. After filling product orders, prepping for markets, editing photos and handling your accounting, the LAST thing you want to do is create content for your marketing strategy. Some days, after a day of meeting clients, creating service offerings and forging collaborations, I just want to sit on my couch, eat my white cheddar popcorn (not healthy, I know...) and tut at Frank Underwood's unscrupulous ways. But...Frank Underwood isn't going to help me grow my business.
Enter content repurposing.
What the heck is content repurposing, you ask?
In its simplest form, content repurposing is using your existing content in a different way.
I'm going to talk about why you should think about adding content repurposing to your editorial calendar. I'm also going to give you five quick and dirty ways you can easily repurpose content.
[Don't have an editorial calendar? Download a template here.]
So WHY should you repurpose content?
Repurposing content is an important element to any marketing strategy, even if you're only focusing on social media.
Saves You Time
Think about this: you write one blog post with five key points (like this one!). Let's say you want to generate some leads, so you turn those five points into an eBook which you offer in exchange for an email address. Then you use a quote from your blog post for your social media channels. Oh, and maybe your blog post serves as a script for a video or Facebook Live. Boom! From that one post you created, you've got three more pieces created with little effort.
Reach A New Audience
Delight those in your audience who love to read AND love the visuals. Have a post with tons of data? Create an infographic for those visual lovers in your audience. You can also create an ebook for the text lovers. (The beauty is you don't have to waste time researching both pieces - you already have the data!)
Resurrect Old Content
Have you ever gone back in your yearbook or photo album and reminisced over those memories? I do it all the time. #goodolddays Remind your audience of those awesome posts, videos or podcasts that they once loved. You'll extend the shelf life of these pieces and delight your audience. P.S. It helps to have evergreen content, but I'll do a blog post on that specifically.
5 Ways To Repurpose Content
Okay, now for the practical stuff. Here are five ways you can repurpose your content.
Turn Blog Posts Into...Anything
Seriously. You can turn your blog posts into anything - a blog series, ebook, infographic, podcast, video script. Maybe you've written a post on how to choose the right type of knitting needle for your project, a post how to get the best yarn, and a post on how to create your own knitting pattern. How valuable would it be to your audience if you combined all your "how to" blog posts into a guide for your audience to download? Probably very.
Turn Podcast Into Video
You already have a script. Just flip on a camera, upload it to YouTube and you'll reach those who want video over podcasts. You can post this video on your social channels and website.
Turn Data Into An Infographic
Have lots of consumer insight and data that will be valuable to your audience? Make an infographic! Not a designer? Not too worry. Use free tools like Canva which has some amazing templates that makes graphic design so easy.
Turn a Powerpoint Into A SlideShare
So let's say you are giving a talk at a university about social media and you create this beautiful PowerPoint to present to the students. Don't let that go to waste! Upload your work to SlideShare and promote it via your social channels and you can get some longevity out of your hard work.
Turn Any Piece Into Social Media Content
This is one of my favorites. If you have a blog post, video, podcast, guide, ebook, whitepaper or whatever else in your editorial calendar, find the tips, tricks, quotes and data and create social media graphics to promote that piece.
Content repurposing in action
If everything I've said sounds a bit much, here's how this works in real life.
- Publish your blog post on How To Choose The Best Knitting Needle. Promote on social and email.
- Create a guide, checklist or ebook if applicable. Create a guide on Knitting 101: The Beginner's Guide to Knitting. Create a lead generation form and make this available for download. Hello, email list.
- Just did a workshop on knitting? Create a PowerPoint and upload it to SlideShare. Promote on social and email.
- Take your tips and tricks and create visually compelling images for social media. (Seriously, use Canva. It's so easy.)
- Take your ebook and create a video for each chapter. You've already got the script. No extra work (except editing) required.
Once you have one piece of quality content, don't let it just sit there. Make sure you promote the heck out of it. Do that by recycling your content into different forms. Keep your audience on its toes - and save time and energy doing it.
Have questions about content repurposing? I'm happy to answer them here!
