Repurposing is “the process by which an object that was once used for one purpose is transformed or redeployed to be used for another purpose.” However, users might want to modify the content before repurposing it. For example, they might want to change it into a visually appealing infographic, or they might want to create a new article using the same data.
What is content repurposing?
Content repurposing is the process of taking an existing piece of content and modifying it for distribution in a different format or medium. In other words, repurposing content is taking a piece of existing content, such as an ebook, whitepaper, blog post, video, etc. and modifying it to be in another format, such as a podcast, animated video, slide presentation, newsletter, etc. This is an excellent way to increase the exposure of your content, as well as increase your sales.
Benefits of content repurposing
There are many reasons why you should consider repurposing your content. By doing so, you can:
- Get more value from each piece of content
- Reach new audiences
- Establish your authority on the topic, as people associate broad distribution with importance
- Increase the ROI of your content
- Boost your SEO rankings
Actionable ways to repurpose content
#1. Syndicate
Syndicating content is the process of reposting or sharing it on various platforms. If you have a website, you can syndicate your content by placing a few lines of code in your website, and other sites will copy your content and display it on their sites. Bloggers and content marketers can use content syndication to attract more readers to their sites. Some content syndication methods include RSS feeds, XML feeds, and PHP scripts.
#2. Transform the medium
The most effective way to make use of your content is to convert it from one medium to another. For example, you can take something that was originally in text form and turn it into an audio or visual piece.
#3. Divide and conquer
One way to get more mileage out of your content is to break it down into smaller pieces and share it across different platforms and social media channels. This way, you can reach a larger audience and get more people engaged with your content.
#4. Seed future content
Oftentimes, older pieces of content can inspire new ideas in creators. This phenomena can be thought of as older content being seeds that, given the chance, will grow and branch off into different forms. A website owner can use past content to attract new traffic. Seeding content is an effective way to create a valuable database of information.
#5. Repackage
The last step is to take your completed content and turn it into an even more valuable product by repackaging it. Repackaging is a process of taking someone’s existing content and adding your own value to it.
The easiest way to repackage content is to take a piece of writing on a subject and rewrite it for a different market. The same content can be used for many different purposes – for example, you can take a blog post about dogs and rewrite it to cater for cat owners. Repackaging content allows you to quickly create a lot of content around a single theme. This can give you a huge advantage in the market, because it makes you look like a subject matter expert.
Here are 5 ways you can take your best content and give it new life so that it has a longer shelf-life:
- Transform a blog post into a video
- Make your how-to guide a bite-sized social media post
- Go from internal data to a case study
- Use a blog post to create an infographic
- Take your quotes and create Tweets or graphics