Skilled marketers seek strategies that stretch budgets and deliver the maximum impact, attracting quantifiable leads and building loyalty. One smart way to do this is by using content already created for one realm and repurposing it for another. Case in point? Taking digital content and reimagining it for physical channels. Or vice versa. Or any number of combinations within channels. Once you understand the strategy, you’ll find this is surprisingly easy to accomplish.
Let’s look at some of the ways a content strategy of repurposing content can help save time, money, and resources while reaching wider audiences and extending content lifespan.
The Benefits of Repurposing Content
Content encompasses a large variety of tactics. It’s a marketing strategy that goes beyond promoting products or services by utilizing various forms of content, including written, verbal, graphics, video, and more to convey your brand’s “thoughts.” It’s a savvy way to position your brand as a thought leader while providing valuable information to your audience. Not only does repurposing content save resources, but the benefits of repurposing content extend to other realms too:
- Boosts ROI: By stretching content’s applicability, you’re driving up its usage and increasing its ROI.
- Expands Reach: Using different channels helps you reach people you otherwise wouldn’t.
- Caters to Preferences: Everyone consumes content differently; some prefer written, video, or audio. One of the benefits of repurposing content through different channels means you’re allowing your audience to consume your media as they prefer.
- Builds an Online Presence: It’s extremely time-consuming to refresh a strong online presence; repositioning content for online usage is an efficient way to consistently post quality content. Today’s marketers, makers, creators, and beyond are running at full speed constantly. When you repurpose content strategically, you are effectively saving man-hours on projects that may have required more time and attention if you were to start a new campaign from square 1 vs. content repurposing.You can use the saved time to engage online with your audience in real time.
Related: Sponsored Content: How to Gel Well with Organic Content.
Maximize Your Content Strategy
With a plan in place, your content strategy can work twice as hard. Here’s how to do it:
Take Inventory
Create a comprehensive inventory list of all content assets so you’re aware of the entire scope of available work. Break it down by medium, topic, title, url, target audience, message, journey state, topic cluster, call-to-action, and whatever other pertinent information you’d like to capture, so you can see the entire body of content at a glance. If you’re working with a DMS or similar platform, you can pull a report of these items, as well as their analytics and performance.
Pick New Platforms
Using your inventory list, create a column that lists where the repurposed content will live: new channels for the media. There are so many ways to refresh content in entirely new ways for different media vehicles. We’ll touch on that in a minute.
Define Objectives
Take the 30,000 foot view to understand how the content will be working in its new capacity. Would you like to increase leads, boost conversions, or strengthen customer loyalty? Add a column for objectives. With clear objectives, it will be much easier to decide which content fulfills which goal. You may need to adjust the call to action, reframe the text, or tweak the graphics so the new content aligns with the new objectives. Add these instructions to your inventory list so you know next steps.
Change Design and Content
Once you’ve decided how to repurpose your content, you can adapt your design accordingly, getting it into the right file, size, cropping or layout. You may also have to alter colors, images, or fonts to abide by best practices for the new medium. You’ll likely adjust copy as well—and add any call to action levers like buttons, forms, or links.
Build a Good Workflow
Start a spreadsheet or use a platform to help you continually repurpose ongoing content to keep it refreshed for all.
Related: Brainstorming Content: How to Do it Efficiently.
How to Create Refreshed Content
Make an Infographic Flyer or Brochure
- Website: Take information from your website and distill it into an infographic for added interest.
- Blog Post: Repurpose your blog post into a compelling infographic or brochure.
- Direct Mail: Take salient points and create a brochure.
Make a Sign or Billboard
- Social Media: Using the short descriptions from social posts to create five to seven word headlines for large signs and bulletins; repurpose graphics as well.
- Emails: Take email content headers and use them for short headlines.
- Website: Use website graphics and reconfigure so they’re optimized for larger signs and billboards and keep branding consistent.
Make a Poster or Print Ad
- Website: Use headers from the site for poster or print ad headline inspiration; keep the graphics similar as well.
- Social Media: Glean short phrases from social to use as points for the poster or print ad; carry the graphic inspiration over too.
Make Direct Mail
- Emails: Use content from emails to create fresh direct mail pieces.
- Website: Focus on important points in the website that capture the essence of your brand; use graphics to keep everything consistent.
Make a Business Card
- Website: Use graphics from your website to build your brand and increase continuity.
- Brochure: Take graphic elements from a brochure and incorporate them into a business card.
Make a Blog Post
- Ebook: Highlight key takeaways with a call to action linking to a landing page, or the eBook.
- Research Reports/Articles: Condense findings from white papers and other research reports into blog posts.
Make Social Media
- Website Copy: Highlight a service, market, FAQ, or even an “About Us” tidbit from your website in your social media and link to the site for more information.
- Brochures: Repurpose graphics and copy from this format for engaging social media posts.
Make a Video or Podcast
- Blog Posts: Take the content and add graphics and a voice over to create a two to four minute video.
Make an Email
- Blog post: Create a checklist from a blog post and pair it with a graphic that can be distributed to your email list.
- Brochure: Use the top points from a brochure to create a quick email.
Make a Downloadable Guide
- Blog Posts: Bundle several related blog posts (topic clusters) into one format for a longer format that can also be used to collect information.
Related: 8 Best Ways to Repurpose Content in 2023.
The Power of the Repurpose
With an organized system to store and track all content, you can easily deploy it throughout your marketing content strategies to expand your reach, cut costs, find your audience where they’re most receptive, increase ROI, expand reach, and build loyalty. If you need help getting started, contact our digital marketing team. We’ve seen the power of repurposing, and we’ve learned the best ways to use content to connect, again and again. The benefits of repurposing content begin as soon as you have a plan. Start yours now.
