You’ve heard of content marketing. You’ve studied up on it. Your business is ready to jump on board the content marketing bandwagon. Now what?
Enhance your content marketing efforts by learning how to get the most out of all your juicy content. Or, as we like to say, learn how to repurpose content like a boss.
What Is Repurposing Content?
Glad you asked! Repurposing content is the fine art of stretching a single piece of content into as many other useful forms as possible.
Your content is in an epic battle for attention against every other piece of similar content out there. With social media algorithms dictating who sees what, ever-changing SEO tactics, and elusive ranking factors, content marketing success can feel impossible.
The bottom line is that creating unique, useful content takes time, money, and resources. It’s good business sense – and smart content strategy – to repurpose content and stretch each of your investments as far as they can go.
The BSTRO team are seasoned pros when it comes to repurposing content, and we’re ready to share our secrets. Here are 13 ways to repurpose content, and squeeze every last bit of delicious juice from a single article.
Download Checklist (PDF, 33 kb)
Repurpose Content for Social Media
Content doesn’t market itself. You can spend hours researching optimal blog topics to create useful, quality content, and optimize the heck out of it. But in the end, you need that final step to bring the world to your front door.
Social media amplification, both organic and paid, helps your content land in your audience’s hands. It’s a key step to any content marketing strategy, and one that should never be overlooked.
Here are three ways to repurpose content for social media.
1. Create an Infographic
Infographics are a great way to explain steps, share a list, show statistics, and illustrate an otherwise intangible path between multiple concepts. They’re the ultimate piece of bite-sized visual storytelling, and tasty social media candy.
If you don’t have a graphic designer, you can find free infographic templates online and create your own. Don’t forget to share your infographic on all of your social networks!
Infographic Tips
- Use branded or product images when appropriate
- Be mindful of typefaces, and keep text legible and uncrowded
- Google can’t read images, so optimize the filename and include optimized text wherever it’s used on social media to help it turn up in search
View the complete infographic at the bottom of this article or Download as JPEG (636 kb)
2. Create Engaging Pins
If Pinterest isn’t already your business’ BFF, you’d better get on board (Pinterest pun intended). Did you know that 55% of U.S. Internet users primarily use Pinterest for shopping? And 67% of Pinners consult Pinterest while shopping in stores. Those are exciting stats.
Posts and tweets have short shelf lives (and compete for attention under the almighty algorithms), but Pins can live on forever as new users discover and repin them. Stretch your content to the max by repurposing it into pins.
Some fantastic types of Pins are ecommerce Pins that link to a product page for purchase, lifestyle images that link to your original article and drive referral traffic, infographic or listicle images, and tutorials.
Pin Tips
- Research trends and stats before creating a Pin to ensure better success
- Use rich Pins to add extra information
- Optimize your 300-character pin text to help your Pin get found
- Don’t forget that you can Pin GIFs and videos!
3. Create a Social Media Ecosystem
BSTRO is big on the term “ecosystem.” We believe that no piece of content should fly solo. Here are some important steps to creating a social media ecosystem for every article you produce:
- Correctly sized images for Facebook, Twitter, and other social sharing
- A stand-alone Instagram image, with post text containing a clear CTA
- At least one Pin, with visual(s) and optimized Pin text
- Researched hashtags for Instagram and Twitter
- Researched video tags (if applicable)
Repurpose Content on Publishing Platforms
One of the easiest ways to reuse and recycle your articles – and maximize your content marketing efforts – is to publish the same content on different platforms.
Each platform boasts the potential to reach an entirely new audience that doesn’t necessarily follow your business on social media. That’s why cross-platform publishing is a great way to build your brand’s audience.
4. Publish on Medium or LinkedIn Publisher
Publishing on one of these platforms can be as easy as a few clicks and a copy/paste. Don’t stress about duplicate content penalties; most popular publishing platforms are recognized by search engine giants as secondary publishers.
If your business has multiple content contributors, consider having each publish the content themselves, particularly on LinkedIn. The added bonus is that your content can now reach each person’s unique network.
Publishing Tips
- Wait a week before publishing, to allow your primary source to be indexed as the original
- Always link back to the original article to drive referral traffic
- Encourage employees to share the published articles to personal networks
5. Create a SlideShare Presentation
SlideShare is a fun and easy way to invigorate your articles. Like its predecessor, the good ol’ PowerPoint presentation, SlideShare communicates your content to the audience through a series of slides.
What Goes Into a SlideShare Presentation?
- Slides can showcase highly engaging design skills
- They can be silly and seemingly random combinations of photos, design, and text
- They can be long (100+ slides) or as few as 10 slides
- Visitors can save individual slides – so not only does your presentation have the potential to be shared, but each slide becomes a stand-alone piece of content.
SlideShare is especially handy if your original content was a presentation, or if you want to be able to present it later on.
6. Create an Engaging Email
While email marketing isn’t technically a publishing platform, it is the leading method of direct marketing, and a means of pushing your content out to a targeted audience. Email marketing has a reported average ROI of $38 for every $1 spent, which is a figure that needs no further justification.
Read our article on the Art and Science of Email Marketing!
You can send your entire piece of content to your subscribers as a single email, or, if you prefer to send content packages or roundups, include part of it as a teaser with a link to find the whole article.
Email Marketing Tips
Don’t skip it! Email is your most powerful opportunity to create an ongoing one-on-one conversation with your audience.
- Use calls to action that tell users exactly where they’ll go, and what they’ll see when they get there.
- Instead of sending users right back to your blog, could you drive them to a Facebook poll? A video? A Snapchat Story? Incorporating additional platforms adds depth and texture to your brand storytelling and creates deeper connections with your customers.
- Include share buttons. The easier you make it, the more likely they are to do it.
Repurpose Content Into a New Format
It’s so easy that you might have overlooked it: Turn that content into something different by wrapping it in a shiny new jacket.
The next three formats take your blog copy as-is, and shake it down through magical structural filters to create what appears to be a unique piece of content – but is secretly the same one, wearing a disguise.
7. Create a Captivating Case Study
With the rise of content marketing came the onslaught of content noise, and your audience is tired of being told how to think. Let them reach their own conclusions (while still gently guiding them along the buyer’s journey) by showing proven results.
All a good case study needs is an introduction, a description of the issue, statistics, a conclusion, and accompanying visuals, arranged in a pleasing format. If your article presents results, and if it positions your brand as subject matter experts, definitely repurpose your content into a case study.
Case Study Tips
- Use engaging visuals to keep statistics interesting
- Be transparent and offer links to your sources so people can believe what they read
- Write confident copy – it’s not bragging if the numbers add up
8. Create an ebook
Remember when you created that SlideShare presentation mentioned in Step 5? That converts quickly and easily into an eBook!
If you didn’t already create a presentation, you can find ebook template software online. From there, all you need to do is tweak your text, trim any fluff, and break it up into pages.
Ebook Tips
- Be succinct: less text is more on an ebook page
- Keep it visual: use branded colors and typefaces if a designer isn’t an option
- Promote your ebook on social media, and add download links to your website pages
9. Create a Downloadable PDF
Don’t rely on customers returning to your website to revisit your content. Keep your brand front-of-mind by giving it to them in a handy format that they can keep, refer to as often as they’d like, and share with friends.
A downloadable PDF is an optimal way to repurpose articles that include lists, tutorials, best practices or procedures, and other information that’s best kept on hand.
If you created an infographic in Step 1, you’re already set! If not, keep these tips in mind:
- Reduce text into a list/point form or shorter paragraphs
- Use visual elements such as branding and imagery
- Promote it across social media and add links to any applicable articles on your site
Download PDF Checklist (33 kb)
Repurpose Content Using Technology
Ready to seriously level up your content marketing? BSTRO is all about finding new ways to help our clients create memorable customer experiences.
Take your brand’s content to innovative new places by incorporating technology into your marketing strategy.
10. Create a Video
Video marketing is a favorite frontier in brand storytelling for good reason. Consumers feel more comfortable buying into information if they can see who’s presenting it. Trust, loyalty, and brand ambassadors are created through video.
If your content is a tutorial, demonstration, perspective, features examples, or just really entertaining, video is a great way to bring it to life.
The gifts (and GIFs) that brightened our 2016 Watch Video, Read Article
Video Tips
- Find the right format for your content, whether it’s live-action, narration over slides, animation, or interviews
- Create video snippets during editing, to be used for Instagram amplification
- Create Instagram or Snapchat Stories while filming to give fans behind-the-scenes peeks that add further value
11. Host a Podcast
If you’ve got an engaging personality with a silky-smooth voice on your team, maybe podcasting is for you.
Podcasts are on the rise, growing 23% in the last year alone. They’re fantastic for a mobile audience: accessible on your commute, at the gym, or at home. The same number of Americans listen to podcasts as use Twitter. Think about it!
Podcast Tips
- Consistency is key to podcast success, so plan a regular production routine that you can manage from month to month
- Look for opportunities to interview guests for articles who can also be interviewed on your podcast
12. Create a Quiz or Poll
Can your content get the Jeopardy treatment, and be turned into interactive questions? Quizzes are immensely popular and viral content, and worth consideration.
You can publish your quiz on its own, embed it in your website, have rotating or daily quizzes as homepage features, or even have an entire section of your site dedicated to content-turned-quizzes.
Quiz Tips
- Use SEO magic in the title of your quiz to help it find footing
- Include branded visuals in the questions where possible
- Make the results engaging and shareable on social media
13. Build an App
BSTRO is a unique marketing agency in that we have a skilled in-house app development team. Apps are an amazing way to become a part of your customers’ lives, and to be with them wherever they go.
What kind of content can be repurposed into an app? All kinds! Anything your customer might need while on the go, or want to interact with in a personalized way. Things like parenting tips, gardening, grocery shopping, animal grooming and activities, cosmetics and skin care, first aid, mental health, fitness, and organization are among the many possibilities.
App Tips
- Don’t create an app just to create an app – be sure that what you’re providing is useful
- Study other apps with similar functions – see what is already out there that works, or doesn’t work, and read the user reviews and comments to see how you could improve on those products
- Work with a pro – buggy apps get uninstalled quickly, so make sure yours works
We hope you’ve found our 13 ways to repurpose content helpful. Want the BSTRO team to work on your brand’s next big project?
