Do you want to get the maximum return from the content that you create? After all, creating content is really hard. You put a lot of time and effort into creating your core, pillar content and I’m sure you want to get as much as you can from it. The answer? Follow our best practices for content repurposing.
Content repurposing is a strategy that improves the reach, impact, and return on investment of the content that you create.
Get ready to read the blog post of all blog posts on content repurposing!
How to repurpose your content
Every content creator has the same goal — to create content that resonates and has an impact on their ideal audience.
But there’s a problem. Creating, sharing, and promoting content is no walk in the park. Not only can it feel like a full-time job (and then some), but you’re also competing in a heavily saturated market.
The internet is swarming with a mind-boggling amount of content.
For example, around 500 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube every minute, there are 48 million podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts and an estimated seven million blog posts are published per day.
So how can you cut through the noise?
Many people assume the answer is simple — create more core, long-form content. While more core content can be a good thing, is it the only solution?
Think about it. You pour your heart and soul into creating one piece of high-quality content. You publish it. It gets some engagement — likes, comments, shares…maybe even subscribers. What next? Do you get back to the grindstone and eke out the next piece of content?
The reality is if you create a fantastic piece of content and publish it once… that’s it. Eventually, it fades away. It loses impact.
Rather than creating more and more content, only for it to fizzle out eventually, wouldn’t it be better if you could maximize the content?
I’m talking about increasing the ROI of the time and energy you spend creating your content and making it perform better and reach more people.
Sounds good, right?
This is where repurposing content comes in. A highly effective strategy to make the most of what you’ve created. But what is content repurposing?
Best practices for content repurposing — what it is
At Content 10x, we have our own definition of content repurposing:
Bit of a mouthful isn’t it?!
All forms of content communicate a message.
So if we strip content down to being a message, repurposing is the different ways we can communicate that same message.
Not everyone enjoys consuming content in the same way. Some people enjoy watching videos, others prefer listening to podcasts. Some like reading blog posts, others like to join in a live experience. Everyone’s preferences are different.
If you want your content to connect with a broad range of people, you need to share it in the places where they like consuming content and in their desired format.
Content repurposing is all about squeezing the most value out of the content you create. By doing so, you adapt it into different formats and distribute it to reach a much broader audience.
At Content 10x, we call this 10x-ing content! It’s what we love to do for our clients. So now we’ve covered our best practices for content repurposing, what should content repurposing not be?
What content repurposing isn’t
Content repurposing isn’t copying and pasting content from one place to another.
It’s important to ensure you don’t get reposting and repurposing mixed up.
You have to be respectful of different platforms and different audiences. It’s about being imaginative and creative with your existing content to adapt it into different mediums.
Also, you need to avoid sounding repetitive. Done well, repurposing shouldn’t result in you sounding like a broken record.
It’s also important to avoid sounding like you’re broadcasting and promoting all the time.
For some, I’m sure it sounds like repurposing is just a way to promote your content. It is. But it’s also a way to create new, standalone content — content that isn’t linked to or related to the content it was repurposed from.
Finally, repurposing isn’t just taking an old piece of content that’s gathering dust, doing a bit of light editing, slapping on a new title, and bam! Good as new. I wouldn’t call that repurposing.
Although, I am a big fan of reviewing your content and updating it. Especially your old blog posts.
Repurposing is about creating new value from your content.
The benefits of content repurposing
Content repurposing isn’t quick or easy.
No wonder it can seem far more appealing to create another core/pillar piece of content than go through the process of repurposing.
Is it really worth the time and effort?
Well, here are six hard-to-ignore reasons why repurposing content should be on your to-do list.
1. Extend your audience reach
Content repurposing puts your content in front of new audiences. By reinventing your content for different mediums, you can increase your audience reach.
Say you have a podcast and release a new episode of your show each week.
Listeners tune in to hear the latest episode, but you know that it’s got so much more potential.
There’s an entire untapped audience out there searching for content like yours. But there’s just one little thing getting in your way…none of those people are podcast listeners!
How are they ever going to find your podcast if they don’t know it exists?
More so, they don’t care if it exists. They don’t listen to podcasts. It’s as simple as that.
So the question isn’t, how are they going to find your podcast? It’s, how are they going to find your content? How are they going to hear your message?
Because your podcast episodes can become videos, blog posts, infographics, audiograms, Twitter threads, Medium articles, Instagram Reels, emails…and so much more.
The people who don’t listen to podcasts will be able to connect with your content, if you repurpose it for them.
Repurposing content into other formats expands your potential reach and caters to a broader audience, in this example, it caters to the non-podcast listeners!
In other words, repurposing content provides extra fuel to your content strategy.
To discover my top tips for converting non-podcast listeners using the power of content repurposing, check out How to Become Loved As A Podcaster (By Those Who Hate Podcasts).
2. Gain authority
When you repurpose content, you’re finding new and creative ways to communicate the same message. The more you talk about something, the more you get known for that particular topic.
This is far more preferable than having a scatter-gun approach to content. If your message is inconsistent, you don’t really become known for anything in particular.
Content repurposing keeps you on topic. Reiterating your advice, points, and ideas consistently in different formats and places helps to demonstrate your expertise and builds authority.
3. Improve your ROI on content creation
When you spend hours crafting content only for it to get shared a couple of times and then never again, it can feel a bit disheartening.
Not just that, though, it can feel like you’re not getting the return on investment (of time and energy) that you’d like.
The impact that content has on your audience is your return on investment.
Your investment is the time it takes to plan, research, create, distribute, publish, and promote that content. If the impact of your content is limited, then it can feel like all that time and effort you invested was for very little return.
To boost your ROI, the solution isn’t to keep trying to reinvent the wheel creating more new content, in the hope that one piece is a viral winner. The key is to boost the reach and impact that each piece of content has on your audience.
You need to make your time and effort count for more.
Rather than spending ten hours a week creating two blog posts or videos, spend that time on just one instead. Once you’ve created one blog post/video, don’t just publish it and hope for the best. Continue working with it, transforming it into different formats, expand your distribution, and spread the word.
You would have spent that same time on content anyway, so why not spend it in a way that really counts? When that podcast episode, blog post or video is repurposed it has more impact on more people.
By repurposing your content, you get to extend its value and boost the overall ROI for each piece of content.
4. Improve SEO for your website (Search Engine Optimization)
Another great thing about content repurposing is that it can improve SEO on your website.
When you have more content to publish and share, it gets more eyes on your brand. More people are likely to mention it and share it. This, in turn, improves your chances of outside sources linking to your website.
Also, when you have more varied content formats on your website, people are likely to stay on webpages for longer.
Why is all of this good for SEO?
Okay…let’s just get a bit geeky for a moment…
To understand why it’s good for SEO, you need to know the three main factors that affect how well a web page ranks on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
1. Authority (links)
Your web page must have enough credibility to be considered a useful source in your niche.
This credibility is built up as other sites link to your page. As more people link to your web page, Google gains trust in your content. It means you clearly know what you’re talking about!
According to content marketing expert, Andy Crestodina:
“We measure the success of content repurposing activities in links and authority”.
So you should invest time in building your authority by creating content people want to share.
You can read and listen to my full discussion with Andy here.
2. Key phrases
If you want a search engine to rank your content, it must recognize it as relevant to your chosen topic.
The use of appropriate key phrases and keywords throughout the copy of your webpage — including titles, headings, sub-headings, meta-description and text — will optimize the page and allow it to rank.
3. User interaction signals
User interaction signals can be either positive or negative.
A positive example would be when a person searches your key phrase and clicks on your web page. From there, they engage with your content and hang around long enough for Google to count the longer dwell time as a positive interaction.
This means that the searcher found what they needed on your web page. A search engine sees that as a great sign that your content is relevant. And this helps to push your content further up the ranks.
A negative example is when a user searches your key phrase and leaves quickly because they didn’t find what they were looking for.
In this case, Google registers the shorter dwell time and marks the page as lower-quality content. Unfortunately, this lessens the chance of your page ranking well in search.
How does content repurposing tick all these boxes?
With more content out there, you increase the chance of it being seen, shared, and for people to interact with it. This ticks box number one — building authority.
With more consistent written content on your website using keywords that you want to rank for, you increase the chance that search engines will recognize you as a relevant resource. That’s box number two ticked.
With more repurposed content on your site, you can increase your visitors’ dwell time.
Let’s say you had a web page only containing a paragraph of written content about a video. If you were to write a long-form blog post about the video, embed the video, and add graphics to go along with it, that’s more content to consume. With more content for a visitor to get their teeth into, you increase the chance of them sticking around longer.
According to Wistia, embedding a video on a webpage dramatically boosted their average dwell time from 2 minutes 48 seconds to 7 minutes 21 seconds. Longer dwell time shows search engines that your content is top-notch. That’s box number three ticked.
5. The Zero Moment of Truth
The term Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) was coined by Google and is what they define as the online decision-making moment. To buy or not to buy. To take action, or to walk away.
Back in simpler times, a customer’s journey consisted of a few small steps.
Stimulus > 1st moment of truth > 2nd moment of truth
In this case, a customer would see something like a poster or an advert. They would then see it in-store or on an online product page. This is the 1st moment of truth, the point where a decision to buy or not is made. The 2nd moment of truth is the customer’s experience after the purchase.
According to Google, things aren’t so simple anymore. Google has identified an extra step, the Zero Moment of Truth, that occurs between seeing the stimulus and when the desired action will be taken.
The Zero Moment of Truth is when the buyer educates themselves before making a purchase decision. It’s now the most important and largest step in the buying process and one you can’t afford to ignore.
Google breaks this down as follows…
Buyers will spend 7 hours with you, working out whether they trust you.
This takes place over 11 touchpoints and in 4 locations before the customer feels ready to part with their cash.
This process is drawn out now for two main reasons:
- There’s simply more choice out there, and it’s harder for consumers to decide
- People are increasingly skeptical of brands and need to confirm that they’re making the right choice
How does content repurposing fit into this?
7 hours of content
The beauty of having to spend 7 hours with someone before you trust them is that you don’t have to spend those 7 hours in person.
The 7 hours can be through consuming content.
People will research a product/service, read reviews, make comparisons, and consume content — watch videos, listen to podcast episodes, look at social media posts, read blog posts, etc.
If customers need to spend an average of 7 hours getting to know you then having lots of content for them to consume is a great advantage.
I don’t know about you, but there are some podcasts that I listen to where I practically consider the host a good friend even though we’ve never met (okay…maybe that’s just me!)
A simple sales page isn’t going to cut it. People need more to go on. The answer — consistently create content.
11 touchpoints
A touchpoint is a point where someone interacts with you. In the online world, this could be interacting with a Tweet, commenting on a blog post, replying to an email, liking a Facebook post, subscribing to your YouTube channel, attending a webinar…etc.
4 locations
These interactions or touchpoints need to be in at least four different locations, according to Google. This could include your website, a social media account, a membership site (hey…even Clubhouse, remember that!)…and so on. There are so many locations online.
After consuming 7 hours of content across 11 touch points in 4 locations, the person should have a fairly solid understanding of what you’re offering and the value they’ll get if they make a purchase — most importantly, they will know whether they trust you.
Good news! When you repurpose your content, you make it much easier to achieve this because one piece of content can be repurposed into more than 7 hours of content, on more than 4 platforms, creating way more than 11 touchpoints!
6. Connect with different learning styles
In a customer’s journey to learn more about you, you need to appreciate that people learn in different ways. One piece of content may be easily absorbed by one person but isn’t by another.
The theory of different learning styles suggests that there are seven types.
The more visual-oriented people in your audience may respond better to graphics, whereas the more auditory-oriented might love podcasts instead.
But this isn’t just about preference, you don’t just want people to find your content. You also want them to consume it and engage with it. You want your message to sink in and be remembered.
According to the HubSpot Content Trends Survey, 62% of people pay more attention to video content and consume it thoroughly. Only 27% do the same for blog posts, with the rest preferring to skim-read.
But that doesn’t mean you should only create videos because plenty of people still pay more attention to other formats.
By accommodating different learning styles, you help the message sink in for more people and therefore you connect with more people.
Check out our podcast and blog post, Repurposing Content with Neurodiversity in Mind, for more on creating accessible, inclusive content.
The reasons why people don’t repurpose content
So, with all the benefits and opportunities out there to repurpose your content, why don’t more people do it?
The strategy behind repurposing content might seem straightforward. But putting it into practice is another story.
There are a few big reasons why most people don’t do all of the above…
- It takes a long time
- Not everyone has the skills to repurpose content into different formats
- People just don’t know where to start
In a way, content repurposing is just like exercising. We know it’s good for us, we tell people we’re going to do it more often, we learn about it, we invest in it, but it’s still easy to come up with 101 reasons not to do it!
But following our best practices for content repurposing will help it fit into your existing strategy with ease.
If this sounds familiar, you’ll want to check out our post: 6 Reasons Why You’re Avoiding Content Repurposing (And How To Stop!)
What content repurposing looks like — 19 ways to repurpose a video
When we talk about content repurposing, what does it actually look like?
Let’s look at an example, and what better to illustrate the power of repurposing than video content!
Let’s say you have a YouTube channel and you have just recorded a video. You could repurpose your single video into:
1. Repurpose a video into Social Media Videos
These are short 30 to 60-second clips taken from your main video and posted on social media. They give your social media followers a bit of a taster of what the main video is all about.
As well as being a hugely popular way of consuming content, creating short social media videos is one of Content 10x’s specialties. For an idea of what they could look like, take a look at some of the videos we create for our client TechSmith.
With repurposing your videos for social media, there are a few things to consider first.
One is that you need to make sure you have all the right dimensions for each platform. If you don’t get the dimensions right, you might not be able to post it, or it might just look terrible.
Another thing you’ll want to do is make sure there are captions — most people have the sound off on social media. Having captions means you’re not alienating those who are hard of hearing or deaf, or those who don’t have earphones at hand to listen.
With teaser videos, you’ll also want to ensure the videos make sense on their own. You could pick out a great teaser, but if it makes zero sense without watching the whole video, it won’t have the impact you’re looking for. Try to pick teasers that stand alone, or make sure your social copy gives it adequate context.
These videos can be shared on TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels in vertical format or, in horizontal format, you can use them on LinkedIn too.
Check out How to Repurpose Videos for Social Media and How to Repurpose YouTube Videos on Social Media with Amy Landino.
2. Repurpose a video into Stories
Another way to repurpose videos on social media is to create Stories content — both vertical Stories video clips and graphics too. Stories are short clips that disappear after 24 hours and are on Instagram and Facebook.
Stories provide tons of opportunities to boost engagement, with features like polls, rating sliders, “ask me anything” boxes, and surveys to make your content more interactive.
Consider creating a mixture of images and video clips from your main video to share an engaging “story” about one message in the video.
3. Repurpose a video into Social Media Graphics
Videos aren’t the only way to draw the eye on social media. Creating some slick, on-brand graphics is a great way to repurpose your video.
You can create a graphic with your episode title and a call to action to go check out the video (if you’re promoting the core content).
Or, if you’re creating content for engagement, then maybe a killer quote from your video, a tip, a question, or brilliant point made.
I recommend creating both title and quote graphics.
Creating scroll-stopping graphics is something we provide for our clients. Take a look at one we created for the Social Pros podcast.
Once you’ve created graphics, you could even add them into a blog post to liven it up.
4. Repurpose a video into Blog Posts
For those who prefer to consume written content, a detailed long-form blog post can be the perfect accompaniment to a video.
Blog posts can sum up the main points of your video or even explore the topic in more detail. It’s a good idea to have a blog post with an embedded video so that whoever lands on your page has a choice of medium to consume your message. We call this a multimedia post — more on that here.
Remember, not everyone who reads your blog post will also watch your video. So, make sure the content is evergreen and stands up well enough on its own.
Creating strong, evergreen, long-form content might sound easier than it looks. But writing a blog post isn’t just about copying a video’s transcript. That’s why at Content 10x, we have dedicated content writers on hand to transform video or podcast content into blog posts that can be used as standalone content.
For some great tips on repurposing video into a blog, check out 3 Smart Ways to Repurpose Video & Audio Content into Written Content.
5. Repurpose a video into a Medium Article
If you’ve gone to the effort of writing a blog post, then why not make your written content go further. You can syndicate your blog post to other sites, for example, post a version to Medium.
Medium is a popular source for consuming thought-pieces and articles, so having a presence there could capture Medium’s regular readers. It’s a site that likely has more traffic than your own blog, so tap into it.
But wait, what about duplicate content penalties?
Will Google penalize me for repurposing blog posts on other sites?
A common worry with Medium and other sites is that if you duplicate content from your own blog, you’ll alert the Google police and get a harsh penalty.
But I’m here to tell you that this is nothing more than a viral myth.
You won’t get penalized for duplicate content.
Why?
Because a duplicate content penalty doesn’t exist.
In fact, according to Moz, 29% of the internet is made up of duplicate content!
Google will only penalize a website that uses duplicate content with malicious intentions.
According to Google:
“Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results.”
Simply duplicating content or syndicating it onto another website is not a problem in itself. Your website won’t tumble down the SERPs if you post on Medium.
If your Medium post has a link back to the original or full article on your website, this could actually be a good thing. It could help to pull over Medium readers to your site.
Here’s an example of a post we made on Medium, which repurposes an existing blog post on our website for a brand-new audience.
For more on blog post syndication check out Blog Syndication Explained with Yva Yorston.
6. Repurpose a video into a LinkedIn Article
As well as Medium, another great place to post your blog post is on LinkedIn as an article. LinkedIn has a huge audience, so getting your content out in front of all those people can only be a good thing. Regularly posting LinkedIn articles can help you boost your authority and engagement too.
7. Repurpose a video into a Podcast Episode
When you have a video, one way to repurpose it is to use the audio to create a podcast episode.
With a few tweaks to the audio — perhaps some minor editing, add an intro and an outro, you can reuse the audio from your video et voila, you have a podcast episode. Then just upload it to all the podcast apps, like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher, to name a few.
Just watch out for references that aren’t suitable for podcasts, such as visual references or copyrighted music. It’s a good idea to remove those from your podcast because they won’t be relevant, or in the case of music, it won’t be allowed on the apps.
With our Podcast 10x, Video 10x, Video 10x Exec, and LinkedIn 10x services, we handle all this for you, so you don’t even have to edit your own podcasts!
For some tips on converting video to audio, take a look at our post, 4 Top Tips on How to Convert Video to Audio.
If you want to launch a podcast and then start repurposing your videos into podcast episodes check out Repurposing Your Video By Launching a Podcast.
8. Repurpose a video into an Infographic
An infographic can provide a wonderful visual snapshot of content that’s easy to consume and is very shareable. They work well on social media, in blog posts, and on Pinterest.
If you’re repurposing a video into a blog post, try to pick out the key points or tips and develop a plan to repurpose it into an infographic as well.
Then, you can publish that within your blog post, which gives the reader the option to read the long-form content, watch the video, or get the highlights in the infographic.
You might find this useful — How to Repurpose a Blog Post into an Infographic.
9. Repurpose a video into a Livestream
If you’re really looking to drive engagement, build a community and connect with your audience, recording a livestream is a great way to do this. You could record a livestream on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or YouTube about the topic of your video.
This is a great opportunity to create two-way conversations about your content — you provide access to you, and the openness and transparency builds trust.
Get started with livestreaming by reading our article, Livestream Repurposing: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.
Also check out:
- How to Repurpose Facebook Live Videos with Ian Anderson Gray
- The Visual Lounge, Livestreaming & Repurposing with Matt Pierce
10. Repurpose a video into an Email Newsletter or Series
The content of your video can also be adapted for an email newsletter or series. If you’ve already created a blog post for your video, you can reuse and adapt this for email newsletters.
Or you could even break the content down into small emails and send them out as a series on that topic.
For inspiration, check out How to Run an Email List Building Challenge by Repurposing your Content.
11. Repurpose a video into a Book Chapter or eBook
Another way to make the most of your content is to adapt it into a book chapter or eBook.
For example, if you have several videos covering a particular topic, you can turn them into a blog post or a number of posts, and then adapt the posts into chapters for a book or an eBook.
Check out this episode where I interview Mike Morrison about repurposing content to publish a book, Book Repurposing: How Quality Content Can Lead to Publishing a Book with Mike Morrison.
Also, check out my own experiences in Content 10x The Book — An Update & How to Repurpose Content into a Book.
12. Repurpose a video into Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels are short, snappy up to 30-second videos that are quick and easy to consume. They’re ideal for repurposing your video content and are extremely popular on Instagram.
Reels are another way to get your content in front of new and different audiences.
If you already repurposed your video into social media videos anyway, you may be able to create some Reels content from the videos you have. This is something we do for our clients — we resize and repurpose short videos for Reels to maximize the impact of each one.
13. Repurpose a video into an Instagram or LinkedIn Carousel
Instagram carousels are a fantastic format to help you share your message and boost your engagement on Instagram.
A carousel lets you put together a series of images, in a sliding carousel format, that people can swipe through to learn more.
If you create social media graphics, you can resize and repurpose them for carousels as well. To learn more about creating Instagram carousels, check out 4 Ways to Repurpose Content into an Instagram Carousel.
Added bonus: repurpose your Instagram carousel into a LinkedIn carousel by saving the images as one single PDF document, and then creating a ‘Document’ post on LinkedIn. Find out more about this in our article Why LinkedIn Carousels are Perfect for Repurposing.
14. Repurpose a video into Tweets
Twitter has an audience of 192 million daily active users and despite this being one of the OG social media platforms, it’s still popular and usage levels are still rising. That’s a huge audience to get your content in front of.
There are several ways you can repurpose a video for Twitter. You can break your video message down into text-only Tweets of up to 280 characters, you can create graphics, and you can create short, bite-sized videos from your main video and share them.
Twitter forces you to be short, snappy, and to the point, so it’s a great way to grab attention. It’s a noisy place but even more important to repurpose your quality, pillar content on there.
For those looking to gain a foothold on Twitter, the Content 10x team helps to make that happen. Our team of writers create engaging tweets and our creative department work on creating eye-catching graphics and short videos to share on Twitter. We also have publishers on hand to make sure your Tweets go live at the optimal time for maximum reach.
Have a look at The Best Way to Repurpose Content on Twitter with Dan Knowlton.
15. Repurpose a video into a Twitter Thread
I just said “Twitter forces you to be short, snappy, and to the point” but, there is a way around this. Twitter threads.
A thread is where you put together a series of connected tweets and publish them all together. Each tweet is still up to 280 characters long, there’s no getting around that. But the reader has the option to click a drop-down-like option to see more context, updates, or further thoughts in one chain of connected short Tweets.
This means instead of having just one small opportunity to communicate a message, you now have unlimited potential to expand on your post, as there’s no limit to how many tweets you can add to a thread.
Because Twitter has a 280-character limit, people use Twitter threads to get their point across in more detail. In a way, you could say it’s cheating on the whole point of Twitter! But it’s very popular and more of a norm on the platform, so much so it’s a built-in feature now (previously people would reply to their own tweets).
Twitter threads can get way more engagement and impressions than a simple Tweet.
Learn more about repurposing content into a Twitter thread here.
16. Repurpose a video on Reddit
Most people think of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and TikTok when I talk about repurposing on social media.
But another platform to consider is Reddit. It’s a huge platform with an estimated 52 million daily active users that you can use in your content strategy. Discovering subreddits in your niche can be a fantastic way to find your audience in a different place.
To repurpose content for Reddit, you could share a clip of your video, share fun content like memes or bloopers from your video, host an Ask Me Anything r/AMA, or even post a snippet of your blog post on there with a graphic.
To get started, just get involved in the subreddits and engage.
For more advice on repurposing on Reddit check out Repurposing Content on Reddit and How to Unlock Overlooked Content Distribution Channels with Ross Simmonds.
17. Repurpose a video on Quora
Many brands are yet to unlock the potential of Quora. But it’s another way to repurpose your content. It’s full of thousands of questions just waiting for an answer, so it’s a prime location to demonstrate your expertise.
Find topics that have lots of upvotes because these are the ones that get the most engagement.
So next time you put lots of time and effort into creating a new video, have a look on Quora and see if there are questions on there related to your topic. You may be able to leverage your content for the platform.
We have a blog post on How to Repurpose Your Blog Posts on Quora for more information (I know we’re talking here about repurposing a video, but I’m going to assume you have already repurposed your video into a blog post!).
18. Repurpose a video into Bloopers
Anyone who creates video content likely has their fair share of outtakes. While most of us brush them under the carpet, did you know you could use them in your repurposed content strategy?
Sharing your very own blooper real is something that a lot of people avoid. But bloopers are fun, real, relatable, and shareable. So don’t let them go to waste!
You could compile a compilation of your bloopers, add them to the end of your video, or share mini clips on social media. For more ideas on making the most of your outtakes, check out Repurposing Bloopers: 3 Ways to Repurpose Your Mishaps!
19. Repurpose a video into Memes
Think memes aren’t for you? Think again. You might be surprised at how many brands out there are jumping on the meme world.
At some point, all of us have likely shared a meme or two. They’re very shareable, get a message across in a few seconds, and make people laugh. What’s not to love?
I was a bit apprehensive about memes at first, but I soon realized that many brands have had huge successes with them. Memes are a fantastic way to connect to your audience, but you have to know your audience well to create the best memes for them.
Take a look at our post and episode on How to Create, Share & Repurpose Memes — 8 Dos and Don’ts to get started.
So there are 20 ways you can repurpose your content…but the possibilities are almost endless! It definitely helps if you have a solid piece of content to start with (that makes your life a lot easier) and if you start with video content. It is the most versatile format, after all.
If you want some tips on how to perfect your video creation skills, be sure to check out How to Create Captivating Video Content with Mike Ganino.
Developing a distribution strategy for your repurposed content
Creating your repurposed content is only half the battle. The next challenge is getting it out into the world.
Developing a clear distribution strategy ensures that all your content is directed to where your audience is.
To get the very most out of your content, you need to be thinking just as much about publishing and distribution as you are about creating the content in the first place.
Things to consider include…
- Posting social media content and sending emails at strategic times in the day when your audience is most active
- Spacing out your promotional content throughout the week/month/year
- Ensuring there’s a mixture of content posted across platforms to avoid repetition
- Making sure all the media formats are suitable for each social media channel, e.g., sizing the graphics and videos correctly
- Paying attention and making the most of platform-specific features, e.g., hashtags
Publishing and distributing your content isn’t just about pushing a big red button and sending it out into the world. Being strategic is what will give you a higher return on investment.
Once you have a plan of action to get the most eyes on your content, it makes all your repurposing efforts worthwhile.
Things to watch out for…
Being overly promotional
Naturally, you want your repurposed content to promote your brand, but be wary of coming across as too promotional. Make sure your calls to action are varied, and that you mix up posting for engagement vs. to take action, such as visit your website.
Avoid being repetitive
Sounding repetitive is a common worry with repurposed content. The good news is that repurposed content is not just about repeating yourself.
There are plenty of ways you can avoid being repetitive, such as changing your content format, finding new angles and messages in your content, involving your audience more, and spreading out your content distribution.
I have an article with a few handy ways to avoid being repetitive, so be sure to take a look at that — 6 Ways to Avoid Sounding Repetitive with your Repurposing.
How to get started with content repurposing
Repurposing existing content
A great place to start content repurposing is to look at your existing content. What can you do to breathe some new life into it?
If you have a blog, sift through your archives to find the posts that shine the brightest! You can identify your most popular posts using software like Google Analytics.
If you have a YouTube channel or podcast, dive into the analytics to see which videos or podcast episodes performed best. You can also get an excellent insight into the content that your audience loves the most by looking at your social media analytics.
Take the pieces of content that are already popular. Those topics already have a track record of pleasing your audience. So why not start from there and repurpose into more content.
Check out:
- Engagement Metrics: How to Find out if People Actually Consume Your Content
- How to Decide What Content to Repurpose
Creating content with repurposing in mind
Wouldn’t it be great if you could find a way to reverse engineer the content creation process so that you create content perfect for repurposing?
Most (if not all) content can be repurposed in some way, shape, or form.
But if you want to make things easier for yourself, it’s a good idea to start creating your content with repurposing in mind.
There are a few ways to do this, starting with the planning stage:
- Create evergreen content
- Segment your content
What is evergreen content?
One of the best ways to make your content repurpose-worthy is to create timeless or ‘evergreen content.’
Evergreen content never loses its shine. It’s always relevant, and people will always want to consume it. Evergreen content is perfect for repurposing because it doesn’t have an expiration date.
So, the next time you sit down to record a video or write a blog post, ask yourself if the topic you’re discussing has enough power to stand the test of time?
Try to avoid using terminology like ‘today,’ ‘tomorrow,’ or ‘this week.’ By tweaking the way that you write or say certain things, your content has a much better chance of remaining relevant for longer.
Good examples of timeless content are ‘how-to’ guides, tutorials, and the types of content that solve problems for your audience.
Structuring and segmenting content
How you structure a piece of content is also key to making repurposing a whole lot easier.
Content with a clear structure and plan is a lot easier to split up into teaser videos, graphics, and social media posts than a big, long rambling video.
When you plan your content, ask yourself: does your content have a clear beginning, middle, and end? Are there different sections you can break the content into?
If so, you’ll have a much easier time repurposing.
I’m a HUGE fan of segmenting content, and I love the way TV talk shows do this. I shared my thoughts and idea in How to Segment Your Content for Ultimate Repurposing (with Lessons From TV Talk Shows).
So, the next time you plan a piece of content, whether it’s a video, blog post, livestream, or a podcast episode, think about the structure before you start creating.
With video and audio content, some people prefer to talk freely, without a script, and that can absolutely work for some people. But try to have a clear plan and focus in mind before you do it. This can help you stay on topic and also break that content down into smaller bite-sized videos, audiograms, or graphics later on.
Read this article for more advice on structuring your content plan.
Getting help with content repurposing
You’ve probably gathered from reading this article that content repurposing requires a whole suite of different skillsets.
And as with all things in life, there are quick, rough-and-ready ways to do things, and extremely high-spec, highly produced premium ways to do things. You have to decide where you want to sit on that spectrum for the content repurposing tasks you want to undertake.
If you’re serious about including repurposing in your strategy, you may want to get extra hands on deck to help you (like ours). We follow our own best practices for content repurposing and our clients love it. Just head to our case studies page to find out more.
The benefits of getting help with your content repurposing
- You can save time: Content repurposing is not a quick and easy job, and not everyone has the time to dedicate to it.
- You can concentrate on your strengths: If you’re a YouTube whizz and great in front of the camera, you might not necessarily be a graphic designer, a writer, or social media savvy. Spend time on what you’re good at and get help with the rest.
- You get the benefit of other skillsets: Hiring a team to help means you can benefit from using the expertise of different people with different skillsets.
How to get help with content repurposing: 5 options to consider
1. Do it all yourself
Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from doing it all yourself. But to produce the most effective content, you need specialist skills. It’s all well and good following our best practices for content repurposing, but you can’t be an expert on everything!
Think writing, graphic design, video/audio editing, social media, SEO, and more. On top of that, there’s also a great deal of project management, publishing, scheduling, and analysis to do.
You could always make it your mission to learn these skills, but then you’re stuck producing a massive amount of content on top of what you were already producing. Eventually, most people find that it takes too much time away from their business.
2. Hire a freelancer (or multiple freelancers)
Your next option might be to look at freelancers. Freelancers have the benefit of being flexible, although are generally more expensive to hire than employees or agencies.
However, the flexibility is on both sides and where you can miss out is having that dedicated help you can always rely on. If you hire one freelancer, it’s a lot to expect from one person. If you hire multiple freelancers, there’s a lot of management, reviewing, admin, and back-and-forth to deal with.
3. Hire in-house
Another option is to hire in-house employees. This can be a costly way to repurpose your content. If you hire one person, you run into the same issues as hiring one freelancer. It’s hard to find someone with ALL the different skill sets you need — repurposing is complex.
Hiring a whole team is costly (salaries, pensions, benefits and not to mention healthcare), but it may be worth it if you have the budget and are dedicated to the strategy for the long term.
4. Enlist the help of a marketing agency
The next alternative that people jump to is a marketing agency. This option means you can receive help from multiple people and skillsets. However, while marketing agencies come in various types, most do not specialize in content repurposing.
5. Hire a content repurposing specialist agency
The final option is to look for a content repurposing agency specifically — like us!
If your content strategy centers around high spec, quality content, then the best way to implement content repurposing is to get specialists on the case.
A content repurposing agency combines the skillsets of writers, graphic designers, social media managers, video and audio editors, and more into one packaged service.
What it’s like working with Content 10x
We are a specialist content repurposing agency made up of a team of experts who can help you to implement your content strategy. We know how to create great content, amplify it, and put the spotlight on it.
You create your content, and we then repurpose and publish it. We make sure every piece of content is optimized to reach its full potential for maximum ROI.
If you don’t have time to create your core content, we can work with you to create the core content to begin with — via conversational, recorded video interviews (you need to dedicate 1 hour every 2 weeks — that’s it!).
Our approach to content repurposing first starts by building a trusting working relationship with you. We take you through our thorough onboarding process to help us fully understand your business and content needs.
Then, all that’s left is to send over your content, and we’ll operate as a fully autonomous content arm of your business. You’ll have one point of contact, a dedicated Content Manager, and a team of experts working on your copy, graphics, video, audio, social media, and content publishing. We have different services — Video 10x, Video 10x Exec, Podcast 10x, and LinkedIn 10x.
We create content each week to help you maintain a consistent and high-quality content strategy across the board. Find out more about what we do by reading some case studies:
- Optimizing Content, Time & Expertise: How repurposing a weekly livestream helped one software company create volumes of highly valuable content that converts their audience into customers
- Smashing Business Goals Against All Odds: How content repurposing helped a wealth management company move fast and overtake their competition by going all-in with content
In conclusion…
The best thing about content repurposing is that you don’t need to spend all your time reinventing the wheel.
You already have an arsenal of great content ready to be repurposed and promoted across different platforms and locations.
Whether you want to communicate your message via a podcast, video, blog, social media, or more… repurposing will help you to share it with the world.
Repurposing is a strategy and approach that requires a great deal of thought and planning to get the very most out of it. If you follow our best practices for content repurposing, you should be off to a great start!
If all of this sounds like music to your ears, but you just don’t have the time to repurpose your content yourself, we’re here to help!
As world-leading content repurposing pros, we help our clients increase their reach and grow their businesses with a content repurposing strategy designed for their brand.
If you want to learn more about how we can help you repurpose content, book a discovery call now.
