What Is Content Repurposing? How to Recycle Old Content Without Burning Time and Budget?

Table of contents:

• Content repurposing – what is it?
  • How to do it well?
• 8 methods to recycle old content
  • Updating existing entries or ebooks
  • Combining a few articles into a greater content pillar
  • Devising infographics based on the entry content
  • Creating short vlogs – micro-content – redirecting to the entry
  • Creating a Slideshare presentation instead of extensive ebooks
  • Discussing the blog post entry in a form of a podcast
  • Redistributing content with the use of new channels
  • Focusing on user-generated content
• Advantages of content repurposing
• Recycled content makes sense

If you’re reading this entry, you certainly know what content marketing is. Perhaps you plan, create and distribute content that is supposed to improve your brand recognition, SEO results and leads. You’re an experienced specialist who knows how much time and money (when dealing with more complex content) is required to create something truly appealing that can attract the attention of your target group.

Is it possible to somehow optimize the process to save time and your marketing budget? Of course! Content repurposing can help you with this task. How to do it?

Content repurposing – what is it?

However, it’s not about taking a discarded and worn-out toy out of the trash and placing it on the shop shelf again.

Every type of content requires some effort, however, in the case of recycled texts, it’s significantly smaller than when creating something from scratch. Content repurposing can give your posts completely new value and renew the audience’s interest in topics forgotten long ago.

Recycled content usually has two forms – revamping, i.e. updating existing materials and republishing them (e.g. “refreshing” data and statistics in an e-book from a few years ago), or repurposing, i.e. converting selected content into new formats (e.g. a blog post presented as a concise infographic).

How to do it well?

Gary Vaynerchuk and The Content Pyramid (an inverted pyramid model) can be your source of inspiration when talking about content repurposing.

Following this strategy means starting with creating a really generous portion of content in the form of a pillar, e.g. a vlog, a Q&A, a podcast, or a tutorial. Then, you divide it into smaller pieces of micro-content and publish them in appropriate forms on various available channels, social media platforms, or in newsletters.

8 methods to recycle old content

This amount of theory should be enough to start with. Let’s see how to recycle old content in real life. Below you can see 8 methods that will facilitate and optimize your everyday work.

1. Updating existing entries or ebooks

If your company website already abounds in articles displayed high on important phrases or you want to improve its visibility in the organic search results, why should you create something new?

Take advantage of your current content, complement it with extra headers, update provided statistics, improve header structure and make the texts as user-friendly as possible. Remember to ensure that they’re tailored to Google algorithms, check if inserted external or internal links work properly, and voila! You have brand new content ready to be shared with the world!

To learn more about updating content, go to our previous entry: To update or not to update? What to do with old content on your website?

2. Combining a few articles into a greater content pillar

You don’t need to tell the same story from scratch in each entry. Create one content pillar,  a comprehensive guide on a given topic, which will include internal links to previously published entries. Your SEO process will certainly benefit from that. Google appreciates such competent compendiums. So what can such a pillar look like in real life?

A pillar is a unique piece of content with links to previously published blog posts provided naturally in specific paragraphs. It elaborates on a given topic.

3. Devising infographics based on the entry content

An average online reader remains focused for 7-9 seconds. And you provide them with a few pages long entries. Everything is important, you don’t want to delete anything. So what to do? A summary of the article or selected statistics can be presented in the form of an infographic.

Do you need an example? Check out the infographics on the GroMar blog. Potential recipients are 30% more likely to focus on infographics, not on blocks of text. If the information presented in the infographics catches their attention, they’re more likely to go through your text or even share it with others. It’ll also increase the average web session length and reduce your bounce rate which supports SEO.

4. Creating short vlogs – micro-content – redirecting to the entry

Although marketers still forget about it, YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world and a great place for redirecting users to your website. How to use it in content repurposing? Record short vlogs with clickbait and SEO-friendly titles that will redirect traffic from YouTube to your specific blog posts or products you talk about in the video.

5. Creating a Slideshare presentation instead of extensive ebooks

More than 100 pages of an ebook, graphics, charts, tables… You’ve devoted hundreds of hours to create ideal content but it still doesn’t bring any benefits. Well, maybe it’s a good idea to simplify it so that prepared data is more approachable?

Create a Slideshare presentation summarizing the main principles of your premium content and encouraging people to check it out. It can be a trailer of your ebook. There’s a reason why Netflix promotes short, one-minute trailers, rather than uploading an entire episode of a new series right away. Perhaps at first, your content seems to be unbearable but Slideshare can help you make it more user-friendly.

6. Discussing the blog post entry in a form of a podcast

Podcasts are constantly gaining in popularity. Maybe it’s time for your company? Why should you develop new content from scratch if it’s possible to create a shortened form and record it as a podcast? It’s another redirect channel and another news to publish on your social media – “we started a podcast” 🙂

7. Redistributing content with the use of new channels

You can publish the same content on different channels that haven’t been used by your company before. Scrolling LinkedIn? Why don’t you post your evergreen content that is always appreciated? Trying to expand your Pinterest profile? Select all your infographics and give them new e-life. Working on your newsletter? Create a welcome email for new recipients with links to key articles on your blog. They have probably never seen them before and this way you provide them with a valuable source of content.

8. Focusing on user-generated content

Complement published texts with comments of satisfied customers or employees. Check out if someone posted interesting comments that make your content more valuable. It’s always an extra reason to remind your subscribers about given blog entries.

Today, we’ve discussed only a few examples of how to recycle your old content. Repurposing is a creative and noteworthy task of a content manager so don’t forget about it in your daily job. But why should you actually do it? What are the greatest advantages of content repurposing?

Advantages of content repurposing

• It allows you to save both time and marketing budget.
• It’s a perfect source of inspiration if you don’t have any ideas for new topics – it’s always possible to recycle old texts.
• It helps to achieve better positions in Google thanks to supporting SEO, updating content, optimizing texts for relevant keywords, and tailoring them to new requirements of Google algorithms.
• It’s a more versatile response to the needs of your target group – some people like to read, while others prefer to listen or watch videos.
• A comprehensive approach to content marketing that consistently combines different channels and forms of content will be definitely appreciated by both readers and search engine robots.

Recycled content makes sense

Don’t force yourself to create new content. In many cases, recycling and polishing old texts is a much more economic and substantive solution. Incorporate content repurposing into your strategy and see how much value you can give to your recipients in a refreshed, refined, and more comprehensive version. You won’t regret it!