When I started on my entrepreneurial journey, one of the first things I noticed was that I needed to work smarter not harder. I spent money on automation tools if I needed to and asked for help if I needed it. One thing I do that definitely falls into the smarter not harder mantra is the repurposing of content.
[bctt tweet=”Work smarter not harder by repurposing all your amazing content” username=”ericajlerman”]
Brainstorming ideas for content pieces is not my favourite thing to do – gasp! but alas, we all have to do it. But, what better way to lessen the load than to repurpose content? The concept is simple, take a piece of original content, let’s say a blog post, and use the information to create a different piece of content, maybe a Facebook Live video or infographic.
Churning out content can be an utterly exhausting process – especially if you are a one [wo]man army. You don’t have to create content from scratch every time you want to publish something or engage with your audience. To help you on your path to working smarter, I’ve compile a list of awesome ways to take your initial work and spin it into something new and fresh.
Before we dive in, let’s take a sec to look at why you should be repurposing your content.
- SEO: Each post or piece of content on your site can be individually optimized for SEO. If your original piece of content was a long-form blog post, your repurposed content could be on a more specific aspect of something you initial wrote about. Your new pieces of content can be more focused on a high-converting, long-tail keyword, AND you’ll also have more posts to share on social media.
- Extend your reach: While some people would like to read a blog post or ebook, others prefer to listen to a podcast or watch a video. Repurposing your content also allows you to reach new audiences in a medium that interests them.
- Get the most out of your time and marketing dollars: Repurposing content let’s you extend the life of the topics you’re passionate about. If batch creation is your thing (and it totally should be if you don’t want to pull your hair out), you can create all the content at the same time, but publish them over time.
- Make your message stick: Studies show that while people only retain 20% of what they read, they will remember around 83% of what they see. Additionally, approximately 67% of people are persuaded by presentations with visuals. There is also the Marketing Rule of 7, which states that potential customers must hear your offer around seven times before they actually close the deal. Repurposing your content goes a long way in achieving this goal.
- Make the most of top-notch content: Make the most of your time and effort by looking back at your best content and repurposing it. Head on over to your Google Analytics account and check out your page’s stats (under “behavior – site content – all pages) Besides, you already know the topics that your audience loves through your analytics, so why not give them more?
Now that we’ve established that it’s a fantastic idea to repurpose your content, let’s get to the juicy details. The list below outlines the variety of content types you can create.
1. Blog Posts – Let’s start easy. This one is probably your launching pad for other types of content. It’s a great place to start as you are able to create it relatively quickly, edit it after it’s published if you need to, it has analytics available to you, and it can be a bit more informal to show off your stellar personality.
2. eBook – Typically a bit more formal compared to it’s blog post counterpart, the ebook is a great option as a lead generation piece. Ebooks also tend to be more authoritative. If you decide to create an ebook based on your blog posts, take the time to supplement with additional information or research. Add photos, graphs, etc. Make the ebook something that is worth the additional investment.
3. Podcast – If launching your own podcast isn’t your thing, it’s time to start appearing on other people’s shows. Podcasts are a great way for people to consume content if reading isn’t their thing. With the growing number of podcasts being produced, you are sure to find one geared to your audience.
4. Video – It’s time to start getting comfortable in front of the camera. Year after year, video content is gaining traction. Pop your video up on YouTube and then embed the video in a blog post.
5. Facebook Live Video – A relatively new player to the content marketing sphere, Facebook Live videos are taking the internet by storm. If you have a Facebook Page or Group take a sec to share the information from your original piece of content. I do weekly FB Live videos in my group and many of the topics discussed have origins in blog posts I’ve created.
6. Infographic – Ever thought about producing an infographic? If you have a lot of data, infographics are a great way to relate data or merely to break up an article into just the major talking points. I will be honest, I find that infographics take quite a while to create. Helpful hint: start by drawing the basic layout on a piece of paper before you hit the computer. You’ll save lots of time!
Programs like Piktochart and Visually are great tools to create infographics. Canva also has a more basic option for infographic creation.
7. Presentation – Interesting statistics, meaningful quotes, and actionable advice can make for effective slides. Presentation decks can offer an easy-to-read recap of your original content. Sharing these slides to a social site like SlideShare can provide additional opportunities for engagement. Remember that people will be consuming them without audio, so make sure the content on the slides is robust enough to get your message across.
There are lots of great options out there for crafting your kick-ass slides. Try PowerPoint/Keynote, Prezi, or Google Slides.
8. Webinar – Take the awesome presentation you just made and let’s go live with a webinar. These are extremely popular in the world of infopreneurs, course creators and service providers as it gives you the chance to show off your expertise and up sell your audience. Webinars also allow you to both present on a topic AND engage your audience.
9. Quora Answers – Have you considered Quora? The social answers site makes it easy to repurpose content either in replies to questions or as posts to Quora’s user blogs. Show off all your superstar smarts and get cracking by answering some questions.
10. Email Newsletters – Some content—either a single, in-depth article or a series of posts on the same topic—lends itself well to bite-sized chunks, which can be ideal for an email series.
Take this post you’re reading, for example. Each of these repurposing methods could be an email of its own by adding a few more instructions, examples, and photos. The foundation is already there, popping it into an email just extends it’s life and get it front of the people who love and adore you (your subscribers, in case that wasn’t obvious 😉 )
Recap
Repurposing content can be a big time saver for content creators. The more you do it, the more you may find yourself planning your repurposing options before you start a new blog post or article. One original piece of content can lead to dozens of pieces of content. Give the ideas above a try, I am sure you’ll find a few options that you like and get great traction with!
