In today's marketing landscape, content is king. Every brand, from small local businesses to giant multinational corporations, produces content to help sell their products and services to a willing audience. However, while content is certainly valuable, the pressure to produce a never-ending stream of it can be overwhelming, particularly for SMBs.
One way to alleviate this pressure is to repurpose old content for new marketing campaigns. That said, we're not talking about a "copy/paste" job. Repurposing requires some effort, but it's often much easier and more convenient than creating something from scratch.
But that begs the question: how can you repurpose content effectively? Here's how.
The Benefits of Content Repurposing
First and foremost, what are the benefits of reusing old content? Why should a brand invest time and energy in breathing new life into an old blog post or video? Some of the primary advantages include:
- Save Time and Money - Even if you have a fully functioning content pipeline, it may require a significant amount of time and resources to go from ideation to publishing. Repurposing old content allows you to trim these costs and develop "new" pieces much faster as needed.
- Expand Your Audience - Again, repurposing doesn't mean copying and pasting old content into a new document. When done effectively, this process can help you find new customers and markets to strengthen your bottom line.
- Maximizing ROI - Just because you published a piece already doesn't mean you can't get any new leads or sales from it. Repurposing allows you to get more mileage from top-performing content or turn less-effective pieces into lead-generation powerhouses.
How to Repurpose Old Content Effectively
Convert Content to New Media
Content can come in many forms: blog posts, whitepapers, videos, infographics, memes, quizzes, and more. But how many of your current content pieces have been repurposed to different media? For example, you can turn a blog post into a video (or vice versa). Or, if you have a truly great piece of content, you can reformat it into every medium to get as much traction as possible.
This option works great for expanding to new audiences on different platforms. Maybe your blog gets a decent amount of traffic, but your video page is getting crickets. Repurposing old blog posts into video content may be the added boost you need to more subscribers and viewers.
Take a New SEO Approach
One of the core components of content marketing is keyword research. Most of your content pieces should be centered around a primary keyword and a few secondary ones. But what if you could reformat and update the content to focus on a new target keyword group?
Realistically, this option works best when you're focused on highly competitive keywords. By reusing old content to capture traffic from "adjacent" keywords, you can boost your overall SEO strategy and build better brand awareness across search engines.
That said, this process is tricky if you plan to archive the original content on your site. If both pieces are very similar, search engines may flag them, pushing your ranking down.
Appeal to New Audiences
When you create a new content piece, you should have a particular customer profile in mind. When repurposing content, you can shift to a different profile and update the content to meet their needs and preferences. Sometimes, this means adapting content to work on different platforms (e.g., LinkedIn and TikTok). In other cases, it may mean shifting the perspective of the content to address a different demographic.
For example, one content piece may have been created to appeal to single mothers over 30 who are interested in after-school childcare. You can repurpose the content to appeal to new or expecting mothers. Alternatively, you can adapt the content to appeal to single fathers instead. In each case, you're reaching new audiences with relatively minor adjustments.
Don't Forget to Update Outdated Information
One of the best sources for content to reuse can be your old archive. Depending on how long you've been marketing your brand, you may have content pieces from years ago. However, while they may have performed well back then, the marketing landscape changes rapidly, meaning they may not make a ripple today.
So, when repurposing old content, make sure to look at it with a modern digital marketing lens. Update any obsolete information and practice current SEO techniques. For example, if you have a piece talking about the potential of AI, you can update it to discuss how AI has been changing the internet for the last couple of years.
Content Repurposing is Easier With Marketing Pros
Overall, reusing old content can be highly beneficial when done correctly. However, if you need assistance in repurposing old material or generating new content, we can help. We know what it takes to give old content fresh legs so it can strengthen your bottom line and add value to your brand. Contact us to find out how we can boost your digital marketing strategy.
