What are your top three favorite movies? Books? Top three favorite foods?
You might be thinking that it’s hard to narrow those things down into such a short list. Well, we’re not sure we could pick movies, books, or food either—but what we can narrow down our list of favorite content—and we’ve created a lot it!
Not only are these blog posts fresh and fun, but they are packed full of information that we’ve been able to repurpose for use as templates, e-books, and infographics—which is very important in today’s world of content creation.
As a content marketer, creating new and relevant content on a day-to-day basis can wear on you—and take a bite out of your precious resources. That’s why finding new and creative ways to repurpose your old content—especially your favorite and top performing content—is so important. Not only can it save you time, but it can also win you new audiences while gaining authority as an industry leader. Pretty neat, huh?
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to repurpose your content, let’s make sure you understand what repurposed content is:
Repurposed content keeps the overall information similar if not the same as your original, but completely changes the format or intended audience.
Example: Transforming a blog post into a handy, visually appealing infographic.
You can repurpose content in two different ways:
Different buyer personas like to receive information from a variety of different mediums (pro tip: that’s a part of why they’re unique). Consider this buyer persona: A time-conscious business leader, always looking for the newest and best information right at their fingertips. For them, you could transform a blog post into an infographic, or perhaps turn an e-book into a brief slideshow presentation.
Or, for someone who wants to get their feet wet in the basics of a specific topic (say, website optimization), and isn’t so charmed by visual information, then perhaps dicing up an e-book or slideshow into a “Top Website Optimization Tips” blog post is the right move.
It’s all about knowing your buyers and what format they would find information most useful. To find out what works for your buyer personas, ask current customers how they like to consume information.
The has three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.
Buyers who are in the earlier (awareness) stage of their journey generally enjoy lighter information, while buyers who are in the decision stage and ready to purchase prefer content with more depth.
Content can range from super light (infographics, short guides, memes) to very heavy (demos, webinars, consultations). Giving your buyers quick, easily consumable information while they’re in the awareness stage is the best practice. Conversely, you shouldn’t throw basic information in a short “top-10” guide to buyers who are ready to make their decision. They need more depth in the information you’re giving them. After all, they’re basically experts at this point.
What’s in it for you? All this:
Different people use different channels. Repurposing your content through different mediums allows you to reach new people on the channels that they’re using.
Additional chances to target desired keywords means additional keywords targeted.
There’s an old marketing that a message needs to be heard seven times before a buyer is ready to close a deal. Make sure yours is heard.
More content broadcasted and seen by buyers raises your industry profile — and having a raised profile makes you an expert.
Repurposing content is a great way to save on resources, reach new audiences, reinforce your message, gain industry authority, and get a big and useful SEO boost. So take a look at the content you’re already created, see which ones have the potential to be repurposed, and soon, you’ll be able to name your top three favorites, too!