Written by, Erin Stuebing

Small business owners across industries often run into the same roadblock when it comes to their content, and marketing strategy in general: lack of resources. Meaning, they do not have the time or money they need to consistently produce new content. This is where repurposing content comes in!

What Does Repurposing Mean?

Repurposing content refers to the process of taking a piece of existing content and transforming it into several pieces of content to be published across channels. This allows that same key message and/or topic to be delivered through different avenues, expanding your reach.

Remember, while you are looking to expand the quantity of content, quality is still just as important. Each piece of content should be reformatted to deliver your message in a meaningful and valuable fashion. 

Turning a blog into a podcast? Do not simply read the blog in monotone and call it a day; not a single person would willingly listen to that. Put some effort and creativity into each diversification of your content. You will reap the benefits.

Why You Should Consider It

SEO

In terms of generating leads, repurposing your top-performing content and distributing it across several channels is one of the greatest methods you can practice to improve your search engine optimization(SEO) ranking. This is done by using backlinks, meaning that each piece of reformed content should include the link back to the original piece. 

Save Time and Money

 You know that “not enough time or money”problem we discussed earlier? That is the exact issue content repurposing addresses. After publishing just one blog post, you can simply pull information directly from that and produce numerous pieces of “fresh” content across different channels. I know, it feels like cheating the system, doesn’t it?

Expand Your Audience

 Your audience is full of people who may have similar interests but learn in different ways. Let’s say you take one of your existing blogs, and reformat it into infographics, video clips, and a work sheet or quiz. You will start to see growth in your business leads as you expand your reach by delivering your message in different, creative ways that register with these different styles of learning:

• Visual:  need to see information (graphics, reading)
• Auditory:  need to hear (videos, audio files)
• Kinesthetics: need to touch or move (exercises, writing)

‍

Social Media Presence

 Social media is often daunting to small business owners, not only because they lack the resources, but because they have no clue where the heck to begin. Where is my brand voice going to be heard? Where is it going to be valuable?

Let’s say you get just one blog published on your website, and it is performing well. How can you diversify from there? One blog post can be repurposed as:

· Youtube video(s)

· Podcast

· LinkedIn Post(s)

· Facebook Post(s)

· Twitter Post(s)

· Instagram Post(s)

· Newsletter

· Pinterest Pin(s)

· Slidedeck

· PDF Download

· E-Book

· Etc.

The options seem endless now, don’t they?Don’t be afraid to get creative with it and experiment.

How to Find Top Performing Content

 Top performing content refers to the pieces of content, or pages, that are at the top of your analytics rankings (AKA, they are the most viewed by users). They have proven to drive the most traffic to your website, so you already know there is interest and a potential audience ready for your content.  

Google Analytics

 In Google Analytics, you can see where each page, or blog, on your website ranks for views and clicks in “Page views”. Here you can quickly see which pages are raking in the most views and leads and pull content from those. It is up to you to expand on and optimize the success of the blog.

Source

Social Media Insights

On top of using Google Analytics, insights on your social media platforms will show you which posts, or articles, have reigned in top engagement. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, andLinkedIn all provide these insights and more. 

Example:

 Source

Pay attention to what topics, ideas, or messages these top posts include. Again, the proof of interest is already apparent, and it is now in your hands to optimize. 

How Do You Repurpose? Examples from the Best

It’s time to try your hand at repurposing content, where do you even begin? Try to have fun with it! Get creative, experiment, and see what starts to generate leads. One of the best things about content marketing is that nothing is written in stone, so try not to over think your first steps.

Here are some examples of successful content repurposing strategies:

1.   Copyblogger

Copyblogger recognized that their specific blog, “The 3 Step Journey of a Remarkable Piece of Content” was performing exceptionally well. The company took advantage and ran with it, turning the blog into a Slide share, which has pulled in 94,150 views as of today.

Source

2.   Convince and Convert

The marketing team at Convince and Convert hadheard about all the buzz around repurposing content and decided to give it a try. They used the founder of the company, Jay Baer, as the face of Jay Today TV. In short video clips, Jay offered marketing and business advice. 

Here’s the kicker, every video clip was reformatted and published as blog content on their website, audio podcasts, video podcasts, LinkedIn Pulse posts, Medium posts, and promotions across social media channels.

Source

3.   Matthew Woodward

In 2015, SEO wizard Matthew Woodward saw the opportunity to expand his reach when his blog “How to Use LinkedInPulse for Traffic Generation Step-by-Step” proved to be a big success. He decided to run with it and began sharing his blog content and repurposing it as multiple posts on LinkedIn.

Shortly after, Matthew gained over 300 new subscribers with a whopping 76% conversion rate.

Source

Your Turn

 Content repurposing is the optimal way for small businesses to maximize their content marketing efforts. Remember, one great piece of content can lead to numerous content pieces while saving you both time and money. Wondering if it is a worthwhile strategy for your small business? Give it a shot and see what happens! If you have further questions or concerns, our team at AMG has answers. Contact us to chat about your content marketing strategy.