Over the past weeks, I got a lot of messages from our subscribers and blog readers that they want more tips for content creation. Many of you seem to struggle to create enough content for your blog AND your social media channels. I promised to provide you with some tips on how you can fill the need for content. One idea is repurposing content from your blog and other channels for various outlets.
Today I am writing about how you can re-utilize content and content ideas that you already used to help you create more content without going crazy. Repurposing content can be a huge time-saver and keep you from running out of ideas for all your channels.
What is repurposing content?
When we are talking about repurposing content we mean taking your existing content and using it to create more and new content for various channels. Repurposing content can include
- Updates to old and stale content
- Splitting up long-form content into bits for other channels
- Stringing several content pieces together to a more extensive piece
- Re-writing a topic to share it in a new outlet (for example as a guest post)
You can repurpose your existing content into new blog posts. But you can also repurpose blog posts into social media posts or even create ebooks or courses from it.
There are also options to repurpose social media updates into blog posts.
Benefits of repurposing content
Repurposing content can bring new life and new traffic to content that you already have and that aged over time. This new content is often much better than content that you create the first time. You learned more, data gives you insights into your audience’s needs and comments provide ideas of what you can add to your content. This all gives you the chance to create better content.
You can save a lot of time if you repurpose content – you already know the topic, you have resources you can use.
Most of the time, content is created with a goal in mind. Repurposing content allows you to re-use content for a new and different purpose.
Repurposing content also allows you to reach a new audience with content you already used.
In essence, repurposing content is about getting more out of the content you already created.
“You don’t have to create content day in and day out. You just have to work on getting the content you already have in the hands of more people.”
Derek Halpern
Which content should you consider for repurposing?
Not every piece of content that you have is suited for repurposing. Some content like news content has seen its best time and may simply not be worth the effort to turn it into a new piece of content.
Here is the best content that you should be looking for when you are thinking about repurposing content:
- Evergreen content
- Content your audience likes
- Content that needs an update
- content that lost some power
“Content repurposing doesn’t just mean that you reuse an old piece of content again and again. True repurposing requires that we alter it to make it fresh and appealing to a new audience.”
Garrett Moon, Coschedule
27 Ideas for repurposing content
#1 Collect a couple of Old Blog Posts in a New Post
You can create a roundup or collection post from your old posts.
For instance, if you have already written a couple of posts on one topic, you can create a new post: “All you need to know about THIS TOPIC.”
Do you need an example? I did a collection of tips for Twitter marketing in this blog post.
#2 Turn a short tip into a full blog post
Sometimes you mention a fact or tip in a post that could easily be a full blog post. For instance, you can take one aspect from a list post and write a full post on this point.
An example is a list of features and a blog post for an important feature as I have done in these 2 posts.
#3 Create a more in-depth new post
We all evolve and mature as bloggers. Even if we are experts in our niche, we still learn more. And we are often able to write a longer, more in-depth post after a couple of years even if we already covered the topic a couple of years ago.
Then it is a good idea to either create a new post on the topic or take the old post and give it a thorough update. If you update your post significantly, make sure that you re-publish it to show Google that this is a new post and deserves to be treated as such in Google Search. You can find out more about the value of updating old posts here.
#4 Turn a webinar into a video tutorial
Webinars are a ton of work because in most cases, you have to create the slides and work on the topic. If you do this work for a single webinar that may be some good effort wasted.
Why not use the slides and your text outline and create a video tutorial from it. You may even be able to use your webinar replay for this. However, if you try to sell in the webinar and do not want to edit the video, you can simply use the teaching part of the webinar, record a new video, and easily create a video tutorial from it.
#5 Turn one or several blog posts into a guide
As you can create a roundup post, you can also use several content pieces and string them together in one bigger piece of content. This can be a guide, an ebook, or white paper – depending on the blog posts you use.
#6 Turn a list post into a Slideshare presentation
Slideshare has some traffic power. By creating a presentation that you can share on SlideShare, you earn the right to link back to the original blog post. This way you get additional attention to your post – and can access a new audience on SlideShare.
#7 Turn internal data into a case study
If you have some data that is of interest to your audience, either from a social media project, a customer project or even analytics data, you can use this data to create a case study or Whitepaper.
You can even use the case study or whitepaper as a lead magnet to earn more subscribers.
#8 Turn a Webinar presentation or slide deck into a Slideshare
Creating slides is always eating up some time. If you already created slides for webinar or a presentation you should consider repurposing them into a SlideShare presentation to earn more attention from a new audience.
#9 Turn interviews into a whitepaper
Many bloggers conduct interviews. These interviews bring expert advice on your blog and have a ton of marketing power in themselves. If you have several of these expert interviews you can turn them into a whitepaper.
We have done so with interviews around SEO that we published on our former publishing platform. We took all the best advice from the interviews and published them as a Whitepaper called “The Experts Guide To Online Marketing” – it was a huge success.
#10 Turn interviews into an expert guide ebook
If you have some interviews that provide actionable advice for your audience you can also consider publishing advice from these interviews in an Expert Guide ebook.
#11 Turn a Quora Answer into a blog post
Are you active on Quora? If you are answering questions, you can use your answers from Quora and turn them into a new blog post.
Often we invest a ton of time into the answers we give in forums or on Quora. These answers are a grat starting point for your next awesome blog post.
#12 Turn a Quora Question AND answers into a blog post
You can also ask a question on Quora. If you get some interesting answers this can also make a great blog post.
Jonathan did something like this in his blog post here.
#13 Turn a Slideshow into an Infographic
Use (part of) your slides to easily create an Infographic. Infographics have tremendous marketing power. With slides and the right tool you can create your own.
Here are some tools you can use for your infographics.
#14 Turn a List Post into an Infographic
Most list posts can easily be turned into an infographic. Choose a template from your favorite graphics tool and fill in the list items.
I did that for several of our list posts – here is an example.
#15 Turn Statistics into social media posts
If you mention some statistics in your blog posts you can easily create graphics for them. These are great inside the post – and they are great social media content.
#16 Turn a blog post into a tip newsletter
Yes, you can share your blog posts in your newsletter. A short teaser text and a link will often do.
However, you can also take some tips from your blog posts and send them as standalone tips – with or without the link to the blog post.
#17 Turn a blog post into a podcast
If you have several content formats on your blog, you can easily use the same topics in various formats. Sure, you need to rewrite the text according to your content format – but the basic idea of the content can be reused.
Jonathan used several of our articles as ideas for his Podcast “Marketing in Minutes.
#18 Turn a blog post into an idea pin on Pinterest
Idea pins are new on Pinterest (as of summer 2021.) They are a sequence of images or short videos that have a special format. On mobile, Idea Pins show on top of the feed as Instagram stories. Idea pins stay active on Pinterest – in contrast to Instagram Stories that vanish after 24 hours.
Idea pins get a ton of reach and views and can tremendously help to push your Pinterest success. List posts and short tips are great to repurpose as an idea pin.
#19 Turn a blog post or a couple of blog posts into an ebook
One blog post may not be enough to create an ebook from it. You need to consider adding some value like images, takeaways, quotes, and extra tips.
A couple of blog posts may be better suited to turn them into an ebook. One blog post for one chapter of the ebook.
#20 Turn a blog post into a lead magnet
A blog post that solves a problem or answers a question can easily become a lead magnet. Create a pdf that your future subscribers can download in exchange for their email address. This can also work as a content upgrade – you may want to add a couple of extra tips to make the lead magnet extra valuable.
#21 Turn an old ebook into a lead magnet
Do you have an ebook that you sold a while ago but the advice is not quite up-to-date or do you feel it would need some additional work? You can still use it as a lead magnet.
#22 Turn a blog post into a guest post
So, you already covered a topic on your blog? Why not write about it again? Ask around in your blogging community if a blogger has an interest in the topic.
Need an example? I wrote about stolen pins on our blog – and I got a guest post published about the same topic on Social Media Examiner.
Just make sure that the guest post is a completely new text. You can reuse some images but never try to publish the same or almost the same content as a guest post that you already published somewhere else.
#23 Turn a blog post into a webinar
You can use a blog post as the basic outline of a webinar. A webinar usually needs a little more content than a single blog post but the story can remain the same.
#24 Turn a couple of answers to customer questions into a Q&A site
Questions from customers and your audience tend to repeat themselves. Why not take the most important questions you receive and the answers you have already written and use them on a question and answer page on your blog or website.
#25 Turn blog comments into a blog post
Blog comments often give great hints to topics for blog posts. Often you have taken the time and answered the blog comment with extensive content. You can easily take your answer and reuse the topic for a new blog post.
Do you need an example? I have written about how to find conversations on Twitter – totally inspired by a blog comment I got on another article asking for tips on how to find relevant Twitter conversations.
#26 Take Quotes from blog posts and turn them into social media content
Every blog post contains some relevant and interesting sentences. You can easily turn some of your best statements out of a blog post and create a quote image for your social media accounts.
Provocative statements will also help to inspire engagement!
#27 Syndicate your content to platforms like Medium or LinkedIn Publishing
You can syndicate your existing blog posts to other publishing outlets like Medium, LinkedIn Publishing, or even Quora Publishing.
You can use a shorter version or an older version of a blog post and link to the blog post on your blog for further information.
Syndicating content will allow you to access an additional audience – and build some smaller links.
Final Words on Repurposing Content
There are endless options to put existing content to new use. You do not have to repeat yourself or run out of ideas. You already have so much content and great ideas, you can easily speed up your content creation process by repurposing some of the content you already have.
