How to Repurpose Old Content to Boost Marketing Results

How to repurpose old content

If you spread information over various marketing channels, you can reach more members of your target audience and get a higher ROI from your content-creation investment. Repurposing doesn’t take much time, but the rewards are considerable. 

Here are four steps for repurposing your content to boost marketing results. 

1. Locate your best content. The first step is to review Google Analytics data and other metrics and insights to find your best-performing content. Adjust the date range to pinpoint your most successful blog posts, social media posts, website updates, newsletters and more. Compile a list of your best content at the one-month, six-month and one-year mark. Look at total page views, social media shares and comments to find the content that most resonates with your audience.
2. Tie the content to your audience. Most brands have various customers and prospects at different stages of the customer journey. They all have different needs, assumptions and pain points, which you can address with buyer personas. Tie each piece of successful content to one of your customer personas. This focus helps you write less generic content and more relevant, specific content that urges someone to take action. The more specific your targeting, the more your repurposed content will resonate with your audience.
3. Choose a platform. Where are your customers when they decide to buy? Go where they are so they’ll see your content. For example, to target Gen Z customers, add repurposed content to Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat. Choose three to five channels where your target audience will likely see the content.
4. Map out a plan. Jazz up your old content based on your desired audience and platform. If you have a blog post, consider repurposing it as an infographic, video, blog roundup, social media post, PPC ad, e-book, podcast or email marketing campaign. Of course, you’ll also need to beef up the original post’s content. For example, update it to add value and insight or include an infographic or reader testimonials. Data and authoritative quotes will also boost your authority and the content’s value.

It’s crucial to repurpose content so it’s engaging, relevant and convenient for your audience. If your audience isn’t interested, the content will not succeed.

Ways to repurpose old content

Here are some ideas for recycling your existing content. Use these examples as a jumping-off point to maximize the value of different types of content posted on various platforms.

What to do with old YouTube content

If you have an old YouTube channel, don’t let that video content go to waste. Instead, give your old videos new life and repurpose them into the following content types:

• A mini video series: Chop up a one-hour video into smaller, 15-minute videos for easier viewing.
• Podcast episodes: Update your old video and re-record it as a podcast.
• Blog posts: Transcribe the audio and post it on your website or vlog (some editing may be necessary).
• Social media videos: To improve your social media presence, post your videos on your social media accounts. For example, you can add an old video to your Instagram story.
• Video courses and webinars: Repurpose instructional videos as video courses or webinars.
• Lead magnets: Repurpose existing content to create free e-books, whitepapers, user guides and product description sheets that can be downloaded as lead magnets. 

What to do with old blog content

Blog content is a gold mine that can be repurposed in various ways. Consider the following ideas:

• Update old blog content and repost it on your blog. Update existing content by including more recent information or making it evergreen. Then, drive traffic to the new version from email campaigns or social media marketing efforts.
• Create infographics from old blog content. Take the important statistics or points highlighted in an old blog post and use them to create an infographic for your website, emails or presentations.
• Create YouTube videos from old blog content. Explainer-style and how-to blog posts easily translate into videos highlighting the same subjects.
• Turn old blog content into TikToks or Instagram Reels. If your blog post contains really interesting or mind-blowing statistics or facts, consider isolating that information and creating a short-form video for TikTok or Instagram.
• Use old blog information in Facebook or Instagram ads. If a blog post contains commercial content, such as new product introductions or new client announcements, it may translate well to digital ads on social media.
• Write guest blog posts using older blog information. Take bits and pieces of old blog content to write a new guest post on someone else’s blog or publication to extend your reach.
• Create SlideShare presentations from older blog posts. Change up the format, add some images and graphics to your blog post, and post it on SlideShare to get more awareness and traffic.
• Create freemium content from old blog posts. Use valuable content (especially if it’s behind a paywall) to create an e-book or video to entice visitors to your landing page and join your email marketing list.

What to do with old photos

Photos are valuable content elements you can reuse in several ways to humanize your company. Consider these ideas:

• Reuse photos on social media posts. If you have really old photos of your company’s founding and initial operations, post them on social media, especially Instagram, to help humanize your company.
• Reuse photos in carousel videos. Create a carousel video on Facebook or Instagram for a photo-based post or ad. Include captions or a voiceover to explain the background of these images.
• Reuse photos in YouTube videos. Use brand, product or personnel photos to illustrate your points or provide context for your videos.
• Reuse photos in blog posts. Every blog post should include at least one still image; original images (not stock photography) are ideal.

What to do with old testimonials

Testimonials are potent forms of user-generated content that help demonstrate your brand’s trustworthiness. Consider the following repurposing strategies: 

• Add testimonials to your website and brochures. Add testimonials to your website in blurbs or a ticker at the bottom of your page. You can also use them throughout print brochures.
• Use testimonials in social media ads. Testimonials are a great addition to ads because they give social proof that your company and products are top-notch and well-respected.
• Highlight testimonials in webinars. Your webinars should have a call to action at the end, and testimonials can help viewers feel more comfortable making the leap to becoming clients.
• Repurpose testimonials in brick-and-mortar signage. Nothing is more compelling when a potential buyer comes to your business than seeing the words of happy customers.
• Repurpose testimonials in email campaigns. Include a testimonial in each email newsletter or promotional email to strengthen your relationship with subscribers.
• Display testimonials on your checkout page. A testimonial builds trust with e-commerce customers and can mean the difference between a sale and an abandoned shopping cart.

The benefits of repurposing content

You may be uneasy about repurposing content, fearing that Google will penalize you for duplicate content or that customers will notice similar content across multiple platforms.

However, when you repurpose content correctly, you have nothing to fear. Search engines love to see valuable, updated content that serves your audience. And it’s unlikely your YouTube followers will care that you posted similar content on Instagram.

Repurposing’s benefits far outweigh the risks. When you repurpose the right way, you’ll reap the following benefits:

• Repurposing content can provide an SEO boost. Repurposing can be part of your small business SEO strategy. Search engines want to see that you’re updating old content. It shows you care about improving the user experience. You can get more SEO juice out of an old blog just by updating it.
• Repurposing content saves time. Everybody is strapped for resources. Repurposing requires less time and offers rewarding results. It also means you don’t have to crank out new content all the time and can focus on other things.
• Repurposing content can increase your views. Reach new audiences on various platforms by repurposing your content. Repurposing content helps drive website traffic and attract customers into the sales funnel.
• Repurposing content boosts your content strategy ROI. You already put in time and effort to create your original content. With just a little more work, you can spread your content far and wide, building credibility in the market, generating qualified sales leads, and ultimately increasing sales.
• Repurposing content helps you accomplish new goals. Sometimes, your original goal may change, but the content is still valuable. For example, your original blog post may have introduced your new business to prospects. However, now that you’re established, you may want to include that content when writing a company history for prospects to increase their comfort level. Or, add that content to your website’s About page so people can learn about your business.
• Repurposing content helps you share valuable information. You may discover that some content pieces drive excessive web traffic. Capitalizing on that information’s popularity by spreading it to other platforms makes sense.
• Repurposing content helps you get the most from evergreen content. Some content ages better than others. Evergreen content is ripe for repurposing. You should update more time-dependent content before reusing it. 

Getting more out of your content investment

You invest significant energy into content creation, so don’t let older efforts disappear into the ether. Repurpose them to get the most out of your content investment. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you write content. Instead, get more views, engagement and sales with content that works for you again and again.