Are you struggling to find ways to create new content for your marketing strategy?
Did you know that you don't always need to create content from scratch to be effective?
Repurposing content is a brilliant way to reduce your content marketing workload because you focus on a few key pieces of content and adapt them into other content formats.
This post will give you plenty of ideas on how to repurpose your blog content into new and exciting formats while saving you time and creative energy.
Looking for a specific format? Click the links below to take you to the relevant section:
What is Repurposing Content?
Repurposing is the act of taking something and adapting it for a different use or purpose. In content marketing, this means taking a piece of content such as a blog post or a video and adapting it for other content platforms.
Some examples include:
Blog posts into an eBook
Videos into blog posts
Podcast episodes into a series of social posts
Why do I need to repurpose content?
Well, technically you don't need to repurpose your content, but it's something you should seriously consider doing.
Repurposing content saves you a lot of time in the long run because you don't need to constantly create new pieces of content. Instead, you recycle old content to create new and fresh content. You can still create new content from scratch because by repurposing your older content you will have more creative capacity to do so.
So, what can you repurpose your blog posts into? Below are 22 ways to repurpose your blog content and save creative time.
22 Ways to Repurpose Your Blog Content
1. Social posts
A brilliant and efficient way to repurpose your blog posts is to take snippets from them and turn them into posts on social media. Making these social posts is also a great way to continually promote your blog posts too.
You can take the general ideas from each post and turn them into a series of social posts, or just one. Here are some more examples of how to repurpose your blog posts into social posts.
2. Quotes
You can either quote directly from your blog post, or you can pull a quote from someone else that you referenced in the article. This is an especially great tool to use if you wrote an interview piece.
3. Extracts
As I mentioned above, you can quote extracts and ideas from your blog post and repurpose them into social posts. This works especially well for LinkedIn, as extracts will be longer and LinkedIn allows for lengthier posts.
4. Threads
If you want to use an extract from your blog on Twitter, then making a thread is the best way to utilise this. With only 280 characters per tweet, it makes sense to spread your content over a series of tweets and replies. Plus, a thread gives more room for engagement!
5. Images
If you made some cool and unique images for your blog post, you can share them on social media and link them back to your blog post. This is a great technique to use for Pinterest. For example, I convert my blog post header images into pins which I then share on Pinterest.
6. Emails
Did you know you can use emails to repurpose your blog content? Sure, you could just share the blog post and be done with it, but why not put in the extra effort and add snippets from your post into your emails?
This depends on your email marketing style. If your brand focuses on bite-size chunks of information or relies on promotional marketing emails, you could add a small extract or key idea from your blog post in each email.
However, if your brand uses lengthier emails that are packed with information, you can repurpose your blog content into bigger extracts and ideas to share with your audience.
Here are a couple of different email strategies you can use.
7. Marketing emails
The purpose of a marketing email is to be short, snappy, and to get the reader to take action. The focus of a marketing email will usually be promoting something, for example, a new product or service, a live event, a webinar, etc.
Depending on what you are promoting, you can add a small snippet of a relevant blog post at the end of the email. This would be especially useful for webinars, seminars, and live event promotions.
8. Newsletters
The best way to repurpose your blog content into emails is to create email newsletters. Newsletters can be a great asset for your business, as they are a form of content that keeps your audience engaged and delighted without being too "sales-y".
Some businesses choose to engage their audience with regular newsletter-style emails, whereas some (like myself) choose to write a monthly newsletter. Businesses can therefore consistently repurpose their blog posts into these newsletters and include additional information for their readers.
The latter is especially important - readers of your newsletters signed up to be on your mailing list, so delighting them with additional information exclusive to your emails is vital.
9. Videos
Have you thought about turning your blog post into a video? Videos are a brilliant visual tool and they are great for keeping your audience hooked. After all, it's much easier for many people to watch a quick five to ten-minute video than trawl through a 2000-word blog post!
So, you can repurpose your blog post into a video, post it on YouTube or social media, and then add that video back into your blog post.
10. Podcasts
Similar to videos, podcasts are a great auditory or visual tool to use to repurpose your blog posts. Just like you can with videos, you can record a podcast episode of each blog post and post them either on your website or through channels such as Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Podcasts are also great for interview pieces. You can even reverse the re-purposing process! Invite a guest speaker onto your podcast, and then turn that episode into an interview blog post.
11. Infographics
Did you know you can make infographics from your blog posts? You can turn complex ideas into an infographic that makes it easy for readers to break down and understand. The visual aspect of infographics means it's easy to make data and statistics more engaging for your audience.
12. Gated content
Gated content requires somebody to fill out an online form to access it. You can repurpose your blog content by expanding on some of the points outlined in a post, creating a resource, and then locking it behind a form.
This resource could be as simple as a PDF outlining the key themes of the post in more detail, or a white paper report that explores a set of important data relevant to your audience.
The benefit to this is it's a great way of generating leads and funnelling your prospects. Only individuals who are interested in your business and offer will sign that form, so those are the individuals you want to nurture through your sales pipeline.
Here are some examples of gated content you could transform your blog posts into.
13. Email courses
You could turn one long blog post or a series of blog posts into a free email course. This course could be a series of five to ten emails that cover topics from your blog in a theme. For added value, consider adding bonus content to your email course that cannot be accessed through your blog.
14. eBooks
Do you have several blog posts linked by a theme or category? Take those blog posts and turn them into an eBook! Each post lays the groundwork for a chapter, which you can then expand upon and add value to.
15. Checklists
If you have a how-to post, turning your step-by-step method into a handy checklist is an easy way to create a gated resource. All you need to do is design it according to your brand!
16. Templates
Finally, templates are another form of gated content you can use. It is challenging to turn a blog post into a template, however, if your post showcases a method you use, you can repurpose that into a template. This works particularly well for how-to and "what is/are?" posts.
17. Reposting
Did you know that reposting content is another way to repurpose it? You can either repost your content through your blog, or you can adapt it for other platforms.
The key with this method is not to copy-paste the material (unless the platform permits it). You need to change and repurpose your repost enough so that it stands out as a unique piece of content. That way, you don't get into difficulty with SEO and copyright issues.
Here are some examples of platforms you can use to repost and repurpose your blog content.
18. Medium
Medium is a popular content platform with over 100 million readers. It's a great place to share unique ideas, thoughts, and insights, and it also allows you to repost your content directly from your blog.
The import function enables you to import your existing blog content into Medium without compromising your SEO on your blog post.
19. LinkedIn
LinkedIn has the option to post articles, which is another way to build your LinkedIn audience and grow your readership. You can take key ideas from your existing blog posts and expand on them in a LinkedIn article, or write a new take on your post altogether.
20. Magazine articles
Online or in print, magazines are a great way to promote your brand and voice to a wider audience. As with LinkedIn articles, you can repurpose your blog content by taking key ideas and expanding upon them when writing for a magazine article.
Bear in mind that many magazines may either request a guest post, or they might invite you to write an article for them. Always look at each magazine's terms and conditions and submission requirements before sitting down to write.
21. Updating your content
Finally, updating your blog posts and adding further content is a great way of reposting and repurposing. Continually updating your blog posts every six to twelve months means you can stay on top of current trends, and it's also great for SEO.
Make sure the updates to your content are significant, however. Just changing a few words here and there and updating the year isn't considered repurposing.
22. Presentations
The final item on this list is presentations. Using a blog post for a presentation means you don't need to scrabble around for new ideas at the last minute. You will already have the foundations in place with a well-structured blog post. You just take a blog post or two, condense the material down into bite-size chunks, and format it into a presentation!
This works well if you have been invited to talk about your industry or business. It also works well if you are hosting an event and acting as the primary speaker.
How Will You Repurpose Your Blog Content?
Content repurposing is an easy and effective way of reducing your content marketing workload and boosting efficiency. By focusing on a few key pieces of blog content, you can save time by adapting that content into other formats.
There are many ways to repurpose your blog content, and I've spoken about many of them in this post. They include:
Social media
Emails
Videos and podcasts
Infographics
Gated content
Reposting
Presentations
This list should give you a starting point to work from, and hopefully inspire you to get creative with new ways to adapt your current or future content!