For content marketers, the phrase“content is king” is everywhere. Chances are, if you’ve heard this phrase once, you’ve most likely heard it a dozen times, and the phrase might have lost its intended meaning.
Knowing that content is important to any marketing campaign is one thing, but what does high-quality content really mean? There are many factors to consider when creating your brand’s content strategy, from the content formats and keywords to the editorial calendar and how often you choose to post.
Every time you create, publish, edit and strategize your content, you must do so with a purpose. It’s simply not enough to write a few blog posts every month and hope to stay relevant. Instead, we suggest a mix of creating fresh content while looking at past content you’ve created and repurposing them to meet your new marketing goals. Marketers should also consider how they can incorporate thought leadership content into their strategy, whether through content licensing or bespoke content services. Licensed content gives organizations the chance to repurpose content written by industry experts without having to waste valuable resources.
Additionally, repurposing your old content doesn’t mean that your past work is going to waste. Rather you will be analyzing, updating and revitalizing the pieces to meet your content marketing goals. Repurposing content is a little-known trick to ensuring that your content works as hard as you do — here’s a guide to everything you need to know about this marketing tactic.
What Does It Mean to Repurpose Content?
Simply speaking, repurposing content is the process of reusing assets or other content pieces in new formats and across different channels. It can involve taking outdated content and refreshing it to better meet your goals. Note, however, that the phrase “repurpose” can be subjective, as recycling content can take multiple forms.
Depending on where you see gaps in your content, you might find yourself manually rewriting blogs based on new industry trends, retargeting your ads toward a different audience or adding new messaging to reinforce and adjust your information in a brand-new way. You may also choose to license articles that have been previously published by world-renowned publications to add more depth to topics your content team is already covering.
What Is a Content Repurposing Strategy?
A content repurposing strategy involves reusing old content in a new way so that you can continue reaping its benefits. It is the process of taking a long, hard look into what content you have already produced, and how you can change things up.
The first step in repurposing content is to conduct an audit. Marketers will need to identify which pieces have performed well in terms of specific metrics such as website visits, lead generation or brand awareness. Marketers will then need to assess if it makes sense to convert these assets into new formats (for example, creating a white paper out of a webinar). They will also need to identify if content pieces will need to be rewritten or refreshed. The final step is identifying where marketers can outsource repurposed content. By licensing content from industry leaders, marketers can supplement any gaps in their current strategy without expanding additional resources.
How to Decide Which Content to Repurpose
If you have a ton of content to choose from, it may be overwhelming on where to start. Here are a few steps you can take when deciding which pieces of content need repurposing.
1. Know your purpose and have some clear goals in mind.
You’ll want to repurpose content if your overall goals have changed, there have been big changes in your industry or you are noticing that some of your content isn’t performing the way it used to.
2. Audit your existing content.
Look for content that matches your new marketing goals. Remember, you may not need to go overboard when repurposing your content as simple edits and tweaks can be all that’s needed to pack a punch.
3. Iterate on your high-performing content.
Find the blogs that have performed the best, and update them to be more relevant.
4. Research your competitors.
See if you have any pieces of content that match theirs. Evaluate whether the content is being received well by their audience and if they are presenting information in a different way that you can utilize for your website.
5. Research content licensing packages.
Repurposed content from industry-leading publications can be used to further supplement your existing strategy.
What Are the Benefits of Content Repurposing?
Need convincing to repurpose your content? Here are some benefits that come with this marketing tactic.
Save Time and Resources
Creating fresh content is a ton of work, requiring time you may not have. Reusing or scaling down a piece of content requires less time than brainstorming and creating something fresh from scratch.
Boost Your SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is constantly changing with consumer habits and new search engine algorithm updates. In order to stay relevant, you’ll need to refresh your website’s keywords to ensure they actually match your customer’s search intent. As a best practice, you should aim to check on your keyword’s performance every month.
Reach New Audiences
One of the goals of repurposing content is to reach a new audience that you couldn’t or weren’t able to target the first time around. Oftentimes, when you repurpose a piece of content by rewriting it or promoting it on a new social media platform, you’re able to place your content in front of audiences you haven’t accessed before. Additionally, by testing new formats, you’ll be able to engage with new audiences who may opt to consume content differently.
Reinforce a Message
Repurposing a piece of content allows you to reinforce a message that your company and brand want to push to consumers. It is not only about what you say but how you say it. When you repurpose a piece, you can retain your message while tweaking exactly how it is presented to the audience.
Drive Traffic
Above anything else, the goal of your content marketing strategy is to drive people to your website. So repurposing content and finding fresh ways to promote your message allows consumers to find your content in new ways while helping drive users to your website.
Grow Your Business and Brand
By leveraging repurposed content, you can grow your business and brand by creating content on a more consistent and timely basis. For marketers looking to stand out, creating high-quality content at regular intervals is extremely important.
A Content Repurposing Strategy: Steps to Get Started
Depending on the resources you have available, the following steps can help you get started on your content repurposing journey. It’s important to note that these steps do not have to be done in chronological order; rather take what ideas work for you and go from there.
Identify Evergreen Content
By definition, evergreen content is content that is not time-sensitive. This type of content can be powerful for your brand as these pieces can be completely customizable to meet your needs. Content that isn’t focused on a specific period in time can be repurposed with new stats and by expanding the word count for a more thorough piece.
Look at What’s Performed Well
As mentioned before, it’s worth taking a dive into your website’s analytics to see which posts have consistently performed the best. Once you find a few pieces, all you have to do is refresh or enhancethe content. Overall, this will be an easy win, since you already know that your target audience likes how the content and message were presented.
Experiment With Content Types
There’s more than one way to tell a story, so don’t feel afraid to experiment with different content types. You can try turning a blog post into multiple social media posts, an infographic into a case study, or even creating a video to broadcast an old story. As long as your overall message stays the same, different content types can help you find new audiences across multiple platforms.
Look to Industry Publications
Many publications offer copyright licenses, so your content team can reuse or republish articles and photographs. These articles have already been proofread for errors and accuracy. Images from leading photojournalists can also add more depth to a story. Outsourcing content development is a common strategy for businesses looking to expand their offerings. Seventy-five percent of large B2B organizations are outsourcing at least some of their content (up from 61% last year).
Examples of Content Repurposing
There are plenty of ways you can repurpose your content into different formats. Here are some examples to get you inspired.
Turn a blog into a podcast.
If you have plenty of different blog posts around the same theme, you can easily make podcast episodes summarizing each post in detail.
Create an infographic based on a case study.
Take all of the information, such as stats and hard data, that would be pertinent to your audience, and make it graphically appealing.
Build a Pinterest board.
Take all of your graphics and put them in one place on a Pinterest board.
Post on social media.
Turn quick blurbs and stats into visual posts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Turn interviews into eBooks.
An eBook is a fantastic way to compile all your informational interviews in one place.
Create a comprehensive how-to guide from old blog posts.
Condense information from multiple posts into one central place you can reference.
An Easier Way to Repurpose Content With Copyright Licensing
Another way to save time and resources is by licensing content. Utilizing content from publications like The New York Times will enhance your brand authority and establish yourself as a thought leader in your space. To help you meet your marketing goals, NYTLicensing can create packages with a variety of content offerings that speak directly to your target audience.
What exactly is licensed content? This is content that has already been brainstormed, created, published and promoted by a reputable publication in your space. Your agreement with them allows you to use their content’s success to propel your own content strategy forward. Some NYTLicensing examples include:
AdvisorStream building brand credibility and conversions through licensed content.
American City Business Journals seamlessly integrating The New York Times journalism into its website.
Radio Globo, Brazil’s largest radio network, choosing a program refresh with The New York Times content.
Final Thoughts
Repurposing your current content is one of the best methods to ensure your content works for you and your overall marketing strategy. Best of all, repurposing content doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task; there are plenty of quick-fix options available to help change your content from old and stale to new and refreshing overnight.
Content licensing is also a fantastic method of repurposing already successful content to meet your needs. If you are interested in learning more about how content licensing from NYTLicensing can help you, we invite you to explore more here.
