8 Content Repurposing Tips

While we talk a great deal about optimizing content on this blog, repurposing content isn’t something that gets as much respect. So, I took some time to comb through our vast resource of information to put together a few tips from others that contributed to the blog.

Don’t Just Repurpose Anything

Avoid repurposing content just for the sake of creating more content. In the Content Strategy Collective Ask-Me-Anything (AMA), Mike Sweeney suggests looking for top-performing assets as they make the best repurposing candidates. If they’re performing well, that indicates people want more.

Consider Many-to-One Repurposing

Stop spending lots of time creating one big piece of content, hoping it performs well and then turning it into smaller content pieces. Instead, do the reverse. Work on smaller pieces of content, which require less time. Only when you identify something performing well should you invest the effort into turning it something bigger, like a whitepaper.

Remember Your Ideal Client Profile

When repurposing from one format to another, consider your audience and their preference. Choose your media based on how they prefer to consume content. However, if you’re exploring a new media and aren’t sure about audience preference, repurposing content can be more efficient than creating something from scratch.

Maximize Your ROI With Repurposing

In his webinar on content workflow, Rob Mills of Gather Content looks consider repurposing to be just as efficient as optimization because you’re not starting all over again. This can substantially reduce the turnaround time for content production.

Repurposing (and Optimization) Can Form an Effective Content Strategy

In a recent webinar on content intelligence, Lisa Deignan revealed that Lionbridge’s US Blog is high data-driven. Optimizing existing content and repurposing old material to perform better in voice search is a mainstay. They see voice becoming an integral part of Search, and they plan to be ahead of the curve, something to think about.

Use Repurposed Content as Supporting Material for Pillar Pages

When most content strategists think of supporting content, blog posts are what first come to mind. However, infographics, audio, video, interactive content, and commentary are other forms than can help build out those valuable topic clusters.

Understand the Strengths and Weaknesses of Different Media

Every media has its strengths and weaknesses of which you should be aware. For example, there are many good reasons for using the PDF file format. But from a search perspective, they’re challenging to optimize. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use the format, but it does mean you need to fully understand the choice you’re making.

Product Releases Can Be Great Candidate for Repurposing

The typical product release entails a large amount of content, from press releases to emails, articles, blog posts, and videos. While it may seem logical to leverage repurposing to create even more content, more isn’t always better.

In her webinar on data and content strategy, Jill Nicholson from Chartbeat explains that they went in the opposite direction. Instead of going for more content, which ended up underperforming anyway, they went in the opposite direction. Less content requiring less time to produce but yielding better results. Can’t argue with that!

Optimization and Repurposing Work Hand-in-hand

Anytime you look to repurpose a piece of content, take time to ensure it’s properly optimized. That applies as much to a video as it does to a podcast, infographic, or press release. Make sure to address all the critical relevant topics for your subject no matter what media format you choose.