If your publishing deadline was yesterday, content repurposing strategies help you catch up and maximize your efforts. Beyond reposting, everything from PowerPoints to white papers can become videos or other creations. An eye for design turns plain text into enticing flyers, posters, or infographics.
Case in point: this blog. The original version from Oct. 2022 was under 500 words and featured a generic stock photo. It wasn’t optimized, nor did it cover what people search for on this topic. The call to action was weak, too.
The update is less of a makeover and more of a new start. It needed that much work. But that’s another repurposing approach: molding the existing “clay” into a clear shape. In this case, I turned a blob into a pentagon to make the content more interesting and less generic, which is crucial for rising above AI slop and gaining more leads.
What is an example of content repurposing?
- Using a paragraph from a report as a quote in a graphic featured in an e-newsletter
- Turning an email into a Reddit post
5 Content Repurposing Strategies That Help You Stop Wasting Content (and Time)
1. Find your repurpose – Two common content repurposing strategies are timeliness and popularity.
What makes the most sense to follow can depend on your business goals.
Example: An old blog about sharpening widgets is suitable for a refresh if you’re about to sell a gadget to sharpen them.
Seasonal content is also easy to reuse because it often doesn’t need many changes.
Metrics like these can reveal a winner:
- pageviews
- opens
- shares
- replies
- leads
- click-throughs
For instance, the original version of this blog sparked newsletter sign-ups and earned a decent open rate (33 percent). But the information gaps left room for improvement.
2. Tools and workflows – A basic standard operating procedure (SOP), template, or outline gives you a head start and helps you repeat the system. Based on the type of content, your plan may vary.
When I revisited this blog, I researched questions people ask, including overlooked subtopics. Then I used my blog creation SOP to rework the draft and considered missing information. I also reviewed the quality of the text and images.
AI aids in research, analyzing metrics, and choosing the angle or direction.
Graphics editors like Adobe Photoshop and Canva (especially with its many templates) offer inspiration, as can swipe files or libraries of proven copy.
3. Reframing without the SEO pain – Sometimes, cutting and pasting something published online elsewhere “as is” can work against you. It’s more of a repost than a repurpose.
Duplicate web content can get kicked out of Google. (Ask me how I know.) Try to trim or adapt the copy instead. If much of the new piece is the same, like a republished blog, link to the original post at the top and bottom, so Google knows which version is the canonical link, or primary version, for indexing.
If you’re cross-posting to Medium or LinkedIn, use their built-in “canonical URL” settings to ensure Google sees your website as the main source.
Get creative, because you have options. Vary the message. Consider changing the format, angle, or depth.
4. Adapting for different platforms – You might know you want to recycle a video script, but how do you decide what to turn it into? Popularity can guide your decision, which could also depend on your target audience and platform.
With a few tweaks, the script might become a well-received speech or a podcast. It’s like deciding what to post on LinkedIn versus X/Twitter. The audience and the feel differ slightly. One style doesn’t always work the same elsewhere.
I’ve reused my e-newsletter content as:
- a blog (linked from the e-newsletter)
- listicle infographics
- videos
- lead-generating LinkedIn posts
What you change also depends on the tone, length, and structure. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t hurt to redesign it to get you to your destination faster.
Once you’ve finished creating content, don’t let the value end there. Use these strategies for repurposing content in newsletters.
5. Track your changes – Measuring which content nets leads, impressions, engagement, or click-throughs helps you see what to double-down on, and can inspire new ways to reuse it.
Your decision doesn’t always have to be based on popularity. It can be based on the potential to gain more traffic, which is why I reworked this blog.
Tracking engagement might involve checking Google Analytics or adding UTM codes to links. Generally, links at the top of an article or newsletter, where readers tend to look first, could outperform those in the middle or at the end. Also, the results can vary by the platform. Orbit Media offers a useful UTM code formatting tool.
When you consider content to repurpose, to make it worthwhile, remember to assess:
- Its popularity or potential.
- If it fits your current marketing goals.
- Whether the topic is timely (in the news, tied to an upcoming holiday, anniversary, etc.).
- If you have templates, tools, or a process to recreate it efficiently, because it could require more work than it does at first glance. Think “reframe” (a piece), not “revamp” (the whole or time sink).
To get seen, it doesn’t have to be green. It can even be evergreen. If it looks like it has “curb appeal,” anything you’ve already created is fair game.
The right repurposing strategy turns past efforts into future action — so your best work keeps working.
How do you repurpose your content? Feel free to comment further below.
Content Repurposing Strategies FAQs
You might worry that reusing content often will overwhelm you, your team, or your audience. The four steps above can guide you. There’s no limit to how often you should repurpose content because you’re turning something old into something new — even if it revisits a familiar theme.
After you decide what to repurpose, this is the next step. A basic workflow:
▪️ Decide what form the content will take. Where your target audience spends time can guide you. If redoing the whole rather than tweaking parts could get stronger results, rethink the effort or adjust accordingly.
▪️ Plan how you’ll transform the content or where it will appear.
▪️ Adapt it to the platform or medium. Tools or templates can be specific to the platform or media (like video editors for videos).
▪️ Make sure the final content aligns with your business goals and brand voice. For larger firms, a style guide helps maintain consistency.
If you’ve never recycled content, it can be hard to decide what to recreate and how, let alone posting it to several places. Some methods take more time and effort. An easy starting point is a “cross-posting” method that involves few changes.
Example: Reposting a short video made for YouTube to LinkedIn. Shorts generally already have captions included, so you might need to make only a few edits for length or to rewrite the video description into a LinkedIn post that features the clip.
Example: Take one section, idea, quote, or clip from a 2,000-word blog and turn it into a social post. Think “bite-size” takeaway, not a full summary, which can overwhelm readers. Ask yourself, “What’s the most attention-getting point?” Again, the four steps above can help you narrow down your options.
In the process, you might need to make a new opener, a new ending, or other changes. For text-based posts, an eye-catching image from the blog — or a new one — can draw attention.
QUOTES
“Rather than waste or eliminate items which you don’t currently use, discover a new way to improve and enjoy their value.”
~ Susan C. Young
“Content repurposing is about getting the maximum return from every single piece of content you create. Content repurposing can take many forms, and there are lots of different and creative ways you can repurpose your content, but every content creator must repurpose.”
~ Amy Woods
