The Genius of Repurposing Your Prior Content
Oh brilliant genius! Yeah … I’m talking to YOU. You are rockin’ your content. And I’m so proud of you. But let’s talk about getting more bang for your buck. As an Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant, I have been preaching content marketing for a long time now. I’m hoping the ideas in this post will give you some encouragement to make it an important part of your business marketing.
How would you like to post a really cool video to your site or – even better – create your own channel and post your videos to YouTube? Or, maybe you could make a fantastic slideshow and post it to a high traffic site like SlideShare? Maybe you even want to build your reputation as an expert in your field by posting a series of expert articles to an article site like EzineArticles? Doesn’t having all of that content out there sound exciting? It just makes sense to put yourself into the many places that people go to find content.
“But,†you ask, “How am I to create all of that new content when I barely have time to get properly dressed in the morning?â€
Repurpose old content into new forms
I’m so glad you asked that question, because the answer is simpler than you think. Simply take your old content and “repurpose†it into new forms; forms that allow you to generate fresh interest without the hassle of finding new stuff to blog about. Simply by finding new forms of expression for content you’ve already created, taking it to video, audio, and slideshows for example, you can really boost the impact of your content, while not forcing yourself to come up with a bunch of fresh ideas.
- Video repurposing – simply read a favorite blog post into a video camera and, voila, you’ve created a video post! Since video is one of the most powerful marketing tools available, and because of its incredible popularity, video repurposing may be the most cost-effective means of using existing content. Plus, the audience is huge, with YouTube alone having billions of viewers every day. Other wonderful places to post your videos include the popular social media sites.
- Audio repurposing – create a series of audio presentations from a popular series of blog posts you’ve already written. Post these directly to your website, or use them as a freebie to help build your list. If it’s an ongoing series, consider turning it into a podcast that can be published to places like iTunes, which offers fantastic visibility opportunities.
- Slideshow repurposing – by re-formatting and importing your text into PowerPoint, you’ve created a powerful slideshow presentation for your audience. And if you format the Word document properly, it’s a snap to create a presentation from it by inserting slides from a Word outline. Tip: H1 tags in Word become the title of a new slide, so wherever you want a new slide to start in PowerPoint make sure you’ve given the text an H1 tag in Word first. If you spend the time to create a visually interesting presentation with plenty of graphics, it’s an easy transition to take it to the next level with a video and voiceover. You can save yourself a lot of time if you think with the video as the end product, even if step one is the presentation only. As Slideshare is now owned by LinkedIn, you can expect some great integration features between the two to be coming along soon.
- eBook repurposing – where you again use a series of existing posts and, with some new formatting, create a brand new eBook to be used as a freebie – or to sell! There’s nothing quite like “author” status to boost your credibility on a subject.
- Article marketing repurposing – by removing internal and external links from your longer expert blog posts, you can create a series of article for the article publishing sites that will build your reputation as an expert in your niche.
One of my favorite sayings is, “Don’t Re-create. Repurpose and Reuse.†When you choose alternative methods of expression for existing content you can broaden your audience without the massive time-suck that creating new content can cause. If you are outsourcing your content writing to a ghostwriter or copywriter, you can save money by simply reusing the content you’ve already paid for in new and exciting ways. You can increase the power of the information you’ve worked so hard to offer your audience with new, more impactful presentation methods.
The benefits or content repurposing
When you repurpose content, you are able to …
- Spread your Existing Content over Diverse Media, showing you how One Piece of Content can become Many!
- Transform your Content into one Big Happy Family that Works Together to Create Influence.
- Re-Purpose Text -to- Blog Posts -to- Social Media posts -to- Articles -to- EBooks -to- Reports -to- List Building.
- Broaden your audience and bring more traffic to your website/blogsite.
- Keep your content fresh and interesting to the search engines, again improving traffic flow.
- Save time, energy, and money by reusing content you have already created.
The benefits of using repurposed content are many, and manifest. As the saying goes, “Everything old is new again.†So it goes for repurposing your content; creating new energy and new interest without having to burn old brain cells. Content repurposing is a strong element in any content marketing plan.
Need help with driving your repurposing projects? We’re here to help you, so just give us a call at 303-857-5228. We will help you extend your reach to a wider audience.