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Two things that all of us marketers are strapped for are time and resources. In an ideal world, we’d have massive content teams, producing vast amounts of quality content that we’d publish on multiple platforms.
But alas, that’s never really the case. I know from experience that this is where most of us find ourselves, and while the situation may seem challenging, there is a solution. I’ve found that content repurposing is a great strategy for dealing with time and resource constraints.
So, what is it and how should you optimize and measure it? Below, I offer my recommendations to help you get an edge in the dynamic and competitive space that is marketing. Let’s begin.
Related: The Best Way to Get More Results From Your Content
Understanding content repurposing
Let me start by laying out a few ground rules for content repurposing. While it is a form of recycling your own evergreen content, it is by no means acceptable to take someone else’s work and claim it as your own. Content repurposing involves making the necessary tweaks and adjustments to existing, evergreen content.
And yes, I am repeating the point about evergreen content again because it’s important. In a nutshell, it involves taking one piece of content and, much like the name suggests, reformulating it into something different, with a new angle and added value. Some marketers call it content recycling. Whichever name you prefer, the idea is the same.
Returning to the point about evergreen content, you want to make sure you are repurposing content that is always fresh and content that is performing well to make the most out of your efforts. In some cases, it is also okay to rescue older content that did once perform well.
However, the key takeaway here is that you should always adjust the content for the platform you’ll be posting it on. It’s not about simply repeating the same content across multiple platforms. It’s about redefining it so that it brings more value to audiences where they’re at, and it’s about helping your content perform better on search engines.
But are these the only benefits you get with content repurposing? Luckily, the answer is no. In fact, you can enjoy a much wider range of rewards for your efforts, among which include:
You can reach a new and broader audience
Cater to various generations
Future-proof your content against search engine algorithm changes
Higher levels of scalability
Reinforce your brand’s message
Search engine optimization (SEO) benefits through supported efforts
Improve your content’s return on investment
Introduce greater efficiencies in your content production efforts
Boost your content distribution
Achieve multiple goals
Improve the deliverability of your information
Save time, money and other resources
Establish a strong online presence
Spread link equity
Signal content freshness to search engines like Google
Related: How to Make Your Content 300% More Effective While Also Saving Time and Money
Repurposing content for SEO
Okay, as marketers, we are all familiar with different content formats. Some of the most popular ones are blog posts, videos and podcasts. However, there are also social media posts, tweets, white papers, ebooks, case studies, mini-case studies, online courses, press releases, webinars, emails, newsletters, quizzes and infographics, among others.
The beauty of all this is that you can take an evergreen blog post and convert it into most of these formats quite quickly. Let me share an example. Say that you have a well-performing how-to blog article on how to run a marketing campaign.
Your blog article may have some statistics in it. Why not repurpose these stats into a short tweet or a social media post? You can also take the key facts from this blog and create an infographic. But why not take it further? Create a video based on the blog, but make sure your video doesn’t just consist of reading those facts out loud. Add in a few jokes or interesting tidbits that will engross your audience.
When the video is ready, break it down into small and manageable chunks and then take this to your social media platforms, too. You can do the same for podcasts and webinars. The options are literally endless.
The point is to choose the right blog post or content piece to work with as you focus on rewriting parts of it, reformatting and reusing it. And if you’re thinking of taking advantage of AI content marketing tools to speed up your process and make it more efficient, by all means — go for it.
Optimizing repurposed content for SEO
Having reached this part of my article, you may be wondering why I am even mentioning optimizing repurposed content for SEO. I’ve already done the keyword research for the initial or primary piece of evergreen content that I’ve posted already. Isn’t it a matter of simply using the same keywords to ensure SEO success?
Well, the answer is yes and no. It all depends on the content format. If it’s a blog post that you are repurposing, you can still use your original high-search-volume, low-competition keywords. However, there is still some optimization work that needs to be done.
For example, you will want to ensure that your meta tags are accurate and different from the original content piece. Also, you will definitely need to invest some time in strengthening your internal linking. This will do wonders for your SEO game, and these tactics should by no means be overlooked.
Related: Revive Your Content Strategy With These 7 Powerful Techniques
Measuring the success of repurposed content
And now, having published your repurposed content in various formats on multiple platforms, you may think your job is done. This is unfortunately not the case. Just like any piece of content you publish, you need to measure the repurposed content’s online performance. How do you do this? Well, three metrics that I often turn to (although there are many others) are:
Traffic
Engagement
Conversions
Having covered the multiple benefits and some strategies of content repurposing for SEO, one thing I’d like to say as I reach the end is that the importance of repurposing content for SEO success should not be underestimated.
With limited time and resources, your content team will struggle to produce sufficient quantities of content of a high quality. But if you focus your efforts on creating a few standout pieces that are repurposed for multiple channels, you really do stand a better chance of improving your online presence.
