How to Repurpose or Recycle Content – Content Repurposing Guide

More than ever before, content is in the driving seat of online marketing. And you can’t ever have enough of something that is working for you, can you? That is what is happening to content creation! Content writers are churning out quality posts but it never seems to be enough for internet marketers. Today we will talk about repurposing content. What is repurposing content? What’s called content recycling? How to repurpose your website content?

What is content repurposing or repurposing content or content recycling?

Let’s begin the discussion by knowing what is meant by repurposing content. To be very basic about its meaning, let’s just say that it is using the same content in different forms. That way, with a core content material, you can develop several other forms of using the same content.

That will ensure that your content machinery throws up enough quality material for your internet marketing division.

Top 3 New Ways of Repurposing Content

Content is definitely the fuel on which brands run. Digital and online marketing teams have to work on content generated by writers in the team. However, with more content required to inject into various online channels, internet-marketing teams are using and reusing content through fresh, innovative ways. The content written by your writers is not the only source of written material at your disposal. In this post, we will look at some other ways to procure content and use them in your digital marketing purposes.

Make use of videos

First, make use of videos as a form of disseminating information. At conferences and seminars, speakers give away a wealth of information through their speeches and talks. Use these videos to inform your online users about your products and services. At various events, use the speeches in transcript formats for those who want to read rather than watch what the speakers are saying. You can even use the spoken word as material for your blog or article. This is a smart way of reusing content.

Post Insights & Learning Summary as Blog Post

Second, online readers want value for their time. A brainstorming session in your conference room will throw up interesting facts. These facts, if outlined in the form of a blog post, can make for some very absorbing reading material. The best part about using brainstorming transcripts as content is that potential clients and customers will come to know about the thinking process in your team. They will know your way of working, a fact that will come in handy when they want to pick a business partner.

Reuse old content in another form

Third, reusing one form of content as another is very much in vogue these days. They open up your options of reaching out to your online readers.

As an example, you can use Google voice typing tool in Google doc and convert a speech into a blog post or Video transcript.

For example, you can compile your blog posts in the form of an e-book or a newsletter. Your business updates can be expressed in the form of an online press release. Another smart way of reusing content is dissecting your company white paper into smaller, easier-to-read blog posts or vice versa. These posts will be rich in information, as a white paper, and will be useful for B2B marketing.

It is important to not just create excellent content but also use them optimally.

How to repurpose content or recycle content effectively?

Now, we come to the question: how to repurpose content? You can recycle or repurpose your website pages, blog posts, social media content or any type of digital content. Here’s a quick checklist:

30+ best ways of repurposing content

Top 3 Ways of Content Recycling or Repurposing Content Effectively

3 Ways of Recycling Quality Content Effectively – Image Theory, Donut Theory and Template Theory. Learn more about SEO content recycling.

It is a known grouse in every SEO team that they do not have enough content to feed their online machinery. There is no denying the fact that quality content is far cry in the world of hasty deadlines and against-the-deadline writing. Not just in the domain of content writing, but in the entire content department, including images and videos, there is a serious dearth of quality material. The creative department is never able to pull up their socks enough to work it out.

The solution to this pressing problem is the need to recycle content. If you have quality content material at your disposal, like an archivist, you have to ensure that you keep its imprint so that replicating the quality of the content is easier for future use. Here are some effective ways in which you can recycle quality content for your SEO team:

Working with Images: 

Images can speak a thousand words, yes, and when you alter keynote images and put up a similar show, those thousand words are replaced by another thousand! For example, if you have a successful banner ad that pays dividends to your SEO team, changing a picture here and there will suffice to use its success in similar banners across your online front. You can use the new ads for even different products!

The Donut Theory: 

Donuts are ad spaces within a video that can be filled up with images or texts. In other words, you can use different texts or pictures as donuts in videos, even white papers and e-books. The idea is to use the exterior and change the internal message core. The donut theory will help you develop numerous SEO spots without straining your budget or other resources.

The Template Theory: 

Templates, as you know, are frameworks that are customized according to different messages while keeping their exterior quite similar. No matter what kind of content you are creating, for blog posts, case study material or simple web landing pages, file away the template in your archive. Keep this archive accessible to all the team members. Use this template to create more content pages effectively and within prescribed time frames. Make a few changes here and there and you will find that you can use these archived templates in a whole host of places.

What to Do with Existing Content ?

Focus on content that are published and are probably lying underutilized. Categorize forgotten content into two types: underutilized and un-liked.

This is the time of conservation, be it in nature or in the digital world. You will notice how you put out content every now and then. Probably you promote them actively for a period and then you pick up the next piece. You forget about the previous one when the new one comes along. There is little sense in continuing to add content to the online world when almost none of them realize their true potential.

On the other hand, if the content you publish and optimize regularly clicks for you, it will pay equal, if not more, dividends for you. I’m not advocating that you give up publishing fresh content altogether. I’m only saying that you should have someone in your content marketing team to look after content that are published and are probably lying underutilized.

This brings me to categorize forgotten content into two types: underutilized and un-liked. The first category belongs to those content pieces that you wrote and promoted with much fanfare. However, after a time, you let them find their own feet. When they couldn’t, they hit a bottomless pit of underutilized online content. The second category is of those pieces that were not read, or liked, on Facebook or otherwise. While the previous category gave you some momentary gain, this second type never clicked at all.

You first job is to identify these pieces of content in your stream. The age-old friend in this regard is Google Analytics! You will find out content that got visitors but little shares or links. These had some visitors but they probably didn’t like what you offered them. You will also find content that has underutilized potential. For example, there may be opportunities to increase links or probably contain broken links to external pages. While you are at it, you can work on the keyword alignment for better targeting of readers. Hindsight often allows you a clearer vision that you didn’t have when you wrote the piece.

There are many ways to deal with content that already exists. Other than the ones mentioned above, here are some other suggestions:

• You are often writing posts on the same topic to increase the number. Clients, and I know this so well, ask for an increased number of posts when there are only a few variations of the topic possible. As a result, you have more than one posts on the same topic and none of them clicked! You can try to consolidate all of them into one post. That way, the reading material is more compact, less vague.
• A great way to use old content is to rework it. You can tweak keyword arrangement, like I mentioned. Additionally, you can use a different format to present those same ideas (Content repurpose or content recycle). How about inserting an infographic? Or a graph? The original piece didn’t work anyway, so you have the license to experiment and see if it clicks.
• The third way is by far the most obvious one: improvement. You had put out a page. It didn’t work, probably because it was not good enough anyway. Instead of blaming n number of reasons, accept that you did a shoddy job with the writing. Write it again with a fresh mind and approach. You will find loopholes without any provocation at all! Once it has improved, you may find more acceptability among readers.

With the writing out of the way, the next part is promotion. You have already tried some ways to promote the piece when you wrote the original version. This time around, try out those methods and include new ones as well. Consider speaking to other authors on similar topics. Share your work and try to get into the mainstream channel for your line of content. If you can get a toehold, you will be in a much better position in terms of content visibility.

Also, never rule out projecting the content from a different angle. You have burnt your fingers one with this piece. This time around, study your content well and then target readers online. Who knows, this time around, you may hit the proverbial cat in the dark! 

Do you have other ideas of repurposing content? You can share them here.

Related Reading:

• How to make your content viral
• Content marketing guide
• How to write engaging web content
• Content curation
• Content Shock