Content re-purposing is one of the most important things you can do for your business. But what is it?

In a word, content re-purposing is taking your existing content (a blog post, an e-book, an infographic, or something else you’ve already created) and re-using it in another format. For instance, you could take an 80-page e-book and turn it into a slideshow. Or you could take a collection of blog posts on a certain topic–say, a category–and turn those into an e-book. This type of re-purposing of your content is a way to reach new audiences with the content you’ve already produced.

Now that you understand what content re-purposing is, let’s talk about why you should do it. I offer these eight reasons you should be re-purposing your content.

Why and How Content Re-Purposing Benefits You

1. Reach new audiences – The best reason to re-purpose your content is so that you can reach new audiences. Not everyone likes to read, so if you have an e-book and you have faith in the ideas presented in your e-book, you can re-purpose them into a format that is more palatable to non-readers. So you might transform that e-book into an infographic, a slideshow, a video, or a webinar. Maybe all of the above. The same goes for visual content. Some people prefer to read, so you can take an infographic or a video and turn them into e-books and blog posts.
2. Re-purposing content is cheaper – If you’ve already got the content, then you don’t have to spend money to create it. It’s less expensive to take the content you’ve already invested in and create something new out of it.
3. Present ideas in a different light – Sometimes, you can take an idea that was successfully implemented and re-cast it in a new way. Putting it into a different format can force you to re-invent how you present the material. For instance, an infographic may lend itself to presenting certain information in a very linear way, but the information may not necessarily benefit from that presentation. Therefore, turning that infographic into a series of blog posts might help you reach new audiences, but it might also speak to the same audience in a more effective manner.
4. Recycle old ideas that are still good – If you had several blog posts that were popular and they were all about the same topic, you can take that popular content and re-purpose it into something else. If the content was good way back when, it will still be good today.
5. Take advantage of a new opportunity – Timing is everything. Perhaps a piece of content was a dud because you published it at the wrong time of year, or your audience just wasn’t ready for the concept at the time. New technology, trends, and even seasons can make certain types of content better for publishing. If you think an old piece of content would do better today because of a change in climate, attitudes, or specific condition, then resurrect that content and put it in a new format.
6. Update the information – What was true two years ago may not be true any more. You can take an old blog post and rewrite it to update the information. Maybe you have more to say on the topic. Write an e-book instead. Or cast it as a white paper.
7. It can save you time – Maybe you have less time now to create new content. Rather than abandon the content creation process altogether, take some of your old content and re-purpose it.
8. Capitalize on cross-channel promotions – When you re-purpose content, you can always promote your other content channels and the same content in its re-purposed format. This could lead to new visitors for your blog, new viewers for your YouTube channel, or new listeners to your podcast. Promote your most successful channels by re-purposing the content and driving new traffic to the original.

Content re-purposing isn’t anything new. Yet it saves time, saves money, and can expand your content marketing in ways that creating original content cannot. If you have existing content you’d like to re-purpose into an e-book, white paper, blog post, or other medium, give me a call and let’s talk about it. 717-253-2306.

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