One of the scariest things you can do as a content writer is stare down a blank screen when you’re starting a new piece of content. That blinking cursor can be intimidating while you stress to come up with something — anything — to write.
Repurposing your content eliminates that challenge, by giving you everything you need to start building an incredible piece of content: a topic, key arguments, industry and topic research, and a CTA.
Last time, we talked about common repurposing mistakes and avoiding them. Today, we’ll dig into the nitty-gritty of the content repurposing process.
Step One: Identify High-Performing Existing Content
Begin the repurposing process by combing through your existing content to see which types resonated with your audience. This allows you to identify which content formats your audience is looking for and offer them more similar content.
As you’re beginning to repurpose content, start with the highest opportunity content first. Ask yourself a few questions. Depending on what type of content you create, some of these questions may not apply to you.
- Which videos have the most views?
- Which articles have the most clicks?
- Which podcast has the most listens?
- Which content is clicked on most frequently within emails?
- Which social posts exceeded expectations?
By starting with these pieces of content, you’ll have already identified winners where repurposing is a no-brainer. Once you’re further down the repurposing process, you can also explore content that you expected to perform well, but flopped. Maybe you had an awesome idea, but it just wasn’t matched to the platform.
Step Two: Familiarize Yourself With the Content
Dependent on how long it’s been since you posted the content, it could have been a few months or even years! Look at the content again to refresh your memory about what the topic was and which key concepts you discussed.
Visit any sources referenced to see when they were published. For old pieces of research, consider leaving the concept out or finding a new data point to accompany it. Do some brief research to see if anything new was published on the topic since you first created it.
Step Three: Consider New Ways to Share the Same Information
This can be the most challenging yet most fun part of the entire process. How you go about repurposing your content will entirely depend on which format the initial content was.
While it might seem intimidating to try and experiment with a new form of content, don’t let that stifle your creativity. At this stage, it’s all about generating as many different types of ideas as possible - even the ones that seem like a longshot!
Depending on the form of the content, this process could vary. Here are a few ideas to get you started…
- Blog post → Carousel posts, invite an expert within the topic to join your podcast, create short video clips breaking down the concept into a simpler form
- Podcast → A written article summarizing the conversation, social posts highlighting quotes
- YouTube Videos → Shorter, bite-sized videos for TikTok or Reels
Step Four: Determine Which Path(s) to Take
Once you’ve successfully brainstormed a list of potential ways to repurpose your content, start thinking about which are the most viable options. It’s likely that you’ve developed some ideas that make the most sense given your product or service and target audience.
Take this time to narrow down your list based on which ideas you’d like to execute first.
- Which ideas do I have the adequate resources to execute on?
- Which types of content do you think will resonate best with your audience?
Step Five: Execute
Now it’s time to act on the plan you’ve created. Depending on the forms of content chosen, this will vary widely. If budget is a concern or something is out of your wheelhouse for you or your term, consider outsourcing specialized content to an expert freelancer.
Step Six: Reflect & Adjust
As with any other marketing initiative, it’s vital to track the KPIs and performance of your repurposed content. Some frequently included analytics to keep an eye on are the number of likes, comments, shares, and website views.
It’s a good idea to not just look at the repurposed content, but trends across platforms as a whole. Do certain topics perform best on specific platforms? Maybe there’s one platform that never does well, no matter what you post — this is a great sign to divest from efforts here.
Make the Most of Your Content with Missinglettr
Repurposing your content is an essential part of a strong content marketing strategy. By following the steps above, you’ll be able to get new life out of your content in an efficient and cost-effective way.
Missinglettr makes it easy to distribute your content widely, for as long as it’s relevant. With Missinglettr Drip Campaigns, new blogs or videos are automatically detected and a 12-month social campaign is developed. You just have to hit approve and you’re off to the races. Get started for free.
