How to Repurpose Content in Digital Marketing

Last Updated on June 4, 2021

Have you ever wondered how to repurpose content? Repurposing content is one of the easiest ways to recycle content so that nothing on your website is left stagnant or out-dated. When executed properly, repurposed content can save time, prevent writing burnout, and lead to more traffic. 

Additionally, repurposing content can help you:

• Squeeze as much out of your existing content as possible
• Creatively reach more people and broaden your audience
• Solidify ideas and remind your audience of your knowledge 

Here are some quick and useful tips for how to repurpose content in digital marketing:

Table of Contents

1. 1. Update old blog posts for SEO
   2. Send out an email blast
   3. Post on social media
   4. Create a video
   5. Offer downloadable content

Update old blog posts for SEO

Blog posts are examples of long-form content, meaning they have more detailed information than shorter bits of content like social media posts or emails. Long-form content is more labor-intensive to write, but its value can far exceed the effort.

Have you ever taken the time to look back at your blog posts that were written years ago? Chances are, those blog posts are probably a little out-of-date. The good news is, you don’t need to be constantly cranking out new blog posts when you can simply optimize and recycle the old ones.

How repurposing content can boost organic search traffic

Blog posts are a convenient pathway to get visitors onto a site. However, if your posts aren’t ranking well on Google Search, you have a slim chance of people finding you.

Using Google Analytics, check how many views your old blog post gets. If the post has gotten a significant amount of traffic, you can further improve it by bringing the information, sources, and images up-to-date to make the content as relevant as possible.

If on the other hand, your post has brought zero traffic to the website, it’s time to re-evaluate. There could be several factors impacting low rankings:

1. 1. Google favors blog posts that are long and detailed, so if your blog post isn’t ranking, it might be because it’s too short and lacking in information. Prove to Google that you have authority in the subject matter by expanding on certain sections, adding more headings and subheadings, and incorporating imagery with alt text.
   2. Your post might not be ranking well because the keyword is irrelevant to what people are searching for. To fix this, look up search terms that people might be using such as “how can I repurpose content?” Is it a common phrase that people actually search for? Also, be aware that you may have a hard time ranking for competitive terms that a lot of websites are writing about. You may want to focus on a lower search volume keyword that you can offer expert opinions on. This approach will improve your chance of ranking high.

Putting these quick optimizations into practice will lead to an overall SEO-friendly blog post that will have a much better chance of ranking.

Send out an email blast

Another effective way to repurpose multiple pieces of content is through an email blast. What kinds of content? Well, you could highlight or resurface projects, case studies, or blog posts. For instance, here at USDP, we tend to do a seasonal newsletter where we feature a handful of the best blog posts of the quarter. This email blast gives our audience several things to chew on and is an effective way for us to present our content.

Here’s an example from one of our own email blasts where we highlighted two blog posts together:

Post on social media

Get social! A quick and easy way to repurpose content is to promote it or re-promote it on social media. Social media can serve as a teaser, directing your audience to long-form content that will hopefully gain impressions. A successful post engages your viewers, activates your brand identity, and gives the audience a quick snippet of information.

For example, our social media posts range from recent project launches to blog posts to holidays. No matter the kind of post, we always point our audience towards a link that leads to a page on our website.

Create a video 

The truth is, most folks would rather watch a video than read paragraphs of content.  So why not throw some of your content into a video? Modify the content into a brief and conversational script. Create some engaging graphics, bring in members of your team to showcase the friendly faces of your company, and grab a good camera and mic. 

We use video for everything from testimonials to culture videos. Take a look at this example of our account manager, Courtney, explaining how to repurpose content!

Always include a call-to-action at the end of a video. If a viewer is eager to learn more or ready to convert, you don’t want to leave them hanging.  A call-to-action wraps up the video by pointing the audience towards another piece of content such as a blog post or an email subscription.

Offer downloadable content

If you’re looking for a way to present your content in a new light, a free downloadable guide or PDF is the route to go.

Free Guides

• Turning ordinary content into a downloadable PDF will suddenly give the content more authority and importance (plus, it will look new!). Creating a PDF is easy: break up the content into sections to make it easier to digest, incorporate imagery and graphics throughout the text, and add a call-to-action. Place this free guide towards the end of the homepage of your website to serve as a secondary call-to-action, as demonstrated below by our client, CLD Partners.
• Make sure that the content in your free guide isn’t short, sweet, and obvious, but rather informative, beneficial, and useful to a reader.
• You might be concerned about giving your content away for free, but there’s no reason to be. This free content will build reciprocity, “the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit.” The “reciprocity principle” has proven that valuable free content makes a user feel grateful and obliged to come back and do something in exchange. If you’re generous, people will respond. Think of these free guides as a gift to your user that will build trust and hopefully lead to the user’s return.

Gated PDF

• A gated PDF is similar to a guide, except the user must provide a piece of personal information such as a phone number or email address to access the PDF. If you are looking for a way to capture a visitor’s information for further marketing purposes, a gated PDF can be very useful.
• Avoid being overly aggressive or pushy. As much as you may want a visitor to sign up, you must be patient, gently guide the visitor, and allow them to decide if they want to opt-in or not.

Incorporate repurposed content into your sales funnel stages

Repurposed content must be presented to a prospective customer at the appropriate time, otherwise, it goes to waste. Knowing when and where to share content with a customer is key to a successful digital strategy. At US Digital Partners, we use a simple 3-step digital marketing sales funnel to gradually guide our customers towards converting.

The repurposing content ideas that we just talked about directly apply to the top of the sales funnel: increasing brand visibility. Rewriting blog posts to improve SEO rankings, creating video content, offering free PDFs, or ramping up social media presence are perfect ways to draw attention to your website and increase brand visibility. Keep in mind that the goal of the top of the funnel is not to convert visitors — the goal is to let customers discover you.

Do more with less

Repurposing content in digital marketing allows you to do more with less content and prevents content from going stagnant. Pick one of the ideas discussed above, whether that’s creating a free guide, or pulling together a video, and see how you can start incorporating repurposed content into your marketing content strategy. 

If you’re uncertain where to start, give us a call. We’d love to chat!