How to recycle your content like a pro

Did you know that with a little bit of strategic cleverness, you can magically multiply a single piece of content, turning it into dozens of appealing assets? The marketing term for this is called repurposing. And while using the same content in other places sounds simple enough, it takes some know-how to do it effectively.

First off, if you’re new to creating quality marketing content for your social media channels, take a look at How to Create Great Social Media Content. And if you want to bring all your social platforms into one convenient Dashboard, as well as plan out content to auto-publish, you’ll want to try out a tool like RelateSocial.

Now that we have the foundation set, let’s look at how you can make life easier for yourself by repurposing your content like a professional marketer.

Benefits of content repurposing

Before we look at the how, let’s take a quick look at the why: 

1. Maximize Good Work – it’s best to create a quality piece of content, then leverage it really well, instead of churning out lots of mediocre content assets. This approach also lets you keep successful content evergreen because you can use it even years later.
2. Save Time – why use your time conceptualizing and researching something new when you can recycle what you already have?
3. Save Creative Juice – avoid the dreaded writer’s block, by repurposing content instead of trying to come up with something fresh every day.
4. Extend Your Reach – if you can quickly multiply your content, you have more chance of being found in search results i.e. organic traffic is all about getting lots of good content out there that people find useful.
5. Rule of Seven – while it’s not set in stone, the general marketing guideline is that your audience needs to hear your messaging seven times before they buy. Repurposing content gets the job done really well, and it doesn’t take much extra effort.
6. Digestibility – different people absorb content best in different ways. Some people prefer in-depth blogs, while others want short infographics. Repurposing reaches all types of content consumers.
7. Target Buyer Segments – one large content asset can be cut up into smaller pieces to purely focus on different stages of the buyer journey. For example, a social media post for the awareness phase, a landing page for the consideration phase, and a case study for the decision phase.
8. Strategic Exercise – thinking of different ways to repurpose content can open up new ideas and new ways of thinking about your content marketing. It’s like flexing your muscles at the gym.

Top tips for repurposing wizardry

What do we mean by wizardry? Nothing less than turning a single blog into dozens of pieces of content, almost like magic. Here’s how it’s done:

1. Blog Post

Once you have a great blog asset, these are the first things you can do to spread it around:

• Make Snippets – post smaller pieces of your blog on your social channels. Medium, Reddit, and Quora would also be good places to spread your content snippets around.
• Highlight Stats – interesting statistics are always a winner for grabbing attention, so make sure you highlight those bits in fast posts.
• Write a Takeaway – summarize bullet points of your blog and post it across your social media channels.
• Write a Followup – jot down some added thoughts that came up after you finished the blog. This could be a more personal perspective on the factual info.
• Guest Post – although Google etc. frown on duplicated blogs, you could write about the topic in another way and post it to other sites for backlinking (SEO) opportunities.
• Create Infographics – a quick type for ‘free infographic templates’ will leave you spoilt for choice when it comes to being able to take bits of your blog and turning it into easily digestible, visual assets which you can post on your social channels.
• Script It – this could be as simple as reading out the blog, with some generic video or images added, and posting it on one of the many video sharing platforms.
• Create a Signup Offer – you could combine your Takeaway bullets and Followup notes into a one-pager which your audiences get for free if they signup to your email list i.e. a lead magnet.
• Find a Similar Story – a quick bit of research using the topic title of your blog should bring up some kind of article or news story that compliments it.
• Create an eBook – combine related blogs into an eBook that you can offer for free as a lead magnet, or simply to show your audience you value them.
• Make a Presentation – if you don’t have design skills, it won’t cost a lot to pay a designer on Fiverr to turn your blog into high-quality slides that can be used in a video, webinar, or social posts.
• Keep It Evergreen – quality content never gets tapped out. Reshare portions of your blog occasionally. Old readers will like the reminder if it’s useful, and new readers will enjoy it for the first time. This is why it’s really valuable to have a social media manager with a scheduling calendar. You can plan your reposts and forget about them.

2. Video

Video content is a must these days, especially if you want to reach a younger audience. You may want to stick to using your voice only, but if you can manage it, people these days like to see a person as it brings a much more human touch. Plus you’ll have so much more content to repurpose.

Although not everyone is a natural on camera, practice makes perfect. Your blog subheadings are a good way to stick to the main talking points. Write down a few bullet points for each subheading to keep on track.

Pretend you’re talking to a friend. The main thing is to keep it as natural as possible. Some errors could even make you more likable, although you can edit out any bad bits. A few minutes per video should do it, as people have short attention spans. 

Be sure to add schema markup to your video so it’s more search engine friendly. You’ll also want to upload videos to your different channels instead of sharing video links. Some of the most popular video platforms are Facebook, Instagram IGTV,  LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube, Although more are seemingly springing up each month, like Rumble, Bitchute, and Odysee.

Now that you have some video content, you can:

• Add to Your Blog – embed the video to your blog post to see if it causes people to stay on the page longer. It’s worth testing out, some people swear by it.
• Create a Themed Playlist – by making a short video for each section of your blog, you can build a themed playlist on YouTube.
• Transcribe It – adding a transcribe of your video makes it more search engine friendly, and lets people watch with the sound off.
• Take Screenshots – instant images of your videos can be used across your social media channels, encouraging people to click through.
• Create Gifs – really short gifs that strongly get a single point across can be effective, as well as amusing, for social shares. 
• Create a Slideshare Deck  – this is convenient for content consumers because they can use the search bar to explore by topic. And each slide can be turned into a standalone post.

Facebook video tips:

• Uploading to the Facebook video library lets it appear both in the main feed and on Facebook Watch.
• Some say one-minute micro-videos are ideal, while the general consensus is that 60-90 seconds is the ideal length.
• How-to content is popular on Facebook. Focus on this rather than the statistics or opinion side of your blog.

Instagram video tips:

• The Instagram video length varies depending on the category you’re posting in. Stories have a 15-second limit, while IGTV ranges from a few minutes to an hour.
• Businesses can add links in their Stories, which is a great way to send traffic to your blog. 
• Bite-sized tips are popular. 
• Use their polling feature, it’s an excellent way to boost audience engagement and can give you valuable feedback (like a mini case study). 
• A live Q&A session based on your blog topic is another great way to increase customer engagement. 
• Use your blog to create topical interview questions with experts or customers.
• If you have IGTV subscribers, you can give them exclusive access to bonus content.

3. Podcasting

Those who aren’t fans of making videos are in luck — podcasting is more popular than ever. And with fan bases around almost every type of genre, from comedy to history, this is an excellent way for you to make your brand more interesting and expand your reach. 

But to grow a loyal audience, you’ll need to be consistent. Weekly is ideal. To get the ball rolling, here are some repurposing ideas:

• Be Creative – a quality blog could keep you talking for at least three or more episodes if you think outside the box. You could delve into all kinds of parallel subjects that take you down interesting rabbit holes. For example, say your blog was about the benefits and uses of an essential oil you sell. You could delve into the history of that essential oil.
• Dive Deep – take each section of your blog and really do a deep dive, including opinions, personal anecdotes, and parallel stories.
• Use Your Video – it’s easy to convert your video script into audio. There are a number of free tools to do this for you automatically, like Online Video Converter and Y2mate.
• Interview Interesting People – one of the best ways to get fresh podcast content without major effort is to bring on industry experts, or anyone really that has something interesting about the topic to share. Start off by building your questions around the subheadings of your blog.

Takeaway

This article explores the many ways you can turn a quality blog into dozens of pieces of content that will spotlight your business, reach a wider audience, and engage your customers. Repurposing content assets is also the best way to maximize your time and efforts. It brings a number of added benefits too, like boosting your SEO with a wider chance of showing up in searches.

The three main areas we cover are how to repurpose content into written, video, and audio forms. With a little practice, you’ll start recycling content creatively and effectively as a natural part of any new blog. As the saying goes: “Work smart, not hard.”

And the ultimate way to work smart is to use a social media manager, which lets you plan out, auto-publish it, and even track the success of each post. It’s the perfect compliment to ramping up your marketing results by repurposing content.