What’s the purpose of repurposing content?

Have you come across the phrase ‘repurposing?’ Well in the world of content marketing, us copywriters use it a lot and we do it a lot too.

Repurposing content involves recycling existing content and giving it a new lease of life. It applies to all different types of copy and can be as simple as turning a blog into an infographic, ebook into a cheat sheet or video into a presentation.

So, why do it? Well, it’s a really quick and easy way of generating new copy. With the rise of content marketing making content creation a key focus for businesses, being able to keep the content production wheel turning is a major challenge.

Developing new ideas and writing new pieces of content from scratch takes time, which people have increasingly less of these days.

That’s where repurposing content can really help. It’s a much more efficient way of producing new (but not totally brand new) copy. For instance, you don’t need to spend any time on the research side of things because you’ve already done it. There are also plenty of other areas it can help with too, such as:

SEO performance

If you produce one piece of copy that incorporates a particular keyword or key phrase, then you’ve got one bite of the cherry when it comes to your SEO rankings. However, if you produce multiple pieces, all based around that particular key word or phrase, then you’ll increase your chances of ranking higher. (Word of warning – don’t copy chunks of content across from one document to the other, it needs to read as though it’s unique, otherwise you could suffer rankings and traffic losses. This article explains more – https://moz.com/learn/seo/duplicate-content).

Audience reach

Not everybody likes reading blogs, some people prefer something more detailed, such as a white paper, or visual, such as an infographic. Repurposing your content means your copy will appeal to a much wider range of audiences, as well as increase the likelihood of it being viewed and shared.

Brand awareness

More content = more chances of your copy catching people’s eye. Over time, this can help raise awareness of your brand and position you as an industry leader. According to Hubspot, companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages than businesses without blogs. As you publish more content, Google will continue to increase your page rank, making it easier for customers to find you.

Message reinforcement

According to the old marketing adage, the Rule of Seven, prospects need to see or hear your marketing messages at least seven times before they take action. Repurposing is one of the ways you can achieve this without sounding too repetitive.

Extended lifecycle

Just because you’ve shared your latest white paper on LinkedIn doesn’t mean everybody’s going to see it right away. People are busy, they miss things too, especially with the wealth of information they have at their fingertips. Repurpose your content and you’ll increase the likelihood of your target audience seeing your copy in one of its many different forms, whether that’s next week or next month.

The benefits of repurposing content are widespread however, it’s important you take a strategic approach to deciding which copy you want to get more mileage from. Ideally, you want to be keeping a close eye on your stats and choosing the copy that’s performed well.

What’s more, repurposing may be a quicker way of generating content, but that shouldn’t mean you should skimp on the amount of time you spend on it. People will easily spot if your download wasn’t originally written for their sector or if you’ve only spent five minutes topping and tailing your latest blog. You may know you’ve repurposed something, but your audience shouldn’t.

I’ve only scratched the surface with explaining the benefits of repurposing content, there are, of course, many, many more. If you’d like to find out more about it or need a hand with repurposing any of your content, then get in touch. You can reach me on sanina@skcopyco.com.