Good content is the backbone of every marketing strategy. It helps with SEO and conversions, it keeps you in people’s minds, and it also helps you convey your brand messages to your target audience.
When it comes to creating new, exciting and engaging content, the struggle is real. Even if you have the best ideas in the world, finding the time, or the people, to turn them into outstanding pieces of content can be a real challenge.
Yet to keep up with the fast paced world in which we live, you need to find ways to overcome this challenge. And a great way to do this is to repurpose some of your old content so that it continues to add value.
Let’s be clear about one thing: we are not simply reusing content. Instead, we’re using it in a new way so that it continues to be relevant, helps us reach a new audience, or improves the way in which we can connect with those consuming it.
This is really important, for once you figure out the difference between reusing and repurposing, then you’ll start seeing loads of opportunities to make old content keep working for you. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Why bother?
But first, let’s ask: why should we even both with old content? In a world where everyone wants the next best thing, why would we want to keep using the old stuff? Well, in the end, it comes down to ROI. Good content is tough to produce, but it’s still good content. People will want it no matter what. So instead of sinking a huge chunk of our budgets into constantly looking for new content, we can look at some of our old content and tweak it so that we can get more bang for our buck.
For this to work, you need to be sure the content you do create is detailed and in-depth. You need to have a solid base upon which to work, otherwise your repurposing efforts will come off as though you’re trying to get away with reusing something. Studies, analyses, and anything where stats or graphs can be created are great, as these give you lots of options for how to present the information.
Tactic 1: Update content
One of the first things you can do to repurpose your content is update it. Things are changing all the time, and it’s important to be up-to-date. And, Google likes to see that you’re updating your pages, as this signals that your site is active and being maintained.
Good examples of this are when review sites review a product or service each year. Even if there aren’t that many changes, by doing an update, you’re showing people that you’re aware and informed about what’s going on in the market. You’ll also also be able to produce better reviews since you can point out where the biggest changes have been made, building on the previous version.
This is also great for buying guides. For example, take a look at this review for noise canceling headphones. It’s for 2018, but the buying guide, which tells people everything they need to know about buying high-quality headphones, is evergreen.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/topics/headphones/best-headphones/noise-canceling/
So all the folks working for this site have to do is spend a little time each year researching and reviewing the new models, and voila, they have a brand new piece of content that’s in-depth and useful.
Tactic 2: Optimize it
It’s really worthwhile spending some time optimizing your content. As you move along with your business, you’re going to find out more about what your audience likes. For example, do they like a friendly, personal tone of voice, or are they more interested when you write something funny? Do they respond well to visuals, or do they prefer reading text on the page?
You can do market research before you begin, but the best way to answer these questions is to try some stuff out and see what works and what doesn’t. After you’ve had a chance to determine what was successful, go back and alter your previous content to embody this winning strategy. That way, when people land on these old pages, they’ll be more likely to respond to your CTAs, which in turn will help improve conversions and increase the value of your content.
Tactic 3: Convert it into something else
If you’re trying to make some old content new again, or if you’re trying to repurpose it, then simply converting it into something else bring great dividends. A really good example of this is when people post the transcript of their podcast, something that works especially well when you’re doing an interview.
Why does this work? Well, it’s simple: people like different things. Your entire audience may be interested in what you have to say, but not everyone listens to the podcast, or reads the blog. So to make sure you’re reaching as many people as possible, and therefore getting as much value from your audience as you can, think about turning blog posts into videos, videos into blog posts, podcasts into social media posts, and so on. There’s really no limit to what you can do, and it will make you more successful at reaching your target audience.
Tactic 4: Create visuals
A great way to repurpose old content is to make it visual. People love looking at images, graphs, memes, GIFs, and any other form of audiovisual content you can think of. It’s proven that visual information is processed more quickly and retained better, and there are now super creative ways to present data visually.
Source: http://duelingdata.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-beatles.html
While there will always be a place for the written word, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t take what you’ve written and present it in a different way. Tools such as Canva and Piktochart can help you create beautiful visual representations of your written content.
Perhaps the best thing you can do here is to create infographics. If you’ve spent time pulling together data about a particular subject, then use an infographic like your executive summary. You can post it to social media, and this will help you drive more traffic to your site, which, if properly optimized, will help raise revenues.
There’s no such thing as old content
Marketing isn’t journalism. There is no cycle that makes everything eventually go irrelevant. Instead, if you do your job right, you can create content that can enjoy great initial success but also continues to provide value for a long, long time.