Today, businesses are also publishers. They are generating more content than ever before. From pure-play corporate communications like brochures and company websites, they are now creating branded content in the form of articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, games, memes, blogs, newsletters, emailers and more.
They are also clearly differentiating content created for internal versus the external audiences. Additionally, content formats like POVs, thought leadership, comments and commentary is also being published for topical and trending concepts.
Unfortunately, content created for one purpose/medium is rarely reusable for another. This is because each medium has its own specific purpose, target audience, and content publishing guidelines. And it is painstakingly difficult for organizations to create unique content pieces for each of these mediums. That is why businesses need to consider Content Repurposing.
Content repurposing is tailoring your existing content to suit other platforms. For example, a business’ ‘About Us’ page from the website can be tweaked to form a script for a corporate video. A brochure can be tweaked to create a whitepaper, and an expert blog can be fodder for a podcast. Similarly, an interview can offer interesting tweeting opportunities, while a dull annual report can be repurposed into an infographic.
Starting afresh can be tedious. Content repurposing allows you to hit the ground running. It is cheaper, faster, and cost-effective. Apart from being the smarter thing to do, here are some more compelling reasons to consider content repurposing:
Writing from scratch warrants more time and effort, and therefore is a more expensive affair. While repurposing content, you save on the groundwork like data collation, data mining, research, and approvals. You spend lesser time and effort, to gain equal and sometimes even greater benefit than fresh content.
The math is obvious, creating several pieces of content from one piece of content, will result in a larger online footprint. Posting regularly is one of the key challenges for companies trying to create brand awareness, more traffic, and ultimately, more business.
New followers are continually added to a company’s platforms. Publishing older content with fresh updates helps target these new users while engaging the old subscribers, who would appreciate the update. Also changing the medium of content delivery can bring in more traffic.
A piece of content that is doing well on one platform could be repurposed for another. For example, if a blog is getting good traction and driving traffic to your website, it can be repurposed into a handout for an event.
Content that did not perform as well as expected can be updated or modified for another medium and published again. Perhaps a blog that wasn’t widely read earlier could be converted into a listicle or an infographic and presented to a new set of audience on a new platform.
Repurposing content for different mediums will convey the same message across different platforms, appealing to diverse demographics. Repurposing allows a brand to maintain a consistent tone and messaging while managing to target different groups.
Search engines prefers websites that offer regular, relevant, and reliable content. The more content assets a business has, higher are the opportunities for sharing (read backlinks to your site). This increased organic traffic will further boost your website’s SEO.
Here are some ways in which you can repurpose content:
Webinars about product features, demonstration, and troubleshooting can be repurposed to create video tutorials. These can meet the training needs for new team members, and serve as a ready reference for those on the field. This content can also be converted into buying guides and FAQs.
Insightful blogs and stories might offer the right insights and content for creating a script for a podcast. This way, you can target a new set of audience using the same content. Podcasts are a great way to connect with your audience on a personal and a higher cognitive level.
Infographics are one of the most popular forms of content, especially for a B2B audience. Analyst presentations, annual reports, research reports, and findings from studies can be repurposed to create highly engaging visual content pieces like infographics. These can open up an entirely new set of audience on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Performance metrics, letters of appreciation, efficiency studies, and metrics are an ideal data set to start writing business case studies. Such insightful information, testimonials, use-case scenarios, and success stories are just the right type of inputs. Put them up on your website or share them for your next big pitch.
Quora is a treasure-trove of users seeking answers. Write a blog post that answers a question, and post it on your website. Log on to Quora and write a short answer, with a link to the blog. This blog content can be further repurposed to create buying guides and FAQs for your product or service.
A single thought leadership piece on LinkedIn can be repurposed to create infographics and visual content for Pinterest, fortified with clever copy, statistics, and a trending hashtag for Twitter, designed into a simple banner and body text for Facebook!
Repurposing shouldn’t be mistaken for republishing. The latter refers to duplicating existing content whereas repurposing requires analysing past content, fortifying with new elements, and presenting in a new format.
As a content agency, LexiConn’s strength lies in content writing and communication development. Our exposure to various formats has allowed us to gain useful insights on audience preference across platforms. Our in-house subject matter experts, writers, editors, designers, and developers are driven by a strong content creation and publishing process across domains.
Visit us www.lexiconn.in or drop us a line at content@lexiconn.in.
LexiConn also offers a free 30-minute content consultation session to help you with your content strategy.
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