Small businesses often have limited resources, meaning they need to get the absolute maximum value from their time and money. Repurposing content is a cost-effective strategic approach for small business owners to achieve efficiency, wider reach, and consistent messaging across various channels.
We’re looking at how you can get more value from your content by planning ahead and using it in different ways.
What is repurposed content?
By repurposed content, we mean content that was produced for one channel and can be leveraged, sometimes in another format, somewhere else to get more use from it.
Don't spray and pray
You’ll be limited on repurposing content if you take this approach. We don’t recommend it, but small business owners can often find themselves producing content because they feel like they should, because everyone else is doing it or because it’s been two weeks since they posted something on Instagram and we need something – anything! – up, like yesterday.
We appreciate reactivity over proactivity isn’t everyone’s tactic, but when you’re working in the business rather than on the business, we know that content planning can fall to the bottom of your long list.
Planning ahead
The first thing you need to do to make the most of your content is to take the time to plan ahead. Believe us, it’s worth making time to do this as it’ll help you out and save you time later.
We’ve talked before about content strategy vs planning, but in a nutshell, the strategy is about understanding what you want to achieve, what you want to communicate, to whom, at what stage of their customer journey, and how you’re going to measure performance. Planning is about laying out the actions that will achieve those goals.
Structuring this means you have an understanding of what’s coming up, you can be thinking ahead of time about what you want to say and who you’re targeting – and how it can be used in other places. Let’s give you some examples.
Examples of repurposed content
Blog to infographic
Take key points or statistics from a blog post and create an infographic to visually represent the information. This can be shared on social media or included in future presentations.
Email to social media posts
Convert snippets from your email newsletters into bite-sized social media posts. This helps you maintain a consistent online presence and repurpose valuable content for different platforms.
Case studies to slides
Transform detailed case studies into slide presentations. This can be useful for client meetings, conferences, or workshops where a visual presentation format is more appropriate. You could also use this on some forms of social media, like a carousel post on LinkedIn.
Podcast to blog post
Transcribe the content of a podcast episode and turn it into a written blog post. This allows you to reach audiences who prefer reading over listening and also improves your search engine optimisation.
Written testimonials to video testimonials
Convert written customer testimonials into video testimonials. This adds a personal touch to your brand, can weave in visual elements from their review (like product photography), and can be shared on your website or social media channels.
Webinar to video
If you’ve hosted a webinar, extract short video clips or highlights. Share these on social media platforms to engage your audience and encourage them to watch the full webinar.
Research report to blog series
Break down a lengthy research report into a series of blog posts. This allows you to delve into specific aspects of the report and provides your audience with digestible, focused content.
White paper to infographic
Condense the key findings and insights from a white paper into an easy-to-digest infographic. This can be shared on social media or used as a supplementary visual aid.
Webinar to podcast
If you’ve recorded a live event, turn the audio into podcast episodes. This enables you to reach a wider audience and provides valuable content in a different format.
Video to blog
Squeeze further SEO juice from video by transcribing it and creating a blog.
Video… to video
Repurpose a long-form video, slicing it into snippets that make sense for use on social media or your website.
Say it again, and again
On social media, there’s a constant cycle of posts – we see thousands of pieces of content in a day. Don’t be afraid of using the same graphic to illustrate a post a few months down the line… or refreshing the image but using the same text. It could be of interest to new followers, you could remind older followers of the content, or they maybe even didn’t see it the first time around.
Remember, the key is to adapt the content to suit your target audience on different platforms or in different formats.
+ Buyer personas made easy
Need help understanding your target audience? Download our free PDF guide and editable template to help you better understand who you’re reaching and what will help them convert.