Sometimes, a piece of content may perform pretty well, but there’s still so much more it can accomplish. When you’ve put a lot of effort into a well-researched, well-written work, you naturally want it to live up to its fullest potential. Google favours fresh content, and a lot of blogs and sites have a limited shelf life before engagement drops off and they slip from the rankings. So, is content repurposing the key to being an exception?
‘Content assets’ is a broad term for a number of different creative products dedicated to helping clients reach their marketing goals. These assets can be as long as an e-book or as short as a checklist, and some common types include videos, blog posts, FAQ pages, infographics and case studies. While driving conversions is part of their purpose, content assets are designed for human web users to interact with, and they provide answers to your potential customers’ most pressing questions.
Updating old content keeps it fresh and helps it stay relevant as new information about a subject emerges. Yet you may wonder if you’ll run afoul of Google’s penalties for duplicate content.
Here’s some good news: it’s entirely possible to repurpose old content without breaking any of Google’s rules, and it will help your strategy to do so.
Why Repurposing Content is a Good Idea
Content repurposing is much more than a time-saving endeavour. While creating new content is important, reaching a wider audience with your already existing content is just as vital. Here are some of the biggest benefits that repurposing content can have for your business:
Reaching new demographics
When done right, repurposing your content puts it in front of new audience segments that either didn’t see or engaged with it the first time. Repurposing your content in multiple formats helps you reach more people in whichever way they prefer to engage with content.
Reinforcing your selling point
Repurposing content reinforces your brand identity, authority, message, and how you stand out from your competition. Content allows you to showcase your professionalism and the value you provide, and content repurposing gives you the chance to strengthen it.
Better organic visibility
Organic traffic still provides the majority of visitors to your site, and publishing refurbished content in various optimised formats helps boost your visibility. Publishing across multiple platforms helps you reach a wider audience, and if you publish on other sites, you potentially have the benefit of backlinks, too.
Easily shareable content
One of the benefits of social media is that users often share articles that are helpful for them or that they relate to. The more social media platforms you’re on, the more people have the chance to share your content around.
Increased content lifespan
Considering how fast new developments in technology and marketing move, certain parts of your content might grow dated while others remain as relevant as ever. Content repurposing allows you to preserve the relevancy of your content assets so they continue to provide the answers and the insight that web users are looking for when they come across your page.
How to Repurpose Content
There’s art in reshaping and reusing your existing content. Here’s how to reuse content so that you have a higher likelihood of reaching the largest possible audience:
Repurpose your highest-performing content
Your most effective pieces of content are the ones you want to focus on extending their lifespan. Examine your analytics tools to find which blog posts and videos have received the highest views and engagements and how you can replicate and expand upon the value they bring.
Change the format
You can reach different audience segments by transforming your content into different formats. For example, a high-performing blog post can become a high-performing video tutorial, a high-engagement medium that attracts a high number of social shares. You can also break content down into smaller pieces that are easier to digest. For example, YouTube Shorts allows you to reach and spread information to audience segments that don’t have the time or patience to sit through hour-long videos.
Micro-content is also an ideal medium for social media, while a great blog post can provide the basis for a great email in an email marketing campaign.
Relaunch as a new post
When you’ve updated your content to keep it fresh, don’t just leave the existing blog post and wait for new readers to come across it. Relaunch it as a new post with fresh examples and up-to-date information. If you have evergreen content designed to stay fresh over a longer period, update it on that page rather than creating a new piece of content to maintain the value and authority of the URL and ranking.
The Risks: What to Avoid When Repurposing Content
Updating old content without accommodating the unique features of each platform and audience expectations has drawbacks. The risks you run when you take a one-size-fits-all approach to repurposing content include:
Lack of congruity
Adapting a highly academic study or white paper into an informal social media post can miss the mark and fail to resonate properly with the target audience. Lacking engaging visual content on a platform like Instagram that prioritises visual aspects can also lead to a post lacking sufficient engagement.
Algorithmic limits
Certain platforms favour specific formats and lengths of content. For example, short and snappy clips commonly succeed on TikTok. Neglecting the algorithms of certain platforms and user preferences tends to limit your reach and visibility.
Choosing the wrong tone
While it’s essential for your brand to have a consistent voice and identity, it’s also important to modify your tone for the platform you’re on. For example, LinkedIn is the place to showcase your most professional side and to connect with those in the corporate world, but the content that does that won’t necessarily carry across so well on other platforms.
Copying and pasting
Google can penalise you for having the exact same content on multiple websites and platforms, affecting your rankings. As we’ve established so far, it’s important to tailor the content to the needs of users on multiple platforms rather than simply copying and pasting.
The Impact Repurposing Content Can Have on the Customer Journey
While a single piece of content published on one channel can have a significant impact on your marketing efforts, it’s still only one channel. By repurposing content, you can better engage your audience using every channel at your disposal.
Expanding your reach while keeping your messaging consistent yet appropriate for each platform increases your chance of conversions. It allows you to entice potential buyers at different stages of the sales funnel, where different content is required to be successful. Whether it’s raising awareness or guiding prospective customers through the sales funnel, updating old content meets web users where they are and makes their decision to choose your services easier.
Get the Most Out of Your Content with Anchor
Your content may well have a longer lifespan than you think, and the team at Anchor Digital can help you make it last as long as possible.
A full-service creative marketing agency based in Brisbane, Anchor can provide you with many forms of content marketing that you can repurpose as you see fit, including social media, search engine optimisation (SEO), paid advertising and copywriting. We focus on your authentic brand voice, your target audience and the platforms and techniques that will be most effective for your business.
To become even better at what you do, contact the Anchor team.
