90% of all organisations use content as part of their marketing, and 60% of marketers create content on a daily basis. You don’t need to do the maths to know that’s a lot of content. It may come as no surprise to most that keeping it consistently fresh, relevant and creative isn’t easy. In fact, research has shown that content production is the top challenge for 50% of marketers.
The quality of the content that your team produces is a reflection of your brand. A poorly written blog post or a tweet in bad taste has the potential to come back and haunt your brand years down the line.
So, how can you produce quality content at scale – consistently and easily?
Keeping on top of your content production doesn’t have to mean hiring an army of writers and designers. Nor does it mean re-inventing the wheel every time you put something out in the world.
Repurposing content is the smartest way of working that helps you get maximum reach from a concept or message. It’s the process of modifying a piece of content to work in a different format (from an article to a podcast, for example), or adapting the content to make it more relevant to a new audience.
Essentially, content repurposing is a way to squeeze every last drop out of a great idea or important insight, in a meaningful and valuable way.
Aside from saving time and effort, what are the benefits of repurposing content?
Target specific audiences
Reframe your content to make it resonate with a different type of customer. Consider what unique problems your content can help them solve, which formats they respond best to (eg. snappy Instagram posts or in-depth long-reads) and what motivates them to take action.
Reinforce a message
If there’s an idea that you really need to land, repurposing can help you drive it home by presenting it in a number of different ways.
Build your brand’s reputation as an industry thought leader
Highlight your company’s expertise by giving thought leaders within your business a platform to talk further around a subject they specialise in.
Ensuring your audience sees it
There’s no point investing lots of hours into a message that’s only going to be conveyed or posted once. You can never assume your audience has been reached in such a short window of time.
Get more from your best performing content
If you have a piece of content that’s generating lots of traffic, why stop there? Keep up the momentum by resharing the key insights and adapting them to suit as many different formats as possible.
9 ways to repurpose your content
There are many ways to capitalise on your content, and you’ll need to customise your approach in line with your brand positioning and what’s appropriate for your industry. We’ve put together 9 tried-and-tested methods that every brand can sink their teeth into.
#1 Turn a collection of articles into listicles
If you have a number of articles surrounding a particular theme, combine the key takeouts wholly or partially in list form. There’s something naturally appealing to readers about headlines with ‘11 reasons why’ or ‘3 ways to’ formats… They’re clear, concise and tell the reader exactly what they’ll get out of it.
#2 Share your insights in a podcast
Podcasts offer a more tangible insight into the personality of your brand. With a relatively small investment, they can help your business to speak directly to audiences in order to build trust and garner a following. Not sure who would be suitable within your business? Why not invite clients on to chat?
#3 Create a highlights reel from a webinar
Webinars are ideal for walking people through your products and services in an educational and engaging way, but for those who couldn’t tune in, or who need a recap, highlight reels can help get them up to speed. They also give you the opportunity to answer questions or revisit interesting points raised in the webinar.
#4 Follow up a video with a blog summarising its key points
It’s possible to get across a lot of information through video. To help make sure they effectively deliver your message, and to encourage those who haven’t yet seen your video to press play, create an article that consolidates the most important take-outs.
#5 Present content on Slideshare
Slideshare is one of the top 100 most visited sites in the world and allows you to create concise presentations that help readers quickly catch up on in-depth topics. This format is ideal for highlighting expert quotes, actionable tips and powerful statistics.
#6 Compile a series of blog posts into an ebook
If you already have a backlog of articles that are still relevant, give them new life in a new context by collating them into an insightful long read. Your ebook could become a gated asset and gives you the opportunity to create social posts and emails to promote it.
#7 Visualise your ideas as an infographic
Take the key points from comprehensive research, white papers or articles and create visual assets to make them more digestible for readers short on time.
#8 Revisit previous learnings
Things change fast in the world of marketing. You’ll often find new angles on previous insights by looking back at your old content in a new context.
#9 Use the power of social media
Social media platforms can be used to repurpose any type of content. Whether it’s focusing on an interesting snippet from an article, asking the audience a question that relates to a longer piece of content, creating short engaging videos that incorporate previous insights, or sharing actionable advice, or key takeouts as a carousel.
Top tip
Content repurposing can save time and resources, but it shouldn’t be considered a shortcut. It’s important to make sure that you’re clear on what the new piece of content is addressing, how it’s different from the original piece and why. Having a watertight content strategy that does this will help stop your repurposed content from becoming repetitive and irrelevant.
How to decide what content to repurpose
Only use evergreen content
The most crucial factor in determining whether a piece of content is repurposable or not is making sure that it’s evergreen. In essence, this is content that will stay relevant long after it’s published.
Audit your existing content
Conducting a thorough content audit before you begin repurposing will make it easier to gather your evergreen content, see what is performing well, understand which keywords you are ranking for and highlight any gaps in your content strategy.
Review your recent feedback
Make sure you don’t ignore comments, questions and suggestions that your audience have left on your previous content. It’s more than likely that you’ll find useful insights that give you a better idea of what’s landing well and how your repurposed content can add value to their lives.
How BAM by Papirfly™ can help keep your content on track
Today, marketing leaders feel that they create “moderate-to-enormous” volumes of content, according to a report by Accenture. The same study also found that 92% of marketers surveyed said they are producing more content now than they were two years ago, with 90% expecting their output to increase further over the next two years. Upkeeping a steady flow of high-quality content may seem like a daunting task, but with the right tools, you can streamline your processes and maximise your output.
Brand Activation Management, BAM by Papirfly™, brings asset creation in-house. Our all-in-one asset creation suite is full of features that empower your teams to create studio-quality marketing materials with no agency help required. And, because you can set bespoke templates, you can ensure consistency in everything they produce. Here are just some of the digital and print assets your team can create in a matter of minutes:
- Videos
- Social media posts, perfectly sized and formatted
- HTML emails
- Digital signage
- Localised assets in different languages
- Posters and brochures
Some of the world’s largest global brands, including Coca Cola and Unilever are already seeing the benefits of BAM’s easy-to-use design software. To see how it can propel your content production for your brand, get in touch to arrange a live demo.