Everything you need to know to repurpose your content

Running a successful content marketing strategy is like running a marathon.

It requires a lot of dedicated energy over the long haul.

When it comes to your content strategy, there’s a constant need for ideation and production. 

It’s exhausting.

It’s also not entirely necessary.

You can steer clear of burnout and get more mileage out of your content marketing efforts without heaping new to-do lists onto your desk.

How? Two words: Repurposing content.

Today, we’ll show you how with this robust guide on how to repurpose content for every marketing channel.

Without wasting any of your valuable content creation time, let’s get straight to the valuable methods for repurposing your many pieces of content.

4 ways to repurpose content for all your marketing channels

#1. Repurpose your blog posts

For bloggers who are building an audience of readers, there are effective ways to repurpose your blog posts and widen your reach.

For one, you can turn your original articles into fresh guest posts by pitching your published pieces as new post ideas to complementary blogs. It’s a great way to get your old content in front of new readers, which turns it back into shiny new content.

It doesn’t have to be a one-to-one transfer, either. 

For instance, you can use material from a few of your blog articles and pitch the topic as a guest post.  

Check out how successful freelancer, Laura Lopuch -- who grew her business from $20,000 to $200,000 annually -- repurposed her blog articles about cold emails, “ No past wins to reference in your cold email? Do this instead ” . . .

And “ A cold email teardown ” . . .

And moved the content from her own blog to a repurposed guest post on Copyhackers blog, called “ I used cold emails to 14x my freelance copywriting business. Here’s how. (Includes templates.) ”, to grow her readership.

Not only can you reach new readers with guest posting, but it’s also an efficient way to use your production time. 

After all, blog length is trending upwards, averaging 1,236 words per post, and only growing longer-form, so it’s worth your effort to repurpose all that research, writing, and editing time for a guest post.

If you do land guest posts regularly, it’ll pay back in dividends. These days, 70% of consumers would rather learn about a company from a blog post instead of an ad, so it’s an ideal way for new readers to learn about your brand.

The key, like anything related to your business, is in providing valuable free content that helps your readers solve a problem.

Alternatively, instead of refitting your blog content to suit a new audience, you can reshape old posts into a new format, like video.

A great way to do this is to take a few of your most-read articles and create a video script from the text. Inject more personality and conversational tones into it, and you’ll have a script in hand, ready to face the camera.

As far as your equipment setup, if you’re intimidated by the thought of expensive gear, don’t be. It’s unnecessary, especially if you’re just starting out. 

In fact, you can film high-quality with just your iPhone . All you need is the right lighting and shot angles, and you’re good to go.

Once you’ve set up your shot and captured your video footage, editing your video footage doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor, either. Editing tools, like HitFilm Express , Lightworks , and OpenShot , let you edit video files for free.

If you’re wondering if the production process -- from writing your script to setting up your gear to editing your footage -- is a good use of your time, the answer, no doubt, is yes.

A whopping 85% of marketers claim video is an effective way to attract people to their online brands.

In sum, repurpose your blog posts by pitching your ideas to complementary blogs as guest posts or converting your articles into new formats, like video content. 

Video may seem intimidating if it’s your first go-around, but you absolutely do not need super expensive equipment or even all-new information. Scripts are easy to translate from blog posts.

And, as a plus, video content can be repurposed as easily as blog posts themselves. Let me explain in the next tip. 

#2. Repurpose your video content

If you have a growing viewership, you’re used to slogging long hours at an editing desk. Why not get some more mileage out of it? You can repurpose your video content in a lot of different (and easy) ways.

One powerful way to repurpose your video content is to clip a highlight from your video and post it to social media to engage with your audience.

Check out how renowned entrepreneur, Tom Bilyeu, uses a shortened video clip of his interview about transforming pain into progress and posted it on his Instagram channel as an IGTV video.

People who watch the snippet on Instagram can engage with Tom in comments. At the time of this writing, this particular IGTV post pulled in an impressive 97,337 views and 204 comments.  

This repurposing tactic is also a great way to pull people from your social channel to your site to watch the full video, where they can discover more of your valuable content and offers.

Of course, social media isn’t your only option to repurpose your video.

Alternatively, you can take your most popular content and turn your published videos into an audio-only format, like a podcast. 

After all, nowadays, 59% of podcast listeners spend more time listening to podcasts than on social media.

What’s more, this is great content to use if you’re publishing video content regularly: podcasts also (ideally) regularly publish in a successive series of episodes. 

So, killing two birds with one stone is a big benefit here. If you’re setting up equipment and gear to produce video content, chances are you’re already doing the same for an audio-only format. 

Renowned coach, author, and entrepreneur, Marie Forleo , knows this productivity tip all too well. 

After growing her MarieTV viewership for nine years , Marie expanded her recordings to double as content for her podcast, which now has over 300 episodes .

One recording session = two polished content formats. Sweet deal. 

Widening your target audience reach from those who watch to those who listen comes with another upside: listeners are loyal and attentive.

In fact, a staggering 80% podcast listeners listen to all or most of each podcast episode and an average of seven shows each week.

That’s a lot of listening time dedicated to one content format.

So, if you have dreams of monetizing your podcast down the road and want to eventually offer a paid solution to your listening audience’s problem, this channel is ideal for selling.

The gist of it is:

Turn your video content into shortened snippets to post on social media or convert your videos to podcast episodes to attract a loyal listening audience.

But OK. That covers repurposing content from video to audio. Since you’re recording both video and audio versions of your content already, the next obvious path to take is in the opposite direction -- go from audio to video. 

#3. Repurpose a podcast episodes

For podcasters who regularly interview guests and produce content for their listeners, there are several ideal ways to repurpose your podcast . 

The first way to get the most from your podcast episodes is to record both audio and video footage of your podcasts and repurpose it as a series of videos.

Check out how successful entrepreneur, Sean Kim , records both a video and audio version of his Growth Minds podcast, like his episode #24 Robert Kiyosaki: How to earn millions from nothing .

While there’s nothing fancy about How to make millions in recessions with Robert Kiyosaki video (it’s literally a shot of them chatting with podcast gear), simply filming his podcast opens up a new door for capturing new audience members who prefer to watch their content. 

For the crowd who prefers video as a format, they can watch and appreciate Sean’s and Robert’s facial expressions as they chat during the interview.

It’s anticipated that people will watch a mighty 100 minutes of online videos every day next year, so it’d be remiss not to capture footage for publishing video content. 

While turning your podcast episodes into video content is a great way to leverage lengthier material, you can repurpose shorter snippets of your podcast, too, as social media promo material.

How? Easy. Take clips of your podcast and promote your full episodes on social media. 

If you’re wondering how to turn an audio-only file into a visually appealing social media post, the answer is to create an audiogram.

To create an audiogram, you can use templates from online design tools like Canva and Venngage to create visual content for social media.

Then, use free tools like Audacity and Headliner to pull an audio file snippet from your podcast and layer it over your social media graphic to complete your audiogram. 

Check out how Brené Brown designs her audiogram and posts it on Instagram to promote her Unlocking Us podcast.

You’ll notice the “listen to episode” call-to-action (CTA) at the top right of her graphic, which pulls people to “hear” her static image post.

Posting audiograms to your social channels is a powerful way to boost your engagement, too. 

In fact, a study by Headliner found that an audiogram Facebook ad performed five times better than a static image ad.

With click-through rates (CTR) like that, audiograms are definitely worth a try.

OK. While we’ve covered ways to republish written, video, and audio formats so far, there’s one more written format that can be repackaged into an array of other content -- an ebook.

#4. Repurpose an ebook

Figuring out how to repurpose your ebook content may feel like a headache waiting to happen, but take heart: if you have a successful ebook already, you’re in a great position to build high-yield products off of it. 

One way to do this is to use the original content in your ebook to create lessons and modules in an online course. 

To outline your online course contents, work backward and start with the end result you want your students to achieve. Then, create a series of steps to reach that end results and turn each step into a module of lessons.

Alternatively, depending on how your ebook content is organized, you can convert key chapters into course lessons. 

Whether you use the end-result-first method or rearranging your ebook chapters, for a simple way to organize your modules, grab our free online course outlining template , which breaks your course content into topics and outlines formats within each module. 

Once you have your outline ready to go, it’s time to do the bulk of the work and create your course, which you can do by following the steps in our thorough guide on how to create and sell your profitable online course .

If you’re wondering how fruitful your efforts will be for creating an online course, the potential is absolutely there. 

For an inspiring case study, look to successful entrepreneur, Ryan Kulp, who earned $20,000 in online course sales within his first two weeks of launching his How to Buy, Grow, and Sell Small Companies course.

Even if you don’t make tens of thousands within the first month of launching as Ryan did, it’s a scalable way to grow your business. 

Just like your ebook, the perk is that you put in the work upfront to create your course and then sell it to unlimited customers with only marketing to maintain.

But, if an online course sounds like too much to tackle in your business, for now, another scalable option is to repurpose your ebook into a webinar for sale.

For instance, check out how creator, Paula Uchoa, offers a Conscious eating, conscious living webinar for $15, which teaches her students how to maintain their health through wise eating and lifestyle choices.

You can follow suit by pulling key content from your ebook and turning it into an engaging webinar presentation that helps your audience achieve their desired result (naturally, on a smaller scale than your online course). 

To create your webinar presentation, you can use tools like Google Slides , Keynote , or Powerpoint to design your slide deck.

Once you’ve prepared and rehearsed your presentation and script, it’s time to launch your webinar, which you can do by hosting a live webinar or offering a pre-recorded version to your audience. 

Regardless of whether it’s live or pre-recorded evergreen content, though, you can offer your ebook audience paid access to your webinar and earn a profit.

After all, a major 60% of webinars are designed to create loyal customers.

Even if you offer your webinar for free, you can still send your attendees follow-up emails and nurture them toward your other offers and content. This still helps you create loyal customers.

(By the way, if you’re looking for a streamlined way to publish and sell any of your digital products -- including your ebook, your online course, or webinar -- use this 14-day no-obligation Podia trial . The all-in-one platform makes your product management a serious cinch.) 

The overarching point here is you can grow your audience and business by repurposing your ebook content. 

Online courses and webinars are just two of the many options you have for getting more life out of your ebook -- ultimately, what it turns into is limited only by your imagination.

But not, if you stick to repurposing, your time.

And that’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

Here’s to repurposing content into fresh formats and growing

As a business owner, “content marketer” is just one of many titles you have to wear -- but it doesn’t have to be one that feels like a complete chore. Not every piece of content you create has to start back at square one.

By tapping the power of content repurposing, you can turn your old content into new content to grow your audience and business, all without having to reinvent the wheel.

In a nutshell:

• #1. If you’re blogging regularly, you can turn old blog posts into fresh content pieces by pitching them as guest posts or republishing them as a new type of content, like video.

• #2. Repurpose your video content into new pieces of content by taking snippets and posting them on social media or converting your videos into podcast episodes.

• #3. Give your podcast episodes more legs by filming them as video versions and combining audio clips and social media graphics into audiograms.

• #4. Transform the high-quality content in your ebook into high-earning content by creating online courses or webinars of your chapters.

May you expand your content formats, audience, and business all at once.