Over the past few days, weeks, months, and years you’ve created content. Maybe even lots of content. Historically, that’s been the biggest time investment for marketing teams — always launch a new something… blogs, ebooks, webinars, podcasts, infographics, you name it.
But we don’t always have to be creating new messages and content from scratch. In fact, the more content you have, the smarter you have to be about what you create next.
Of course, there are times when we need to be in new content creation mode — especially when we have new things to say. Times like launching a new product, expanding a service, and reacting to changes in the market and audience shifts priorities.
Other times, we need to focus on using the content we already have to further our brand’s reach: to build more detailed conversion paths and to nurture our leads to make buying decisions.
Years ago, I read a stat from Content Marketing Institute that said 60-70% of content sits unused after it’s created. That stuck with me; I’m still thinking about it half a decade later. (The context of that stat is about the opportunities AI presents to marketers, but that’s another blog entirely).
Here are some other reasons why creating new content may not be the answer to your marketing woes:
Your goals require different levers to be pulled outside of blogging, blogging, blogging or ebook, ebook, ebook or webinar, webinar, webinar. Your audience needs different kinds of content and context to understand how to solve their problems.
Creating new content may not give existing content enough time to perform so your team can analyze what’s working and what’s not. It may not be just as simple as the copy didn’t land: maybe it was published on the wrong platform or at the wrong time.
You’ve already discussed the same topic ad nauseam. In this case, you could be cannibalizing your SEO efforts and creating competition for your own pages to rank.
While you’re doing a good job educating readers early in the buyer’s journey, content alone doesn’t move leads into and down your sales funnel.
A constant flow of new content may be distorting and confusing your overall brand voice and message.
You’re already creating a lot of content and can’t fathom investing time and money into more. Recycling your content gives you a higher ROI with better scalability - especially if you’ve historically focused on creating evergreen content.
Content for the sake of content may be putting too much effort and energy into keeping up with current trends than actually addressing your buyer’s pain points.
No one is finding your existing content, even though the information is still valuable. Your current content needs a lift in reach and audience engagement.
Volume is not the sole contributor to content marketing success. In fact, we’d argue that less, more strategic content is a better approach (which is why we’re writing this blog).
The goal here is to find ways to get more mileage out of your existing content without going back to the drawing board for new topics and ideas.
Let's start with an example of how you can use the content you already have to power your brand amplification, engagement, and nurturing for a strong content repurposing strategy.
Let’s say you have a webinar your audience loves. You put all this time into creating a PowerPoint, script, landing page, invitation emails, and follow-up emails to participants.
Basically, you have a strong, well-thought-out message, this amazing video content, and all of the other assets you used to originally promote it.
Ways to repurpose as alternative content formats:
Chop it up. Seriously. Take some of the most compelling soundbites from that webinar and turn them into miniature clips. These key snippets could be a few minutes, maybe even less than a minute, and can be such a powerful tool in your toolbox. These are quick and easy wins for *new* content. Great formats to consider with low editing time include a short-form video (Tik Tok and Reels count!) or an audio clip.
Use the transcription. Most webinar platforms automatically transcribe or create closed captions. Now your webinar can take on a written form. Maybe your webinar had specific sections or a story that it was telling. Your transcript will already have those natural breaks to create more digestible messages. You can use that copy in:
Email series - Create a time-limited newsletter-like subscription. Each series will tackle an overarching topic with the content you already explored in the webinar. Package each series using messaging like “Join our 6-week [topic] boot camp with weekly content delivered right to your inbox!” Make it convenient for people to learn and interact.
Save individual slides/graphics. Spending time making a presentation for your webinar is a great investment in content that can be repurposed. From individual slides to charts/graphics to screenshots of great moments/reactions from the panelists, images are valuable assets that won’t require any extra video editing or scripting.
Treat the chat stream like User Generated Content (UGC). If you have lively chat dialogue, this content can be influential for your marketing (and sales) messages. Even if you don’t share the participant’s name or professional details, you can share industry and title trends from your attendees. Try messaging like “hear some of the things [these job titles] in your industry had to say about [topic].” You can use this content for:
Let’s say you have an incredible piece of written content that already exists. You’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting by crafting individual messages in written copy. Let’s look at ways we can use this for other channels where copywriting could be holding you back for amplification, nurturing, and engagement strategies.
If this blog is doing well on organic search, you know that you’re hitting the mark from what Google is looking for and what your audience is looking for around this specific topic. You also know this is an active interest your audience is searching for now, so use that momentum for relevance and timeliness.
Use your blog as a script. Turn it into an audio blog, podcast episode, or video for a quick win in multimedia content. This is a great opportunity for sharing content on social AND increasing website engagement. (Did you know: People spend 2.6 times as long on pages with video?).
Break it down. Not all people like to venture off a social media platform to learn something. Break up your blog content into the key points or key sections and tell that story in a social media series, infographic, or thread. Pull insightful quotes from the blog into a graphic template.
Reuse. Without changes, use the content as is in LinkedIn articles (more on that in our syndication blog).
So, you have this repurposed content. Now what?
A common mistake with repurposed content is not telling anyone about it! Repurposed content has just as much value, perhaps even more than new content because it’s been tested and vetted.
So, make sure your recycled content is used in amplification, engagement, and nurturing.
Amplification through your social media channels and email aren’t the only avenues.
Consider sharing this content with your partners as sales enablement tools and training. This lessens the burden on your training team and keeps the messaging consistent.
Another option for amplifying your repurposed content is going the more traditional routes such as a media kit, press release, or bylines.
Remember that your marketing strategy should not be a megaphone for your company. Engagement and interaction will help boost your content and help you learn about your existing audience.
The suggestions above to repurpose content as video and audio on your website pages and blogs can increase engagement, time on the page, and the overall helpfulness of your website. Not every buyer responds to written media and may absorb information better in another form.
Another idea is to share the repurposed content on social media channels and have the original hosts/panelists/authors share it from their own personal pages. This symbiotic relationship may get new eyes on your content!
You can use this repurposed content to nurture as well. Use the content in chatbot flows to make the script seem more human.
Consider offering these webinars, downloadable tools, videos, etc. for free (that are otherwise gated on your website) in sales emails to show social proof, thought leadership, and brand alignment to your prospect’s goals.
There are two paths in front of you:
Path A: Creating new content like you always have and throwing more spaghetti at the wall (and your audience and the search engine).
Path B: Taking a breath to analyze your content’s performance and repurposing content in new ways to reach new audiences.
We’ll take Path B. This journey helps you optimize your team’s time, get the biggest ROI on your content, and reach your prospective buyers where they are without having to create something different every single time.
Set up some time to brainstorm with your team to convert existing content into quick and big wins!
Will you turn that successful product webinar into an engaging email series? Or convert the highest viewed blog on your website into a podcast? The options are endless.
We'd love to help!