Content Repurposing Step-By-Step: 3 Use Cases You Can Implement Right Now

The content marketing success formula can be synthesised as follows:

Create 10X content: unique, original content better than anything out there.
Get your content in front of your audience.

It’s not easy, but there’s one tactic that can help you do both: content repurposing.

Content repurposing is tried and tested tactic used by expert marketers to:

Multiply the reach of successful content
Give a second chance to content that didn’t perform great
Engage readers with the content formats they enjoy the most

Simply put,

Content repurposing consists in taking the knowledge, data and information collected to create a piece of content and build upon them to create a different, better piece of content.

In this post, I’ll share with you the step by step process we used to turn:

a blog post into an ebook
a webinar into a blog post
a blog post into a slideshare presentation

Enjoy!

#ContentRepurposing Step-By-Step: 3 Use Cases You Can Implement Right Now Click To Tweet

CASE 1: HOW TO TURN A SUCCESSFUL BLOG POST INTO AN EBOOK

My content team and I frequently meet to analyse production metrics, workload distribution, bottlenecks and so on.

A couple of months ago I turned some of our findings into a blog post, highlighting a basic 4 step workflow to create any kind of content.

Looking at the numbers (shares and visitors) it was clear the post hit a sweet spot, so I saved it on my list of repurposing material waiting for the right opportunity.

The opportunity came a few weeks later, while brainstorming with Pipefy’s content manager to find a topic for an ebook to launch in co-marketing.

[note: co-marketings are a great way to split production efforts while amplifying content reach]

We decided to write about process automation, touching the following points:

1 – Understanding and designing processes
2 – Case study: process in content marketing
3 – Automation: how to automate your processes.

It was the perfect occasion to repurpose the post I had just written.

The choice paid off.

Not only it cut my production time in half but also made my inbound job much easier, since I already have a post to place a CTA on.

Here’s what I did.

5 simple steps to turn a blog post into an ebook #ContentRepurposing Click To Tweet

I used the post as a starting point for chapter 2 (process in content marketing) and:

1. Shortened it up: the post was quite detailed, so I streamlined the densest parts. While they worked great in the context of the stand alone post, they would have made the ebook too heavy.

2. Added design elements: nice visuals dramatically improve reader’s UX in ebooks, that’s why I complemented the wording with a good amount of visual content, like screenshots, tables and the likes.

3. Added intro, outro: since the post was originally designed to stand alone, I wrote an intro that linked it to chapter one and an outro to transition to chapter two.

4. Added some context: I added references to statements and data from the other chapters, to grant a coherent reading experience.

5. Added links and CTA: finally I linked out to the post, to send readers back to our blog, and added a CTA on the original post, to send more traffic to the ebook landing page.

Lastly, I reversed engineered the process, summed up the ebook and turned it into a blog post, highlighting the key concepts and linking back to the ebook “to learn more”.

The 3 assets are connected among each other, keeping readers in the loop: blog – ebook – blog.

Wrapping up, using repurposing I easily created:

1 – A long form, technical blog post on content creation processes.
2 – A short form blog post about process automation.
3 – A full ebook about process automation.

Another great content repurposing tactic is turning a series of blog posts into an ebook. Here’s a brilliant example by Benjamin Mulholland, who turned 5 blog posts into a stunning 111 page ebook.

[box] Wrap up: turn blog posts into ebooks

Shorten it up
Add design elements
Write intro, outro
Provide context
Add links and CTAs

[/box]

Let’s now move to a different scenario.

CASE 2: HOW TO BRING BACK TO LIFE AN OLD WEBINAR

When Samir Patel knocks at your door to organise a growth webinar, you just do it.

No questions asked.

We did our best to set up landing pages, nurturing cycle, promotion materials and so on, but with the little time available we didn’t manage to create enough buzz around it.

No drama, it happens.

But the material was too good to be simply abandoned, and to extend its lifespan we decided to do some repurposing.

When one thinks about repurposing a webinar, the first thing that comes to mind is writing a transcript.

But a few minutes in I figured it wasn’t the best way to follow:

Conversation was too lively: too fast with too much back and forth
I hate transcriptions, they are boring and take too long.

So I changed approach and instead of transcribing the webinar I used it as the main resource to write an entirely new blog post, changing the structure, reorganising concepts and complementing the interview with additional considerations.

Once again, this approach saved me a ton of time I would have spent researching and building the storyline from scratch.

Data, ideas and concepts were there, all I had to do was to organise, develop and complement them.

Check out the 5 steps to repurpose webinars into blog posts #ContentRepurposing Click To Tweet

Here the 5 steps I took to repurpose the webinar into a blog post:

1. Fast transcript: I did a fast transcript of the webinar and used it as the basic structure for the post. Fast transcript means I didn’t waste time writing things verbatim, focusing on concepts, stats and impactful statements.

2. Put things in order: as mentioned, the webinar was quite lively, with the hosts jumping from topic to topic not worrying too much about transitioning. Which works great for video content, not so much for written one. So, step number 2 was to rebuild the storyline, reorganising topics and ideas to make everything more suitable for a piece of written content.

3. Complement: as said, the idea was to use the webinar as a starting point and build upon it, so I did additional research and added personal considerations to complement the hosts’ point of view.

4. Rewrite and quote: I rewrote everything in my own words, quoting data and powerful statements, making always clear whose point of view I was writing about (the hosts’ or mine).

5. Link out: lastly, I linked to the webinar, which is now accessible through a landing page, and still generates leads on a daily basis.

[box] Wrap up: turn webinars into blog posts

Fast transcript
Put things in order
Complement
Rewrite and quote
Link out

[/box]

CASE 3: HOW TO ENGAGE YOUR BUSIEST READERS AND GAIN THE TRUST OF NEW ONES

Another content repurposing technique is turning blog posts into presentations and share them on slideshare.

We’re still building up our audience on slideshare, but this repurposing tactic has other benefits:

Attract new readers: visual content is much more engaging than written one and a great way to gain the trust of new readers who wouldn’t take the time to read your posts (yet).
Satisfy busy readers: readers don’t always have the time to read through long form blog posts, and if you don’t offer them something shorter or lighter you may lose them. By turning your blog posts into presentations, you’re making them more digestible and easy to read, engaging even your busiest readers.

Check out how to turn blog posts into presentations in 4 simple steps #ContentRepurposing Click To Tweet

Here 4 steps to easily turn your blog posts into presentations:

1. Create templates: after the first few tests, you want to design one or more presentation templates you’ll use over and over again. This will save you a ton time and will make the process scalable.

2. Cut, cut, cut: presentations are meant to be easier to digest. Maintain key statements and data, and cut out everything else.

3. Add visual elements: it goes without saying that visuals are what makes presentations so engaging. Use plenty of them: add screenshots, powerful images, repurpose data and numbers in visual ways. Get creative.

4. Link: from slide 4 on, slideshare allows you to add links to your slides. Link as much as you can to your site and to the original article.

[box] Wrap up: repurpose blog posts into presentations

Create templates
Cut, cut, cut:
Add visual elements
Link [/box]

CONCLUSIONS

To wrap things up.

Repurposing is a powerful marketing technique you can use to:

Multiply the reach of successful content
Give a second chance to content that didn’t perform great
Engage readers with the content formats they enjoy the most

We learned how to turn:

blog posts into an ebooks,
webinars into posts,
blog post into slideshare presentations.

One final thought.

Repurposing has nothing to do with recycling.

Repurposing is about taking great work and create something even better, giving it a new purpose, new elements and a new shape.

When repurposing, don’t recycle. Build upon. #ContentRepurposing #ContentMarketing Click To Tweet

How about you: how do you repurpose your content? Share with us successes and mistakes and what you learned from them.

Ps. Entrepreneur, content marketing and growth hacker Sujan Patel shared with us the content repurposing tactics he used to help drive the growth at companies like Sales Force, Mint, Intuit and many others.

You can access the webinar here: Sujan Patel – The Secrets Of Content Repurposing.

Hope you like it!