Content Repurposing: Amazing Ideas You Can Try to Grow
Repurposing Long-Form Content: A Smarter Way to Grow
If you're putting in the work to create amazing, fresh content for your online business, why not maximize its potential? Repurposing long-form content across different platforms can extend its reach, connect with new audiences, and ensure your message sticks. Let’s explore some strategic content repurposing ideas to grow your brand and make all that hard work count.
Repurposing Basics: Make Content Work Harder for You
Think of content repurposing as taking your original content and reshaping it for different formats and audiences. Whether you’re creating for YouTube, a podcast, or a blog, following the rules of each platform is crucial. But here's where content repurposing comes in: after your initial content is live, you can adapt it strategically to ensure it gets the visibility it deserves across all channels.
I've been repurposing content before repurposing was even a thing. It all started because creating content for social media was draining me. I realized that if I was going to invest a lot of time into creating great original content for a podcast, blog, or YouTube channel, I needed to make sure people actually saw it. Some of the very first repurposing I did involved taking pieces of my video content from YouTube and putting them on Instagram TV—back before TikTok and short videos changed the social media game.
Ask Yourself: Are You Spreading the Word About Your Content?
When you publish a blog post, a podcast episode, or a YouTube video, do you share it with your email list? Do you let your audience know via social media platforms? Often, we focus so much on content creation that we forget the key step—promotion. Repurposing content saves time and ensures your audience sees your message in different places, increasing its impact.
Repurpose Content for Social Media
The social media landscape is vast—but remember, you don’t need to be on every platform. Instead, choose the platforms that resonate most with your ideal client and strategically repurpose your content to maximize its impact.
For instance, take the main points from your blog post and turn them into an Instagram carousel. You can easily repurpose those carousel slides into Pinterest pins. Or take a key segment from your podcast episode and turn it into a short video clip to share as a YouTube Short, TikTok video or Instagram Reel. These bite-sized pieces of content keep your audience engaged without you having to create everything from scratch.
Caption Library for Easy Reuse
When I began my business in 2016, I found a simple yet effective way to make repurposing even easier. I used Google Calendar to store my social media captions, setting them to repeat every 90 days. Whenever I felt stuck or uninspired, all I had to do was check my calendar and select from the captions I'd already written. Over time, I had built a small library of options that I could tweak as needed. It was an efficient way to reuse content in different ways without always starting from scratch.
Today, tools like Notion or Airtable are a great way to make this process even smoother. You can create a dedicated caption library to store, categorize, and easily find the captions you need. Not only does this save time, but this repurposed content is now evergreen content to help maintain consistency across platforms.
Use Your Content Everywhere
Email Newsletters: Don’t overlook your email list. You’ve already built a loyal audience, so make sure they hear about your latest content. Pull out key insights from your podcast episode or blog post and turn them into a valuable newsletter. This is also a great place to promote new content and drive readers to your blog or YouTube channel.
Blog Posts: If you recorded a podcast or a YouTube video, transcribe it to create a blog post. Just be sure to edit the transcription so that it reads well—adding relevant keywords and enhancing readability. Not only does this help with SEO, but it also reaches those who prefer reading over watching or listening.
Old Blog Posts: Give your old posts a content upgrade. Even your best content could use a bit of new information. Search engines or Google love it when you take your old content and add new ideas to the older content to make it relevant again. The easiest way to do this is to turn a popular post into new formats such as a podcast or video for YouTube. Then use the Yoast SEO plugin to rewrite and republish the original blog post with the link to the podcast or video. Use this to update the blog content and drop the link in Google Console to have your refreshed content become a new piece of content by having it reindexed. This is a favorite repurposing strategy for myself and my clients.
Creating a Repurposing Plan
To avoid falling into the “content hamster wheel”—constantly churning out new content without ever pausing—create a plan to reuse and recycle what you’ve already produced. Here's a simple content repurposing process to try:
- Transcribe and Edit: After recording a podcast or video, transcribe it to form the base of your blog post. Edit it to ensure readability and include SEO-optimized keywords. If you struggle to write SEO-optimized content try out the tool Rank IQ that Katerina talked about in last weeks episode. You'll be creating great content in less time.
- Break Down Key Points: Pull out the main points of your content and compile them into a Google Doc. This will serve as your “gold nuggets” guide, making it easy to create social media posts, newsletters, or other types of content. The feature with Descript saves you so much time with the ability to highlight short clips and turn them into a composition (Descript term) that can be repurposed for all the different social media channels.
- Mix and Match for Social Media: Repurpose these nuggets into social media posts, like Instagram carousels or TikTok clips. Change up the visuals using tools like Canva to keep your posts fresh and engaging. If you have the Pro version of Canva you know how easy they make it to resize into various formats.
- Use Different Formats: Turn the content into multiple formats—Instagram Reels, Pinterest Video Pins, YouTube Shorts, etc. Repurposing is all about taking one piece of content and delivering it to your audience in different formats to suit their preferences.
The 90-Day Repurposing Rule
After you create and publish your content, schedule it into a 90-day content calendar. The initial weeks can feature more frequent posts to maximize reach, and after the first month, move the content into a 90-day rotation, revisiting it to keep it relevant. Scheduling helps take the pressure off while ensuring your audience continues to see your amazing content.
Practical Tools for Repurposing
To make repurposing easier, set up templates in Canva for your content formats. For example, create templates for Instagram posts, Pinterest Pins, and even Facebook graphics. These templates can then be used repeatedly to save time and maintain a consistent brand look. As a quick side note this content strategy is the best way to bring on team members to help you!
Also, keep everything organized with a project management system like Asana, Trello, or ClickUp. Linking your “gold nuggets” Google Doc to your project management software can help you stay on top of what needs to be repurposed and when. This is especially important for avoiding burnout and keeping your process manageable.
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Time To Wrap This Up With Key Takeaways
Your time and energy are incredibly valuable. Instead of always creating something new, leverage the long-form content you’ve already invested in to reach different audiences in a strategic way. A solid repurposing content plan helps you be everywhere your ideal client is—without exhausting yourself.
So, which of these repurposing strategies have you tried? Do you feel you could simplify your content workflow by creating a structured plan to recycle your long-form content? Please send me a DM on Instagram with your thoughts, and let’s make sure all that hard work continues to work for you!
Thank you for reading, and remember: repurpose strategically, market consistently, and reach wider audiences effortlessly!
