6 Creative Ways to Repurpose Content

We should think of content like we think about meal planning – why spend money on restocking your inventory when you can use what you already have?

Producing and distributing content is expensive, time consuming and puts strain on marketing and creative teams. Repurposing content streamlines the creation process and turns your existing content into new formats with very little time, money and effort.

It’s like turning last night’s leftovers into a new, fresh and exciting meal – all you need is a little creativity. Read on for 6 easy ways to repurpose your content so you can stop spinning your wheels and start getting more bang for your marketing buck.

1. Turn an FAQ page into a video series.

YouTube may feel overrun with music videos and cat memes, but it’s a very powerful tool for marketing purposes. If you have an FAQ page, where you feature answers to common questions about your product or service, you can turn that content into helpful informational videos. Not only are videos more helpful to visual learners, but this content is also great for SEO.

YouTube videos can be recorded on something as simple as an iPhone, or you can record a screencast of your computer as you work. Make sure the lighting is good, the area is quiet and speak slowly and clearly. You can record product demonstrations, tips and tricks, how-to’s or any other information your customers need to get the most out of their experience.

Simply upload the video, optimize the title and description for search, and publish! YouTube videos can be embedded into blog posts or site pages, promoted on social media or even attached to email signatures.

2. Turn an interview into a podcast.

Interviews make for rich blog content, but when that content takes on an audio format, the user experience becomes even more engaging and lasting. Podcasts give listeners an opportunity to consume your content while driving, exercising, or just sitting at home.

Podcasts are also a chance for you to give a voice and personality to your brand, which will help you stand out in a crowd and build brand loyalty.

After your interview is recorded, you can publish it to a tool like iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud, embed the audio into a blog post, or feature a transcript of the interview on your site.

Make sure each podcast ends with a call to action like signing up for an email list, subscribing to your channel or visiting your website.

3. Turn popular blog posts into an eBook.

If you frequently cover a specific topic on your blog, it’s likely those posts can be strung together into an eBook. Ebooks have a more professional feel and typically get shared more often than blog content.

Creating a seamless integration between various blog posts does take time and effort, but you can get a ton of mileage out of the final product. Ebooks can be used as gated content to build an email list, distributed to sales teams to nurture leads or uploaded to other sites like SlideShare or Scribd to increase reach.

There are free eBook templates available online or a designer can help you put together a clean and elegant PDF. We are lucky enough to have an in-house designer that helps us create eBooks for Brandfolder, but HubSpot has an impressive selection of templates if you are short on design resources.

4. Turn a tutorial into a SlideShare presentation.

After LinkedIn acquired SlideShare in 2012, the platform has become one of the most popular channels for professionals to consume content that is relevant to their industry. The content on this platform ranks well in organic search, is easy to digest and share, and drives quality traffic back to your site.

Any existing content that teaches your audience how to do something or offers unique industry insights can be repurposed for SlideShare. These presentations can also be embedded into blog posts, promoted on social media or added to LinkedIn profiles. And if SlideShare likes your content, they will help promote it on their homepage and social channels, which can get a ton of eyes on your brand.

Powerpoint presentations can be converted into SlideShare decks, but if you don’t have strong design skills, we recommend getting help from a designer. The most popular SlideShare presentations feature high-quality images, a clean and organized layout, subtle branding and a slide that links back to a website or landing page.

Once you get a SlideShare template in place, creating these presentations is quick and easy – you’ll be cranking out repurposed content in a flash.

5. Turn case studies into a series of quotes.

Case studies are a great way to feature in-depth examinations of how people use your product or service, but they are also chock full of quotes, stats and testimonials you can use to promote your brand.

For an example of how we repurpose case studies, see our roundup of inspirational branding quotes. These quotes were taken from case studies or interviews and turned into graphics that can be shared individually on social media, grouped together into a blog post or SlideShare presentation or promoted on Pinterest.

Just make sure you have permission from your customers before you quote them – you don’t want to unintentionally upset anyone.

6. Turn a blog post into an infographic.

Infographics aren’t exactly a new concept, but many publishers don’t realize blog posts can provide an excellent foundation for visual content. If you have an arsenal of informational blog posts, repackaging them into infographics makes that existing content more shareable. You’ll also attract more traffic and inbound leads.

There are many tools you can use to design your own infographics or you can hire a freelancer or agency to create them for you. Some popular tools include Visual.ly, Infograph.ly, Piktochart or Google Charts, and freelance designers can be hired through sites like Fiverr and Elance.

Insider info: Here at Brandfolder we use Visage and Column Five for our data visualization needs.

Repurposing content is an easy way to improve your content marketing tactics and the ideas we’ve provided are just a starting point. Once you get your repurposing wheels spinning, you’ll start figuring out even better ways to get more mileage out of your content with minimal effort.

Morgan Quinn is a recovering lifestyle blogger and the Digital Content Manager for Brandfolder, a simple and easy tool for managing digital brand assets. She has created content for brands like Mint.com, Quicken, Ugg Australia, and Martha Stewart. She threw in the towel on Twitter, so follow her on LinkedIn instead.