The article below is just a small glimpse into our new book. If you want to learn a lot more about how to create content with old content, click here to check out the book now. 

Leading marketers devote a portion of their practice to strategically defining best-practice programs, layouts, templates, and more so automation is not a laborious process. As the number of marketing solutions continues to grow, process and program sustainability will be an increasingly important consideration. At the same time, as a business scales, the marketing team will naturally be challenged to keep up. This is a good sign and as long as the team is organized and skilled, they’ll rise to the occasion. 

Take a critical look at the number of systems required to deliver your multi-channel marketing strategies and seek out platforms that can integrate scalability while delivering personalization throughout the buyer’s journey. 

If your team is feeling stress from campaign execution, ask for them which tasks are repetitive and don’t add value. And as the need for fresh content grows, try taking creative approaches to existing content for a quick solution rather than starting from scratch. 

You can do lot with words on a page. Here are 15 ideas for recycling your written content. 

1. Turn blog posts into podcasts.

One of the simplest ways to repurpose your content is to convert text to audio. Try giving some of your blog posts a second life in the form of podcasts. All you need is a device to record your voice.

Start by reworking your blog post into a script. You probably won’t need to change a lot — just make sure the piece flows smoothly and a listener will be able to follow it easily. If you tend to write in a formal tone, adapt the language in your script to be a little more casual.

Record yourself reading your script aloud, or hire someone to record it for you. Upload the finished podcast to SoundCloud, BlogTalkRadio, or another hosting site. Don’t forget to promote your podcast on social media! 

2. Turn blog posts into white papers.

White papers make great marketing materials, and you can build them out of blog posts. This is an especially good way to repurpose posts that go into detail about how you solved a problem.

Depending on how in-depth your blog post is, you may need to tweak its structure or add more details to convert it to a white paper. Write a summary for the beginning, and make sure to flesh out the middle with plenty of data to support your points. Once your white paper is done, you can use it as a lead magnet on your site.

You can also choose the best-performing posts on your blog and create a roundup white paper out of them. For instance, with Beacon, you can create a white paper or an eBook from any blog post. The company even claims to have a WordPress (WP) plugin that automatically creates eBooks out of your WP posts. Another great tool that allows you to turn a blog post into a white paper in a matter of minutes is PrintFriendly. It has a Chrome extension that allows you to create a PDF out of any blog post that you read to it.

3. Make an infographic from content from a blog post.

Do you have any blog posts that are full of shareable statistics and graphs? Pull out those visual-friendly tidbits, and make them do double duty as infographics.

You can make infographics on your own with online tools like Canva, Visme, or Animatron Studio for graphics or video. Another option is to hire a professional designer to do it for you. Keep in mind that whatever route you take, you may want to stick with a single designer so your visual content is consistent. 

4. Update old blog posts with new information.

Skim over your blog archives to look for posts that could benefit from some updates or additions. If you’ve been blogging for a while, some of your posts probably contain old, outdated information. Expanding old posts with new material is another way to add value without writing whole new posts. To avoid any confusion after you make your changes, add a note to the top of the post letting readers know it’s been revised.

You might have blog posts that are a bit dusty but still very valuable. Update those posts, change them according to the latest numbers and current situation, and you can use them to boost traffic on your blog again. You also could use concepts about national topics and change them to reflect local numbers and data — or vice-versa. 

5. Make a video based on a blog post.

Sometimes video is a better medium than text for explaining things. If some of your blog posts explain complex topics, consider turning them into videos for the visual learners in your audience.

It’s hard to go wrong with any type of video, as long as it’s well made. If you’re new to videos, though, consider creating a videographic, a whiteboard-style video, or an animated video. These videos are easy to make, and you won’t have to get in front of a camera yourself. A tool like wave.video or Lumen5 can help you get started easily.

Many people don’t like to read long texts anymore; they want to learn quickly. Videos can showcase complex ideas, products, or services using easily understandable models. For an example, go to Scaleurs.com for the how-to video “Scale in Less Than Two Minutes.”  

6. Hold a webinar based on your blog content.

Want to attract more leads and interact with your existing audience in real time? Holding a webinar is a good way to do that. If you have a back catalog of blog posts, it’s easy to come up with webinar content by turning blog content into presentation slides. Mix things up by combining information from a couple of posts that are related to each other and add a little brand-new content.

At CHD, we decided to hold a webinar for the European market during the COVID-19 pandemic. The market was changing and so was the industry. We wanted to inform our customers what they could expect from us in the future. By first conducting a survey in three countries, we asked for feedback on consumer habits — specifically, if and how they will change post-COVID when visiting restaurants. It should be easy to gather 150 to 200 people to chat about your industry — and delight them further by including them in a conversation. 

7. Publish your writing on LinkedIn and Medium.

Why confine your best writing to your blog when it could reach thousands more readers on big sites like LinkedIn and Medium? The more places people can discover your content, the better. There’s a catch, though. If Google thinks you’re posting your content in multiple places to game the SEO system, they could penalize you, so it’s important to republish your work the right way. Here’s how you can avoid incurring SEO penalties:

• Be selective about which pieces you publish on sites other than your own blog. Broadcast the ones with the most mass appeal as widely as you can, and keep the more-niche pieces on your own site.
• Publish only an excerpt from each post. Add a link to your own blog for people who want to read the whole thing.
• Avoid posting the same content word-for-word. Make some changes to the text before republishing on Medium or LinkedIn.
• Wait at least a couple of weeks before reposting any content, so Google has time to index the original version on your site.

At InnagrisMarketing Scaleurs, we decided to work with Medium as a reference point — a good source for being seen and getting information.

8. Answer questions on the web through live chat. 

On discussion boards like Quora and Reddit, your blog posts can double as answers to people’s questions. Keep an eye out for questions and conversations that are relevant to blog posts you’ve written, and publish excerpts of your work that address those topics — but only do this if your content is actually applicable. Whenever we publish a new blog post, we search Quora for related questions, submit a helpful answer, and add a link to our new blog post if it’s relevant and brings more value.

This tip works in reverse, too: If you’ve written any original, cogent answers to people’s questions on discussion boards, see if you can expand those pieces into full blog posts.

Both CHD and Lantmannen decided to implement chatboxes on their websites so visitors could get what they want: answers right away without having to wait. You can do the same.

9. Combine multiple blog posts into an eBook.

Have you written a lot of blog posts on related topics? Put some of those posts together, and you might find that you’ve got most of the material for an eBook.

Don’t run to Amazon to self-publish your book quite yet, though. Take the time to make your eBook truly high-quality. Sequence your posts in a way that makes sense, and edit them to improve the book’s flow. Add some fresh, exclusive content, so your current readers have an incentive to download the book. Add illustrations, photos, or original research. If you don’t know how to format an eBook, hire someone to do it for you. Services like Beacon are great for creating eBooks, even if you don’t have a designer.

As discussed previously, you want to nurture customers via a marketing funnel. One way to nurture your customers is to create eBooks to grab their interest. This can work as part of your ladder of value. 

10. Make an audio version of your eBook.

Like blog posts, eBooks are easily converted to audio. You’ll have to invest more of your time into recording the book (or spend more to hire a voice professional), but otherwise, the process is mostly the same. Audio content is popular because it lets people multi-task. If your average reader tends to be busy, it’s smart to provide an audio alternative to your text-based content. Just as with podcasts, head to sites like SoundCloud or BlogTalkRadio to host your audio eBook. It’s a great way to leverage your content. 

11. Fill out your email newsletter with content from your blog.

If you send out a weekly or monthly email newsletter, add some excerpts or highlights from your latest blog posts. Include links so people can read the full posts if they’re interested. You might see your blog traffic and your email open rate go up with this tactic. Moz is a great example of repurposing content in such a manner. Whenever they have a great new post to share, they post all of it in an email. So much for shorter emails!

You have already so much valuable content in the form of blog posts and your website. At the same time, email marketing is still one of the most-valuable tools for generating leads. Use valuable existing content you know is working. Just tweak your blog or web posts, and put the result in an email. It’s a great way to keep up the momentum of your contact with customers.

12. Put your presentations on SlideShare.

Have you given a presentation or hosted a webinar lately? Don’t just let your slides languish in a dark corner of your hard drive — they can keep working for you. Go over your deck and make sure all the information they contain is evergreen (timeless). Then upload the deck to SlideShare where anyone can find and view it.

13. Use visual content on Pinterest and/or Instagram.

To really extend the life of your images, put them on Pinterest. Most social media posts fade away within a few days or even a few hours, but “pins” can last for months. Infographics, image-based how-to guides, and photos that represent your brand are all good choices for Pinterest. Instagram is another visual social media platform where you can repost your images, although Instagram posts don’t last as long as pins.

A lot of end consumers are using Instagram, but if yours is a B2B company, I would recommend putting more effort and budget into your LinkedIn channel rather than your Instagram channel. Also, Instagram stories tend to be more successful than Instagram posts. Decide on the main channels where you want to be found, and make sure the content is relevant. 

14. Create an online course based on your old content.

If you’ve ever created a series of how-to articles, videos, or webinars, consider repackaging them into a course. Online courses are a perfect way to scale up your business. As with eBooks, you’ll probably want to sprinkle in some new content so longtime readers will want to sign up. Even a short, free course can help you get more email subscriptions. Platforms like Udemy allow you to host your courses for free. Other options include Stepik and Teachable. You can even host your course on YouTube! Just create a separate playlist for that, and get ready to grow your audience.

15. Use your data.

If you’ve done any kind of original research or testing, don’t discard the data when you’re finished. Turn the results into an infographic, a case study, or another type of content that highlights your findings. Gathering and making sense of original data is a fantastic way to provide real, unique value. 

Conclusion

You can decide to use all of these methods, mix and match a handful of options, or try only the strategies with the highest conversion rates. Give yourself deadlines for exploring each tool to determine what works best for you. 

You probably have more content than you think. With a little creativity, you can turn a single article, blog post, or video into several different pieces of content to use across the web. Repurposing your content isn’t effortless, since you may have to make some edits or add fresh content to what’s already there, but it’s a lot easier than starting from scratch.

Become a Successful Scaleur

Scaling is a strategy that can only be mastered by a scaleur who is a dedicated learner and considers real-time business priorities. I hope the article above has helped! Marketing Scaleurs is a scaling company that helps entrepreneurs scale their marketing efforts. We’re experts in growth marketing, product development, and more, creating custom growth plans for startups, entrepreneurs and scaleurs in order to help them gain traffic, generate leads and increase their revenue. 

If you want traffic, leads and sales, get in touch and you’ll start getting results in no time!