How to repurpose content for maximum impact

Content repurposing deserves a place in every content marketing strategy. Leave repurposing out of your content plan, and you leave money (and leads) on the table.

In this guide, we look at what content repurposing is, what a content repurposing strategy includes, content repurposing examples, and how to repurpose content for maximum effect.

In this guide:

What is content repurposing?

Why create a content repurposing strategy?

Building your content repurposing strategy: The FMFS framework

How to repurpose content

Content repurposing tips

What is content repurposing?

Content repurposing is the act of taking a piece of existing, typically high-performing, content and repackaging it in a new format. 

For example, you might take an engaging blog (something you know from your marketing metrics is getting a lot of reads) and use it to inspire a LinkedIn post, a series of emails, or even a webinar.

When you repurpose content, you find new ways to get ROI on the content you’ve already developed. But it’s not enough to directly lift content from one place and repost it in another.

A content repurposing strategy also involves editing and optimizing what’s already been created and adapting it for its new format.

For example, a blog article might need to be spliced up and restructured to be engaging in someone’s inbox, while a LinkedIn post might require extra research and expanding out to create a thought leadership blog.

Why create a content repurposing strategy?

We mentioned above that repurposing content helps drive ROI. But how does it do that exactly? 

Here are the 5 benefits of repurposing content:

1. Repurposing content saves time and resources

There’s never enough time in the working day, right? Well, think of content repurposing as an efficiency hack. It saves time and resources by leveraging the thinking behind a successful piece of content and applying it elsewhere.

You don’t need to come up with a new hook, a new angle, or a new story to tell; you can lift content you’re already confident about and fast-track it to publication.

2. Struggling to publish often? Try content repurposing!

Because repurposing your content helps you work more efficiently, it can also be used to maintain a steady publishing frequency. 

Content repurposing takes away the dreaded “blank page,” as you don’t need to think about something “new” to post about each time. It can also increase your confidence in your content strategy as you’ll be publishing more of the topics you know work well for your audience.

With the blockers of low inspiration and low confidence overcome, you should find it easier to publish new content on the regular.

3. Repurposed content can reach new audiences

Some people are visual learners, others prefer sitting down to a 3000-word guide and getting stuck in. Content repurposing is a strategic way to engage buyers of all learning types. 

Let’s say you take a research-heavy whitepaper and spin it out into an infographic to share on socials. Now, you’ve got a better chance of capturing both the visual learners (with the infographic) and the detailed readers (with the whitepaper). 

What’s more, certain content types perform better on one content distribution channel than another. An infographic may be more engaging and shareable on social than a whitepaper would be, for example. 

So, by repurposing your content across multiple platforms, you’re giving your brand and thought leadership the best chance of being seen — and gaining traction.

4. Repurposing content can boost your SEO

Search engines favor websites with a range of content formats. And when search engines favor your website, it performs better from an SEO perspective.

Plus, when exploring content purposing ideas, you can identify new important keywords and search terms that you haven’t used yet. Include the right keywords and search terms in your repurposed content, and you should see an uptick in your visibility and SERP ranking.

5. Repurposed content might drive more traffic to your site

Stronger SEO leads to better traffic, too. As you repurpose content, you’re casting the net wider and wider and pulling in potential leads from a larger pool of prospects.

Building your content repurposing strategy: The FMFS framework

Looking for a framework to support your content repurposing strategy? Look no further.

At Scribly, we’ve developed the FMFS framework for content repurposing:

• Foundation

• Modularize

• Format

• Share

Step 1. Foundation

First, you need to choose the piece of high-value content you’d like to repurpose. 

We’ve talked a lot about repurposing content that’s performing well, but you might also select content that’s key to a marketing campaign, or that’s hyper relevant to your target audience’s pain point(s). In either case, you know this content plays an important strategic role for your brand, and you want to leverage it further to reach more people.

This selected piece of content is the foundation of your content repurposing exercise.

Step 2. Modularize

What are the key elements you want to lift from this existing, foundational content and repurpose into something new? This might be a stand-out quote or provocation, a round-up of proof points or stats, or a list of key takeaways. 

We call this stage “modularizing” because, as mentioned before, you’ll need to alter the original content to suit a switch in format. Longer-form content will need to be cut up and potentially restructured. You can think of these smaller assets as content modules, with each module having a main message and distribution plan.

For example, let’s say you’re repurposing a whitepaper into posts for LinkedIn. To modularize the whitepaper, you’ll maybe aim for ~10 isolated stats, charts, quotes, or takeaways. 

The same works for taking a short-form piece of content and expanding it into a longer form. You’ll still want to map out your modules, as each module can translate to a new piece of content. Write a one-sentence summary per module to keep you focused before moving on to the next step.

Step 3. Format

Now it’s time to think about the content formats that’ll make your modules come to life.

• For a data-heavy module, an infographic could be a good choice. 

• To share a three-step template, consider a carousel. 

• A provocation or insight could be fleshed out into a thought leadership blog. 

• Or, to really get mileage from your content repurposing strategy, try translating a group of related modules into an email nurture sequence. 

That way, you’re gaining multiple touchpoints — and warming prospects up over time — all from a single piece of original content.

Step 4. Share

Don’t let distribution be an afterthought. Be strategic about when and where you’ll share each new module of repurposed content while you’re still in the planning phase.

You’ll likely already know the channels and platforms your target audience uses, but think about the content format of each new piece of content too — and which channel suits it best. 

Right now, how-to guides and practical insights are performing really well on LinkedIn. Plus, some infographics get picked up by the press and become earned media. Why not try pitching your repurposed infographic to five publications read by your target audience?

How to repurpose content

Let’s apply the FMFS framework to an example content repurposing project.

Our foundation is an industry report ebook, jam-packed with primary research and statistics. 

When modularizing the ebook, we spot the opportunity to share the background of the report, explaining the research methodology and how the report was produced. We choose to format this as a blog article so we can send it to report contributors and ask them to share it with their network. 

This article can be a little more evergreen than some of the report findings, building credibility in your brand and showcasing how well you understand your target audience’s pains. Underpin this article with an SEO strategy, and you’ll have a new traffic-generation channel to amplify the report’s reach.

Another module summarizes key data from the report, which we format as an infographic. Another pulls out five stats that will impact your customers over the next year. This, we choose to format as an email sequence with each step sharing a stat and driving a CTA to learn more.

And just like that, we have three new pieces of high-value content to share and increase your content ROI.

Content repurposing tips

Now you’ve read the what, why, and how of content repurposing strategies, we want to leave you with a few last tips and ideas.

Content repurposing isn’t content resharing

There’s a difference between sharing/resharing content and a content repurposing strategy.

An email announcing a new whitepaper? That’s a reshare. A LinkedIn post summarizing the key message of a blog post and copying in a link? That’s a reshare.

If you’re ever posting original content as-is — in the same format and with no extra content — it’s content resharing. To make either of the above a content repurposing strategy, just follow the FMFS framework: craft up a module from the original content and translate it into a new format. 

There’s nothing wrong with sharing your content. In fact, you should absolutely share everything you create across priority distribution channels! But sharing won’t help you diversify your reach and engage a broader audience in the same way that content repurposing does.

Be selective in your repurposing — not all content should be repurposed for every format or channel

Thanksgiving turkey can make a super-delicious sandwich the next day. But it won’t make a good lasagne. (Or it shouldn’t do, at least.) The point is, there’s a right format and a right channel for every piece of content, and not all content works across all formats and channels.

For example, we wouldn’t recommend transcribing a 3-minute client case study video and sharing it on LinkedIn. That wouldn’t be too engaging to read. However, a customer success story could be gold dust if delivered in an impactful, actionable email.

Repurpose content as part of the creation phase

When you’re really being clever about content repurposing, you’ll be thinking about how you could modularize your foundation content as it’s being produced. 

As soon as you start planning a new piece of content, map out a number of ways that content can be repurposed: what modules can you see, what formats would work best, where and when will you share it?

This will speed up the process of repurposing your content.

Content repurposing can be built from the micro to the mega

We’ve mentioned this throughout the guide, but it’s worth clarifying here.

It’s not just long-form content that can be repurposed, like when repurposing blog content for social media. Short-form content can be expanded on or grouped together to become a larger piece. 

Content repurposing can stretch beyond the original format

While you might want to repurpose a high-performing blog post as another long-form piece, some of the most exciting — and impactful — content repurposing comes from really switching up your formats.

Swap written words for video, a podcast for an email sequence, and so on.

In challenging yourself to be creative, you’ll also reach a wider audience and improve your SEO by having a broader range of content on-site.

Content repurposing can also mean updating

Last, but not least, the process of content repurposing also serves as a chance to update what you’re saying. Content optimization is a good practice to get into as it boosts SEO and can drive new traffic. It can also save original content from getting dusty and irrelevant by injecting newer stats, trends, and insights to increase its relevance.

This content can then be shared as “new,” as it’s been updated and republished for today.

Repurpose with the pros

At Scribly, content repurposing is baked right into our approach. We regularly assess your content optimization opportunities and have a content repurposing service that elevates your brand and expands your reach. Your Scribly account manager is more than happy to suggest content repurposing ideas, as well as other SEO tactics to improve your performance.

You want to get the best return on investment for your content marketing, so don’t overlook the opportunity that content repurposing presents.

Get in touch with the Scribly team to learn how we can support your content goals from keyword strategy to content creation, repurposing, and beyond.