Reach More Readers With Repurposed Content

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

Updated 5.16.24

If the idea of repurposed content makes you feel like you’re cheating, then think again. “You don’t have to create content day in and day out,” says expert marketer and Social Triggers founder Derek Halpern. “You just have to work on getting the content you already have in the hands of more people.”

You’ve worked hard to create quality content, right? And to be honest, writing good stuff isn’t simply a hop, skip, and a jump to the top of the search engine results. It takes some work. After a while, you may feel like you’ve become a content machine that keeps churning out blog post after blog post … newsletter after newsletter … email campaign after email campaign …

Repurposing content you’ve already written gives you the opportunity to get that luscious or useful piece of information to more users. You could take today’s blog post and use it to create three Facebook posts tomorrow. And an infographic for Pinterest the next day. And a YouTube video next week.

That’s the idea behind repurposed content. Some call it recycled content.

But while recycling converts waste into re-usable material, repurposed content is not waste. It’s quality material that’s delivered in a different format from the original.

If you’re struggling to build traffic and reach more users — but you are running out of time each day to write new material — try a different approach. Repurpose. Here are some fundamentals.

Q. What is “repurposed content”?

Repurposed content is published content that is reformatted and delivered to a different audience.

Q. Is repurposing content an acceptable practice?

Yes, it’s actually standard operating procedure — as long as you created the original piece. But if you are thinking of repurposing another writer’s creation, then hit the “Stop” button. That’s called copyright infringement.

Q. Why should you repurpose content?

Repurposed content increases your traffic.

When you reformat the same information for a different presentation, you use the same keywords. That means more users will find you in a search and you’ll get more eyeballs on your content. A new study from SEO giant BrightEdge found that paid and organic search combined are responsible for 68% of all trackable website traffic.

Beyond marketing savvy, repurposing your content is a time-saver. Every time you create a new piece of content from scratch, you must take steps. Wouldn’t you like to eliminate one or more?

1. You choose a topic
2. You find a slant
3. You drill down the main point
4. You pick keywords
5. You write the piece
6. You edit the piece
7. You create the graphic
8. You load the content
9. You publish the content.

But when you repurpose your content, you can eliminate five or six of those steps.

For instance, let’s say you’ve written an article and posted it on your website. But then you choose to repurpose some of the article content into a Pinterest post. You can jump right to Step 7.

And as a bonus, your keywords will now be all over Pinterest. You’ll acquire followers who may not find the article on your website.

Q. What are some repurposed content examples?

• Article soundbites posted onto Facebook
• Facts from a news article transformed into an infographic
• A blog post tweaked for a different target audience
• Data converted into a case study
• A testimonial presented as a video
• An assembled collection of blog posts into an eBook
• A written report formatted into a slide deck
• A case study expanded in a direct mail letter
• A Snapchat video transcribed as a web page
• A how-to article converted to a checklist
• eBook chapters turned into an online course
• A blog post series sent as an email series
• A webinar posted as a YouTube video
• A podcast transcribed as a blog post
• A Pinterest list expanded into an article
• A recorded interview transcribed as a Q & A

Q. Can I repurpose old content?

Yes. In fact, it’s a good idea to conduct a regular content audit in order to make sure your information is up to date. Just be sure you understand the difference between updating content and repurposing content.

• A content update offers the latest information and current language. 
• Repurposed content takes your existing content and restructures it in a new format to share with a different set of readers.

Beyond that, old content that is both updated and repurposed can increase your organic search traffic. Social network application Buffer demonstrated this principle in a 2015 experiment. For a month, the company focused on updating and repurposing old content. Surprisingly, its organic search traffic increased by 4%.

Repurposing content is a smart strategy

That luscious piece of content that you’ve slaved over? Share it with as many people as you can. In as many ways as you can. You’ll acquire new readers and users. And more importantly, you’ll get your valuable information into their hands.

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