Repurposing a Blog: 3 Ways to Boost the ROI of What You're Already Creating

Content marketing is to a business, as floodgates are to rivers.

A website with well-written content and social media channels bursting with engaging posts will allow fresh channels to open and improve organic traffic. They can also create new pathways to reach audiences that you may not have thought of. Content marketing reinforces your business’s message and utilizes fresh thoughts and ideas.

The Benefits of Blogging

A top-tier way of building content value is through blogging. When it comes to sharing information on products or services, blogging has proven itself a useful tool, time and time again. It is also one of the top tools used by companies to broaden their image. Businesses can even share opinions and thoughts on subject matters they otherwise would not be able to express.

Another benefit of blogging is that it can be an inexpensive means of contacting your audience. Typical marketing strategies could take considerable amounts of money, time, and other investments. But hiring a single content writer, or even a team, can be lucrative in the long run, and often pays for itself.

Marketers will eventually find themselves dealing with stagnant traffic on their websites. These are effects of dips or plateaus that come with industry changes over time. That is where repurposed content writing will come in.

Repurposing or updating content is easy when you have a steady stream of content available. And with fresh (or refreshed) content, viewers come back for more, and Google bots are pleased to note that you’re continuing to improve your web presence. Let’s discuss three strategies for repurposing your content writing and how they will improve your brand and value.

1) Develop a Content Repurposing System BEFORE You Write

Before diving headlong into the pool, creating a content repurposing plan for your content is a major key to your success.

This is where you plan your posting schedule ahead of time so there is less to prepare for when you get to the smaller increments later on. To start, you will want to look at the upcoming three months of your platform and decide the content that you will need. Plan this according to your calendar events, planning around launches, new products, holidays, etc. After that, you will be able to determine what blog content will need to be produced each month and when it will be applicable to do so.

For best results, choose topics that fall under the three to five core topics (content buckets) of your brand. Follow up with research into one short-tail keyword for each content bucket.

Now you have three months’-worth of blog posts set and ready to go. It is now time to research long-tail keywords that you want each week’s blog to focus on. Tailor the long-tail keywords for the specific topic to help support the content’s organic traffic.

With these steps set up, you should decide on the repurposed blog title. It should use a long-tail keyword that has been optimized with a tool like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer, for best results. Finally, decide on the related keywords to use throughout the blog. There are no set rules for where to add these to your content, but naturally integrating related terms will pave the way for the correct path.

Once you have the topics for these blog posts, take the pillar content and decide how you will break it up. Repurpose the content into smaller, bite-sized blog posts and post them to social media regularly.

2) Take Inventory of the Highest-Performing Content Writing

Repurposing blog content may seem frightening at first, especially if there is a large amount to sift through. Google Analytics and Ahrefs are easy tools to use for researching which of your blog posts have done well with your audience over time.

When considering which pieces should be updated or repurposed, your first choice should be the highest performing of the lot. Choose topics that your audience is still consuming, years after they have been published. These two selections will have the highest chance of improving your value in the long run. After you’ve determined your three prime pieces of source content, it’s time to choose what you’re going to do with them

If the decision is to reuse the content as-is, then you will want to go through the process of updating it. First, give the blog or content a crisp new title. By doing this, you can add keywords and reattract previous readers. Next, check the meta description, adjusting it for new SEO opportunities. Other improvements you can make are adding new internal links or fixing broken ones, adding images, and even rewriting the content to improve the post structure.

When repurposing a blog, consider what sort of media you need to change this content into, like creating an audio or video version of the post. Focus on creating content based on where your audience hangs out, and be sure to cross-post your reformatted content where ever possible. If the new post performs well, consider creating a series of videos where you repurpose many blog posts. This could lead to live streams where you create guides or courses for your audience to follow and grow with. The possibilities are endless.

3) Bank and Organize Your Content Marketing

So, now you have the next three months of content planned out. But what about the three months after that, and after that? What if you come up with an amazing idea while you are building your content schedule?

That is where a content bank comes in.

A content bank is a repository where you store all your past, present, and future content ideas in one place. You can use it to plan out future blogs or keep your past blogs a quick search away, instead of hunting them down through dates and times. Once created, you will be using this bank to itemize your brand.

Be sure to choose things you want your customers to know; like lifestyle content, brand attributes, etc.

Next, gather all existing content, old and new, and put it in the files. Then you will want to narrow it down to whatever amount is manageable for your brand. Try using a plan or schedule to plot this out.

Are you working as a team? Share the bank using a shared file on your network such as Dropbox, or Google Drive. Be sure to make a system that is easy to share the files with your teammates.

Final Thoughts on Repurposing a Blog

When looking at these three easy steps, it makes sense why repurposing a blog or updating content is so important.

Save time and money by not creating brand-new content every time—that may or may not succeed. Your blog content history is something that you can look back on and work with at half the effort. Repurposing that old blog content may open up other avenues that lead your growing business to new audiences and streams of web traffic.

Ultimately, the benefits of repurposing content allow your team massive opportunities for creating fresh, repackaged content on repeat. This planning ahead leads to savings of time, effort, and money. To learn more about using content repurposing to build your next quarterly content plan, book a call with us at https://navigationvs.com/zoom-chat/