Back on the topic of sustainable growth and small marketing teams punching above their weight, this week we’ve been talking about the importance of content repurposing.

‍

Time and time again we see the same thing happening (and to be totally honest, we’re guilty of it ourselves sometimes too!) - a huge amount of time is invested into creating a content masterpiece and only about 20 minutes promoting it. Then you wonder why it didn't get much traction. 

‍

The reality is that the real art of content marketing these days lies in distribution.

‍

I often feel there’s a lot of hesitation when it comes to content repurposing, a concern that it feels ‘lazy and repetitive’. But here's the thing: reusing, recycling, and repurposing content isn't lazy - it's smart. And with the rise of AI tools, it's becoming an increasingly accessible strategy. After all, if you have a piece of content that is truly valuable and drives engagement, why wouldn’t you want to extend its reach?

First things first, what do we mean by content repurposing?

It's about taking a piece of content and transforming it for different platforms and formats to extend its lifecycle and reach. 

‍

Let's take a practical example: imagine you've run a live webinar on LinkedIn. 

‍

You’ve invested quite a bit of time getting to that point - finding a guest speaker, planning the discussion, setting it all up and promoting it to get attendees. Rather than just finishing it there and moving on to the next thing, to really maximise the the potential of that effort, you could:

‍

• Take the recording and turn it into a YouTube video
• Create an SEO-optimised blog from the transcript
• Release the audio as a podcast on Spotify
• Use the key discussion points or quotes to create several focused LinkedIn posts 
• Edit down a series of short video snippets to add to your content mix

‍

The key here is adaptation of the content for different platforms which enables you to reach new audiences. 

Why is this so important for marketers?

Content repurposing has several advantages:

‍

• It's resource-efficient, which is especially crucial for resource strapped marketing teams 
• It maximises the ROI on your content creation efforts
• It helps you reach different audience segments on different platforms
• It allows you to build a consistent presence and drum beat of messaging across different channels
• It encourages testing and experimentation with new channels and content formats

Common mistakes to watch out for

While content repurposing is about efficiency, there's an important balance to strike. There's often a tendency to go to extremes - putting minimal effort into how you reuse and repurpose things.

‍

Remember this is about strategic reuse, not simply duplicate posting across channels. Really think about which platforms make sense for your audience, and take the time to adapt the content for that platform. Sometimes this might require a fairly substantial rewrite - but that's still a very different level of effort compared to creating something genuinely useful from scratch.

‍

There's also often a missed opportunity to add new value. Every time you reuse content, there's a chance to update it, evolve it, and add something more to it. 

‍

Speaking of updates - forgetting to refresh outdated information is a real 'gotcha' with this approach. Again, this comes back to not just blindly posting content everywhere without thinking it through.

Does it contain any specific references that can date? If so, can they be removed or updated to make sure it still feels fresh and relevant? 

‍

Finally, make sure you’re measuring what works! You need to constantly refine your approach - for example, there's no point putting effort into creating an audio version for a podcast channel every time if it never gains any momentum. Give new channels a reasonable amount of time to bed in and gain traction, but have a cut off point where you make a call to drop it and explore another opportunity. 

Our framework for approaching content repurposing efficiently

The starting point for this is your content strategy. Look at your content pillars, the 3-4 things you want to be known for. This top level is where you should be really spending your time ideating and developing what we call your ‘rocks’ of content - the substantial, valuable, opinion-based pieces.

‍

You then need your distribution strategy - what are the core channels you’re going to focus on to reach your audience? And off the back of that what content formats do you then need to deliver e.g. Regular LinkedIn posts, podcasts, webinars, SEO-driven articles, etc. 

‍

With that in place, you can plan for repurposing from the very beginning, rather than treating it as an afterthought. So every time you’re working on a content ‘rock’, you’re also thinking about how that’s going to break down and be adapted for different channels and audiences. 

‍

With this all written down, you can then create content workflows and templates to make it super quick and easy to roll out. This is where AI tools can be super helpful! Like Opus Clip for creating short video clips, Otter.AI for transcripts, Claude for social snippets. 

Getting started

If you're new to content repurposing, start small:

‍

• Pick one piece of successful content
• Write your list of channels / platforms to repurpose for 
• Try turning it into five different formats
• Repeat, measure and optimise!  

‍

Remember, it's not about just plastering the same content asset everywhere - be thoughtful, about how you repurpose it for a new platform or format. 

‍

I'd love to hear about your experiences with content repurposing. What's worked well for you? What challenges have you faced?

Before I go…..

I was invited to speak on the Method podcast, talking about the secret to hiring the right marketer at the right time. We touched on everything from hiring your first marketer to leveraging customer feedback to drive growth - you can listen here!