10 Creative Ways to Repurpose Blog Content and Grow Your Audience
Recycling. It’s good for the planet. So why not repurpose blog content every once in awhile and save yourself some of the extra energy you might have spent working on something new? It’s like recycling, but for blog posts. If you’re not repurposing your blog content, you could be missing out on a potential goldmine of opportunity!
Every blog post on your website right now could be transformed and shared with an entirely new audience.
I admit, this is one of those topics that I’m a lot better at telling you about than actually doing. But trust me, a little repurposing will go a long way.
Transform Blog Posts into Engaging Infographics
If you have some blog posts where facts and figures play a key role, you may have the perfect post for an infographic. Comb through your blog post and identify the key statistics and data points and think of a new, more visual way to present that data.
How-to posts also work extremely well as infographics. Think about it, how many times have you seen a “roadmap” infographic laying out the steps to do something?
Repurposing content into infographics can a take a wordy blog post (like this one) and refine it down to its essence.
(Okay, stop, a little break in the action here. I am going a bit nuts over the fact that despite the fact that I damn well know the difference between its and it’s, I still use them backwards all the time. I think my fingers just refuse to type the correct one every time. Back to your regularly scheduled blog post…)
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to make infographics either (although it wouldn’t hurt). There are quite a few templates and design sites that can help you bring together the perfect graphics to make your existing content shine.
If you’re looking to create some infographics for your website, check out SketchWow. I bumped into this site online, and I think it’s an incredibly well put together app. They have a $49 lifetime plan that I just purchased to start playing with it – based on reviews it’s awesome and I’ll probably talk more about it after I’ve had a chance to play with it some more. PS This is not a paid advertisement, I get nothing for this one, but I liked it so much, I wanted to get it out there.
Create Podcast Episodes from Popular Blog Topics
Have a face for radio? (Old joke, sorry.) You can take some of your best blog posts and turn them into a podcast. This would work especially well for series posts. Of course, podcasting is a crowded marketplace, so you’re going to want to make it good.
To get started, you’ll need equipment (yep, that’s an affiliate link). That’s a topic that goes a little deeper than we’re prepared for here, but there are plenty of websites about building a podcast setup. (If you have a great one on your site, I’d love to link to it – send me an email.)
Once you’ve spent too much money and too many hours setting things up, take a look at your old blog posts and dissect them. Outline key points that you’ll want to discuss. Maybe there is a guest you’d like to invite to chat about the material or an expert you could “interview” as part of the podcast.
You can use AI to write an outline or give an outline summarization of your blog post – this is where AI excels. Just be sure to read through it and ensure everything is correct. Occasionally, AI makes more mistakes than humans.
You’re ready to record. Sit down, take your time, and most of all – have fun with it. There is nothing worse than a podcast that sounds like a bored high school kid reading his 3rd period English class paper.
Compile Related Blog Posts into Comprehensive E-books
E-books are a great way to repurpose content. Start with your existing content and find a group of similarly themed posts or a series of posts that could be assembled into a book format. Long form blog posts that help your target audience understand and learn about your niche will perform well.
You’ll want to do some editing to figure out where each chapter is, and you should add additional insight and updated information as well (particularly if you plan to sell the e-book).
Incorporate images and much of the basic layout skills of content creation that you already know – break things up with headlines, write shorter sentences and paragraphs, use markup like bold and italics to make certain concepts and ideas stand out, and hey, maybe this would be a great place to repurpose one of those infographics you just created too.
You don’t have to be a design wizard to create a great looking e-book. Sites like designrr can help you easily repurpose content. I’ve been using their software for about a year now for some work projects, and it’s easy to use with great output. If you’re lacking in the design skills department, I would definitely recommend them.
Use your e-books as lead magnets or sell them as part of your monetization plans. They are definitely a great way to build your email newsletter database – giving you another avenue to connect people to your existing content.
Develop Video Tutorials Based on How-to Blog Posts
How-to blog content is just begging to be turned into video content. Think about it, how many times have you googled “how do I…” and watched a YouTube video to figure it out? I have fixed my dryer, installed a ceiling fan, figured out how to get an Excel spreadsheet to do what I needed, found the setting that was causing my mouse to jump all over the screen, and learned how to make my own pasta. All from how-to video content.
(PS The pasta turned out pretty tasty.)
Write a script from your blog post and look for a good way to get across the most info with the least explanation – think visually, the more you can demonstrate on screen, the better.
Record and edit your video. Remember to keep it short and to the point. Video that goes too long is worse than my long-winded blogging. Keep the viewers attention and (there’s a theme here) have fun with it. Let your personality shine through the video. Don’t Cindy Brady it.
Once you’re finished, upload your new YouTube video or use it in blog posts. Or both. Just remember that each have their own ways of getting attention, so read up on YouTube video content creation. Much like blogging, you’ll want to learn how to be found in YouTube video search so that you can be seen by millions.
Craft Social Media Snippets and Quote Graphics
I’m not on a ton of social media platforms. I gave up most of them many years ago. But for my day job, I have to come up with social media posts on a regular basis and one of the easiest ways to do that is repurposing content.
Simple things like extracting quotes or key takeaways from a great blog post can be great for social media posts. The simple, but effective, aesthetic of a just a few words on a interesting background can lead to big numbers. Taking post snippets and using them for social media gives your fans and followers a taste of what you have to offer back on your blog. Lead them there with these social media teasers.
Of course, it helps if you a design whiz too, because you want to output high quality content that attracts views, shares, and likes and if it’s boring and ugly, you’re probably not going to get that. Once again, there are a lot of websites aimed at helping you do just that, both free and paid.
Always keep in mind the end goal of content recycling: sending everyone from social media back to your blog.
Host Webinars Expanding on Blog Topics
If you have the audience, you may be able to repurpose content by turning it into a webinar. Webinars can be used much like a YouTube video to break down complex topics and give them a stronger visual appeal to help make them make more sense.
I can write a blog post about changing the oil in your car, but it would be much better as visual content and a delivery method like a webinar can allow for more interaction and questions.
When repurposing content to a webinar format, be sure you are prepared for questions, because webinar guests expect to have them answered. Just try and keep some order to the chaos, there is nothing worse as a viewer than having the webinar repeatedly interrupted by questions and comments from the other viewers. Many webinars will turn off all microphones until a certain point where they will allow discussion and questions.
To get the most out of your webinars be sure and advertise them, both on your blog and on your social media platforms.
Record your webinars and let future users watch them as on-demand content that you can also use for lead generation or to build your newsletter database.
Create SlideShare Presentations from List-based Posts
If your content lends itself to listicle-style posts, repurposing content can be as simple as building a SlideShare presentation. Convert each list item into a slide and add visual content like images, icons, and backgrounds to make the blog content appealing.
Since it is a much more visual medium, you’ll want to trim down your blog content and keep explanations brief. Try to boil things down to their essential elements and use the visuals to help tell more.
You can upload these to SlideShare, embed into a new post with updated information, or turned into YouTube videos (with a little additional work – you don’t want them to be too plan and boring, perhaps adding music and voiceovers would be a good first step).
Develop an Email Course from a Series of Related Posts
Look through your older blog posts and identify a series of posts that would come together as a comprehensive guide on a topic. Break down the content into logical, easy-to-digest lessons. Each lesson will form the basis of an email.
Think of what kind of takeaway lessons or “homework” you could give for each lesson. Get a little interactive in order to keep readers looking forward to the next email.
Set up an autoresponder to deliver your email at set times so you don’t have to manually monitor the sends. Be sure and advertise the email course and spread the word through social media posts, your blog, and your email newsletter.
You can use this email course as a lead magnet to draw in new audiences and get them to join your newsletter.
Just remember, don’t be spammy when it comes to email. No one likes that.
Repurpose Content for Guest Posting Opportunities
Repurpose an original blog post by turning it into a guest post. Not only will this foster community in your niche, but it will also help your site by building backlinks.
Adapt your old posts, by trying to look at the information from a different angle – think about the target audience for the place you’d like your guest post used. Update any stale information in the original article and add new insight to the guest post. Remember, you don’t want to post duplicate content on a bunch of sites. Using the same content over and over will only serve to get your posts ranked poorly in Google.
Don’t forget to look for backlink opportunities when repurposing content. Writing guest posts can be very lucrative for your SEO and content marketing plans.
Promote your guest post on social media – it will help your content get read and make the site owner happy too. Everyone loves a little extra traffic, and you’ll benefit from some additional traffic thanks to your guest post.
Create Interactive Quizzes Based on Educational Posts
If your blog focuses on educational content, you can build quizzes around the original post. Look for content that teaches specific concepts or skills and develop quizzes around them that test readers’ understanding of the content. You can turn the same content into multiple quizzes to keep things fresh and interesting.
Share your quizzes as part of your content marketing plan. Add them to your current posts as a way of freshening up and repurposing content, share them on social media, and include them in your email newsletters.
Track the data and use it to see where you might have some weak spots or need to build more content to clarify topics. You can create content based on the results too – everyone wants to know where they stack up against others, so build a post around what you found. Explain what everyone totally nailed and which parts were a total flop. Use that to further educate your readers.
So the question is, how will you go about repurposing content today?
I’ve shown you 10 ways to breathe new life in your old blog content. When you repurpose existing content, you’ll be able to expand your reach and build your audience. Plus, it can be fun and keep things interesting for you. As I sit here writing this, I am actually thinking about ways to repurpose my own content and get it out there to a broader audience.
I’ll be curious to see and hear how you turn older posts into fresh content and grow your readership. If you have a great success moment, tell us all about it in the comments below. It helps encourage everyone and push us to try new things.