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Investing in content is, well...an investment. 

As such, most ecommerce marketers are looking for ways to get additional mileage out of the content they already have on-hand. The question is: How?

It starts with a focus on content distribution. If that great email you put together only goes out to your subscribers and stops there, for example, you’re missing out on potential audiences elsewhere. 

There’s an opportunity to repackage your popular content into various other forms for different mediums (like audio, visuals/video, and syndicating it to your website) so it can reach even more people in their preferred formats.

Take it from marketer Benjamin Hardy, who started with just five posts on his blog. Instead of merely sharing links to his blog posts, he decided to repurpose his content for Medium’s platform, thus allowing him to reach a much wider audience. 

Medium took note of his high-quality work and spotlighted it on their platform, and within six months had 20,000 new email subscribers. 

Not bad, right?

You can do the same thing.

Why should you repurpose content?

Everyone prefers to consume content differently: Some people are visual learners, some prefer audio, and others text. Your goal is to meet your audience where they like to be and in the formats they prefer.

For example: In the US, 85% of people enjoy watching videos across devices. 

Translation: Your 5,000 word whitepaper might not be their preferred method of consumption. 

“It’s important to repurpose your content because it ensures you can maximize the ROI from an original asset in many ways, rather than just hoping that the original will do the trick. One blog post can take the form of 20 different things. Repurposing gives you the ability to extend the life cycle of every asset you create.” -Ross Simmonds, Foundation Inc.

Repurposing is a widely used approach to content marketing, too. Research indicates that about 60% of marketers reuse content anywhere from two to five times, often parsing it into smaller, more consumable formats.

The first step is diving into your data and identifying what your best performing content is. From there, you can start distributing it widely across channels to see what kind of additional reach you achieve. 

Not sure how to tackle the distribution and repackaging part? Here are seven tactics to consider.

7 ways to reuse content you've already created

There are lots of ways you can remix content, but you can’t just copy and paste your content and push it out through different channels. Dropping a link to your blog post on social media isn’t going to cut it, for example.

Instead, think about changing the format of the content so it speaks to the target audience and blends in with the content there so it looks more native and natural to the environment.

1. Turn blog posts into video recaps

When it comes to video, a couple of things hold true:

• It’s got eyeballs: People in the 18-24 age bracket spend an average of 83 minutes consuming video content per week.

• Quality is important: This audience expects dynamic and engaging visuals. 

With these two points in mind, you can easily put together a compelling video recap of a blog post and reach a new audience that prefers this multi-sensory format for content consumption.

Just remember: Most people browsing social media aren’t looking to watch a thirty-five-minute epic. Instead, keep it short and sweet. The vast majority of Millennials and Gen Z prefer videos to be less than a minute long.

Video production doesn’t have to be overly complicated, either. You don’t need a gimbal and tracking shots; you don’t need to be Steven Spielberg. Just spend a couple of minutes talking through the key points/themes of your blog post leveraging the visuals you already have from the article.

To make editing video easier, consider leveraging a tool like the Videoleap app. With it, you can edit videos from a mobile device, adding artistic elements, text, and artistic elements with just a few taps.

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2. Turn podcasts into blog post summaries

37% of Americans listen to podcasts once a month, which leaves a lot of room for expanded reach.

But guess what? You can extend your podcast material beyond that audio bubble by writing a summary or recap in the form of a blog post or article for those who prefer to read rather than listen. Plus: The written version hosted on your website can offer some nice SEO benefits, too.

“Long-form video content is amazing, but not everyone has the time or patience to sit through an hour-long webinar. Repurposing those ideas across formats like blog posts opens it up to different consumption preferences.” -Steph Knapp, freelance writer

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Shopify did this to great effect with their Resilient Retail podcast, writing up a narrative-style summary of their podcast conversation with Coco and Breezy, identical twins making a name for themselves selling eyewear in New York. 

What started as a thirty-minute podcast is now a blog post with an estimated reading time of just two minutes, which is ideal for folks who want the quick, scannable TL;DR version. 

This summary is well-done because it synthesizes the key points of the discussion (and doesn’t just recap everything that was said in the podcast word-for-word.)

Again, there are tools and services that make execution of this simple. One is Content Remix, a service that works with writers to repackage your podcast into a thoughtful, narrative-style blog post. 

3. Turn your blog posts, videos, or podcasts into social media content

To increase your return on investment in content and get greater distribution, it makes sense to share it on social channels like Twitter, which has an average of 166 million daily users. 

Twitter threads are one of the easier ways to repackage your content. It might sound simple, but you’d be surprised at how many brands overlook this opportunity.

So how do you build a Twitter thread based on existing content? Take a couple of key points or highlights and tell a story in a series of tweets (a la thread.) 

This tweet from Phil Jacobson was created from a post here on Banknotes. Notice he didn’t simply paste a link to the article; instead, he added context and pulled out some of the highlights to create a dialogue (and go beyond the 280 character limit.)

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Depending on your target audience, another way you can go about this is on Linkedin. 

Wylie Robinson, CEO of blanket company Rumpl, took the storyteller’s approach on Linkedin: He opened up about his company’s mistakes in the past and took ownership of them, recapping a statement he made publicly. 

4. Turn your research or data into visual-friendly, easy-to-consume infographics

A lot of people don’t have time to read a full article. Some people don’t even like listening to podcasts. 

But if they’re scrolling through social media and they see an infographic? That’s something that catches the eye.

Visuals are a great way to make your content stand out: According to research from Buffer, tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites. Plus: Tweets with images get 150% more retweets on average compared to ones that are just plain text.

Creating an infographic is a simple way to go about this, like this one from Semisupervised. Instead of merely putting together a list of DTC brands in a spreadsheet, they created an eye-catching infographic to display the data collected.

It’s pretty simple to execute: Just collect some of the key statistics from your research, design a nice-looking visual to go with them, and share. Infographics are easy to make using a tool like Canva or Visual.ly.

5. Make audio summaries of your blog posts and videos

Not everyone is ready to start a podcast right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get your content into the ears of listeners who prefer the audio format.

Whether it’s a long-form article or a video interview, some people just prefer the short, concise nature of an audio summary. In fact, according to Edison Research, over 75% of Americans listen to audio content on a regular basis. 

The key is to reach your audience where they are, and sometimes that’s on the move. The audio format is great for multi-taskers who want to consume information on the go.

6. Paraphrase your content as Quora answers

One of the best things about evergreen content is being able to reuse it with minimal changes. Quora is an easy win for repurposing your content while boosting exposure to a new audience of people searching for answers.

One good example of this comes from content marketing manager Isabella Sevilla. Utilizing blog posts she’d already written, she posted a long-form answer on Quora filled with backlinks to her website (and netted around 1,600 views.) 

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So what’s the best way to go about doing this yourself?

Find a question on Quora that relates to content you already have, and then paraphrase that material into a high-quality answer there. You can also include relevant links within your response, too.

Not only will you be making a name for yourself as a thought leader, but you’ll also be adding real value for answer-seekers while driving traffic back to your website. 

7. Turn a series of posts into an eBook

Got a collection of blog posts around a central theme or topic? Then you’ve got material for an eBook.

By curating a collection of related article topics into one longform read, you can repackage existing content into a lead-generating or email subscriber-boosting opt-in. Plus, an eBook is a great way to position yourself or your brand as the go-to expert on a subject. Just combine your material into a single PDF and put a cover on it. 

You might even go the self-publishing route and turn it into a hard copy book, like Privy did with their ecommerce marketing handbook.

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Once it’s ready to go, you can promote your new eBook across channels, including more under-utilized places, like your email signature. Tools like Wisestamp make it easy to promote your book with every email you send.

Get more mileage out of your content

Modern audiences have shorter attention spans than ever, and many brands are struggling to produce fresh content day-in and day-out. Depending on the size of your company, it can be hard to create unique content for four or five (or more!) different channels at a time. 

That’s why you need to repackage, repurpose and reuse your content. Repurposing your content removes some of that pressure and allows you to get the most value out of what you’ve already created. 

“That piece you published in Q1 is still just as valuable to your new audience as it was to your audience months ago...but it’s likely that if you don’t repurpose it, your new audience will never come across those original ideas.” -Ross Simmonds, Foundation Inc.

Just remember: repurposing content is much more than just reposting across channels. You need to match the message to the medium and cater to different audiences preferences and needs across platforms.

Bottom line: Make less, market more. 

Done right, you’ll see tremendous benefits when it comes to driving web traffic, subscribers, and sales.