Let’s be real – your to-do list is already overflowing with a million and one things to do daily. Add content creation on top of this, and you’ve just tripled your workload. It’s no secret that we’re constantly overwhelmed with endless tasks as creators, entrepreneurs, and business owners. I relate to this so deeply, which is why I’m sharing my ultimate guide to repurposing content and saving time as a content creator.
I know how much time goes into planning, batching, and creating a strategic content calendar, let alone the actual content that goes into it.
Having started my Instagram and blog back in 2016 while juggling a 9-5, then traveling with tourism boards, building a course, and keeping consistent with my blog, social media, and podcast…
Let’s say I’ve got my content repurposing system down tight.
And if you’re ready to cut your workload by half, or at the very least, shave a minimum of 3 hours off your content creation process, keep reading!
The Ultimate Guide to Repurposing Content (and Saving Time as a Content Creator)
As a creative, you probably feel immense pressure to always create fresh, new, exciting content. Unfortunately, you’ll learn quickly that that’s just an unrealistic goal. And that’s even before you factor in the “consistency” part of creating content.
But here’s a little secret – your content doesn’t need to be fresh all the time.
In fact, there’s a marketing principle that says customers need to see your brand at least 7 times before they make a purchasing decision.
This is your permission to work smart, not hard, and repurpose the content you’ve already worked so hard to create. The key to doing this while keeping things fresh is having a system to refresh and repurpose your content across multiple channels.
What is Content Repurposing
To repurpose like a pro, you need to know exactly what content repurposing is and entails.
Simply put: content repurposing is taking a piece of existing content and presenting it in a new way.
Where most business owners and content creators get it wrong is they think content repurposing is sharing the link to an old blog post on Facebook.
When done well, content repurposing is taking an existing blog post and breaking it down into 3 Instagram posts or Reels on the same topic.
How Content Repurposing Saves You Time and Helps You Reach More Audiences
The most obvious? Repurposing content saves you hours of your time, so you don’t have to rack your brain cooking up fresh content ideas.
Aside from the time you save, repurposed content can help you reach more audiences. That’s because you’ll go into your content creation process with data.
You can take a high-performing post and repurpose it throughout your other channels.
Say you have a blog post that does particularly well. You can then repurpose that topic for a podcast episode or YouTube video. That, in turn, can become the topic of your weekly email, then several pieces of social media content from Instagram carousels, Reels, or TikToks.
How to Repurpose Content
Before diving into the step-by-step process of repurposing content, let’s break down the two types of content we’ll focus on.
The first is long-form content. These come in the form of blog posts, YouTube videos, and Podcasts.
The second is short-form content. We’re talking about social media posts, such as Instagram and TikTok.
Let’s start by looking at ways we can repurpose long-form content.
Repurposing Long-Form Content Like Blog Posts, YouTube Videos, and Podcast Episodes
The first thing you start with is a content calendar, even before you start creating and repurposing content. In this post, I explain how to plan a content calendar strategically. This is important because the first step I take is to plot out my macro content, aka long-form content.
That’s because long-form content takes more time to create.
While you can repurpose a short-form piece of content (such as an Instagram post) into a longer-form one, breaking down a long-form piece of content is generally easier and a smarter way to work.
Ways to Repurpose Blog Posts
Once you’ve hit publish on a blog post, the first thing I’d do is repurpose your blog post into the following content types:
- Instagram posts
- Instagram Reels
- TikToks
You can do this by teasing your blog post across all these platforms. Give your audience a taste of what they can expect to walk away with after reading your new blog post. For example, you can create a Reel that highlights a portion of the tips you share in the post with a call-to-action to head to your blog for more.
Carousels are also a great content type to repurpose your blog post into. That’s because it breaks down the overall value of the post into smaller, more digestible pieces.
As for email, you can use it to promote your new blog post similarly. However, the content you write in your email should give your audience a reason to click through to your blog post.
After some time, if you notice that your blog post is performing well, repurpose the content into a podcast or YouTube video (another piece of long-form content).
That’s because you want to avoid spending too much time repurposing a post that doesn’t perform well into another long-form piece of content.
Ways to Repurpose a Podcast or YouTube Video
Here are the ways that you can repurpose a podcast or YouTube video:
- A podcast or YouTube video (whichever one you haven’t created)
- A blog post
- Social media posts (Instagram posts, Reels, TikToks)
Essentially, you’d repurpose a podcast or YouTube video into an email or social media post the same way you’d repurpose a blog post.
As for repurposing them into a blog post, there are two ways you can do this.
- Repurpose it after you know it performs well
- Repurpose it immediately
The reason why #2 works is that it makes your podcast or YouTube video more accessible. Just be careful not to copy the transcript of your podcast/YouTube video and publish it as a blog post.
You’ll want to be strategic about writing the blog post to consider SEO if you want to work smarter. First and foremost, reading a transcript like a blog post isn’t a pleasant experience. Since the way we speak isn’t primed for readability.
So if you’re repurposing a podcast/YouTube video into a blog post, be sure to use the same content and outline, but format it for the reading experience and SEO.
Repurposing Short-Form Content (Social Media Posts, Reels, TikToks)
The key to repurposing short-form content is to monitor your analytics. You’ll want to be intentional about repurposing high-performing content because it’ll take a longer time to repurpose short-form content into a longer form one.
Another thing to pay attention to is any comments or DMs regarding the topic of a short-form post.
For example, if there’s a Reel that did particularly well and you’re seeing an influx of comments/DMs asking you about the topic, you’ll want to repurpose that piece of content into a blog post, YouTube video, or podcast.
That’s because you’re going to expand on a topic that you know your audience is already interested in.
Repurposing Content on Instagram Stories
Last but not least, let’s talk about repurposing content on Instagram stories.
Aside from sharing the post and a link to any content you create on your stories, you’ll want to get creative with the ways you repurpose content on Instagram Stories.
Could you record a teaser of yourself introducing the new piece of content? Or maybe consider recording a face-to-face explanation diving deeper into the post’s topic.
Save Hours Without Skimming on the Quality (and Quantity) of Your Content
Repurposing content isn’t just a smart way to work; it’s a savvy one as well. Not only can you shave off hours spent creating content, but you’ll create content that you know your audience will like.
So if you feel like you’re running out of fresh content ideas, save this post and return to it.
Relieve the pressure you feel to come up with brand-new content all the time. You’re sitting on years of content ready to repurpose and engage/re-engage existing and brand-new audiences.
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