Content Repurposing Ideas to Squeeze the Juice from Your Existing Content

“Don’t throw it away” was a phrase I heard often from my mom as a child. Mom took the saying, “When life gives you lemons,” seriously and squeezed out every last drop of lemon juice she could. She’d

• Grind eggshells with salt to make scouring powder for cleaning pots and pans
• Store soups, broth, and dried herbs in old glass jars 
• Fertilize the garden with coffee grounds 

I never understood it then. 

However, having recently moved out myself, I now realize my mom was one of the most resourceful women going. I mean, in this economy, why buy a pack of Ziploc bags when I can repurpose the cereal plastic bags? 

I now see Mom’s reasoning, and I relate to it more than ever.  

In content, brands commit plenty of resources to producing one article. They’ll publish it, maybe share it on social media, update it every now and again, and that’s it. 

But what if, like the eggshells, coffee grounds, or glass jars, articles can be turned into something more? 

What if content managers took a leaf out of my mother’s book and applied her resourcefulness to their resources? The short answer: they could get a lot more done in a lot less time, and fewer resources. 

Content repurposing also helps affirm subject-reader fit (SRF) by allowing you to be sure on a topic and style as you’ve seen it succeed already.

I’m sure you’ve also considered or heard about content repurposing. But, to ensure we’re all on the same page, I’ll give a brief overview.

The TL:DR on repurposing content

• Content repurposing refers to all the different ways in which existing content can be transformed into something new to serve a different purpose, audience, or channel.
• It includes converting content to a new format and restructuring accordingly.
• Regardless of the changes, the repurposed content must offer the audience a unique perspective while maintaining the core message.
• Content repurposing helps content teams save resources while getting more value from their content marketing efforts.

But I know you already know all that.

So, I’m going to focus on how to get maximum value from your content. This article is about the juicy stuff — nine content repurposing techniques and actual implementation examples you can adapt to your content marketing strategy. 

Let’s make lemonade. 

9 Content repurposing ideas and real examples of brands that maximized value using them

1. Convert blogs into visual formats like infographics and videos for social media platforms

Visual content formats like videos and infographics can be great for your audience's visual learners. They can also target a different area of search engines and are usually more engaging and attention-grabbing. 

Many content managers are trying to create more visual content. However, the ideation and creation processes to be tasking. 

It doesn’t have to be! 

Instead of wasting time and resources searching for new visual content ideas, your existing blog post is a great start. 

Quotes and topics from the blogs can be used to design catchy social media posts, and they don’t have to be fancy. You can make things more interesting by creating memes and GIFs that communicate the main ideas. Kirsty Finlayson, Director of Product Marketing and Content at Chameleon, does this so well with posts like this

Unique stats and flowcharts can be made into engaging graphs and charts, while the headings on each blog can be made into a series of short videos for Instagram or TikTok reels.

The point is that your existing blog content is a content gold mine. Don’t throw them away! 

Use free versions of tools like Canva and Piktochart for basic designs. These free versions often have templates you can leverage, regardless of design experience. However, if you’re feeling confident and would like to create some more detailed designs, you can use tools like GoDaddy Studio or Figma. 

2. Refresh high-performing, old blog posts

This post on SaaS Copywriting: 17+ Soft and Hard Skills Needed to be a Copywriter, by Sophie Deakin, is one of the highest performers here at dslx. At the end of her dslx internship, Sophie dropped some SaaS copywriting wisdom on us in 2022. 

However, two years later, the details of that post still hold because we have continuously refreshed it to ensure it stays relevant. A budding writer with no copywriting experience could benefit from it today as they would in 2022 because the statistics and examples used in the post apply to present-day realities. Furthermore, we’ve ensured that the internal links and sources used have been cross-checked and updated regularly.  

This way, dslx saves time and resources when creating new content by sticking to what’s already working and prioritizing updating that first. 

Thanks, Sophie! 

These and more are all factors we consider when developing content and SEO optimization briefs for clients as part of our SEO Management and Optimization services. Our approach is based on ensuring the article is structured to provide the most value to the reader. 

Some of the ways we ensure this when refreshing blog posts include: 

• Removing or restructuring sections that are blocking readers from reaching their search intent quicker.
• Ensuring credibility and gaining the reader’s trust by including relevant subject-matter expert (SME) quotes—from our client’s team where possible.
• Including relevant sections and insightful problem-solving information that readers need to know. E.g. Including sections like ratings and integrations for tool lists.
• Comprehensive and quick TL:DRs and headings for skimmers.

You should also look through your content library to identify high-performing posts that have maintained relevance and follow our strategy with the dslx example. It’ll save you time and resources and, more importantly, contribute to your authority because your articles can stand the test of time. 

3. Convert blogs into audiobooks or podcasts and vice versa

Apparently, blogs are like my mother’s glass jars—they can be repurposed into numerous things. This time, we’re exploring the possibility of repurposing them into audiobooks and podcasts. 

Personally, I prefer listening to audiobooks to reading books. (I know, I’m a writer. Don’t judge!)

Podcasts help me multitask and improve my concentration. In 2023, 53% of US adults who participated in a survey by Statista listened to an audiobook within that year—so I’m not alone. 

Just keep in mind, if I’m multi-tasking I’m not buying! So this type of content is great for TOFU, but for MOFU & BOFU content, you’ll want someone’s undivided attention.

As these audio content formats grow in popularity, more readers who are also listeners will be looking for alternative ways to consume content on the go. That’s an untapped audience category for your brand right there!

“But what do I discuss on a podcast?” 

The same things you covered in your blogs. Blogs can be converted to audio scripts, questions lists, or outlines for your conversations. 

Start with audiobooks to keep things simple. AI tools like Speechify and audie.ai can help you convert your blogs to audiobooks with quality human voices, too. 

And, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can start a podcast series using the topics covered in your blog as audio scripts or prompts. The content 10X podcast, which does this so well, also teaches how to do it in this blog. 

I also recently found a great free tool while browsing Reddit. It allows you to transform any article on the internet into a podcast episode instantly. Try it out! 👉🏼  https://a-to-p.vercel.app/ 🔥

Finally, you can spice things up by inviting subject-matter experts for deeper dives, unique angles, or even healthy debates. Remember, in order for you to repurpose content successfully, you need to stick to the topic you know has succeeded elsewhere.  

4. Turn high-performing short-form content (social media posts) into in-depth guides 

Why fix something if it isn’t broken?

Any piece of content that generates outcomes aligning with your overarching marketing goals has something that resonates with your audience. And when you’ve explored that idea briefly with short-form content, enormous opportunities exist when considering other formats. 

Time to get juicing! 

Your high-performing short-form content can be repurposed into in-depth guides. 

But don’t limit yourself. 

Your thinking here should be about including more value for your audience not just making high quality content. So, include anything that could help them achieve their goals. Statistics, infographics, how-to sections, checklists, templates, step-by-step instructions—anything that turns that short-form content into the ultimate source of information on the subject matter will be a winner. 

5. Republish posts on other platforms

Sometimes, the target reader just won’t make it to your website, regardless of the content quality or SEO efforts. So, you’ll have to take the content to them by republishing on their preferred platforms. 

We have been squeezing out more juice from our posts at dslx by doing something closely related. 

A while back, we wanted to show appreciation to some writers and subject-matter experts (SMEs). So Ray decided to celebrate them by rounding up some of their best pieces in this LinkedIn post alongside mentions of their names, and the results were fantastic.

We got encouraging comments that showed people were happy to hear about and celebrate  SMEs. We were also able to build valuable backlinks, thus improving our overall SEO. 

You can also use existing posts as inspirations for guest posts on other platforms. 

The process of distributing and publishing your content across various platforms and channels is known as content syndication. It differs from guest posting in that the content is first posted on your website before other platforms. Furthermore, you’re only republishing the same content on different platforms. Whereas, guest posting involves posting a single new post on a specific site that then holds publication rights. 

The Bonsai business management software does this in this post on the 4 ways technology has changed employee training. After initially publishing on its website, the post was later republished and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. You can easily recognize syndicated posts through disclaimers like “originally seen on” or variations of that statement, as shown below. 

You can syndicate your posts via free or paid platforms. 

The following are popular examples of content syndication platforms to consider:

• Taboola
• Medium
• Flipboard
• Outbrain
• Business2community

The catch is that you’ll get more juice out of one post in terms of visibility, backlinks, leads, and website authority by putting the same content on multiple platforms instead of one. 

But, be careful. 

Search engines like Google don’t serve up similar content. Instead, they select one of them to show in SERPs, and you must specify the “best representative” version by adding canonical tags to the URL. Obviously, this should be the version posted on your website.  

6. Make instructional videos from how-to guides

Instructional video content and how-to guides are different versions of the same type of content. Both focus on providing clear, practical, step-by-step instructions that guide the target audience through a particular task or process. 

So, why not kill two birds with one stone? 

Once more, you can leverage AI tools for the entire process. Tools like ChatGPT and Jasper can help you create a youtube video script, while other tools like Synthesia and Fliki can help you create professional videos. 

Or you could get behind the camera yourself. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, and you don’t need a video team if you don’t have a budget for that. A simple loom account or any other video creation platform will suffice. Remember to keep these videos timeless, evergreen content will save your hours of video recreating.

This video, by a member of Hotjar’s customer education team, clearly illustrates this. They recorded themselves detailing the steps outlined in this guide on how to install your Hotjar tracking code, thus covering the same topic on two platforms using the same piece of content. 

7. Create reports and a blog post with internal statistical data

Statistical reports confer authority on your brand by conveying authenticity. For example, a content marketing brand can reinforce the tips and strategies it teaches by showing how these tips affect its content performance metrics. 

However, the same applies to any other brand. You just have to spin it the right way. 

For instance, Ray Slater Berry, our founder here at dslx, works with many freelance writers and creates content for them as well. So, he’s constantly receiving writer applications and, thus, has access to some data in that regard. 

You’ll often find him creating posts like this, quoting statistics he gathered from those applications. These posts tend to resonate with the audience better because they present hard facts and speak directly to the target audience’s core concerns. 

Sometimes, we writers get carried away with creating speculative pieces that the reader doesn’t really need. 

But this! This kind of content is straightforward and authentic. Now, writers can inform their pricing with these hard facts. All Ray had to do was put together free data. 

Internal data can also be packaged as case studies to heighten your argument. 

8. Restructure long form blog posts and podcast transcripts into newsletters

By signing up for your newsletter, readers are showing genuine interest in your content. While you might be keen to impress them with something epic and new, there’s no need to overcomplicate things. Restructuring your recent blog posts or podcast transcript into a newsletter is a great start. 

You can either share the blog’s summary alongside its link or convert its content into a newsletter with some modifications. If your brand has plenty of updates — say you posted a new blog or podcast episode or recently did some feature updates— you can collate all those details into a roundup newsletter where your audience gets all the “tea” directly in their mailbox. 

Pipedrive CRM repurposes its latest blogs this way, thus keeping me abreast of its latest posts, as shown below. 

While doing this, endeavor to choose the perfect length and content format. Reports have revealed that visually-processed content has a 65% probability of being recalled after 72 hours. Text-only content, on the other hand, has a 10% probability. As such, infographics are usually more engaging, while article newsletters often offer a deeper dive into the topic. 

Furthermore, you could make create content (blog posts and podcast episodes) with a central theme into an email series. 

Nothing—at least not a lack of content ideas—is stopping your brand from launching its newsletter series. Start by promoting your existing blogs to interested readers via newsletters.

9. Create an online course from your internal training programs

The online learning market is rapidly developing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.5%, making it one of the fastest-growing ones in the education industry. This reality presents enormous opportunities for anyone, or brands, that have knowledge to share. 

Here at dslx, for example, we know a thing or two about navigating life as content writers. The founder, Ray, started as one and has navigated numerous hurdles along the journey to building dslx. 

He started the brand by regularly creating blog posts that communicated with dyslexic writers and taught them how to write. Shortly after, he started hiring a few writers to share the workload, and he has had to help these writers relearn and unlearn some things about writing. 

However, he’s now repurposing all that content and knowledge into online courses at the dslx academy. Writers looking to sharpen their skills in order to charge more for their minds, feed their curiosity, and become better versions of themselves can enroll here. 

Repurposing your internal programs into online courses has multiple benefits, such as establishing thought leadership, generating passive income, generating leads, and scaling your business. 

Give it a try! 

Squeeze every drop from repurposing content and add sugar 

My mom’s homemade scouring powder and old glass jars did save us some money. But she had to grind the eggshells, salvage the coffee granules, and wash the glass jars before extracting their value. 

You’ll have to put in some effort to get that sweet lemonade too, although it won’t be half as much as you’d need to do if starting from scratch.  

Ask yourself the following questions: 

• What content does your audience like best? Measure by engagements with Google analytics, or another tool.
• Which blogs have attention-grabbing takeaways? Measure by qualitative feedback. 
• Can more info be provided on this topic? And who can help provide this info?
• Can a certain content format communicate the idea better? 
• What platforms can give us more coverage? 

If you can provide correct answers to these questions, you’ll have a clearer idea of how to proceed. 

In addition to some of the channels we have discussed, you can also consider the following channels for repurposing and distribution:

• Influencer collaboration for your syndicated content
• Online learning platforms for courses
• Forums and community platforms like Reddit and Quora — which are slowly growing in popularity in SERPs
• Webinars and online events
• Slide-sharing platforms like SlideShare and LinkedIn 

Don’t leave your content to rot, squeeze more out of it and share the lemonade!