How to Repurpose Content to Save Time

Are you a small business owner who spends way too much time creating content? If you wish content creation was easier and took less time, let's dive into how to repurpose content. This will be your new favorite workflow, my friend.

What does it mean to repurpose content?

To start, let's define what it means to repurpose content. Content repurposing essentially means that you aren't starting from scratch when you go to post. You're reusing something you've already created—perhaps an overall idea, a caption, a video clip, a graphic, etc. There are many different ways to repurpose content and none are wrong; it's just about finding what works best for you and your business.

Benefits of Repurposing Content

Why repurpose content? If you're a spontaneous person who loves to post when inspiration strikes, you may not feel excited about repurposing content. Here are some benefits to change your mind.

It saves time.

Most importantly, repurposing content will save you so much time. Why? You aren't starting from scratch! That is huge when it can take anywhere up to a few hours to create one post. If you're trying to post content 3, 5, 7 days a week, starting from scratch every time will burn you out.

It gets your point across in various ways.

Your message may not resonate with your audience in one format the same way it does in another. Sometimes, quick reels with points flashing across the screen or voiceovers perform better than long-form captions. But, you don't know until you try!

One benefit of getting your point across in various ways is that you can A/B test your content. Maybe you discover that your audience prefers certain topics more than others, and you can use that data to craft your freebies and offerings.

Your message is more likely to reach your ideal client.

Content doesn't always hit the first time, nor do people see it the first time. On Instagram, your posts are only shown on average to 10-20% of your followers. People also need to see something 7x before they take action. Consider those statistics when you feel unsure about repurposing the same concept more than once.

Types of Content

There are two types of content I'll mention in the steps to repurpose content section. Let's dive into the differences between long form and short form content.

Long Form Content

Long form content takes more time to create, but it often has a longer shelf life. Long form content includes blog posts, YouTube videos, and podcast episodes.

Long form content allows you to dive deeper on a specific topic. You might share the steps to create something like this blog post example, or you could be sharing your story like in this blog post. Long form content is for the long game—think about how it takes time to grow a podcast but once you do, you have a very loyal fanbase.

Short Form Content

Short form content is likely what comes to mind when you think of content. It's your typical social media post like Instagram feed and story posts, Facebook posts, TikToks, etc. Short form content is still important because it's likely to drive a large chunk of your visibility efforts, but it shouldn't be your only marketing strategy.

Short form content typically has a shorter lifespan, with most social media posts receiving engagement for up to 24 hours. Short form content is often easier to create, but the return on investment, or ROI, might be lower in the long term.

Steps to Repurpose Content

Now that you understand the differences between long form and short form content, here are the steps to start repurposing your content. Note that this is only one repurposing strategy, and there are many more you could do!

1. Start with a piece of content, ideally long form content.

Starting with a core, long form piece of content to pull from is the best way to get into a habit of repurposing, but know that you can start with a short form piece as well. You want to start from a piece of content with a lot of information in it so that the next steps are easier.

For this example, I'll start with my blog post about 7 lead magnet ideas to grow your email list as my core piece of content.

2. Break the content into pieces.

Now, break down your core content into bite-size pieces. For example, do you have a blog post with 10 tips for XYZ? Each tip could be a piece! You could also have an additional piece on why that topic is important.

Following the example blog post, I can pull each of the 7 lead magnet ideas as a separate piece of content.

3. For each piece, brainstorm how it can appear on your different platforms.

The way you share content on each platform is likely going to look different. For example, an Instagram post will likely be written more casually than a LinkedIn post. A TikTok might be more trendy than a Facebook post.

Think about how each piece of content could look different on all your platforms. For the example, let's use the quiz lead magnet piece of content. On Instagram stories, I might talk about creating a quiz and share a link to take my free marketing quiz. On LinkedIn, I might draft a post about the statistics behind a quiz lead magnet. On YouTube, I might record a tutorial for how to integrate your quiz with your email marketing provider.

4. Consider how your content would look as a graphic, reel or TikTok, email, etc.

As you brainstorm how your content will appear on your different platforms, think about the format as well. On Instagram alone, you can post photos, graphics, and reels in your feed, but you could also go live and share stories.

For the quiz lead magnet example, I might share a story promoting my quiz, create a reel inspired by my quiz, and share a carousel post with the steps to creating your own quiz lead magnet.

5. Add each piece of content to your social content planner.

If you walked through all of these steps, you might have 50+ pieces of content—and that's quite a lot to manage! Streamline all your content across your platforms and make your life easier by using a social content planner. This helps you track what content is going up when and will make repurposing content a breeze.

Content Calendar Template for Social Media

If you're looking for a content calendar template for social media, look no further! As a marketing strategist, I create and manage content calendars for all my clients. After refining the process over a few years, I'm excited to share the content calendar template I recommend with you! Click here to download the template and start streamlining your content.

Looking for more support in your content and marketing strategy? I invite you to book a 60-minute session with me. We can dive deeper into content repurposing and management or any other marketing topics you'd like to cover. Click here to schedule your session!