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Repurposing Old Articles Into Video & Other Smart Marketing Ideas

Ever wonder what’s more onerous than creating relevant content in marketing? Having an ever growing databank of fresh content and figuring out how to present the existing content in more attractive ways.

After putting in the research and the hard work to create content that is relevant, unique and with the apt brand messaging, marketers face the challenge of not being able to use it again. That means, with one blog or article, the content becomes obsolete because reusing it would mean creating duplicate content. So, what is the best way of keeping the engagement with customers going without having to write articles on new topics regularly?

The key to solving your problem lies in ‘Repurposing’ content.

This content marketing strategy means spinning or transforming existing content to make it look new. You can repurpose your content by creating a new content type (images, infographics etc.). To ensure that repurposing makes sense and doesn’t create the issue of duplicate content, make alterations to the story by focusing on different key points to bring to light different elements. This cost-effective tactic allows you to increase your online presence, improves your SEO score, offers backlink opportunities and most importantly, saves time.

We will tell you some simple ways by which you can use the existing pool of articles, blogs, white papers or any other written material that will help capture a newer audience and keep the existing ones engaged. So, let’s start-

1. Repurposing old articles into videos

Image Source: crackitt.com

As repurposing content is a strategy that allows reusing the same content differently, it provides many options for experimenting with existing content. One option is creating a video out of current blogs or e-books.

Videos are now an integral part of social media. According to HubSpot, 78% of people watch online videos every week, and 55% view online videos every day. This number cannot be ignored when you are repurposing content. So consider turning your existing posts into videos since they are an opportunity to leave a lasting impression with your audience. The key messages can be incorporated in the broader storyline that can finish with the desired action that the brand would want the customer to take.

Also make sure to leave your customer with a thought or a lesson so it stays with them. 

When people look forward to something, continuous engagement is more likely to happen. Therefore, it becomes essential to post each episode of a particular subject on a recurring day and time. For example, a video interview series with industry experts on related topics like interview tips, what to wear for an interview, etc. should be posted at a fixed day and time.

Since a video will be hosted on different pages of your website or on different platforms, the probability of it showing up in search engines as well as in social feeds also increases.

So create that video, leverage it on YouTube and other social channels. This will undoubtedly give your visual strategy a wider audience and increase its potential organic reach.

2. Create Infographics out of existing content

Image Source: crackitt.com

Infographics help you break your information into digestible bits. A white paper or an article that has complex information has an instant appeal when converted into a graphical form.

Let’s look at some numbers that clearly explain infographic effectiveness-

  • Infographics  get 3x more likes and shares than any other content type on social media.
  • People following directions with text and illustrations do 323% better than people following directions with text alone. 

Now that you know how infographics can help you boost engagement with your audience, let’s look at how you can benefit from this content format. It is a great tool to communicate different brand messages as it clearly and precisely highlights value propositions and key takeaways in a visually engaging manner. This helps to retain audience attention and ensures customer readiness to act upon the desired call-to-action. 

Highlighting significant statistics or messages through infographics helps to position your brand as an authority. Since they are highly shareable, they can be transported into popular social media channels and be published on relevant websites with backlinks that assist in reaching out to more customers and thereby, increasing web traffic.

Another fact about infographics is that since they can be easily shared and downloaded. They are a great source of generating leads for your campaign.

Our take, recycle old content and present it in an appealing infographic. This easy-to-understand visual format can provide value to your audience, attracting new customers while demonstrating business expertise.

3. Use a series of short videos instead of a long clip

If your company has a rich library of old videos, you have an asset that is waiting to be utilized. These long videos can be repurposed and made into many brief videos that can be effective for your content marketing strategy. These engaging videos once posted on different social media platforms can add value to your brand as they get shared, liked and downloaded.

To get started, the first thing you have to do is select the right video that best suits your business needs. Once you set your objective, consider the topic carefully to know what parts to edit. Make a short, 1-2 minute video clip that looks like a complete video in itself and not something that has been modified through software. 

Why? According to HubSpot, research showed that most of the videos created in 2017 (over 56%) were less than two minutes long. That shows that short video content increases the chances of your audience watching it from start to finish thus enabling you to get your message across in full. 

For example, if webinars are trending for digital marketers, a video on one trend per video with an explanation can be made.

Short clips can give companies the desired exposure from audiences who are looking for informative content. They are an ingenious way of projecting a sense of authority and thought leadership for brands.

So, dig into your video library and make long videos into valuable shorts ones and get higher conversion rates and increased engagement. Also, more video content will help you get a higher ranking in the search results. After all, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google.

4. Make social media posts interesting by using facts or statistics

Image Source: Facebook.com

Compelling information in the form of facts or data has the power to garner the attention of customers. Thus, posting facts or interesting data as social posts is an effective way to increase engagement. 

An existing blog, article, white paper etc. that has some interesting data or facts is a good option to look at for creating an attention-grabbing post. This can help in increasing engagement with your potential audience who otherwise might not enjoy reading long articles and therefore, fail to notice the exciting content that your brand posts.

5. Convert existing video content into podcasts

With attention spans fading, people are now looking at informative content that in comparison to reading requires less concentration. Consider podcasts and audiobooks as an example.

For marketers, it’s an opportunity waiting to be explored. Look for those evergreen videos that have either been previously posted on your YouTube channel or were used for some other purpose and find the ones that can be converted into podcasts to be distributed over social media. Similar to making short-stories out of long webinars, this form too can help reach a widespread audience. 

Make a series of podcasts on one particular topic, like business tactics – how to prepare for an investor meeting, things to include in an investor presentation and so on. This will ensure your audience listens regularly, will increase your reach considerably and can also lead to improved traffic generation, quickly.

There are many online platforms to make podcasts. Podbean, Soundcloud, Otto Radio etc. are just some of the many available that can help make a stellar podcast. The podcast can be made using a smartphone and a pair of headphones or with professional recording equipment, but the important point to remember is that the audio has to be clear without any background noise or any other disturbances. So, make sure, there is no interference and audio quality is good.

Also, as audio formats can be heard anywhere, anytime, they tend to engage customers longer. As per a survey conducted on 300,000 podcast listeners, 63% of the respondents had bought what the host had promoted. This data clearly indicates that podcasts can be used to engage the audience and influence their buying decisions positively.

Don’t let interesting video content go to waste. Convert it into podcasts and build a better relationship with your audience for increased traffic generation.

Closing thoughts

To summarize, creating unique content on an ongoing basis is becoming challenging in this day and age of information overload. Therefore, it is essential for marketers to use smart ideas like recycling the same content to make it look new and exciting. So, employ this strategy and you’ll always have enough content to maintain constant engagement with your customers.

About the author

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Vaibhav Kakkar

Vaibhav Kakkar is the CEO of Digital Web Solutions, a globally trusted agency with a full suite of digital marketing & development solutions. Vaibhav believes in building system over services, and has invested in multiple tech startups including RankWatch, NotifyFox and a CRM software to help scale up client agencies from scratch to niche-leaders with million dollar turnovers.