Repurposing content should be routine for businesses with a content marketing plan. Content drives traffic to your website for years after it’s created. You spend considerable time creating content and then market it.

Why not utilise it to its absolute full potential by repurposing and giving it new life. You might forget about some real gems over the years. You can dust off posts, videos and all types of content to breathe new life into it and put it to good use.

Here is what I recommend you put in place in your content marketing strategy.

 

 

10 Easy Ways To Revive Your Old Content

1) Review if the information is still current and relevant, re-post

It’s worth spending time going through your old content to see if the information in them is still relevant. Some things don’t change and go out of date. Content you wrote years ago can still serve your audience well.

 

People who have come along for the journey with you recently may not have come across content you published years ago. Introducing them to it by rehashing your old content makes a lot of sense. You don’t even have to wait years to re-post content. Build it into your content marketing plan twice a year makes it efficient and doable.

 

2) Talk about any changes since the original publishing

When you review your content, you may find that some things have changed since you published it. That presents a perfect opportunity to create new content about the changes. You can opt for rewriting your old content or create new content from scratch that includes the changes.

 

Make sure that if you create new content, you also crosslink your old content with it. This will allow anyone who is consuming your original content to get updated information by following the link to the newly created piece. This also gives you an opportunity to create an opinion piece or review about the changes.

 

At the time I am writing this article, YouTube has ceased their video editing facility. Any content created before then about editing videos via YouTube will be obsolete. They have, however, added some features that weren’t there before.

 

Those who created content about editing videos on YouTube may create new content about those changes.

 

3) How have you grown since the original publishing

When you look at content you wrote years ago or even months ago, you might realise that you have grown a lot since then. Your knowledge on the subject increased or you have developed since then as a person.

 

Why not share that original story with your audience and include your growth as well. This is a great opportunity to connect with your audience on a more personal level. It will encourage and motivate them to look at their own personal development.

 

It also demonstrates that your knowledge is relevant and you make an effort to grow as a person as well as a professional.

 

4) Go into more details about elements of the original article

When you revise your old content, you will find that you didn’t go into a topic as deep as you could have. You will also find that there are elements of your content you can expand on. There are no rules on how detailed content needs to be. It’s up to you whether you create overview type content or something that is detailed.

 

Overview type content creates a great opportunity to go into more details in another piece. The opposite is also true. If you have a blog with step by step instructions on how to do something, you might want to create something that is less detailed such as an infographic that shows an overview of a process.

 

Crosslinking those different pieces of content will ensure that your reader will spend more time on your page, consuming relevant content.

 

5) Pick out an aspect of the article and do a Facebook live about it

I understand that coming up with ideas for new content can be demanding. Especially when you’re looking at your social media habits. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like encourage you to post multiple times a day and with a variety of media to ensure higher engagement and better visibility.

 

If you’re a one-woman/man band, this can eat up your time, even if you’re using a scheduling app to do the work. You still have to come up with content. Videos on social media, in general, have a higher engagement rate. Any video content you can create will be good for growing your audience and your brand.

 

Pick out a part of your blog for the week and engage your audience about it by doing a live video session on Facebook. There are many ways to come up with a topic for a Facebook live and this is one of them. If you’re writing blogs on a regular basis, don’t dump the link on your page or in your group. Jump on a live session and spend a few minutes sharing your views, tips etc.

 

You can do this with old blogs as well as new ones. The goal is to engage your audience.

 

6) Repurpose it into something evergreen, like a webinar or an opt-in

Breathing new life into content via bundling it into a webinar or an opt-in such as an ebook gives you evergreen content you can use for attractive content marketing. It gives a super concentrated dose of you to anyone who opts in.

 

Pick out the best parts of the content you have created. Make your webinar or opt-in a showcase of your knowledge. Ensure that it’s super useful and practical. Something like this is a great way to show your expertise and competence to your new and potential audiences.

 

Remember, content is not just about bringing in new clients. It’s also about keeping your existing audience engaged.

 

7) Revamp it and publish it on a different platform, other than your own website, such as Medium

Opinions vary on whether or not doubling up on your content negatively affects your SEO. I tend to lean towards the “no, it doesn’t” camp. Google will bundle your content and will still show it.

 

You’d have to post the same content like spam all over the internet to be negatively affected. Syndicating your content will not bring down your SEO ranking. You might have to tweak your content to make it more suitable for the sites you’re syndicating to. It shouldn’t mean re-writing the whole thing though.

 

This will allow you to tap into an audience you wouldn’t normally have access to and can grow your reach a great deal. Publish your entire article on LinkedIn or a short post with a link back to your original content. This can get you new audiences. It also rehashes your content to your existing audience.

 

Medium is another great platform to publish on, whether you create new, original content for it or use something you already have.

 

Make sure you add backlinks to your own website to each piece of content you publish.

 

8) Revamp it and use it as a guest blog post on someone else’s blog

Guest blogging is a great way to tap into someone else’s audience with a complementary niche. I often come across call-outs for guest bloggers in Facebook groups. They are great for re-publishing revamped content.

 

You can tweak the content to suit the niche better. With a backlink to your website, people can find out more if they wish after consuming your content. I would point the backlink to my website to a piece of content that will really knock their socks off, instead of just the homepage.

 

You don’t have to wait for guest blogging opportunities to come up. You can approach websites and business who you think would be a good fit. All it takes is a polite email and some links to your writing to give your prospects a feel for your style.

 

Some guest blogging opportunities are free, some may be paid and some may ask for a mutual link exchange. In any case, consider what option is best for you and your business and go with that.

 

9) Check it for SEO and adjust if needed

Search trends change as well as do audiences. Buzzwords are called just that for a reason. It’s worth going back through your old content to see if you can tweak the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

 

There is no reason why old content shouldn’t work as hard for you as new content. This also applies to audio and video content. Whenever you uploaded them onto a platform like YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes, Soundcloud etc, you would have added a description and tags.

 

Those will determine how your content comes up when people are searching for content on a particular topic. It’s worth spending the time on filling in description and tag fields on the platform, especially if your niche is competitive. You want people to be able to find your content with ease.

 

If you have a WordPress website like I do, the Yoast SEO plug-in is excellent for DIY SEO. I use it to optimise my website pages as well as all my blog posts. I love those traffic lights!

 

10) Create follow-up content with similar topics

As a content consumer, I love follow-up articles. That is the type of content that is created from a piece of content that is general. The follow-up content goes into more details and targets a specific niche or industry.

 

When reading a follow-up type article, it helps me understand the information. I learn how to apply what I learn to the specific field I am in. It’s the same with your audience. For example, there are millions of articles online about healthy eating in general.

 

While they contain great information, articles specific to healthy eating for PCOS sufferers will be more useful for me. Those topics are more relevant and specific to me.

 

Content that includes information for PCOS sufferers with Hashimoto’s disease will be even better for me. This comes down to knowing your niche and catering to a diversity within it.

 

Crosslink all your related and follow-up articles to take your readers on a journey of knowledge and discovery.

 

Publishing content on any media has become easier than ever and a strategic way of approaching it is a part of any business plan for growth.

 

The smarter your content is the better it will work for you. It’s no longer enough to pump out mediocre content. It needs to have great value for your audience. All that takes work, so you want to make sure you get the most out of anything you have out there, regardless of what media it’s in. Text, image, audio, video, content is content and it’s not just about quantity but quality as well.

 

Tackling something like this can feel overwhelming and off-putting. Especially if you have a good amount of content “out there”. I want to help you make the most of the online space you occupy. Let’s chat about creating a strategy that will showcase your expertise and draw in new audiences.