In order to maintain a robust inbound marketing program, you must post content regularly, whether it is on a blog or on social media.
However, the truth is that creating new and unique content can be time-consuming, especially if you have a business to run. During those times when you just can’t take a few hours to develop new content, it is extremely helpful to be able to reuse content that you have already created in the past.
Wondering how you can recycle posts? Keep reading to learn how to repurpose your existing content and sustain your inbound program.
How To Repurpose Blog Content
Repurposing existing content is easier than you think. If you have a blog, you can easily update the current page or create a new page by copying existing content and pasting it into a new blog post page. Then, read through the post and find any information that might be outdated or could use some sprucing up.
Updating old statistics so they are more relevant, adding in new statistics, or changing outdated information to reflect the latest trends of whatever you are writing about are a few ways to take old blog posts and make them new again.
Any time we repurpose content on our own blog (like this one!), we like to republish the post with a note at the bottom explaining that the original post was published on a past date and the content has been updated and republished on the current date. Including such a note not only shows the reader that the content has been repurposed, it also shows that the information in the post is current and up-to-date.
Adding a note like the one above can also expel any confusion if the reader has seen the old blog post and is wondering why you have published one that is so similar. But most of the time, your readers will not notice that a post is recycled and, if anything, will likely appreciate that you are publishing content on a regular basis, even if it is repurposed.
How To Repurpose Social Media Content
If you have already created great social content for your social media marketing program, don’t let it go to waste! Social media platforms update so quickly these days that it is easy to repurpose existing content on any platform
Republish Facebook posts with a new photo, update the text caption, or repost an Instagram post with a reposting app. We like to use the Repost app for Instagram. The app allows you to include or exclude a reposting watermark, so if you are reposting your own content you can choose not to add a watermark to the photo.
If you use a social media publishing tool like HubSpot or anything similar, you can likely go back and republish posts that you have used in the past either exactly as they were or make changes before reposting.
Repurposing Tips
- Create content with repurposing in mind. This means writing evergreen blog posts that can be used again and again. These might look like before and after posts, how-to posts, tips, lists- essentially any type of content that does not have a specific timeline related to it.
- Keep your old content. We save all of our blog drafts in a Google Drive folder so it is easy to find an existing blog post, copy it, and make any necessary updates.
Freshening up and reusing existing content is easy, quick, and can help sustain your inbound program when you don’t have the luxury of time to create new content every day.
Need help with creating content for your blog or social media platforms? Partnering with a digital marketing agency is a surefire way to ensure your inbound program will remain updated, maintained, and equipped with the latest and greatest best practices.
Thanks for stopping by,
Laura
Editor’s note: This blog was originally published in April 2019 and has been edited and updated in March 2022.
