There is no denying the power of content repurposing. In today's competitive landscape, B2B businesses need to be strategic in their approach to content distribution to output 10x more content.
Content repurposing is an effective way to amplify your message across many distribution channels. It should form the base of your content distribution. One blog post piece can become a Linkedin article, a Twitter thread, a short video, and many others.
But the question is ─ How do you repurpose content that gets you conversions? Since content without results is missing a lot of the potential.
In this post, you'll learn:
- What is content repurposing
- The benefits of content repurposing in B2B
- The 7 tips for content repurposing
What is content repurposing
It's easy to assume that content repurposing is simply copying and pasting your existing content on all your distribution channels.
If that's what you think, then you need to reinvent your process.
Content repurposing is simply defined as creating more content assets in different formats from already existing content for different channels (but also the same channel).
Take a look at this tweet from Ross Simmonds, CEO of Foundationinc:
So let's say you created three blog content pieces last month and now you plan to repurpose each of the three articles into one Twitter thread, one explainer video, and one Linkedin post.
This means you have nine more content assets from three existing blog pieces. But why is it important to create more content from one content?
Amy Woods, Founder of Content10x says:
“Content repurposing isn’t quick or easy.
No wonder it can seem far more appealing to create another core/pillar piece of content than go through the process of repurposing.”
Is it worth the time and effort?”
─Amy Woods
Let's dive in.
The benefits of content repurposing in B2B
Save time and effort
Content repurposing saves time. Think about the time it takes to create a new long-form blog post or create a 3-min max social media video from scratch.
Creating more content takes time, and recycling content takes less time, that's why you can repurpose a long-form content piece into one Linkedin post and a Twitter thread in minutes.
You see, the marketplace is evolving and there are other actions you should be taking that can get you in the top 1% in your industry, so you don't need to spend the whole day racking your brain for content ideas when you can get five content pieces in a day from just one existing blog post.
Scale brand awareness
Scaling brand awareness is a top 1 goal for 50% of B2B marketers.
Once you repurpose content, it begins to get the attraction of your ideal customers on different platforms. And more eyeballs on your brand.
Now, this is not to say that you repurpose content on every platform you see. As you read further, you'll understand the in-depth analysis of platform choice and how it relates to your content repurposing strategy.
Increase engagement
“We don't try to be the best, we try to be the most engaging,” says Devin Reed, Head of Content at Gong.
The popular belief is that it's difficult to scale engagement in the B2B space because most decision-makers and target audiences don't have the time to engage with your content.
The content marketing industry report from Hubspot stated that two of the top challenges marketers face with content marketing are – finding ideas for new content and creating content that receives massive online engagement.
Before repurposing that content, ask yourself these questions:
- What keeps my readers engaged?
- How do I make this content relevant?
- How can I repurpose content that gets a lot of shares?
Once you get the right answers, align with your repurposing strategy and see how your engagement scales.
7 tips on conversion-led content repurposing
Create people-first content
There are many misconceptions about creating content that pleases people first or creating content to please your content channel or only your business.
Now, let's keep things simple. The likes, comments, and impressions are vital but what matters is that you repurpose content that solves the problem of your audience.
It's easy to overlook this. You see, using irrelevant content is as bad as not repurposing. It's always your readers first and tapping to their pain points.
You have to recognize that it's not about you (your B2B business), it's about them (your audience), so repurpose content that matches their search intent and needs.
Create a content repurposing strategy
You will waste time and intellectual effort if you are not strategic about content repurposing. Every B2B company yearns for results from content, yet a few are not taking strategy seriously.
A content repurposing strategy is a laid down system for ideating, auditing, and recycling already existing content into different formats.
There are three actions to take note off ─ ideating, auditing, and recycling (which is repurposing).
Without a strategy, content repurposing will be done blindly. It doesn't have to be complex. Results-oriented content is content backed up by a sustainable content strategy.
So, pick your preferred platform and content formats, ideate existing content that is evergreen, audit them, and recycle them.
Analyze platform-preferred content format
Content repurposing is not-copying and pasting an existing Linkedin post on a blank Twitter thread page and pressing the post icon.
Analyzing a platform's preferred content format and aligning your content with it is the surest way to get conversions. Let's say, you have a Youtube video audited and set for repurposing.
And you want to repurpose the video on Instagram and Linkedin. It's best you study the strength of video formats on each platform. If you do a thorough study, you will find out that Instagram is the best to repurpose video content.
So instead of repurposing on Linkedin, you choose a better format fit for your content. And that's not to say that the video won't perform well on Linkedin, check out this formula we created:
content fit for platform + content fit for preferred format = desired content results.
Make it simple
Let's assume that the Youtube video is a 30mins max video. Now, you wouldn't just paste the video on Instagram.
You'll have to break it into pieces. Imagine if you break the video into ten seconds (into three Short videos) and that's an amazing three videos from one video.
So you see how a long video can be repurposed. Keep it simple and clear by highlighting the main insights.
Study what audiences spend time on a platform
Linkedin's audience is never the same as that of Twitter. Let's look at an example:
Teemu Raitaluoto said:
Readers from Hacker News respond to much techier content than readers from Linkedin or Quora who might appreciate a more businessy tone in your content.
─Teemu Raitaluoto
This is true! Any platform or channel you choose has a unique audience. And that's why you must perform proper research to find out where exactly your ideal customers are spending time.
Content personalization is a great way to achieve success with content repurposing. When you repurpose personalized and data-driven content, your ideal customers take a step closer to the buyer's stage.
In B2B, recycling content is almost similar to that of B2C, so don't worry about creating a complex system.
Here are three things you can do to repurpose content in less time:
- Create a content structure for each platform
- Design a template for creating a flow for each repurposed content
- Hire a content repurposing expert or find a software that can help you
Repurpose with purpose
The word purpose after the prefix “Re” is what gives life to this powerful content marketing framework. Repurposing B2B content without a purpose is a total waste of time.
No matter how valuable your repurposed content is, if it doesn't achieve a goal for you, it is a waste. Here's a couple of prompts to help you:
- Why are you repurposing the content? For more demo signups? For more followers?
- To what stage of the buyer's journey is your repurposed content taking your ideal customer?
Final thoughts
You can recycle a 7 month old 1500-word blog post into a Twitter thread, two Linkedin posts, an Instagram reel, and a Quora question or answer.
Content without conversion is just wasted effort so take full advantage of the tips mentioned here.
