If you’re looking to save time (and the chief complaint I hear from mums in business is that they don’t have enough time) in your small business marketing, then content repurposing is a great way to do it.
By taking a bigger, hero piece of content and using it in multiple new ways, you can quickly create content, consistently. By being a little strategic in planning your content from the beginning means each piece that is repurposed contributes positively to your overall strategy, boosting your reach!
Having a content creation process makes it easier to outsource
Something else that’s also fab about having a content repurposing process is that it makes it easier to identify areas that you could then outsource. If you are wanting a little help to create your content but you don’t necessarily have the budget for a social media manager, maybe you could look at hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) instead to take on some of the steps in your process, which may be a more cost-effective solution.
In this article I’m sharing with you my tried-and-tested strategy for repurposing my content – from start to finish, so strap yourselves in, it’s a goodie!
- Have a plan for your content.
- Write for your audience.
- Optimise for SEO.
- Create an outline for podcast or video content.
- Turn your podcast into a blog.
- Repurpose to email marketing campaigns.
- Create short-form video content.
- Make multiple social media posts and utilise Facebook groups.
- Choose appropriate channels.
My 9 tips for repurposing content for your small business.
1. Have a plan for your content.
To be intentional with your content, do a little brainstorming, maybe write a list of all your ideas for your hero piece of content (choose just one medium to begin with – for the sake of this article, I’m going to refer to your hero piece of content mostly as a blog). Having a plan makes producing the content way easier and it helps ensure you’re being strategic in targeting relevant keywords that will help boost your searchability.
2. Write for Your Audience
When it comes to the content you create, one of the most important things to remember is that you need to write for people first, algorithms second. When it comes to your audience this means understanding who they are, what they care about, and what will resonate with them. Although I love strategy and keyword research, you always want to connect with your audience first and SEO, second. If you’re constantly producing stuff only to hit desirable keywords, it’s likely that your content will become boring, a little stale and ultimately disengaging – which is the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve!
If you don’t know what your audience wants to hear more about – ask them!
A few quick ways to gain insights into content ideas:
- Poll your audience on your instagram stories.
- Search Facebook groups with your target audience and see what questions get asked on repeat.
- Ask people in person, if they fit your demographic you could do some market research face-to-face.
Once you have a good understanding of your audience, you can begin tailoring your content to be as relevant and engaging as possible.
3. Optimise for SEO
Once you know the topic you will be creating your blog around, you can start to implement a little strategy to find that sweet spot where optimisation overlaps with intention.
Punch your topic into something like Google Keyword Planner, Answer The Public or Ubersuggest and see how likely people are to be searching for that exact topic. It’s here where you find clues to the language your target audience may be using. These platforms will help you turn your subject into a long-tail keyword, which Google loves.
For example podcasting could become:
- How to record a podcast?
- Best podcast host.
- How to get my podcast on Apple Podcasts?
- Best podcasting microphones.
It gives your hints as to what you could include in your hero content, or alternatively, create other long-form pieces of content around.
This means, you can be strategic and include some of these points in your blog to make sure you’re including keywords that people are actually searching and increase the chance of your stuff actually being seen, increasing reach.
4. Create an Outline for podcast or video content.
Not only does creating a summary or outline of your podcast or video can help listeners better understand the content and follow along but it creates the bones of a blog post, too.
It makes it so much easier when you’re recording your podcast or video, to have an outline to follow because you tend to stay on track and avoid massive tangents – which is more helpful for your listeners. It also allows you to stay free flowing with your speech, without feeling like you’re reading something verbatim over the mic.
Use headings, lists and bullet points to organise your content to make it easy to scan through when you’re recording. My tip here is to have a second monitor so you can read along with your notes at the same time that you are recording your episode.
5. Turn your podcast into a blog.
This is your first port of call for content repurposing and where that podcast outline comes in handy. Use your layout to write a blog post to upload to your website. I include an embedded podcast player on my blog pages where I’ve turned my podcasts into a blog.
Use your podcast outline to construct the headings for your blog post to help break it up – riff a little on each heading like you did on your blog and Bob’s your uncle.
Tips for formatting blogs:
- Only include one H1 heading, other headings can be H2.
- Don’t forget to target those optimal keywords that overlap with what your audience wants to hear.
- Include some internal and external links.
- Include your keywords in your alt text and image names.
6. how to Repurpose content to your Email Marketing
Email lists are the bomb for relationship-building with your audience, however; you may feel like you don’t have enough content to share with your subscribers. Blog content is a great way to supplement your email campaigns and give context to your messages. By using blog content in your email marketing campaigns, you can increase engagement and it can also help drive traffic to your website, which the search engines like.
My tips for repurposing blog content to email:
- Don’t simply copy & paste your blog into an email – that’s boring and doesn’t lead to a good user experience.
- Include a juicy section, or value-packed part of your blog in your email with a prompt to read more.
- Or you can play around with attention-grabbing headings and simply include a link to your blog for your readers to hop over to your website and read on.
7. Create Video content (ie reels, short form video)
Ever get stuck for Instagram Reels ideas? Look to your podcast or blog for subjects you can give an snapshot of by way of short-form video. By repurposing content to video, you can provide an overview of your product or service, explain a complex topic in an easy-to-understand way, and entertain your viewers with interesting stories or footage.
9. Choose Appropriate Channels
Where is your audience hanging out? If you’ve done a little bit of market research, you should know what channels to find your ideal customers on, so don’t be wasting your time posting your content somewhere that no one will see it! For example: don’t share to Linked In if it’s not something that is appropriate for that crowd. Or if you have minus 2 followers on Twitter, maybe save your time promoting it somewhere that you already have an engaged following.
Repurposing blog content is a dynamite way to get new readers without having to create a whole new post and more importantly it will save you time. I vouch for this because this is the exact process I follow and let me tell you – as a mum-of-three and FIFO wife, time is something I don’t have a lot of these days so if I can do this, you can too!
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8. Make multiple Social media posts and share in Facebook groups
Often, we place social media at the top of our content creation cascade and it really doesn’t have to be that way. Social media is a wonderful and free tool that we can use to promote our business but the downside is that it requires a lot of time on the platforms to get the most benefit and this is where the problem lies for mums – we already don’t have enough time!
Ideas for repurposing your long form blog content:
If you have a subtopic in your content that you feel would add value to your target audience, pull from your larger content and put together a concise post to share in relevant Facebook group. Don’t forget to include an eye-catching and relevant image, too. Additionally, blog content is super easy to share on social media platforms, providing you with a user-friendly way to reach out to potential customers.
Don’t forget about Pinterest!
If you have a blog, make sure you are sharing 2-3 Pinterest pins over your different relevant Pinterest boards. Pinterest is great for directing traffic to your website and is still a pretty untapped and underused resource for small business owners.
The Pinterest pins I create for each blog include:
When I find myself scrolling on social media, I try to use my time to be more intentional by hopping over to my website and re-pinning one of my blog posts to a relevant board. It helps me stay current on Pinterest and I believe it improves my reach.