How to Repurpose Existing Content

Including examples and worksheets

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Get more value from your content!

This guide and accompanying worksheets will help you identify your 5 best content assets, and plan at least 2 additional uses for each.

In the process you will learn and practice the art of repurposing content!

“Time is a precious Internet resource, which is why one huge benefit...of repurposing content is the time it can save you in the content creation process.”

Kevan Lee, VP Marketing, Buffer

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Identify high performing content

There are three main measures of high performing content:

● Social Engagement● Backlinks● Traffic

To check traffic, you will need access to Google Analytics. Use it to find the number of sessions for each blog post when a user lands on it. (See resources for a how-to.)

If you don’t have access to Google Analytics for your blog, backlinks are a good proxy, because they are part of the formula that search engines like Google use to drive traffic.

You can check the number of backlinks and social shares for each of your content pieces manually, or you can save time with BuzzSumo’s Evergreen Score.

Enter your domain in the Content Analyzer, and select Evergreen Score.

The Evergreen Score reflects the content with the most backlinks and social engagement over time.

TAKEAWAY: The posts with the highest Evergreen Scores are your top performing content.

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Choose a new format for high performing content

Begin by brainstorming the content formats that you could reasonably create.

It may help to score each format based on the difficulty level for you and your team, or based on the stage of the marketing funnel you want to target.

Remember that an asset originally targeting one part of the funnel can often be adapted for a different stage. Here are a few to get you started:

Type of content

Difficulty1 (easiest) - 5 (hardest)

Funnel Stage

Blog post 3 Top - Awareness

Infographic 4 Top - Awareness

Case study 4 Bottom - Conversion

Social sharing assets 2 Top - Awareness

Guest posts

Video

Interactive graphics

Landing page

Print assets

Online quiz

Webinar

Podcast

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Once you’ve found your top content and decided on a couple of new formats to try, it’s time to match the older asset with the new format.

This guide includes specific ideas for converting blogs, webinars and case studies.

Outside of those examples, you will want to ask questions about each of your high performing content pieces. Then, use the answers to narrow your options for a new format.

The chart on the next page will help you get started. And, we’ve added space for your own questions, as well.

Try this!

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Questions to ask about original content format Answer Best for…

Are there images that clearly express a main idea?

Social postsVideo

Can I identify the questions that are answered in this content?

Social postsInfographicsWebinars

Are there quotes? Social posts

What is the main topic of the blog post?

WebinarInfographic

Do you know others in the industry who could contribute expertise?

WebinarPodcast

Are there a lot of images? WebinarSlideshareVideo

Do you have a cut file of related material?

VideoWebinar PodcastSocial posts

Does your audience like How to posts?

Blog

Is there an audio or video recording?

PodcastVideo

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Asking content questions

Getting Specific:Blog to Social Posts

Ask:

● Are there images that express an idea fully without much text?○ Use them as a social post with or without a link to the article.○ Be sure to add your logo.

● Are there quotes that could be used on social?○ Create an image or simply post the quote. Be sure to tag the

source.

● Are there questions asked in the blog post?○ Pose the question on social and engage with anyone who

answers.

● What question does the post answer? ○ Post the question as a teaser with a link to the article.

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Ask:

● What is the main topic of the blog?○ Make this the subject of the webinar.

● Does the blog post answer a question others in your industry have? ○ Develop a script that clearly poses and answers the question.

● Do you know another person or company who can contribute?○ Host them to answer the question and co-market the

session.

● Do you have a cut file of unused material? ○ Add it to the script.

● Do you have images that illustrate key ideas? ○ Use them in the powerpoint for the presentation

BONUS: Post slides or visual content to Slideshare

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Getting Specific:Blog to Webinar

Ask:

● Do “How to” posts perform well for your topic? ○ Describe the process or solution described in the webinar as

a how to blog post.

● What images are available from the webinar? ○ Add them to the blog post at the appropriate point

● Write from the script of the webinar. If you don’t have a script, create a transcript of the session.○ Use the transcript as your first draft of a blog post.

● Did you collaborate with another person? ○ Ask them to co-author the post or help in promotion.

● Were there many questions from the audience? ○ Create individual blog posts answering each question.○ Summarize the questions and answers in one “ultimate”

post.

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Getting Specific:Webinar to Blog

Ahem. Use the recording!

● Edit any odd, non-essential bits and keep only the sections that contribute to the arc of the story.

● Add intro and outro slides or music. ○ This can be as simple as a slide with your logo.○ Music files can be purchased and reused for this purpose.○ Some video editing software include music tracks.

● Develop B roll content.○ If the presenter is describing a process, create a screen

share showing how to do it. ○ Use gif’s to evoke emotion.

● Consider creating a simple animation.

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Getting Specific:Webinar to Video

Ask:

● What is the main process described in the case study? ○ Write the process as a “How to” blog post.

● Why was the process important? ○ Answer this question with a why post, be sure to emphasize

the results achieved by the company in the case study. ■ For example: A case study illustrating how one company

doubled their organic web traffic and increased sales can be written as “Why doubling traffic is the single best way to grow your business this year.”

● Who can you quote about the main value offered by following the process? ○ For example, if the process demonstrates how to get traffic

to a website, quote someone about the importance of traffic.

● What emotion can you associate with the study? ○ Frame your blog post in terms of this emotion.○ Surprise, fear, joy, relief

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Getting Specific:Case Study to Blog

List your 5 high performing content pieces to be repurposed. Then, choose (at least) 2 formats for new content.

High performing New format 1 New format 2

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Put it all together

Resources

Find the Google Analytics Landing Page Report:

Open Google Analytics, and scroll to the Behavior report in the list on the left side of the screen.

Select Site Content,and Landing Pages from the drop downs.

Use the search box to filter so that your results only display blog pages.

TRY THE BUZZSUMO EVERGREEN SCORE

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Alternatively, watch this video tutorial on how to find landing page reports.

You can try Canva or Pablo by Buffer to add or create free images and add logos.

Need subtitles? There’s a paid transcription service through Rev.