Back from the Dead: Eerily Effective Ways to Reuse Old Content

Just like the bad guy in every classic slasher, your content has the power to revive itself over and over again—and appear in places that your ideal audience least expects it! From blogs to podcasts to ebooks you have a veritable army of zombie content just waiting to do your bidding! (But don’t worry, these are nice zombies that actually nurture brains—not eat them). 

So, don’t send your content to the marketing graveyard just yet, because we’re going to share six scary good ways to bring old content back from the dead. No Necronomicon necessary.

Why Bringing Your Old Content Back from the Grave is Good for Business

The power of repurposed content cannot be understated and can help turn your lead generation from a ghost town to a viral success. Here’s why reusing old content is integral to a scary good marketing strategy:

It Saves Time

Repurposing content is a huge time-saver because you don’t have to worry about coming up with (and researching) new topics as often. One Referal Rock report showed that 48% of marketers surveyed said it was a huge help when it came to time ROI.

It helps with SEO

Repurposed posts and articles can even help improve SEO ranking because you’re updating the content with more relevant data. You also have the opportunity to include new keywords.

It gives you more reach

You can use one piece of content as a foundation for a variety of different platforms. Just one blog post can transform into a YouTube video, Instagram carousel, and a podcast—meaning you’re able to take full advantage of multichannel marketing.

It’s great for ROI

According to a survey conducted by ReferralRock, 46% of the marketers surveyed said repurposing existing content brought in the best results for leads and conversions.

6 Ways to Bring Your Content Back to Life

With the what’s and why’s out of the way, it’s time to get into the how’s. Let’s review six ways to give your content a half-life while helping generate even more traffic to your business.

1. Add a bit of fresh blood to pre-existing blogs

The first way to repurpose content is also our easiest. Take a look through past blog posts and find ways to make them stronger and more alluring. It’s usually a good idea to look over your past posts and freshen them up to ensure they’re still relevant and full of value.

With the what’s and why’s out of the way, it’s time to get into the how’s. Let’s review six ways to give your content a half-life while helping generate even more traffic to your business.

1. Add a bit of fresh blood to pre-existing blogs

The first way to repurpose content is also our easiest. Take a look through past blog posts and find ways to make them stronger and more alluring. It’s usually a good idea to look over your past posts and freshen them up to ensure they’re still relevant and full of value.

Scary good tips:

• Research the topic for any new questions people may be asking that weren’t covered in the old post. Doing so gives you an opportunity to add new keywords.

• Look for any new stats or data points to include—this is an especially effective way to make small tweaks to content without having to rewrite most of it. 

• Look for areas to improve accessibility with alt-text and make sure all text is easy for screen readers to translate. You can use free tools like Accessi and Google Chrome Accessibility Developer Tools.

2. Shapeshift your blogs into videos

The advantages of video marketing only continues to grow, with a Wyzowl report revealing that 87% of marketers surveyed said it helped increase their online traffic. Video is a powerful medium because it’s easier to remember than text, with Forbes reporting that people could recall 95% of information provided through a video format—whereas people could only remember 10% of information in text format.  So, a great repurposing strategy to consider is transforming text-based content into video. 
Scary good tips:

• Use your existing blog content as an outline for a video script. 

• Reading a blog and listening to a video are two different experiences. While many blogs tend to have a casual tone, it’s important to ensure the wordage flows naturally in a video format.

• Use script readers to help you determine how long your video will be so everyone involved will understand the full undertaking of the project.

• Splice the video with graphics.  People may get bored just watching you sit and talk directly to the screen without some kind of visual change. Try user-friendly tools like Loom, which is especially great for tutorials and walk-throughs.

3. Split up your marketing content to cover more ground by turning blogs into infographics

Since many folks are visual learners, transforming blogs into infographics is a great way to provide key information in an easily scannable, shareable, and visually engaging format. If your infographic is really helpful, other folks are likely to share it on their own platforms, too. 

Scary good tips:

• Look up infographics with similar topics to see what data and formatting are popular (You can also look for information gaps that your infographic can fill).

• Use design tools like Canva and Visme to help you quickly and easily create high-quality infographics for free.

• Make sure your infographic provides detailed alt-text to maximize accessibility to everyone in your audience. Here’s a guide on how to add alt-text to infographics from the University of South Carolina.

4. Is that long-form content spooking prospects? Make it bite-sized!

Content like ebooks, whitepapers, and webinars can be cut down into more digestible and scannable content. In fact, one ebook or whitepaper could end up generating multiple posts each! 

Scary good tips:

• Use chapters/sections as inspiration for their own blog post. 

• Condense the information down even further and turn sections into Twitter threads or Instagram carousels.

• Convert them into video tutorials, webinars, or courses.

• Make sure the tone is still consistent with your brand, but look for ways to make it more casual and inviting. 

5. Turn pick of the patch podcasts into boo-tiful blogs 

When transforming podcasts into articles, remember that you’re not copying but converting. Always take special care to apply the best formatting practices, so the content is pleasant to read for your audience.

Scary good tips:

• Find key talking points in the conversation and turn them into header sections for the blog post. If you plan to convert most of your podcasts into written content, you can preplan your scripts to make that even easier.

• Use snippets from the podcast and turn them into standalone TikToks or Instagram Reels.

• Include relevant direct quotes from the interviewee whenever possible—and make sure you give credit correctly.

• Ask your podcast guest if they are okay with their interview being turned into a blog and how they’d like to be credited for their inclusion.

• Most often, effective blogs are more about actionable advice than entertainment, so make sure you give readers clear takeaways that they can put into action.

6. Frankenstein multiple blogs into one monster of an ebook 

If you have a series of blogs with certain themes in common, consider converting them into a comprehensive ebook. It may be a bit more time-consuming than some of the other tips, but ebooks can be incredible lead-generation tools that establish your industry expertise and build trust.

Scary good tips:

• Clarify what kind of ebook you want to create. (Do you want to do a big list of tips or a comprehensive guide on a certain topic or software?)

• Add as many relevant data points as you can—numbers are powerful tools.

• Look for inspiration from similar ebooks to get ideas for formatting and topics.

• Add new content to fill in any gaps your individual posts may not cover. (Just make sure any data you use is up-to-date.)

Bonus tip: Making magic with UX

Make sure each and every piece of content is repurposed with the end-user’s experience as its foundation. Creating an effective user experience (UX) involves researching and applying your reader’s formatting and browsing preferences based on the platforms they’re on.

• Instagram carousels are about the interaction with the post, so it ought to be easy and fast to flip through—meaning they’re best for quick tips.

• Twitter threads can give you the opportunity to go into more detail but only say what is absolutely necessary. Twitter is all about less is more.

• White space is your friend, no matter what you’re writing or rewriting. Make sure everything you create is scannable. As a guide, most paragraphs are about 2 to 3 sentences maximum (fewer when creating social media captions).

It’s aliiiive… again!

As you can see, it would be a horror story if your brand didn’t take advantage of all of the ways to reuse your existing content. From SEO to lead generation, repurposing content has far too many boo-nefits to overlook! 

But we understand that while repurposing content does save time, it’s still a time-consuming undertaking for a busy marketing team. Especially when you understand that every word counts. 

Want to make the content creation and repurposing process more delightful than frightful? Comma is here to help. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about our content marketing team and services.