Article's Content
Article's Content
Everyone wants to create more content in 2022, right?
But how are you planning on achieving that goal?
Writing more blog posts? Creating more Twitter threads? Recording more podcasts or videos?
All of that sounds great, but what if you could 10x your content output in 2022.
Without really writing more blog posts or creating more content assets.
Sounds like magic, right?
If you follow me, you likely already know what I’m talking about…
Content repurposing.
We’re big believers in the power of repurposing. Personally, I’m a huge fan of repurposing content and think it can be a game-changer for B2B brands.
Some of my biggest content wins over the past few years have come from repurposed content.
I’m constantly turning tweets into graphics, articles into threads, and a lot more.
Are we wrong?!
Content marketing has come a LONG way… pic.twitter.com/JsnlaNNZRx
— Foundation 🎧 (@FoundationIncCo) November 29, 2021
And I have written extensively about how you can easily turn one article into hundreds of smaller pieces of content.
Maybe people will call me “The Repurposing Guy” one day.
But one of the biggest misconceptions I run into when talking about repurposing is that people think you can only repurpose content that has already been published.
I’m really not sure where that belief came from, but it holding back so many content creators and B2B brands.
Instead, you should be creating your repurposed content right alongside the original content asset.
For example, if you’re working on a blog post that will come out next month, you also should be planning how your brand will repurpose that content into a thread, video, or another content asset.
Then launch it at the same time, or around the same time, you publish the blog post.
If you’re waiting until after that blog post has been published to start repurposing the content, you’re already behind. This approach not only allows you to reach a lot more people, on different platforms, it also ensures that the valuable content isn’t forgotten about.
Trust me, I know what usually happens.
You publish a great piece of content or blog post, and then move on to the next piece of content as soon as possible. Or another project catches your attention, and you jump right into that.
Now, what if I told you that you could avoid this trap with just a little bit of planning.
Sounds great, right?
Well, let’s break that process down.
What type of content can be repurposed?
Before we jump into the whole process let’s talk a bit about what content can be repurposed.
Here is the easy answer:
All of it.
If you’re creating content that lives only on one platform or social network, you’re going to miss out on a lot of opportunities in 2022.
A podcast clip can easily become a Twitter thread, an infographic, or a simple social visual.
A Twitter thread can then be turned into an article, a LinkedIn slide deck, or a video.
And a blog post can be repurposed into a video, a presentation, a Twitter thread, an Instagram post, and a lot more!
Honestly, the sky’s the limit when it comes to repurposing.
With a little thinking and a good writing app or free video editor to help you out, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.
But content repurposing can cause a lot of content creators to feel overwhelmed.
This is why we have started using this new process to avoid falling into that trap with our content repurposing menu.
What is a content repurposing menu?
To be honest, the name of this tactic and template was actually coined by our VP of Operations. We were chatting about how to maximize our content production in a meeting and the name has stuck ever since.
Thinking about your content repurposing opportunities as a menu is a great way to maximize production without feeling constantly overwhelmed.
When you go to a restaurant, you don’t eat everything on the menu. You pick and choose a few dishes that will help you reach your goal of….not being hungry.
At its core, the content repurposing menu can be thought of in a very similar way.
Instead of repurposing every piece of content that you want to publish into:
- A Twitter thread
- A LinkedIn deck
- 10+ LinkedIn shares
- 10+ Twitter shares
- 10 + Instagram posts
- A YouTube video
- A Medium post
- An eBooks
- A PDF downloadable
- A webinar summary
- And more
You can pick and choose a few that help you reach your goals, without stretching your team too thin.
For example, when we publish a teardown there are around 20+ different ways we can repurpose that into new content.
That includes things like a Twitter thread, a LinkedIn deck, miscellaneous visual content, a downloadable PDF, an ebook, and more. We know that each of these repurposed assets is valuable to our followers, and will help the original content be seen by more people.
But we don’t always have the time or resources to create ALL of those for each teardown, blog post, or webinar. So with the content repurposing menu, we can pick a handful that will help that original content reach the right audience.
For each of the repurposed assets, we also have identified how long it should take to create them. This helps our project managers plan out who can tackle each of the different repurposing opportunities.
Another great thing about the content repurposing menu is that it helps you plan your content out weeks or months in advance.
For every piece of content that you want to put out in the world, you can ensure that there is going to be a handful of repurposed assets to support it. And it won’t be pushed aside for other assignments when things get busy.
At Foundation, I already know that we need to plan out:
- 2+ Twitter threads
- 15+ social shares
- An email newsletter
- A downloadable eBook
- Unique visuals
- And more!
Even before we even write our next teardown!
It doesn’t really matter what the topic is, I know that leading up to publishing the teardown all those other repurposed assets need to be finished.
So instead of scrambling to maximize the reach of that original content asset after publishing, we have already created all the repurposed assets. Now they don’t have to be published at the same time as the teardown, but should be ready to go.
I have found that taking this approach to content planning has really helped us establish a good cadence to follow and ensure we are putting out great content across different platforms.
As well as maximizing the shelf life of all of our content. We are literally creating once, and distributing it forever.
How to create your own content repurposing menu
Now let’s talk about how YOU can create your own content repurposing menu! It’s really easy once you get started.
First, I would recommend taking a look at your current content efforts:
- Does your company write a weekly newsletter?
- Does your company regularly publish blog posts?
- Does your company have an active YouTube channel?
- Does your company create a lot of content for social media?
All of those are different content engines that you can repurpose content from! I would recommend taking each of those engines and adding them to a spreadsheet like this:
Once you identify your main content engines, list out some of the content you currently repurpose from that main asset.
At Foundation, we send a weekly newsletter to all of our subscribers. Before using the content repurposing menu we really only sent out the newsletter and then published it on our blog. As well as sharing it a few times on social media:
From there you want to add an estimate on how long each of those tasks should take. I like adding a time limit so other people on the team know how much time they should spend on repurposing the content.
Then add who is owning these current efforts on your team:
Adding ownership to each of the repurposing efforts will help ensure that it gets done efficiently when assigned.
After you add all your current repurposing efforts to the spreadsheet, you can start planning out what you want to focus on in 2022!
At Foundation, we really want to boost our subscriber numbers next year, so a lot of our repurposing efforts revolve around that goal.
So we added a few more repurposing assets to our menu:
Look at all that content! And that’s just from one of our many content engines. We have a similar content repurposing menu for our teardowns, podcast appearances, YouTube videos, and more!
Now whenever we know something is going to be published, we can plan out all the supporting assets ahead of time. Not after, like so many other brands do.
This is how you build a content moat. Instead of pushing out a ton of new content each week, you repurpose a handful of original assets across a bunch of different channels!
Obviously, your brand doesn’t have to have all of those engines to build out a content repurposing menu. All you need is one to start extending the shelf life of your content and maximize its reach!
We are constantly talking about creating something once, and distributing it forever. But with a content repurposing menu, you can truly do that!
