Repurposing content is one of the hottest topics in the world of copywriting. Why? It’s something almost every brand is finding valuable. Not only does it save time, but it’s a fantastic means of reusing existing, already-awesome copy.
Now, we’ve talked about content repurposing before. In fact, we’ve handed you a handy how to guide and backed our stand that repurposing helps you get the most content mileage possible. But as I sat at my desk, racking my brain for a worthwhile-copywriting-in-action topic, I thought to myself, “Hold the phone! We haven’t really shown you how valuable and worthwhile content repurposing is.”
So guess what we’re going to talk about? Repurposing one of the oldest types of content around: Fairytales!
Once Upon A Time
There probably isn’t a person on the planet who hasn’t heard at least one fairytale. In fact, the tales we grew up with know no cultural bounds. They’re worldwide stories that teach lessons, morals, principles, all kinds of good stuff. And on October 23, 2011, a television series based entirely on repurposing traditional fairytales premiered. Simply called Once Upon a Time, this series is an incredible example of content repurposing in action.
Modernization
Once Upon a Time is a fantastic example of repurposing content through modernization. Now, we’ve talked about this concept before, but this series really drives home how you can take something old and make it new.
The characters live in the seaside town of Storybrooke, Maine. They live in a modern setting in which the wicked Queen from Snow White’s fairytale is the town Mayor. In season one, her right-hand man (the Huntsman tasked with killing Snow White) is the town Sherriff. As we work our way down the list of fairytale characters, they each take on modernized roles that connect back to their traditional identity:
The Evil Queen is Regina Mills, Mayor of Storybrooke
Snow White is Mary Margaret Blanchard, a school teacher
Prince Charming is David Nolan, a coma patient who awakes in search of his true love
Jiminy Cricket is Dr. Archie Hopper, a therapist
The Huntsman is Sheriff Graham Humbert
Pinocchio is August Wayne Booth, a writer of sorts whose destructive path leaves life altering consequences
Red Riding Hood is Ruby, a waitress at the local diner, Granny’s which is run by the grandmother from her fairytale
Belle is Lacy, a confused young woman who falls for the biggest “beast” in town
Perhaps the most epic character in the entire series is Rumpelstiltskin. In Storybrooke, he is Mr. Gold, the one powerful man in town that everyone is terrified of. He doubles as the Beast Belle falls for and the crocodile Captain Hook seeks to destroy.
When it comes to repurposing content, one of the most important things we can do is modernize it. Once Upon a Time proves that no content is too old for modernization. And when it’s done right, it reminds the audience of the traditional content while mesmerizing them with a fresh perspective.
Compelling Twists
If I had to pick the most surprising and compelling twist of the series, it came in season three when we were introduced to the infamous Peter Pan. Yes, I said infamous. Although we’ve always known Peter as the boy who never grew up, and we saw his getaway island as fantastic and magical, Once Upon a Time chose to take a completing different approach.
In an epic and slightly terrifying twist, Peter Pan becomes a villain! His shadow steels children from their beds, dragging them to Neverland. But instead of being a land where little boys never grow up, it’s a terrifying place where Pan searches tirelessly for one boy. Even Captain Hook fears the place. Peter is depicted as a villain, capable of ripping shadows away like ripping the hearts from chests.
This compelling twist is a fantastic example of a technique we can use to repurpose content. We can insert new, compelling twists that shake things up. A reasonable twist can leave people in shock and awe. In the case of Once Upon a Time, it made season three irresistible. In the case of your copywriting, it can make people hunger for what comes next because all they can do for now is guess.
Incredibly Human Characters
It could be said that the most successful content is also the most human. Let’s face it; we don’t like trying to connect with anything that is less than human. Once Upon a Time, although comprised of fictional fairytale creatures and characters, never shank away from the task of making the modernized and classic characters incredibly human. For example:
Emma Swan: Arguably the main character of the series, she is a completely new addition the storybook world. Daughter to Prince Charming and Snow White, she’s a character a lot of us can relate to because she is so human. She’s had her fair share of trouble. She’s made bad decisions that have come back to haunt her, and she’s bent on doing the right thing, no matter the cost. There’s hardly anything fictional about her, except for her roots.
Henry: As Emma’s son, he is a highly human character. He spent a good part of his life wondering why his birth mother gave him up for adoption. When given the opportunity, he takes off to find Emma. He finds her to convince her that she is the savoir of Storybrooke, but at the same time he just wants his mother—his real mother. As the series progresses, we connect with a kid from a broken home with one pretty crazy family. Sound familiar? A lot of us can relate personally!
Rumpelstiltskin: My favorite character in the series! Unlike his traditional fairytale, he takes on a whole new level of sheer darkness as “The Dark One.” As one of the most multifaceted characters in the entire series, he offers so much to relate to from feelings of numbing fear to overwhelming rage.
What’s the point? The point is that the most human we make our content, the more readily people will connect to it. I spit out the three above character profiles because these three characters left a strong impression on me. Your content has the ability to do the same.
Now, this is not to say that your content needs fictional characters. But there’s nothing wrong with a little storytelling. More to the point, there’s nothing wrong with telling your story. People love to connect with things they can relate to, and your story is one they will want to hear.
As your business continues to grow and change, take the time to tell stories. Let people in on the battles and challenges faced behind the scenes. Show them that running a business isn’t all glamour. It’s hard work, work you put in so that they can benefit from your business.
What Storytelling and Copywriting Need: Strong Emotional Connection
The key to great storytelling is emotion. The ingredient to shareworthy content is strong emotion. When you repurpose content, find new and exciting ways to make an emotional connection with your audience.
In Once Upon a Time, there are strong emotional connections ranging from unbreakable love to uncontainable anger. For example, in season three, two of the major villains (the Evil Queen and Captain Hook) are caught in a scene talking about happy endings. Despite their shown evilness and all of the reasons you’ve been given to hate them, you can’t help but feel sympathy when Captain Hook and the Queen contemplate whether or not they can ever have a happy ending.
New Idea Creation
Repurposing classic fairytales into modernized versions with unique twists and turns based on the new life breathed into the characters was a smashing success. So smashing, in fact, that Once Upon a Time birthed a spin-off series called Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Although the new series followed in the same tone, it approaches its fairytale revamp in slightly different manner, allowing a certain amount of uniqueness. The writers have even woven in cross over episodes that return the audience to the parent series.
Repurposing content can very easily lead to new, improved ideas. With a little creativity, planning, and organization, you can incorporate new ideas in a unique way while still linking back to your original content.
Try It!
Derek Halpern, the man behind (and in front) of Social Triggers says it best, “You don’t have to create content, day in, and day out. You just have to work on getting the content you already have…in the hands of more people.” You can thoroughly accomplish this by repurposing your content and sharing it.
Are you ready for the hard-hitting question? Here it comes; brace yourself!
Have you repurposed any of your content yet? If yes, awesome job and keep it up. If not, what are you waiting for? The highly successful Once Upon a Time series is a shining example of just how repurposing can result in the most mileage and untold content success!
Let’s face it; we all work on limited time. If we could selfishly dedicate even 50 percent of our time to only our online content, we’d all have a website, blog, and social media outreach to be proud of; one we’d smile about, do that chin nod at, and say, “Yeah, I did that!” But in reality, we don’t have the time. Running a business is a marathon that always results in the same conclusion, “There just aren’t enough hours in a day.” There’s got to be a solution, right?
The Solution to Limited Time: Repurposing Content
You’ve heard about repurposing content. If you haven’t done it, though, you probably don’t know what the big deal is. Content repurposing is the ultimate way of getting the most mileage out of your content. It’s a process that can, if done right, save you time and make populating your online presence with relevant and engaging content a bit easier. Did you know that, with a little preparation and planning, you can repurpose every piece of content you write? Actually, even if you haven’t done any planning, you can repurpose straight from your blog archive.
Revamping vs. Repurposing
Before we dive into just how to repurpose your content, let’s get something straight. There is a difference between revamping and repurposing content. These terms are not interchangeable. In one of our guest blogs on SiteProNews.com, we briefly touched on the differences.
Content revamping occurs when you:
Upgrade formatting and structure.
Return to your best ideas and reinvent them.
Re-introduce a previous idea by giving it new meaning.
Create content that serves the same purpose but responds to new needs or demands from your audience.
Content repurposing occurs when you:
Use your already written material to attract an entirely new type of reader.
According to Kevan Lee of Buffer Social, content repurposing is packed with benefits. It can boost your SEO, reach a new audience, reinforce your message, and even gain extra authority.
Resuscitate Your Content
All you need to resuscitate your content is to find what Lee calls your “evergreen content.” Evergreen content is timeless and high quality. It’s those blogs and articles that are always relevant no matter the date and have driven traffic to your website. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide for shocking life back into your content:
Step 1: Review your blog archive. Check your site analytics. See which posts, and even pages, are the most popular. Of these, choose the posts and pages that have timeless content.
Step 2:Review the topics. Once you’ve nailed down those head turning topics, re-read them. Can you expand on the topic further? Has something changed in the news since you published the piece? Is there some cutting edge innovation you could update your audience about? Have you learned something new that you can share?
Step 3:Brainstorm a fresh approach. Use your popular content to brainstorm a fresh approach. It can involve anything from publishing an update to putting a new spin on the content. Be creative, and think about how you can reach a new or broader audience.
How to Repurpose Every Piece of Content You Write
The key to tapping into your own content is to revisit your website, blog, or social media presence with a fresh perspective coupled with creativity. You have to think outside of the box, and here’s how you do it:
Try a new media type: You’ve already published this topic as a blog or webpage. You have some additional material, experience, or even a new perspective to write a fresher piece. But who says you have to write another blog or webpage? Nobody! One great way to repurpose content is to try a new media type. Instead of writing yet another blog, why not create a presentation, video, infographic, white paper, or some other type of media?
Reach every member of your audience: Who reads blogs and webpages? Usually it’s the audience who are either researching or have time to read. How effective has your content been at reaching the super active audience member who only has about five to fifteen minutes of commute time on the subway to revel in your content? Probably not very. Consider catering to these audience members by means of a podcast. It’s something they can listen to on the go, and it’s likely they’ll fall in love with you because they just don’t have time to sit and read. The lesson is to think about your audience and find ways to reach each member.
Reach a new audience: Expansion is the pulse of business. In order to continually generate leads, we simply must expand to new audiences. You can easily repurpose every piece of content you write simply by brainstorming ways to make is more appealing to that new audience or target consumer group you are attempting to reach.
Repost via social media: Knows the value of evergreen content. It’s like finding the sweet spot of content creation because you can always repost and re-promote your evergreen content via social media. It’s timeless and high quality. All it needs is a fresh repost here and there. The trick is to not overdue it. Recirculation works once or twice when spaced out, but it won’t work forever. You will still need to repurpose the original piece with a new spin in order to keep your content fresh and relevant.
Use Canva: This free image tool can do wonders with plain text content by transforming it into highly-appealing, engaging visual content such as inspirational quotes, Infographics, posters, flyers and so much more. This is a great way to create visuals out of re-purposed content.
Repurposing is a fantastic way to populate content without draining your time. Reworking a piece of content usually takes half the time when compared to the original creation process. And if you hire out repurposing a blog into an infographic or presentation, you’re making a wise investment. There are tons of repurposing tools at your disposal today.
Additional Awesome Ideas
Content repurposing doesn’t stop here! You can repurpose every piece you write simply by staying creative. A little outside help is never a bad idea either. Quick Sprout’s Complete Guide to Building Your Blog Audience has a chapter dedicated to repurposing content, and it’s bursting at its page borders with more awesome ideas you can apply.
The World’s Largest Webinar happened last Wednesday (#WLW14). Hosted by Hubspot, it featured three awesome leaders from today’s most powerful online platforms: Hubspot, Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter. We at Express Writers were a part of the lucky 34,000 who attended. Our exclusive recap blog features our notes from the webinar.
During the webinar, Russ, Twitter’s speaker, spoke about some ingenious ways to get more mileage out of your web content. He basically described content as if you have “fundamental” pieces like blogs, ebooks, etc. These can be cut up and delivered in bite size pieces to your social media audience and go a LONG way.
How Do You Repurpose Web Content?
It’s pretty simple, really. It may seem a little daunting at first, but you will find yourself getting more bite size pieces of content quicker than ever before. In the following section, we will talk about the different ways in which you can repurpose your content and get more mileage out of one simple post! How nifty is that?
1. Use Your Email Campaigns. This is often a lost gold mine of information. Russ, Twitter speaker at #WLW14, shared some awesome tips regarding using email campaigns for Twitter. You might not realize it, but those emails can produce some amazing Twitter content! Here are a few ways you can use your email content in this fashion:
Cut Up That Newsletter. Instead of telling people to click the link and read a longer blog, give them small pieces of information from your newsletter. You can fashion this by saying, “did you know?” or giving other information that your client base will appreciate.
Send Out Tips All Day. An important aspect with Twitter is consistent interaction. Once a tweet has been made, it will be seen for a few minutes before being lost in the myriad of other tweets. Tweet out tips from your long newsletter or blog post. Those bullet points you love so dearly will help a lot when doing this!
Always remember TL;DR (Too long; didn’t read) when it comes to content and Twitter. The Twitter universe relies on short tidbits of info, not long drawn out opinions or news.
2. Cut Up E-Books Into Blogs. Give your blog copywriters your ebook — they can easily use that as fodder for more than 5-15 blogs, depending on the length and the topic areas covered in your company ebooks. The sub-sections of an ebook will make excellent blog postings and each post can end by encouraging people to pick up your ebook to learn more.
3. Re-share Older Blogs. SocialMediaToday often retweets blogs published on their site over a week ago. They re-purpose the blog by tweeting it many days after it was published. Consider doing this for your “older” blogs. In Internet-land, a few days old is very old and a week old blog is ancient. If you want to make sure your readers read a specific blog or blogs, retweet, retweet, retweet!
4. For Your Social Media, Get Someone Who Can Speak Social. It’s not easy to write those one-liners that go viral on Twitter – being concise, short and still impactful can be more difficult for some brains. A social media manager is a great investment. That is, someone who knows how to copy write for your social media. For example, a person can take your old blogs and give them a fresh new one-liner for a short Twitter message. These one-liners are what will bring in the Millennials and the Millennials are who will bring in the business for many companies.
5. Create a SlideShare. Many people love slideshows. It gives them the ability to learn bits of information at their speed and is always divided up nicely. This is a great way to highlight the most important parts of your content. This ensures that your readers will read what you want them to. Just make sure you don’t over share on a slide show. Professors did this to us in university and we all hated it, so don’t make their mistake.
6. Make a Whitepaper Post Out of Your Content. Do you want higher-ups to take notice of a content piece your company has published? Craft a Whitepaper. This may be a chance for you to hire a professional, but creating a Whitepaper for your business is a great way to publish content in a more professional setting. It will get you noticed from professional entities and they are more apt to take your company seriously if the content isn’t in blog format.
7. Turn that Long-winded Post Into A Handy Infographic. The Internet really has a hard time sticking with long posts, as we stated above. Millennials use that annoying semi-colon phrase (TL;DR) but it holds a lot of weight when it comes to constructing great online content. Infographics are very popular with many in the web community and are great if you are aiming to get your content viral, according to Quicksprout.com. Don’t worry, you can still write up that long-winded post! Infographics serve as a chance for you to highlight key points that readers might miss if they are reading the long version. These are easier to read for many people and you’ll find those people want more, in-depth information after reading one. (This is where that long-winded post comes in handy.)
8. Lights, Camera, Action: Make A Blog Post A Video Post! Video blogs and posts are all the rage right now. This is a chance to put a face and voice to the business. Videos make readers feel like they are getting a different, more personal experience when they see someone from your company sharing information via video blog (also known as a vlog). You can write up a script from your blog or select a specific aspect of your blog to define. A great example of this is Mashable’s blog series on the Heartbleed bug that affected a huge portion of the Internet. They wrote various articles on different aspects of the bug and attached a video at the bottom discussing what the bug was. This helped readers learn what the bug was without having to search through hundreds of articles. It is important to have someone who is comfortable being in front of the camera and speaking without notes. It needs to come across as natural. If you are afraid of the camera, don’t put yourself in front of it. Ask other employees or hire someone – an awkward presentation will chase viewers away pretty quickly.
9. Podcasts Are The Future. These handy audio tools are great for commuters or those who work data entry jobs. Many listen to a wide selection of podcasts and always look for new ones to learn about different topics. Some non-science folks find themselves listening to science podcasts while non-literature folks find themselves listening to literature podcasts. Podcasts vary in length and are generally broken up into a multi-week series. This will work perfectly to repurpose your blog post or article. Talk about one point in one podcast and unpack it with further detail than made available in your blog. For example, if we were to do a podcast on this topic, we would do one session focusing on the first, and possibly, second points and expound on them and then the following week we would do points three and four and so on. This will engage your reader base and provide some excellent, sharable resources. The same rule from point eight applies to this point, as well. Get someone who is comfortable talking into a microphone and being recorded. The less awkward the person sounds, the better.
10. Share Your Knowledge: Provide A Webinar. Webinars are excellent ways to repurpose your content and teach information to others. These are done in a class format and are easily viewed at any time. You can break your content down and share it in teachable moments. Use this as a way to share information with others in your field and help their knowledge base grow. This works particularly well for librarians or those who can’t travel to conferences. They are able to learn about one specific topic and focus on implementing that into their daily work. Webinars can also be done in a live format where you can have viewers ask questions and can interact with your client base. It is recommended that you field questions instead of letting them appear live without being checked. You never know when someone is going to play a little prank!
11. Don’t Leave the Leftovers To Rot. Don’t throw out those clips and snippets you took out of your video for the sake of length. Don’t let them gather dust and grow moldy. Utilize those leftovers. C.S. Lewis said that you could always tell the quality of a writer’s content by how full the wastebasket is; what he didn’t say is that “waste” can actually be put to good use. If you are unsure of how to use the leftovers, call a professional in and have them create different content from them. Put it in an infographic, in a slideshow; use it in a Whitepaper post, or as a point in your next blog post. The only time you need to leave content in the wastebasket is if it is really stinky, but you can usually find someone who can freshen it up.
12. Repurpose Your Content While You Are Still Writing It. While you are writing up your long content, how about Tweeting out a few tidbits or trying out smaller bits to see how well they work. This will help you see if the content you are crafting will work and if it doesn’t, you can change before making the huge commitment of writing it all and then publishing. This can save you a lot of time if you find you have to change your approach to your content strategy.
13. Take That Blog Post and Format It Every Which Way. Seriously, don’t ignore any format – you’ve got to catch them all! Every format will bring in a different type of reader and viewer. If you focus on one form of content only, you will only bring in a select few – you don’t want this. You want a diverse reader and client base because diversity will grow your business. Hubspot discusses the importance of using multiple formats for your content and points out that you will generate more leads for your company, therefore, increasing sales. If you find yourself struggling to adapt your content into multiple formats, ask others in your company if they are skilled with a particular format. You can also hire professionals to do things such as videos or making infographics. The money you put into multiple formats will be worth it. People love variety; the more you mix it up the better.
14. Stop Yakking About Yourself, Write About Others. Repurposing your own content might get a bit droll; consider having guest bloggers on your site and repurposing their material. You can utilize their writings for your site in other formats and can generate new leads if the person redirects their readers to your site. You can also gain inspiration from your competitors and repurpose lessons you’ve learned from them. However, we will say that if you repurpose something a competitor has done, it is important that you do so without plagiarizing. Plagiarism is awful, often illegal, always unethical, and you need to avoid it. If you find yourself plagiarizing your competition too much, scrap it.
15. Make It Pin-able. Pinterest is a social network that seems to be on the sideline of all the social network excitement, but it is becoming quite the contender in the social media marketing world. This is a great opportunity for you to not only reach out to a new demographic but to begin a marketing strategy many of your competitors aren’t thinking about yet. Craft your content into a pin-able format such as an infographic or photograph with a quote from your blog. By doing this, you can link the pin to your website so that pinners are able to follow the link to the source material. You can also set up your content in a format that allows people to do crafts, do a DIY project with your product or that promotes your product, and also gives them life hacks for basic every day projects. Pinterest is an easy way to share all of these on “boards” and doesn’t take up a whole Facebook feed. Go take a look at Pinterest and the way some companies are using it to see how your company can benefit from this social media format.
16. Cheesy Photo – Simple One-liner. We’ve all seen those cheesy stock photos with a quote over them and while we all joke about them, we like them. We also know that others like them and will share them. This is a great opportunity for you to highlight poignant quotes from your blog and create a shareable format this is easily shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. This is a great way to cover your content on multiple sites and repurpose it for those multiple sites. If you don’t want to keep using stock photos, hire a photographer or take your own photos. Just make sure they are eye-catching; this is the only way these photos and quotes stand out on Facebook.
How Does Repurposing Content Benefit You?
The simple answer is that repurposing content saves you time spent on crafting content. Yes, you want to stay fresh but staying fresh does not mean publishing consistently new content. You can stay fresh with your content by reusing it in different formats and those “old” blogs can still be relevant in the “future.”
Here are a few ways repurposing your content will benefit your company:
1. It is Excellent For Your SEO Strategy. This is a simple concept to grasp. You utilized certain SEO practices with your original content and repurposing it gives you a chance to utilize those practices again. Repurposing will improve Google’s view of you and will bump your rankings right on up.
2. You Reach A Wider Audience. As we’ve said, repurposing brings in a lot of different clientele for your business, which is important to business growth. All of these different formats are difficult to maintain but repurposing your original content into the different formats will save you time and bring in a diverse reader base.
3. Repurposing Will Retain Clients and Generate New Leads. By repurposing your content, you are able to publish great content while also spending time by building relationships with your customers. Customers that have a relationship with a company will stay with that company for a long time. In addition, the consistent updates of repurposed content will generate buzz and bring in new readers and clients.
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