16 Ideas for Repurposing Your Long Form Content

Ask a busy small business owner or entrepreneur what they find most challenging about content creation and many will reply that it's hard to find the time in the first place to sit down and do it. It's even harder to justify the time it actually takes to create and post something to social media. And that's just a simple Facebook post. While many know they should be creating long form content like blogs, videos, podcasts, freebies, and other educational resources of value, the time and resources it takes to create something like that is simply too overwhelming.

I understand. Part of this blog post was written on my iPad in a parking lot because traffic was light and I was early to meet a client. There's just not enough hours in the day to do everything that must get done AND everything that should get done.

But what if I told you those long form pieces of content are more than just a post on Facebook. They're a key ingredient to the future success of your business. Long form content not only positions you as the expert in your field, it's also your opportunity to give value and allow people to get to know your brand. And it helps your website by giving you more opportunity to be discovered in search and rank for certain keywords. Unlike an Instagram post, a blog, video, or podcast will live on forever where it is hosted. Done right, a long form piece of content gives you the opportunity to have people stumble across your post and get introduced to your brand years from now. 

Ok, so if long form content is worth the time investment, how do you make sure you get your money's worth out of it? It's simple: you repurpose.

As a marketer, I try to make sure that if I'm taking the time to do something, it's really valuable and not just a one-off task. So if I create a blog or video, I don't want it to be one and done. I want it to have some staying power and the ability to be reused in new and interesting ways.

Let's take this blog post for instance:

1) I'm writing a blog post on the topic of repurposing content. I don't have a lot of content on this subject right now as my site and business are still pretty new, but content creation is one topic I like talking about and plan to talk to create more content around. So if content creation is a main topic for me to be talking about, content repurposing is a closely related topic that can be used to lead people to my other content. You can think of it like a spoke in the wagon wheel.

So once I have my blog post done, formatted, and tagged with appropriate keywords, I can now go share this on social media. Right now, I have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles. So the second use for my new blog is to 2) craft a post specific to each platform that leads people back here to lead my blog. Maybe that's even how you got here. I can also 3) do a post in my Instagram and Facebook stories to encourage people to check my new post about the blog. 

4) I can also take all or part of my blog post and put it into an email which I'll send to my list of email subscribers. I like to give my email subscribers a bonus for having subscribed in the past so I'll likely add an additional piece of content or exclusive tip into the email. (Want to get on my list? Subscribe here) 

I didn't create an email opt-in for this blog, but did you notice what I did there? I still offered you an incentive to subscribe to future emails.

5) And I still could create an email opt-in for this post in the future, similar to what I did on last week's blog.

While I'm keeping my YouTube channel focused on how-to videos right now, eventually I probably will do some videos on topics in marketing and when that day comes, 6) I can take this blog post and easily turn it into a video because I already have all the content done. 7) I could also do a Facebook or Instagram live video based on this content. And here's another idea for the social space: 8) instead of just driving people back here to read this blog, I can split up my points into pieces of micro-content and share those micro-content pieces across all my platforms.

9) If I had a podcast, I could take my blog post and record myself reading it or use the blog post to create a slightly different script for the podcast. I could also create short segments based around the points of this blog post and give more specific ideas on how to repurpose your content.

I'm also super interested in the new audio marketing space. I'm thinking about trying out Alexa Flash Briefings. 10) I could take this blog post and separate it into little chunks which I deliver as a series over a few days or weeks.

Keep in mind...all of this is just organic! On the paid end, 11) I can do a pay-per-click (PPC) ad on Google for this blog post. Or 12) I can create an ad on Facebook to send people to come read my blog post.

If I create a lot of content in the future on content creation, 13) I can take my group of blog posts and expand them into a book. 14) Or repackage them as an online webinar or course. 15) I can also try to get a speaking engagement on the subject of content creation and use this blog post to help me craft my talk.

And because this blog is largely filled with ideas that are more evergreen (meaning they should still be relevant next year), 16) I can promote this blog post again in three months, six months, a year, two years from now!

Are you getting the idea yet? A blog should never be just a blog. Your expertise is too valuable, your ideas too good, your time too precious, to just let your content languish somewhere on your website. Yes, this might seem like a lot of work, but have I not just opened your mind to at least one new way to market your content that you've never thought of before? If so, then this blog was worth the time I put into it. I gave value, I helped you, and hopefully you'll tune in to what I have to say in the future. Mission Accomplished.

And these 16 ideas aren't just for blog posts. Made a killer Facebook post? You can repurpose it and expand it to take advantage of the other 15 ideas on my list. Did a one hour interview? That's just begging to be split up and repurposed.

The point is that there's always more than you can do with your content. A lot more. I challenge you to carve out some time this month to create one really stellar piece of content and then find even more ways to distribute it and get it in front of your ideal client. 

Ready to take my challenge? Leave me a comment below about what you'll be working on this month!