Do you create content? Do you regularly repurpose your content into other mediums or formats and then share via different channels or platforms? If you do, great! If you don’t, you’re possibly missing a trick. Because repurposing has a long-list of benefits. But saving you time isn’t necessarily one of them if you’re repurposing your own content.

In fact, I’d argue that the only way content repurposing can save you time is if you outsource the process to someone else. So stop wasting your own and repurposing your own content! It’s not your job!

Controversial?

Maybe.

But let me tell you where I’m coming from.

Content repurposing requires re-working 

The term repurposing is widely used in the content marketing space. But like many concepts and practices out there, different people mean different things by it. Truth is, as a strategy, repurposing goes way beyond sharing one piece of content over different platforms.

For example, if you’ve published a blog post on your website, you may want to share it as an article on LinkedIn, Medium, or (with permission and where applicable) on other online platforms you may have access to (think Huffington Post, Thrive Global, etc.). However, as great as it is to share the same piece far and wide, technically, this isn’t repurposing. It’s re-sharing.

If your content hasn’t changed, it’s not been repurposed 

When you repurpose your content, you may change one of three things:

• The purpose. Are you teaching or sharing useful information? Selling? Or are you giving your prospective customers and clients more information about your business and the way you work?
• The platform. Are you posting on your website? On social media? Sending out a newsletter?
• The medium. Is your original piece of content written? Or is it a piece of audio, video, or ‘visual’ content (i.e. meme, infographic, quote, etc.)?

If you want to read more about each of these points and how they differ, head over to my post 3 ways to re-purpose your content to reach a bigger audience.

But if you’re taking one thing away from this post, let it be this.  Repurposing is not copying and pasting. It doesn’t mean lifting a piece of content as it is and sharing it elsewhere. And because of that, content repurposing takes time…

Content repurposing content takes time

When you’re taking an idea, a message, or any piece of information from your content and changing its purpose, the platform you’re sharing it on, or its format, you always need to adjust and adapt the original piece of content.

Let’s look at an example.

Let’s say you’re written an awesome blog post, and you now want to share it with your audience on LinkedIn. You can do this by pulling out the key points from your article and creating individual social media updates based on those.

In this instance, you may not be changing the purpose or format of the content, but you’re changing the platform. Because you’re going from your website to social media (and from a long-form piece of content to a short-form one), you can’t just copy and paste your blog post! Uploading it as it is onto your LinkedIn profile wouldn’t work. For one, the character limitations would stop you!

What you can do though is to use the information from your blog post to craft a social media update that meets the rules and expectations of that platform. Because you’re posting on LinkedIn, you may not need an inspirational photo. But if you were sharing on Instagram, for example, you might.

Adapting your content to the platform you’re sharing it on takes time! 

Did you know that repurposing podcast episodes into blog posts (one of the main services I offer to podcasters), can take me anything between 3 hours and 5 and a half hours? Contrary to what people may think, working from a transcription takes me much longer than writing a blog post from scratch!

If you want to go through the exact process I follow to understand why it takes that long, take a look at How to turn your podcast episodes into blog posts.

Podcasters who outsource the repurposing of their episodes to me do it because they want to save time. They don’t have hours in their week to edit and polish their transcripts and then turn them into blog posts. Transforming long and mistake-laden transcripts into effective, user- and SEO-friendly blog posts takes work!

It’s all worth it, but do you have the time? And let’s face it, don’t you just want to move on to the next exciting idea or piece of content rather than revisit the same one in different shapes and forms over and over?

If you’re a podcaster and currently publish transcriptions on your website, check out my piece Why publishing your podcast transcripts on your website is BAD customer service.

Content repurposing requires specific sets of skills

Another thing you may need to ask yourself before you decide to go ahead and repurpose your own content is whether you have the relevant skillset. If you do, you’re winning. Although, of course, you still have to put in the time and do the work.

But if you don’t, then hiring someone with the right tools for the job will not only save you time but also (most likely) give you better results.

A few years ago, when I had just started out in business, I decided I wanted to create infographics at the back of my blog posts. I remember spending about a week researching apps and trying to learn how to create infographics myself.

The result?

They were terrible.

Let’s face it – I’m a writer and not a designer! It takes me ages to do, I don’t enjoy it, and the results aren’t great. But I’ve learnt from the experience, and I now leave graphic design tasks to the experts.

When podcasters come to me for repurposing, they know it’s what I do – day in and day out. Often clients will tell me they’ve been ‘burnt’ in the past, by either trying to do the work themselves or asking someone without the right skills do it. And (unsurprisingly) the results were less than stellar… much like my infographics!

Writing blog posts and optimising them for search (SEO) is my skill set. If you’re ace at producing audio or video, why not do more of what you’re great at/enjoy and outsource the rest? Aren’t we busy enough as business owners?

Content repurposing can be done without you

So we’ve established that repurposing requires work, time, and skills. Let’s say you have the time and the relevant skills. Let’s say you even enjoy doing the work!

But is your time best utilised re-working content you’ve already created? Wouldn’t you be better off investing that time setting a strategy, generating more leads, or even making more sales? Wouldn’t you love to have that time back to grow your business even further?

You see, the great thing about content repurposing is that it’s the ideal task to outsource. Once you’ve created a solid content marketing strategy and know exactly what you want to repurpose into what and why, you’re ready to hand that over to someone else. You’ve already poured your knowledge, expertise, and ideas into your content once. Now let someone else do their magic so you can enjoy having even more awesome content to share.

Truth is, by outsourcing your content repurposing, you allow your content marketing machine to work faster and more efficiently. And most importantly, independently from you. Don’t be the bottleneck! Because I can promise you that when client work or life get in the way, content repurposing will be one of the first things to be neglected. And considering consistency is key in getting results, you don’t want to miss out on all those juicy repurposing opportunities!

Would you like to outsource your content repurposing? 

If you’re a podcaster or video creator and would like to have your content repurposed into blog posts or LinkedIn posts, get in touch! You can email me at hello@sarabussandri.com or fill in the contact form on my website, and I’ll get back t you.