It is important to figure out ways to update and repurpose old blog posts to keep the content fresh.
- Content marketing is one of the essential strategies you can implement as a business owner.
- Video content typically sees more views and engagement than written work.
- Guest posting helps you repurpose your content for other publications, which boosts brand awareness.
- Expert roundups, general updates and pillar articles are all great ways to tweak your existing written content.
Consumers love high-quality content. Marketers and business owners understand this tendency and use this data to reach their target audience. In fact, a recent survey revealed that 81% of leaders put their content front and center when developing their marketing strategy.
If you’re in this position, you are probably wondering how you can consistently create new content for your audience. The truth is, you can repurpose your stale blog content and mix it seamlessly with your new content. When you use existing content, you can get a higher return on investment (ROI) on your content marketing, and you can reach a broader audience, which usually translates to more sales and conversions.
If you are looking to add a spark to your existing blog posts, here are five ways you can repurpose your stale content.
1. Create complementary video content.
Have you ever had an article that was getting a ton of views, then its traffic came to a sudden halt? If you have experienced this, there’s a good chance you could benefit from adding a video that complements your original piece or explains the concepts you discussed in greater detail.
According to WordStream, 85% of people in the United States watch videos online. Engaging video content is likely to pull in consumers who otherwise wouldn’t bother to read your website. You can use this opportunity to pull in new consumers and build your audience.
You can upload the videos you create to platforms like YouTube and Facebook, with a link to the original written blog post. Consider that 71% of people watch more videos than they did a year ago. This is a clear sign that video content is on the rise, and as marketers, we can implement this medium within our blog posts. Aside from the benefit of a broader audience, research also shows that articles that feature videos are three times more likely to generate links, which translates to increased traffic and sales.
2. Update old articles.
There’s a good chance that the thoughts and ideas within your article will change over time. The changes can stem from several sources, including new research, experience, or the preference of the business owner.
It’s your job to make sure readers always have up-to-date information when they come to your website. You can repurpose your old content after enough has changed to deem it worthy of a rewrite. In more severe cases, you’ll want to make the change as soon as possible.
Once you’ve rewritten the article, you can add an update tag, share it across social media and send the updated post to your subscribers. This tactic will help expose your content to new consumers, as well as show long-time readers that you’re committed to providing accurate and valuable information.
3. Write guest posts for other publications.
Guest posting on other websites is a great way to spread brand awareness. In addition, it’s an excellent way to repurpose your old blog posts. If you have a post that’s getting less than average traffic, you could try to offer a similar pitch to a big-name publication and write a revised and edited version of your original piece with a link back in the guest post.
The result is more people will see your new guest post, and are more likely to click-through and read the original post. Certain publications allow you to directly share your content on their platforms if you are the original creator.
Additionally, you can write long-form content for other publications and include multiple links to various pieces of content that relate to your new article. You may not receive the same social signals from Google, but you will generate additional organic traffic on your website. Guest posting is a great way to take a piece of content you’ve already written, and expand on it and explain the topic through a different lens.
4. Add an expert roundup.
Expert roundups are another excellent way to expand your existing content. Industry professionals are often admired and discussed when marketing changes are made to a small to medium-sized business. Essentially, expert roundups are single questions with one answer from several reputable professionals.
For example, if you wanted to generate traffic to an article on your marketing website about social media, you could ask various experts for their opinion on social media marketing tactics. Next, you’ll want to create a new post where you rehash material from your first post and include all of the answers you gathered from the experts.
You can use this tactic to generate more traffic and build trust with your target audience. The more reputable your experts, the more trustworthy your business appears to consumers. As you post more expert roundups for your site, you’re likely to draw in attention from fans of the expert, your previous audience and new, curious consumers.
5. Focus on pillar articles.
Pillar articles are essential to the success of virtually every industry and niche. These central posts are also known as evergreen content. Evergreen content allows you to repurpose your content while adding a fresh spin that is bound to bring in more readers.
Most blog posts have short life spans. Your articles will need continuous updates as new information comes to light. Pillar articles, on the other hand, is a type of content designed to work months, and even years, after it was initially published. Content in this category is usually long-form because it encompasses one aspect of your niche as a whole.
Let’s revisit the fictional marketing website we mentioned previously. If you wanted to create pillar content for this website, you would create categories for social media, content and email marketing. Each article should give consumers a broad breakdown of the topic, with plenty of links to your content. You may want to take some quotes from the expert roundup and include them in your post with your thoughts on the professional’s opinion.
There’s no question that content marketing is here to stay. This tactic has evolved drastically over the past decade as our technology has become increasingly sophisticated. If we want to stay on the cutting edge of our industries, we have to work hard to deliver high-quality, informative content to our audience.
Creating evergreen content, guest posting on other publications, creating videos and regularly updating content are all great ways to repurpose your stale content while growing your audience, and increasing your sales. As technology continues to expand, you should pay attention to industry trends such as voice search if you want to target new consumers. However, there’s still a lot of life left in your old blog posts; you just have to work your marketing magic and bring them back to life.
