I’ll let you in on a secret, I am guilty of the thing I’m going to tell you not to do in this post: believing that content should be original across all platforms.
In theory, it makes sense to create different content for different outlets, right? You want to drive people to your different platforms so that they become part of your whole ecosystem: they read your blog, subscribe to your YouTube channel, get your emails from your newsletter, follow you on Instagram, repin your pins on Pinterest, laugh along with your podcast, and so on and so on. You want to give them all a different experience to entice them to go deeper down the funnel and begin to trust you.
Except here’s the thing: Most people aren’t doing that.
In an ideal world, there are people who are voracious for your content and cannot get enough. In the real world, though, most people are sticking to one platform.
They might find your Instagram content intriguing so they check out your blog, or they find a recording of a podcast episode on YouTube so they head over to iTunes to check it out and subscribe, but for the most part, your followers are not becoming part of the entire ecosystem. They’re quite happy to stick to their little spot, thank you very much.
Ways to Reuse Your Content
So now that you and I have officially conceded that our thinking about needing to be original and interesting across different platforms is a waste of effort, let me talk to you a little bit about the genius behind repurposing content and why it’s a better idea than what you’ve been doing.
1. People consume content in different ways
Despite writing blogs for nearly a decade (ugh, wow) I am not a blog reader. I much prefer audio or video and will check out the occasional listicle. So if I were my ideal customer, I’ve just wasted a ton of valuable content that will never get read because that’s now how they learn. Offering the same content in different formats allows you to hit more people with the same message and get it to them in a way that makes it easy for them to digest and implement.
2. The algorithms will never be in your favor
Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, whatever. Their goal is to keep their users on the app. So they’ve all developed algorithms that show a user content they think the user will want to see, chronology be damned. Because of this, you’re fighting against a huge wall that only allows a trickle of light through. So it’s best for you to assume that your content is NOT going to be seen. Rather than being upset about this, see it as freedom! If most people are not going to see your content the first time, then that means you don’t have to keep creating new content. You can simply repurpose the same content on a cycle!
3. It takes a while for your message to stick
Consider how much shit your followers get thrown at them every day online. Ads, sales funnels, long-ass Instagram captions, whatever. The old adage was that it took 7 times for a person to see a message before they took notice. And I’m sure that number has grown due to the amount of content we see every day. Throwing up an Instagram Reel about your 3 tips for marketing isn’t going to cut it. You’re going to need to keep delivering that message over and over until it sticks, so don’t feel like you need to dilute your message with constant new content. Stick to one message and get it out there as much as you can so that it starts to get noticed.
Okay, now that we’ve seen why, let’s talk about how.
Let me start, though, with this caveat: This is my method for repurposing content across my platforms, so don’t feel like this is set in stone. Use this as a loose guide and feel free to pick and choose parts that feel good for you. Don’t feel like you need to start a podcast or YouTube channel just because it’s mentioned here. Be where your customers are.
How I Create Multiple Pieces of Content with One Post:
- Outline the thing I want to talk about – While I’ve been known to riff, it usually ends up being a hot mess of non-sequiturs, so I try to have a rough bullet point list of the message I want to convey.
- Record the audio – This is where it starts for me. But it may be different for you as I know a lot of people start with video here. This audio becomes a podcast episode.
- Transcribe the audio – This becomes a blog post
- Pull 3 quotes – This becomes Instagram content
- Pull 3 tips – This becomes Pinterest pins
- Record a video – This is where I’ll do a little more of a deep dive or expand on points from the first audio.
- Publish the video to YouTube, IGTV, and Facebook – I use InVideo to create these different formats, here’s how I do it.
- Cut short clip for Reels or TikTok
- Send out a newsletter with links and a special extra tip for subscribers only
- Collect the transcription and add it to an e-book collection of similar content – This part is new for me. But I’ve started creating anthologies of my content since I like to talk about the same stuff a lot.
The tools I use for repurposing content:
- InVideo – tutorial
- RelayThat
- TubeBuddy
- Yeti Blue Mic + QuickTime
- HappyScribe
- bCast
- Tailwind – Tutorial
- Planoly (why Planoly?) – Tutorial
- MailerLite
- Beacon
Want even more? I’ve got eight free resources I use every month to find blogging goodies or check out my guide to managing multiple blogs at once.
