How to Create a Content Repurposing Workflow to Boost Your Reach

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Strategic content marketing is king these days, and that means a lot of your energy as a business owner is dedicated to content creation. But just because it’s important doesn’t mean it should consume all your effort. When you use a content repurposing workflow, you can spend a little less time creating content and a little more time planning for the future of your business.

The word “repurpose” gets a lot of visibility these days, but it’s still an underutilized strategy. When we talk about a content repurposing workflow, we mean more than just haphazardly reposting blog posts and podcasts.

First off, let’s define repurpose, as we’ll talk about it in this post. When we say “repurpose” we really are talking about two things:

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Dusting off old content and breathing new life into it.

This kind of repurposing is about lifting up something you’ve created in the past, rather than creating something new from scratch (for example, with fresh data or a new angle—like this post on why we closed our Facebook Group, which we updated with our current perspective almost 4 years later).

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Broadening the ways in which content reaches the audience.

A single piece of content can easily become dozens of pieces of content, when you take pieces and adjust them for new platforms. For example, you can take a single podcast interview and turn it into a blog post, use pull quotes for social media, add add video components, and turn it into an email sequence.

Every piece of content you create should be backed by intention, and that includes repurposed content. Developing a system that helps you choose, rework, and evaluate the performance of repurposed content efficiently and intentionally is key to earning back your time and boosting your reach.

The Benefits of Developing a Content Repurposing Workflow

There are countless benefits to creating a system for repurposing content within your business (beyond the fact that workflows are always a good idea):

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Enhances your reach.

Systematically repurposing your content is a sure-fire way to deliver your message to diverse audiences. By posting content to different platforms and through different mediums, you have a greater chance of connecting with new people in new ways.

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Helps you work smarter, not harder.

Workflows of any kind are a great way to keep things organized and efficient. But developing a system for repurposing content is also a great way to fill up your content calendar and reuse content in different parts of your marketing funnel, which can be a HUGE time-saver and stress-reliever for business owners.

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Increases your ROI.

When you’re constantly creating new content, you’re limited in potential returns. But with a content repurposing workflow, you can consistently maximize the impact of the content you already have with a fraction of the effort it takes to create from scratch.

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Improves your SEO.

Having a system for repurposing content will lead to multiple pieces of content with related keywords and backlinks. This shows Google that you’re an authority on the topic and can help draw traffic to your website.

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Boosts well-performing content.

When your content performs well, you want to milk it for all it’s worth. A content repurposing workflow can help you make a habit out of reintroducing the content your audience is already excited about in innovative ways.

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Gives under-performing content a second chance.

Not every piece of content can knock it out of the park. By making a point to rework pieces that didn’t do too well after their first debut, you can give them another chance and potentially see better results.

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Reinforces your message.

A good content repurposing workflow can be a great ally in increasing brand awareness and reinforcing your message—after all, common marketing wisdom states that it takes up to seven times of seeing the same message for it to completely sink in.

While this isn’t an exhaustive list, it should give you a clear idea of why you should develop your own content repurposing workflow, if you haven’t already.

But what should that workflow look like, and how can you develop it in a way that maximizes the potential of your repurposed content (without adding to your already mile-high to-do list)?

A daunting stack of papers and notebooks.

THE IDEAL CONTENT REPURPOSING WORKFLOW

No business is the same, which means that any system you develop may look slightly different from those used by other companies. That said, there are certain components to an effective content repurposing workflow that you should be sure to include when creating your own.

1. TAKE INVENTORY OF YOUR EXISTING CONTENT

You can’t very well decide on which content to repurpose if you aren’t sure of what you’ve created in the first place. It’s all too common for content to gather dust, forgotten and abandoned.

There’s a good chance you have some gems hidden in your archives, so if keeping inventory of your content isn’t a practice you’ve already implemented, now is a good time to start!

When creating an inventory of your existing content, don’t just list the links to all your posts. It’s a good idea to include additional information like publication or send date, title (if any), pillar topic, and CTA (among others).

If you don’t already have a means of keeping track of your content, our Content Inventory Spreadsheet can help you do all of this and more.

An image of a laptop with a multi-colored Content Inventory Spreadsheet on its display.

GET THE SPREADSHEET

2. IDENTIFY THE CONTENT YOU WANT TO REPURPOSE

Once you’ve taken inventory of all your existing content, the next step is to identify which pieces to rework or recycle. There are a few things to consider when deciding what content is best suited for repurposing:

What’s your pillar content? Although any piece of content can be repurposed, a good place to start is your pillar content. This is your most comprehensive and informative content, so it’s the best source to pull from to repurpose and share with a broader audience.

What’s your primary watering hole? It’s helpful to have the same 1–2 starting places for content generation. Where do you easily generate the most content? For example, if you generate content through podcast episodes, your uplift & repurpose plan should take that into account as the origin point.

Which content has performed the best, historically? Content that’s already performing well is what’s engaging your audience the most, making it another great source for potential repurposing. Use any available data to decide which pieces deserve renewed attention.

What are your goals? All content should be created with intention. Don’t just repurpose content for the sake of repurposing it—choose pieces that can be reworked to help you achieve your content goals, such as growing your email list or increasing launch conversions.

In general, it’s a good idea to avoid inundating your audience with too much content, so be intentional about what you choose. Make sure it aligns with your brand message and your business goals.

3. GET ORGANIZED USING A CONTENT CALENDAR

The main goal behind developing a content repurposing workflow is optimizing your overall content strategy. This means repurposing with intention, and making sure the content you update and re-release helps get you closer to your ultimate business objectives.

Creating a content calendar or publishing schedule, will help you organize which content you’re posting, where you’re posting it, when you’re posting it, and why. (Don’t forget those goals!)

A content calendar can also help you be strategic about posting new vs. repurposed content. Alternating between the two can save you time and energy. But… as you make decisions and proceed with your plan, make sure to look out for duplicate content, which can affect your search rankings and potentially harm the user experience.

An image of paperclips, neatly organized, against a blue and yellow background.

4. TRACK HOW YOUR CONTENT PERFORMS

Here at North Star, we’re all about data-driven results, so we recommend that you always track how your content is performing—both new and repurposed. Tracking the performance metrics of new content will help you decide what to repurpose, and tracking the metrics of repurposed content will help you optimize your strategy moving forward.

Which metrics you track will depend on the specific content, but common indicators include conversions, open rates, click-through rates, engagement (in the form of likes, comments, and shares), downloads, and page visits. Whatever you choose, make sure you’re monitoring those metrics on a monthly or quarterly basis.

5. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR OPPORTUNITIES

One of the best ways to decide which content to repurpose is to plan ahead. As you create new content, brainstorm ways you could rework it for different platforms and audiences. This strategy is not only efficient, but will help you stay aligned with your content goals.

IDEAS FOR REPURPOSING CONTENT

To give you a leg up on the brainstorming process, here are some ideas for how to repurpose your existing content based on different origin points.

REPURPOSING FROM BLOG CONTENT

Update a historically popular post with new data and/or a new angle.
Pare the post down to the best bits and turn it into an infographic for social media.
Turn it into a script for a podcast episode.
Combine multiple posts into an ebook.
Transform your post into a video guide for various video platforms like YouTube Instagram Reels, and TikTok.
Extract thought-leadership quotes to use on your social media platforms.

REPURPOSING FROM PODCAST CONTENT

Create audiograms out of the best snippets and post to social media.
Transcribe and turn the podcast into a blog post.
Break the content of the podcast down into an email series you send your list.
Pull out thought-provoking quotes to use on your social media platforms.
Edit video footage (if available) and post to Youtube.

REPURPOSING FROM EMAIL CONTENT

Expand on a popular email (or series of emails) by turning it into a blog post.
Elaborate on email topics in a podcast episode.
Take bite-size quotes from the email and add them to your social media platforms

REPURPOSING FROM WEBINAR CONTENT

Create text transcripts for accessibility
Turn the text transcript into a blog post
Transform the webinar into a podcast episode
Turn key ideas into a blog series

REPURPOSING CONTENT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

Use high-quality, branded images as post backgrounds
Extract quotes from user-generated content like review and testimonials

START OFF YOUR WORKFLOW STRONG

An effective content repurposing workflow begins with knowing what content you have to work with. Our Content Inventory Spreadsheet can help you keep track of all your existing content, so when it comes to choosing what to repurpose, you have all the information you need to build a strategy that works.

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