8 ways to reinvent old blog content

You take the time to create amazing blog content, but what happens a year down the line? You keep churning out content, and that amazing blog content you created last year is completely buried under a year’s worth of content. Am I wrong? When was the last time you promoted a blog from a year ago?

You want to make the most of the blog content you are writing, so that will involve revisiting and re-purposing your content in creative ways to make old content new again. Maybe you are skeptical of reusing old content, but if you think about it, re-purposing your content in different ways can be great for your blog strategy. You don’t always have time to write and this will allow you to pull from topics and content that was successful in the past. Why reinvent the wheel if you have perfectly good content that is being underutilized? Not only that, revisiting a topic you have already written about will allow you to reinforce your message with your readers. You already know that people need to hear something seven times before it sticks. So you are just working towards a goal of being memorable.

Here are eight ways to reinvent your old blog content without just re-blogging or re-sharing generic posts on social media.

CREATE GRAPHICS TO SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

A great way to renew interest in older blog posts is to take quotes and tips from your blog and create graphics to share on social media. Depending on the blog you can have multiple graphics to share, contributing to your social media content strategy. For example, if you have a blog with 10 tips, turn each of those tips into a graphic. Focusing on older blog posts will drive traffic to work you have done in the past (if it is worthy of another read!).

If you are looking for images to use as a background for your text, check out www.gratisography.com and www.pexels.com for amazing royalty-free images. (It is important that you use royalty-free images so you don’t infringe on any copyright laws.)

GET MORE SPECIFIC

Figure out what blogs were most popular and re-purpose them into industry-specific topics. This works especially well if you work with multiple industries and you know the topic can address a specific pain point. Include case studies and other examples while referring to industry-specific statistics. This will help you add value to a topic that was already popular.

PROMOTE YOUR BLOG INTERNALLY

When writing your new blogs, be sure to link back to relevant topics you have written about before. You have heard the expression “down the rabbit hole” when it comes to internet reading? It means that you keep clicking on new and interesting links when you see them, and before you know it, it has been an hour and you have just been reading. When you link internally to your website, you are creating a guided rabbit hole for your readers to go down while staying on your website.

START GUEST BLOGGING/WRITING

While many outlets require you to submit exclusive content (never published elsewhere), there are outlets that will allow you to republish content that has been published on your blog. You can either choose to submit your article verbatim, or you can rewrite the article so it uses the same topic, but offers a fresh take.

Figure out what your target outlets are and look at their submission guidelines to determine which route you should take.

BREAK UP YOUR TOPIC

Blog articles can be super detailed, but they can also be lighter pieces of content (like a listicle) that offer different ideas. To extend the life of a topic, break it into smaller chunks and do a more in depth look at each topic. For example, if you posted a listicle, you could potentially use each point as a blog topic.

BUILD AN INFOGRAPHIC

Infographics are a great way to add visual interest to any blog topic. Create a roadmap to a previous blog post, by breathing new visual life into it. It is also a great “excuse” to update any outdated statistics – or add them if you haven’t previously done so.

Some great (and free!) tools to use to create an infographic are Canva and Easel.ly.

RECORD A VIDEO OR AUDIO VERSION

Sometimes you just don’t want to read content. Recording a video or audio version of your blog allows for renewed sharing on social media, but it also gives people options when it comes to interacting with your best content.

While it can be tempting to go for the best quality, there are a lot of lower-cost options out there for you to take advantage of. In fact, many of them only require your smart phone and a well-lit room!

CREATE AN EBOOK

Ebooks provide great incentive to sign up for a mailing list or provide value to existing clients and prospects. They help to solidify your standing as an expert as they are a professional way to lay out your knowledge in easily readable PDFs.

Pull one or two of your best blogs together for an irresistible piece of content. Adding a few statistics to make the content more timely will not only add value for the reader, but it shows you are tapped in to what is going on in the industry.

If you need help building a strategy to make the most of your blog content, be sure to give us a call!