Yes, you CAN be addicted to Netflix and STILL publish content consistently. I’m proof. 
Welcome back to the next post in my new series all about content repurposing! If you’re new to this party, you can check out my introduction to repurposing content here.
So if you haven’t noticed (and if this YouTube and blog post series isn’t a hint 
), I LOVE repurposing! It’s the perfect combination of my loves for content marketing and productivity – it makes your content work smarter, not harder.
[Tweet “Repurposing content makes your content work smarter, not harder.”]
In my first post in the series, I talked about why it rocks, a few ways to repurpose your old content right away, and ways to improve your content in the process.
I even gave ya a free worksheet for planning out your repurposing, because I am a very helpful and nice person like that.
Buttttt, I didn’t talk about one thing.
An important thing.
An “OMG, you gotta get this right or NO ICE CREAM FOR YOU,” thing.
And that, my friend, is choosing which content to repurpose in the first place. It’s just too VIP to hang out with the other topics and needed a video of its own:
So today we’re talking about identifying your best candidates for content repurposing and then figuring out what you’re gonna do with ’em! 
Choosing Which Content to Repurpose
First, let’s talk about which content to repurpose.
Now, I don’t want to overplay how important this part is, but just know that Beyonce really wants you to get this part right. She is PERSONALLY invested in your decision, so make it a good one. For her.
Because if you go on a repurposing spree with a piece of content that…oh wait…turns out to be a crappy candidate for repurposing, you just end up with a ton of sucky content that does nothing. And the whole point of this is making content MORE productive.
Don’t create a bunch of sucky content.
Don’t put that negativity out into the universe.
And if you do, don’t hold me accountable for it.
Instead, focus on the two best types of content for repurposing: your greatest hits and hidden gems.
[Tweet “When you’re repurposing content, focus on your greatest hits 
and hidden gems.
“]
Your Greatest Hits 
First up’s your greatest hits, and they’re pretty self-explanatory.
This is your absolute best content in all areas, the stuff with #allthesuccess in comments and shares and opt-ins and everything. The stuff that makes your existing audience dance in their pants, and share your stuff with the world, and become lifelong customers while they’re at it.
To find your greatest hits content, you’ll want to look at ALL of the important business metrics impacted by your content marketing – website analytics, email marketing, social media, even a sales dashboard, if you have one. Obviously, your hits will be at the top of most charts.
That’s important: your greatest hits content performs well for MOST metrics, not just one.
It doesn’t JUST drive opt-ins or JUST get shares or JUST whatever. It’s #werkin for you in several areas of the buyer’s journey, and now we’re gonna make it #werk even more.
Never forget that to be greatest hits content, it has to get results across the board.
Your Hidden Gems
The second type of content that’s so, so great for content repurposing is hidden gems. The pieces of awesome just waiting to reveal themselves.
These are blog posts or emails or other pieces of content that aren’t really doing anything for you, but you KNOW they have potential.
Really old blog posts are an AMAZING example of this.
Not the “OMG I can’t believe I put this stuff on the internet! 
” kind of old, but the stuff that needs a good refresh. It USED to be awesome, but maybe the information’s outdated or it’s just not following current best practices (because #optimization).
To find your hidden gems, go back into all those lists of content that had your greatest hits at the top…your Google Analytics, email marketing metrics, social media stats, all that jazz.
But this time, scroll down a little. Head straight to the middle of the list. Here are your hidden gems.
They’re doing okay, but need some kind of boost. Or maybe they’re at the top of one list, performing well in one area, but on the strugglebus with the rest of ’em. That sounds like content that could use a look at.
Maybe it gets traffic, but doesn’t convert. Or it converts REALLY WELL and almost everyone who reads it downloads your content upgrade, but next to no one is reading it these days.
One way or another, it’s almostttt a well-performing post, but it’s not there yet and a bit of repurposing will finish the job.
Sure, you can go back and repurpose any content that’s straight up bad, and not performing in any areas as well, but you don’t want to focus on those when you’re just getting started with repurposing. It takes a lot more strategy and a lot more work, so let’s start small. 
Once you’ve picked a greatest hit or hidden gem to repurpose, then you need to figure out WTF to do with it.
Choosing How to Repurpose It
How you repurpose any given piece of content depends on what it is, what’s working for it, and what your current marketing goals are.
For example, repurposing a greatest hit for lead generation will need a different game plan than repurposing that same content for SEO. And repurposing hidden gems for either of those goals warrants a different checklist, too. This is why it’s so complicated
It sounds complicated, but it’s not – as long as you really understand your own content and audience.
If you’re repurposing greatest hits, you might want to consider things like:
- Reformatting the blog post into a new format, like a video, podcast interview, or infographic.
- Republishing it on other blogs and websites that like syndicated content.
- Taking it on tour in a content PR campaign.
An example of a greatest hits repurposing campaign is…well…this!
Since validating “content repurposing for beginners” as a topic my audience cares about, I’ve created two videos, two blog posts on my own site, two guest posts for other people, and one Facebook Live stream.
If you’re working with a hidden gem, your time might be better spent:
- Improve and republish the blog post on your own blog again.
- Slightly shift the topic and create a “new and improved” version of the post.
- Reformat the post into BOTH a new format and a new information structure.
And example of this kind of content repurposing is some of the content I’ve created around IFTTT.
My original IFTTT tutorial, written way back in 2015, was a hidden gem: it got TONSSSS of search traffic (it even ranked above IFTTT’s own website for IFTTT-related keywords!), but wasn’t niched down enough so it didn’t convert well, and the conversions it did bring were lower quality leads.
So last year I remixed it and repurposed it into a new post, this one more specific to IFTTT recipes for online biz owners.
I was able to repurpose most of the content from the original post, but pivot and shift the audience and details. And once I knew that worked, I took it on tour with a bunch of guest posts that drill down to even more specific audiences like VAs, freelance writers, graphic designers, etc.
Deciding What to Do With the Content
Okayyyy, once you’ve picked out your content and what you’re gonna repurpose it into, it’s time to dig deep and do some analyzing.
You need to figure out what changes you’re going to make, what actual things need to get done to repurpose the content. Again, this all totally depends on what you’re repurposing and why.
For example, if you’ve decided to turn an old blog post into an automated email sequence like a welcome email series, you need to:
- Map out the actual email sequence
- Decide how you’re going to break up the content – what’s going to be in each email?
- Write all the subject lines
- Add introductions, segues, and conclusions for each individual email
- Make any other content changes
Now you see how super customized this part is to each piece of content you’re working with. You’re really picking out the strengths and weaknesses.
Then in the new content, you can amplify all the things that made the original content great, and fix (or cover up ) the weaknesses.
Do It to It
(Remember “Do It to It?!”)
Between multiple blog posts and other things hanging around your content graveyard, multiple channels to repurpose them for, and multiple ways to repurpose each piece, why are you spending so much time creating brand new content?!
You could go on a content repurposing spree and easily stop creating new content completely!
In fact, out of all the marketing experiments Buffer has tried and written about, their “30 days of no new content” case study is my favorite! 
If you’ve been creating content online for even a few months, you have tons of content at your disposal to work with. Instead of always creating new stuff, spending time to squeeze more value out of what you have!
More content with less time, and you have more time to bingewatch Parks and Rec…or so I’ve heard.
