3 Ways to Repurpose Blog Content and Increase Traffic

Blog posts are great.

They help you drive traffic to your site, build your brand and give your customers a ton of value.

But to dramatically grow your business, they’re just not enough.

There are millions of blog posts published every day, and getting yours to stand out all on its own is difficult.

But, that’s where repurposing content comes into the picture.

Some content marketers like the quantity approach. They like to publish hundreds of new blog posts every month, chasing all sorts of keywords in the never-ending pursuit of new traffic. They hope a little bit of everything amounts to a giant something.

I have to disagree. There are a lot of blogs that have traffic that look like this:

You can see in terms of volume, organic traffic is not bad! But, there hasn’t been much growth over the course of a few years. There are also thousands of blog posts on this site, with only a few dozen pages pulling in meaningful traffic. There are ways to be profitable blogging, but it has to help your site grow.

At the end of the day, amazing content grows your audience.

Content marketing is all about working smart, scaling your output and making your efforts count.

A single, well-written blog post can be the foundation for an entire content strategy.

Repurposing good content saves time, it’s fun and attracts new audiences to your page. There are also a few SEO benefits to it all.

Content marketing is not about quantity.

It’s about ranking first on Google because you created something so awesome-sauce that readers (old and new) love it for eternity.

Repurposing great content amplifies the reach of your content, and helps to drive traffic from numerous sources and across platforms. Meanwhile, updating older content tells Google it’s always going to stay relevant. That keeps it ranking number 1 and driving new waves of traffic every week.

How to repurpose your blog post into new, awesome content

Alright, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of this post – how to repurpose your blog post into three great pieces of engaging content.

With a clear-minded approach, and minimal effort, here are the best ways to repurpose your blog post into 7 different, engaging pieces of content:

• Infographics
• Presentations/Webinars
• Videos

To break down your blog post into different forms of content requires varying processes, and that’s what I’ll cover here.

Infographics

Infographics are content marketing powerhouse. The latest infographic stats tell us they’re not dying out. If anything, infographic design and infographic marketing are picking up steam.

So whether you want to make a timeline, or create a data visualization out of a marketing report, infographics are a great option.

And they’re easy to create.

They’re low on text and high on images, icons and color. That’s why you can’t just copy and paste your blog post into an infographic design.

First, you need an infographic outline based on your blog post. This ensures that the blog post is repackaged in a way that makes sense, is engaging and easy to read.

Here are a few basic steps to follow to create one:

1. Keep your blog post’s title and subheadings (these are the infographic’s sections)
2. Identify key takeaways for each section (1-2 sentences max)
3. Be concise, avoid lengthy paragraphs (stick to 2-3 sentences in each section).
4. Visualize as many stats and points of data as possible
5. Include links to other design examples or inspiration to help inform the design process

The outline ensures you’ve got the content neatly planned out. But what about the design?

You don’t need to be a designer yourself to create a stunning infographic.

You just need to be mindful of design best practices. Here are 5 quick design tips to keep in mind when you’re designing infographics.

Get started with a template

Don’t start from scratch! You can get started with infographic templates found online that are easy to customize. This will save you a lot of time and stress.

Use no more than 2-3 font styles

Consistent title, subheading and body fonts maintain a hierarchy of information. This makes it easy for your reader to scan and understand what they’re reading.

White space is your friend

Keep your infographic organized and clutter free. Don’t fit as much information as you can, but maintain wide margins, and keep space between visuals and text so everything is easy to read.

Follow the latest design trends

Make use of the latest graphic design trends to boost the quality of your infographic design. This will help you create some eye-catching and professional.

Optimize for mobile

Most people will land on your infographic on a mobile device. Make sure font sizes aren’t too small, or that your infographic isn’t too wide. Under 800px in width should work just fine.

And that’s all there is to it.

Presentations/webinars

At some point you might give a talk on your blog post at a conference or in a webinar or online course. Even if you’re a spectacular public speaker, you need an engaging presentation slide deck at your disposal.

When considering your presentation design, let’s talk about what to avoid first.

According to David Paradi’s annual presentation survey, here’s what annoyed audiences the most about the presentations they sat through.

• Speakers reading from slides
• Slides with numerous, lengthy sentences
• Really small text that’s hard to read

What these comments all have in common is that they’re focused on text.

If your speaking points are literally what’s on the slides, if there are way too many sentences on each slide, or the text is miniscule, you’re going to bomb.

The best way to approach presentation design is to have each slide focus on a single point, idea or emotion. Then follow up those slides with great visuals, examples, screenshots, memes and more.

This is easiest if your blog post already has tons of visuals which you can just repurpose. Although it’s just one example, I really like Seth Godin’s approach to presentation design:

Videos

Creating instructional or explanatory videos is a great way to access and engage new audiences. In this report on video marketing statistics, a majority of businesses state video marketing has the best ROI. Plus, it’s a huge boost to engagement and conversions.

Video marketing is also a great way to show up in search results!

FYI: You can actually optimize YouTube videos for SEO in order to rank and drive significant organic traffic.

Now, here are some tips to help you repurpose your blog post into a video:

• Use your post’s table of contents or headers as the guide for the video’s structure
• Use on-screen graphics and examples to clearly communicate your messages
• Make sure that everything you say is important!
• Include breaks and changes in pace to keep your audience tuned in
• Make jokes, change the inflection of your voice, and talk with your hands for a more engaging video

Finally, when it comes to video marketing, you need to do these two things (at least):

• Hook your viewers in under 10 seconds
• Have a clear call-to-action

No one will appreciate your awesome explainer video that runs 10 minutes, if it didn’t seize their attention in the first few seconds. Consider your intros when writing a blog post – they need to be direct, engaging, address a clear pain point, and be intriguing all at once. Otherwise, your reader doesn’t keep reading.

Your call-to-action is equally important. You’ve been sharing a boatload of helpful, relevant information to your viewer. You’ve primed them to consider using your tool or service. So tell them what to do next! Otherwise all that engagement fizzles out and you just missed an opportunity to get a new, happy customer.

These other types of content aren’t here to replace your blog posting. They’re going to lift up your blog content. Think of your blog content as the pillar content for these other channels. Creating infographics, hosting webinars, or sharing videos are just ways to reach newer audiences with the same message.

Experimenting with something new? Share your ideas, I’m happy to hear what you’ll be trying out next.