The 2025 guide to repurposing content effectively

As marketing professionals know, content, referring to publicly shared media, is key to building brand awareness and fostering growth. To stay relevant, companies must continuously create fresh, engaging content. Although this relentless demand for new content can be a challenge for organizations, many have adopted content repurposing as an efficient way to maintain a steady stream of high-quality content, allowing them to maximize resources while expanding their reach.

What is content repurposing?

Content repurposing involves taking existing company content, such as videos, blog posts, podcasts, etc., and altering it in one or more ways to suit different marketing channels. This eliminates the need to create brand-new content for each platform or medium.  For example, a keynote speech recording from a recent company event would probably be too long to share on most social media platforms, whose users prefer shorter videos.

However, with content repurposing, that same video could be edited to suit the ideal length and style of any social media site on which the company maintains a presence.  If, on the other hand, the company needs new content for its website, the same speech could be transcribed and repurposed as a blog post. Through this approach, there is effectively no limit to how much mileage marketers can get out of any one piece of content.

Why repurpose content?

Repurposing content offers many benefits, one of the most significant being increased visibility. Companies can reach a far wider audience and diverse demographic groups by using multiple channels catering to different audiences.

Content repurposing is also useful for improving SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  Regularly updating a company’s website with both repurposed and new content enhances its search engine ranking, as search engines prioritize fresh content.

Similarly, social media algorithms are believed to boost the visibility of accounts that post often, especially if the content receives attention from other users. While being active on social media doesn’t directly influence SEO, it can drive traffic to the website, encourage social sharing, and motivate people to backlink to the site.

One other major benefit is better ROI (Return On Investment). After an initial investment in creating content, companies can adapt it into various formats at a fraction of the cost.  This extends the utility of existing content while saving money and time.

How to repurpose content effectively

Effective repurposing requires a good understanding of each channel used as well as the audience segments being targeted.  This is because different platforms have their own requirements and expectations regarding content.

For these reasons, repurposed content needs to be geared towards the target audience’s preferences, while adhering to the platform’s standards where those particular people consume their content.  It may sometimes take creativity and innovative thinking to convert media into just the right length, format, specifications, tone, etc., but this effort pays off when the repurposed content effectively engages with its intended audience.

Best practices for repurposing video content

Update – Always make sure that any new content has the most up-to-date information.  If the original video contains time-sensitive details, such as event announcements or product launches which are no longer relevant, that information needs to be removed or else the content should not be reused.

Be selective – Rather than repurposing every video for every channel available, it is better to focus on those channels where your organization is already receiving active engagement, or where you are currently focusing on building an audience.  This will allow your repurposed content to reach your target audience most efficiently.

Measure performance – Set clear goals, then monitor the performance of repurposed content to figure out what works and what doesn’t.  Use analytics tools such as Instagram Insights, LinkedIn Analytics, and Google Analytics to track engagement and other metrics.  This data can be used to optimize content repurposing strategies to best achieve the organization’s marketing goals.

FAQ

What is the difference between reposting and repurposing content?

Repurposing involves altering an existing piece of content to create one or more new pieces of content. The alteration could be in the format, length, style, etc., but will always result in new content that is different from the original.  Reposting is taking the same original content in its original form and sharing it again in the same place. (Cross-posting would be duplicating it across multiple channels.)  Reposting may be useful under certain circumstances, such as when it is necessary to remind people about a time-sensitive matter, or when there is important information that needs to reach as many people as possible, however, most marketers believe that repurposed content is more engaging for users than reposted or cross-posted content.

How do you decide which content to repurpose?

Start by evaluating your existing content library for assets that are likely to perform well in alternative forms.  These could be videos that have received a lot of views, blog posts that brought good traffic to the site, and any sort of evergreen or seasonal content where the information remains pertinent.  With certain media, such as video, analytics can reveal which segments were most engaging, such as those with repeat views, making it easy to identify parts that should be repurposed as shorter clips.  Seasonal content, such as that which is tied to a specific recurring event or time of year can be updated and reused each time it becomes relevant again. When in doubt, consider the overall goals of the company and repurpose whichever existing content is most likely to help further those goals.

How do you repurpose content on Instagram?

Instagram is a great place for repurposing content, especially video content, due to its popularity and emphasis on visuals, as well as the versatility in the type of content it supports.  Clips of 90 seconds or less cut out of longer videos can be posted to Reels, where they will appear on users’ Explore Page.  Videos of around 15 seconds in length are perfect for Instagram Stories and longer content of up to 60 minutes like webinars can be uploaded as Instagram Feed Videos.  However, the hour maximum is likely too long for Instagram, remember that the content needs to be suitable for the expectations of the platform.  (YouTube and Vimeo are currently the go-to destinations on the web for longer user-generated content.) Other features that marketers can use for repurposing include Carousel, Remix, and Sequence, and Instagram continues to introduce new options.

How long should you wait before repurposing content?

It depends.  There is no set amount of time that marketers need to wait before repurposing.  For time-sensitive materials, or when it is a priority to get certain information out, content should be repurposed immediately and spread across all relevant channels.  Less urgent content can be spaced out over the course of a marketing campaign. A good practice is to create a posting schedule so that there is constantly new and repurposed content being put out.  This could be planned weeks or months in advance and will help to decide how long to wait before repurposing.

Meet Kaltura – the #1 video content management system

Kaltura provides powerful media management tools that simplify the creation, storage, and repurposing of content of any size and format. With Kaltura, all the media is in one place, easily searchable, and accessible by all members of the team. Editing tools allow marketers to transform their media however they choose, including a video trimming option that makes it easy to create clips from longer content.  The system offers stringent security to protect the confidentiality of media and is compatible with all distribution partners and syndicates, so once ready, content can be published with just one click.

Final Thoughts

Content creation is a crucial yet demanding aspect of digital marketing.  Repurposing has emerged as an efficient way to deliver high value content via multiple channels while saving valuable time and resources.  With the right tools and strategies, organizations can streamline their content management and stay steps ahead in the competitive digital landscape of 2024.