Content Republishing: 5 Steps to Success

If you’ve been marketing yourself online long enough, you very likely have a lot of content dating back to the start of this decade or even longer. How do you keep that stuff working hard for you and bringing you new business? With a refresh, that’s how!

Content republishing doesn’t have to be a tedious chore of simply rewriting a blog you wrote back in 2011 to appease the SEO gods. It can actually be a fun exercise, one that helps you package your message in a fresh way that connects with even more potential customers. And you might even learn something new while you’re at it.

Let’s look at the steps to help you share old content in a new way.

1. Identify content that got a good response

   Chances are, not everything you put out will be a greatest hit. But you have some gems, if you know how to find them. Dive into Google Analytics and look at what pages of your site/blog have received the most views in recent years. For content you’ve published on platforms besides your site (Facebook, Medium, industry-specific sites) jump into each platform’s insights or analytics tools (where available) to judge engagement.

2. Figure out what medium to use

   More than likely, your older content will be in text form. But c’mon, you have so many more options for repackaging it! The web is more multimedia than ever which means doing infographics, videos, podcasts, etc. should be top of mind. If you’ve been making a push into explainer videos, then repackaging an old blog as a video might be the perfect fit. If you’ve been looking for more ways to showcase visual content on your social channels, try making it into an infographic or photo album.

3. Research what’s new on the topic

   Like we said above, this whole effort is not just about rewriting what you did before. It’s about refreshing the content so it continues to be relevant for a contemporary audience. Part of that effort involves getting up to speed on new developments and changing attitudes about your topic. You might have a pretty good idea for the new direction you want to take, but spend a bit of time on Google Scholar and industry publications to make sure your take will be the most up to date.

4. Develop the content

   This can be the most fun part. Once you have a new take for what you want to say, get your marketing firm involved to develop the creative, whether it’s graphics, video, text or some combination of all those. It should go without saying, but attention spans today are even shorter than they were 7 or 8 years ago, so plan accordingly when producing updated content. We’ve found that some longer content from several years back can work better by being chunked up and serialized over, say, 3 videos for instance.

5. Launch and measure

   There are so many ways to get eyeballs on your freshened content. Roll it out on social (and spend a few dollars to you can boost it far and wide), include it in your next e-newsletter, submit it on relevant industry sites. Also think about how your online marketing can work for you offline. For instance, a doctor’s office might want to print up a few of their best infographics to have as patient takeaways, or splice together several new videos to play on their waiting room TV. Wherever you end up putting the new content, take the extra couple minutes to make sure you’ve done everything you can to track viewership, so you can judge whether this content itself will be tops on the list for further updates a few years from now.