Content marketing is demanding—but it doesn’t have to be. This year, I’ve optimized my content marketing strategy, have fully embraced repurposing content and I want to show you how to do the same.
While it took me a few months to set up the perfect content repurposing tool—yes, it’s perfect—I feel more confident than ever in my content strategy framework for my small but mighty business.
Let this blog be your guide to repurposing content, optimizing your content strategy, maximizing your time, and improving your conversions as a result.
CONTENTS
LET THE LIFESPAN OF YOUR CONTENT INFLUENCE YOUR CONTENT REPURPOSING STRATEGY
As a creative entrepreneur, I’ve always been drawn to Instagram for marketing because of its visual nature. But the amount of time that’s required for curating quality content, making sure it stands out enough to stop someone’s scroll, only to have it be seen by a very small segment of my followers… I had to ask myself: why?
Why am I spending so much of my valuable time towards a platform that doesn’t give me much of a return on investment?
There are many other social media platforms and content marketing channels that will perform better for my business goals.
To shed some light on this, here’s the most up-to-date source for the lifespan of content for some of these content marketing channels.
So the question remains: why are so many of us prioritizing the platforms with the shortest shelf-life?
WHY YOUR EMAIL MARKETING LIST REFLECTS THE HEALTH OF YOUR BUSINESS
Jenna Kutcher has been advocating for email list building for years. She frequently says on her Goal Digger Podcast that “the health of my business is dependent on one main channel: my email list.”
Why?
Because the people who willingly give you their email address are genuinely invested in something your business can do for them. You get to communicate with them directly instead of competing for attention on social platforms. Beyond that, you can easily monitor:
who’s reading and engaged with your content
what content performs best based on open rates and click-through-rates
what segments of your list are your biggest traffic generators
If you’re new to email marketing, I highly recommend Flodesk as an email marketing provider. Flodesk University is a wonderful resource for those who are beginners and they make setting up email workflows and design beautiful emails so easy. Use this link to get 50% off your first year!
THE KEY TO SUCCESS WITH EMAIL MARKETING
You and I both know there’s a fine line between keeping subscribers and losing them. Too many emails and too much self-promotion won’t keep your subscribers on your list for long.
So when it comes to your email marketing, use this 80/20 rule.
For every four emails you send out, three should be helping or solving your audience’s problems. One should be selling your product or service. Using this 80/20 rule, your subscribers will come to expect high-value from your emails, you’ll earn their trust and they’ll actually look forward to opening your emails.
Here’s how you can apply the 80/20 rule for your email nurture sequence:
Emails 1-3: Present a problem they have then offer a solution that they can apply on their own.
Email 4: Present a problem they have then tell them how your product or service is able to solve that problem for them.
Repeat this sequence and feel free to sprinkle a few PS. addendums that gently mention your offers in emails one through three.
MY CONTENT STRATEGY FRAMEWORK
As a brand strategist and designer, my go-to social media channels are Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Facebook. For my content marketing strategy overall, I also use blogging (like this) and email marketing. These are the channels I focus my content strategy framework around. Yours may look different and that’s to be expected. Every business is unique.
Allow me to highlight the benefits of some of these platforms and their unique types of content.
Carousel Posts: Instagram carousel posts are great for engagement because they keep your audience on your content longer. This is a great way to offer high-value content, tell a story, and earn saves.
Reels: Love them or hate them, they have the ability to extend your reach to new audiences. The shorter the better. Personally, I do a mix of trending audio reels, direct-to-camera educational reels, and visual brand content (I’m a brand designer after all).
Stories: Story content is a great way to connect with your audience and establish that know, like, and trust factor. Don’t overthink this content, just be you; show what you’re working on; or use their engagement stickers. I do a mix of direct-to-camera chats with my audience and graphic story sequences. Kind of like a carousel post but in story format.
Admittedly, I don’t tailor much content to Facebook but rather just re-share the same content from Instagram on Facebook. Facebook’s Meta Business Suite makes it super easy to schedule and post content to both platforms at once. If it required any more effort, I would probably skip Facebook altogether.
BLOGGING
Blogging is the best way to increase organic traffic to your website. It has a very long lifespan and becomes a resource library for your ideal customers and clients. To truly benefit from blogging, it’s best to adopt some SEO best practices. Fear not, you can learn how to write blog content with keywords for SEO in this blog post.
Believe it or not, LinkedIn is becoming a popular spot for small business growth. What I love most about LinkedIn is that it’s low maintenance compared to other social platforms. No feed curation, just content and connection. Plus, you can easily be discovered by new people when your connects like or comment on your content.
Pinterest is a search engine like Google and, as we learned above, allows your content to exist for months instead of hours. It requires some patience but stick with it. I only post semi-regularly and Pinterest is my third biggest website traffic source after organic and direct traffic.
EMAIL MARKETING
You already know why I love email marketing. Remember to use the 80/20 rule and focus on valuable content. Keep consistent but don’t overdo it.
THE CONTENT MARKETING PLANNER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
My new content repurposing workflow saves me so much time when it comes to content creation and ideation. The template I created in Notion allows me to bank all of my content ideas and repurpose content across multiple channels and formats.
The Content Marketing Planner will be your lifesaver when it comes to planning, organizing, and repurposing your content strategically and efficiently. Let me show you how it works.
USING THE CONTENT MARKETING PLANNER
For each new content idea you have, the Content Repurposing Tracker auto-populates everything you need to repurpose that content idea into:
a Blog Post (I’m writing this very blog inside it now)
an Instagram Reel
an Instagram Story
a Carousel Post
a Regular Post
a LinkedIn Post
an Email
Pinterest Pins
Press play on the video below to see the content breakdown template for your content ideas.
This shows you the breakdown of details each one includes to ensure you are optimizing your content. Keep in mind, this Notion template is fully customizable to match your unique content marketing strategy.
The reason this content repurposing strategy works so well—and why I’m obsessed with it—is because you can house all of your written content, images, videos and links in one central space for each idea.
For each content idea you add to your Content Repurposing Tracker, you can easily copy and paste snippets from past captions, blog posts, or emails and repurpose it into another form of content all within the same window.
You save SO much time sourcing your previous post or trying to remember the beautifully written content you already wrote around any one idea.
HOW TO STAY ORGANIZED WHEN REPURPOSING CONTENT
The Content Repurposing Tracker inside the Content Marketing Planner allows you to track how you’ve repurposed each content idea while you queue up how you’d like that idea to be created next.
You can view your content ideas bank anyway you like. I default to have mine set to display “Up Next As” columns so I know which content ideas I want to repurpose next as I plan my upcoming content calendar.
PLANNING YOUR CONTENT TO BEST SERVE YOUR AUDIENCE
One of my favourite elements of the Content Marketing Planner is the Content Funnel Navigator to make sure you’re always serving up content for people at different phases of your content marketing funnel.
This is where you’ll create a list of content ideas for each of the four phases of your content marketing funnel: awareness, interest, consideration, and decision. Regularly refer to your Content Funnel Navigator to ensure you’re able to actively move followers closer to buying from you.
Can’t you see why I’m obsessed with this repurposing tool?
MY FAVOURITE CONTENT REPURPOSING EXAMPLES
Before we wrap up, there are a few types of content that are just oh, so easy to repurpose. I want to share with you my favourite.
REPURPOSING INSTAGRAM REELS AND STORIES TO PINTEREST
Fun fact: the proportions for Instagram reels and stories (1080x1920 pixels) are ideal for Pinterest content. Download all of your posted reels to your phone and repost as an Idea Pin on Pinterest.
The same is true for Instagram story content. If you’re like me and like to post graphic story sequence, repurpose those stories on Pinterest either as an Idea Pin or a Pinterest Carousel.
Here’s an example of a story turned Pinterest Carousel I did.
Oh, and don’t forget your Reel cover photo. If you design a cover image for your reels, repurpose that content as a simple Pinterest Pin.
5 WAYS TO REPURPOSE INSTAGRAM CAROUSEL POSTS
The easiest way to repurpose a carousel post is to export your post graphics as a PDF and upload as a document on LinkedIn.
Create the same carousel sequence on posts formatted for stories (1080x1920px).
Repurpose that same story sequence as a Pinterest carousel post or Idea Pin.
Adapt your carousel post content into an email.
Use the content from your carousel post to create a face-to-camera reel like this one.
REPURPOSING BLOG POSTS TO ALL YOUR CONTENT CHANNELS
Because blogs are long-form content, there are so many ways to repurpose them to just about every channel.
Highlight a section and use as a carousel post.
Create a story series throughout the week with each day focusing on a different section.
Republish your blog as an article on LinkedIn.
If you’d prefer to direct traffic to your website, share the link to your blog on LinkedIn and adapt the intro of your blog as the caption to hook them in.
Share your blog post in an email by:
highlighting the most important part of your blog and have them read the rest on the blog
writing a shorter iteration of your blog focusing on the key points
adapt the intro of your blog as the hook of your email and feature the blog as the CTA
Create Pinterest Pins for your blog. I recommend creating a few templates for ease of repurposing:
simple design with blog title, cover image, and topics covered
create an infographic highlighting key points
a quote from the blog post
Repurposing content is the best way to maximize your time and leverage your greatest ideas to reach more people. Not every future customer will be on Instagram or end up on your blog. But chances are they’re active on at least one of the many content channels we covered here.
As you embark on developing and optimizing your own content marketing strategy, remember to be clear on your goals as a business. Keep an eye on how your content is performing and adjust as you go. Make the entire process fool-proof with the Content Marketing Planner.
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Jenny Henderson Studio is a branding studio that increases memorability, connection and performance for service-based solopreneurs using strategic simplification and design.