Recycling content is the most sustainable way to approach your content marketing strategy. Not to mention that anywhere from 60-80% of your audience didn't catch your content on the first go around. Repurposing content can help you increase brand awareness, grow your audience, and get the most bang for your content buck. Not convinced? Talk to the 94% of marketers who repurpose their content. Content is king, so understanding the art of republishing and revitalizing historical content can be a potential goldmine.
Simply put, historical content refers to any content that was published previously. There’s no limit, so it could’ve been created 100 years ago or a week ago. Historical content comes in different shapes and sizes, including - but not limited to - blog posts, articles, videos, social media posts, and infographics. Historical content can be categorized into two primary types, evergreen content and time-sensitive content.
This type of historical content stays relevant and valuable over a long period. Evergreen content covers topics that are seen as timeless within a specific niche. This type of content is a staple for marketers because it just needs a little watering to keep growing. It doesn't become outdated quickly and continues to attract and engage audiences over time.
Businesses of all kinds can benefit from investing extra time and money into creating evergreen content. Original research and data-driven posts are game-changers for evergreen content. Other topics that stay young for a while are how-to, best practices, new client questions, and industry history content. Case studies are our favorite because they help show off the caliber of work you do by promoting authentic examples, so you can pull new audiences into your circle.
Time-sensitive content is on the other end of the spectrum. This type of content is tied to a specific time, event, or trend. These topics tend to shine bright and burn quickly. While the content may have been right on the money when first published, its value dims as time passes. Time-sensitive content often requires updates or may become less relevant after the trend it covers starts to fade.
Time-sensitive content also encompasses ephemeral content. Ephemeral content is only accessible for a certain period, the only example is social media stories. Time-sensitive content gives your audience the raw content experience they crave, amidst over-polished content. Showcasing your personality through keeping up with trends keeps your business seen as a fresh source, instilling trust in your business.
Historical content can be repurposed, re-optimized, and republished to extend its lifespan and value. Content creators often revisit historical content to update information, refresh the design, add new insights, or adapt it to current trends. This practice is sometimes also referred to as content recycling, content repurposing, or content revitalization. To make sure your content hits the bullseye with your audience, it’s important to think about the extended value of your upcycled content. Refreshing your old, but gold, content allows you to keep your audience coming back for more. From evergreen classics to time-sensitive gems, here are the keys to unlocking the potential of your existing content gallery.
Well-crafted content is informative and valuable for your intended audience. Double-check for any grammatical issues, lack of clarity, and outdated information. The more readable an article is, the more likely it is to perform well. Only 17% of high-performing blogs were found to be very difficult to read. Revise and edit your content until it meets your quality standards. Be thorough, leave no stone unturned, and make sure you've covered all your bases. This approach provides a well-rounded experience, leaving readers satisfied.
Quick Tips: After finishing your first draft, take a break to distance yourself from the content. Then, come back to it with fresh eyes. Use tools like Grammarly to correct writing errors. Reading your content aloud can help you fix awkward and unclear phrasing. Consider asking a second pair of eyes to proofread your draft, because they might spot mistakes or perspectives you might have missed.
Evaluate the relevance of your content in the current context. Determine if the topic is still relevant and aligns with your audience's interests. If the content is outdated, get creative and repurpose it before republishing.
Quick Tips: Regularly evaluate your content's relevance by considering the current trends, industry developments, and audience interests. Look at social media discussions, industry updates, and audience feedback to determine what topics are currently relevant for your business. Google Trends is a great place to start identifying trending topics related to your niche.
Quick Tips: Engage with your audience through surveys, comments, and social media interactions to gain a more in-depth understanding, while also analyzing your website analytics to see which topics generate the most engagement and traffic. Understanding your audience's evolving needs and preferences helps you provide content experience they’ll never forget. High levels of engagement imply that your content was a hit with your audience and has republishing potential. Once you have your baseline, you can adapt your content to focus on these interests.
Optimize your content for search engines by incorporating relevant keywords, meta tags, and descriptive headings. Ensure your content follows current SEO best practices to increase visibility and organic reach. Including relevant keywords in your content helps search engines understand what your content is about. When users search for those keywords, your content is more likely to appear in search results, increasing your likelihood of organic traffic. Meta tags, including meta titles and meta descriptions, provide the simple elements of your content to both search engines and your audience. Your headings are also important in providing a reader-friendly experience for your audience and search engines. Search engines hold a lot of stock in clear and descriptive headings because they provide insight into the structure and overall relevance of your content.
Quick Tips: Conduct keyword research to identify new keywords and search queries related to your topic. Optimize your repurposed content with these keywords to improve its visibility in search engines and make it more relevant to current search trends. Make sure your meta descriptions are informative, providing a simple summary of what to expect. Remember that keeping meta tags concise and engaging attracts clicks. Use heading styles (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content logically. Naturally incorporating keywords into headings will help you get some bonus points with SEO, but it’s crucial that every heading provides a clear idea of the content within it. SEO is a fast-paced environment, so stay updated on SEO trends and algorithm changes. Focus on factors like mobile-friendliness, page load speed, secure connections, and user experience to align with current SEO best practices.
Consider if there are any updates you can make to the original content to make it even more valuable. Adding new information, incorporating visual elements, or providing additional resources are all interactive ways to level up your content.
Quick Tips: Just like plants, content doesn’t grow unless you water it. Take evergreen content and update it with fresh statistics, examples, and insights. Mention that the content has been updated to reflect current information. This can help maintain its relevance without starting from scratch. Dive deeper into specific topics, providing more comprehensive explanations, case studies, or real examples to offer readers a more vibrant understanding of the content.
Align your decision to republish with your overall content strategy. Think about the way your republished content fits within your content schedule and campaigns. Republishing content works best when it complements your existing content and contributes to the bigger picture of your marketing strategy.
Quick Tips: Continuously look to your audience for feedback regarding the relevance and quality of your content. This feedback loop will help you make ongoing improvements to your content strategy. Your republishing efforts should serve a purpose, from reinforcing key messages, addressing content gaps, or supporting ongoing campaigns. With this being said, it’s crucial to stay consistent in voice, tone, and messaging between your republished content and the rest of your content.
What channels are you planning on using to republish your content? When you ask yourself this, pay attention to how the content aligns with the platform's audience. Tailor your content to fit the specific style of each distribution channel. Adapting your content to fit every channel's distinctive guidelines boosts the likelihood of successfully reaching and engaging with your target audience. This means that the same piece of content may need to be adjusted for different channels to elevate its potential impact.
Quick Tips: Whether you're republishing on your website, social media, email, video, paid advertising, guest posts, or through influencers, customization to suit each platform is key to success. When you create unique content experiences, you can reach a wider audience. With this being said, match the design and layout of your content to your overall aesthetics. Keep navigation easy, headings clear, and branding elements consistent across platforms.
The most important thing when it comes to the timing of your republishing efforts is making sure you don’t exhaust your audience with repetitive content. Space out your republished posts strategically to keep them interested. It’s worth acknowledging that your entire audience base probably didn’t see your content the first time, so you can tailor republishing to different segments.
Quick Tips: Use audience segmentation to identify which segments have interacted with the content before and which haven't. Then, adjust the timing of republished posts to reach both new and returning readers. One way to make this easier is to create a content calendar that includes republished content alongside new material. Find a healthy balance of fresh and repurposed content to keep your audience engaged while delivering consistent value.
Thinking about these elements of your content helps you make sound decisions about republishing. Remember to keep your audience in mind, so you can be sure to engage them with valuable content. Repurposing historical content is an effective way to maintain a consistent brand image, improve SEO, and guarantee that influential material doesn't get buried in the depths of your platform archives. Get the best return on your content by leveraging your content’s capital, while keeping it relevant to your audience in the present.