Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog

Content Re-Packaging 101: The Benefits and Tactics

Content re-packaging is one of the most powerful (and productive!) content marketing tactics. The term might not sound that good; it may bring to mind rewriters and article spinners unleashing low quality articles onto the web – but nothing could be further from the reality. My definition:

Content re-packaging is about expanding your initial research by creating different types of content pieces (videos, images, presentations) that opens up various opportunities of additional exposure (video and photo user-generated communities, presentation-sharing sites as well as iTunes, Amazon, etc).

Content Re-Packaging Versus Rewriting

This is pretty simple:

  • Content rewriting is about saying the same thing but in different words (very often the original piece should not even be written by the re-writer).
  • Content re-packaging means turning your own article into a new (media) format which essentially means changing the “package” allowing for more content opportunities.
Content rewriting Content re-packaging

Uses your own content

 Not always (sadly) Yes

Creates a new format of content

 No Yes

Allows for more promotion opps

 No Yes

Adds value to the web

 No Yes

(A good example of content repackaging would be me taking the chart above, designing a nice layout and re-using it as an image / cheatsheet in a guest post about “How to stop rewriting and start adding value to the web” guest post on some powerful blog that would reference this article as a source of the chart).

re-packageTypes of content re-packaging

Content re-packaging is one of my #beeverywhere strategy (= managing to be around the web while staying productive) I’ve been using for ages. Here are a few types of re-packaging:

Images

  • Additional marketing opportunities: Pinterest, Facebook, reddit.com/infographics, more
  • Additional value to your brand: More visual context around your brand

We now have a social web that is dependent in many ways on visual content. People are more likely to share photos, and we even have Pinterest leading the way in image based social networking. Turning content into images is a great way to both freshen it up and give it a boost on the social web.

Images with captions and a link to the post are perfect for Pinterest and Facebook, for example. New images representing those posts are great for Twitter. Then there are the holy grail of online images: the infographic. These puppies have become extremely popular, and people routinely share them with others. You can pack a lot of data into an infographic, and the more informative it is the more likely it is to go viral. Everyone should be adding infographics to their usual output on a regular basis.

Ebooks

  • Additional marketing opportunities: Amazon (free Kindle books), iBooks, etc
  • Additional value to your brand: The ability for your users to take your brand offline (when traveling, for example)

It has become very useful to offer free ebooks on your website, including those that can be “bought” with a tweet or share. A quick way to create an ebook is by taking old posts from your blog and turning them into chapters. My personal recommendation is to turn “series” into digital books to make them more topical.

Apps like Zinepal and EbookGlue make it easy to do this. Just make sure you properly edit it into a book format, including a table of contents section and page numbers.

Videos

  • Additional marketing opportunities: Youtube (and other video sharing sites) + A comparatively easy way to rank in search (Google gives a lot of love to Youtube videos)
  • Additional value to your brand: The ability to keep user longer on the site; more branding opportunities

Oh, videos…it is so easy to waste an entire day on YouTube, isn’t it? It is time to tap into that widely held addiction and make your own. These don’t have to be very sophisticated. It can be as simple as running a tutorial with visuals, or even just a slideshow with a voice over.

It is less about being fancy and flashy, and more about offering up that information in a more easily digestible, original way. One of my favorite examples is someone who takes popular CreepyPasta stories and reads them out for people on YouTube. These get a ton of views, despite the content being available elsewhere. That is the power of re-packaging something into a video.

Podcasts

  • Additional marketing opportunities: iTunes
  • Additional value to your brand: The ability for your users to take your brand offline (when traveling, for example. Who doesn’t like listening to something while on the beach?)

Podcasts are becoming a more standard form of media on blogs these days. A lot of people will automatically record them reading out their content and post it along with the original for people to have multiple ways of keeping up with content. Personally, I think these are a great way to engage with your audience. However, they can be a bit time consuming to create. Make sure you have the best possible tools to make the process simpler.

Here are a couple of ideas for both videos and podcasts:

  • Interviews – Sometimes there is a topic that is ripe for discussion that you have written about in the past. Those make great interviews, which you can directly connect to your old content. Finding people in the industry to give their perspective will put a fresh spin on something already covered. Plus, it can increase you visibility by tapping into another person’s audience, and foster a long standing professional relationship with the subject of the interview. Plenty of guest posting gigs have started thanks to a single interview. Remember that the exposure goes both ways.
  • Google Hangout and Webinar – Want to really engage? Try a webinar, a seminar that is held over the web. Set a date, start promoting, and take all of that old content to be a part of the lectures. There are many kinds of webinars you can hold. The first is a single speaker format, where you present the information and conduct all talks. Another is an interview style, where you have a guest you speak to in front of the audience, and possibly engage that audience into asking their own questions. There is a panel discussion with multiple people, who speak directly to the audience on your behalf. Or there is an interactive, fully engaged version where you have open discussions and activities with your audience. You can decide which is best for you.

Have any input on content re-packaging? We are always eager to hear it, so leave us a comment.

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71 Responses

  1. I love this topic. I once created the “Period Table of Content” which was a guide for repackaging content.

    Great content marketers are really good at this. I’ve seen Greg Ciotti use those formats when packaging up content as inforgraphics and Slideshare presentations. He’s good at using research in many places, many ways.

    The idea to simply read something on video and posting on YouTube is excellent. Thanks for the tip, Ann!

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