For an SMB in today's marketplace, publishing content on a blog or social network is one of the best ways to drive ROI, but for most business owners, generating new content on a regular basis can become burdensome, especially if your business already demands a lot of your time. When it comes to content, most business owners tend to think of content as more or less disposable – you write it, publish it, and then it's all “used up.” But guess what? Just because a piece of content has been published, that doesn't mean it can't be refashioned into something new. In fact, in most cases, all it takes is a little creative thinking to turn old content into new material, and with just a fraction of the work it would take to create content from scratch. It's called content repurposing, and if it's not part of your content marketing strategy it should be.

What is content repurposing?

Simply put, content repurposing is the act of taking your existing content and retooling it, retuning it, redirecting it or repackaging it so it increases readership or suits a new purpose. Most content can serve multiple purposes with minor “tweaking” to accommodate different audiences, different platforms or different marketing purposes. The key is to plan your repurposing strategy carefully by determining which content will be repurposed, who the new audience will be and where the new content should appear. Once you've answered these three questions, you can address the fourth: How will it be repurposed? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Hit the “refresh” button: You probably have a few older posts that were more popular than others. Consider revisiting those topics and rewriting them using fresh data, a current event or a different approach geared to your audience.

• Make an ebook: Everybody likes to get something for free, and an ebook is a great way to satisfy that desire (while also gathering email addresses for future promotions). Pick a topic, then bring together relevant content and publish it as a free giveaway. Add an intro and a summary as well as graphics to break up the content so it's more readable and more visually appealing.

• Turn content into an infographic: Customer research shows infographics are extremely popular right now (about 65 percent of people are visual learners), and there are several free programs available on the web that can help you turn a statistics-heavy piece into an informative (and eye-catching) infographic.

• Make a podcast: Podcasts are a popular way to repurpose content while also helping your audience to feel more connected with your business. Podcasts let people listen while they do something else, like commuting to work, visiting the gym or jogging.

• Think in sound bites: Share interesting data from an older post on your Twitter or Facebook account. It's a quick way to stir up renewed interest in a popular piece that's already been published.

One more tip: Content repurposing is easier if you incorporate a reuse strategy right from the beginning. Keeping a simple spreadsheet that shows which content has been repurposed as well as listing content that can be repurposed in the future is a great way to make sure you get the most from every piece you publish.

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