Why Reusing Old Blogs Is Easier Than Dating Taylor Swift (And Better)

3 min read
Nov 15, 2016 9:29:35 AM

Content is the foundation of an inbound marketing strategy. But continuously creating high quality, new content can be difficult and time consuming. The good news is that you can reuse old blogs and save yourself from constantly trying to come up with something new. Take a note from Taylor Swift and turn an old flame (or blog post) into a chart-topping hit. reusing old blogs

Start by taking stock of all of your content. Which posts performed the best? These are some of the blog posts you will want to focus on reusing. If it did well before, it can do well again. Here are 6 ways to help you reuse old blogs.

  1. Promote It Again 
    One of the easiest ways to reuse your blog posts and content is simply by re-promoting them on social media. Have a post from a few months, or even years ago that was pretty popular? There is no reason why you can’t send it out on social media again. Chances are your audience has grown, or people may have missed it the first time around. All you need to do here is write a new post for Facebook, Twitter, or wherever else you want to share, and post with the link. Reusing old blogs is a way to reach more people with the valuable information you’ve put together.  

    [DOWNLOAD]Are you lost trying to market your business on social media? Don't worry, this  starter guide will bring you up to speed.
     
  2. Improve The Old
    Sometimes, despite our best efforts, a post just doesn’t get the reaction you hoped for. Think of this like a do-over. If you have some blog posts that contain good information, see what can be done to reshape them and improve. Try a new headline, edit the post for clarity and make some adjustments to the format.
     
  3. Don’t Forget To Update
    It’s a good idea to update old posts every now and again. One reason is that people gravitate towards newer content because they assume it has more accurate information (nobody wants to be stuck with old news). It is also important to make sure that your statistics and references are updated, and that the techniques discussed are still relevant based on current industry trends. You wouldn’t want someone reading an SEO post that is based off of the old Google algorithm. Take the time to update your content offers, ebooks, whitepapers and blog posts.
     
  4. Branch Out
    Use old blog posts as inspiration for new content. A popular format for a blog post is the list: “4 Ways to…”, “10 Tips for Improving…” These posts generally provide an overview of a topic. You can expand each tip into a full-length post of its own, and include a link to the original article in your new post.

    Another option is to present a blog post in another format. Try making it into a short video or infographic. You can also do this with other content like turning a webinar into an ebook. This will also make the content ready to share on different channels other than your blog. 

  5. Hub And Spoke Method 
    The hub and spoke model is a way to plan your content strategy based around a central topic. You can apply this framework and reuse old blogs by taking a popular post and making that the hub. The spokes are then sub-topics that relate back or build off of the hub. You can use this strategy when planning new content as well.

  6. Remember Your Evergreen Content  
    The power of inbound marketing is that your content will live forever online and can be accessed at any time. Keep this in mind when planning your blog posts. Will someone find this information helpful and relevant one month from now? What about a year, or longer, from now? This is where evergreen content comes in. These are topics and posts that your audience (think buyer personas) will always be interested in. Writing a blog post using an evergreen keyword or topic will make it easier to reuse the post in the future. 

 

introduction to business blogging 

Get Email Notifications