Quantity or quality? It’s the age-old question, right? And when it comes to creating content, it’s incredibly relevant. As creators, we only have so many hours in a day … and it can be a challenge to decide how best to use those hours. If there’s one secret I’ve discovered to effectively walk the line between quantity and quality, it’s all about repurposing your content.
Don’t panic! I’m not advising you to churn out the same content over and over again. As a recipe developer, food blogger, podcaster, and cookbook author, I’ve been creating content for busy foodies for over ten years now. I’m confident to share some best practices for recycling the amazing work you’ve already done in new and creative ways to extend its life. I’m also here to tell you that I haven’t once — in a decade — heard a complaint from a reader or follower about repurposed content. Here's how I've done it!
1. Find new contexts for the same content.
Evergreen content consists of information or ideas that you can use again and again. I’m sure, like me, you’ve already created and shared plenty of evergreen goodness with your audience, whether you know it or not.
Take, for instance, a blog post I wrote years ago about how to cook frozen chicken breasts. Simply by finding a new context for the information, I’ve repurposed the work I did on this post again and again. National Chicken Cordon Bleu Day (It’s April 4, in case you were wondering.) is one example of a fresh hook for that post. I might also share it in the context of other chicken recipes that are trending on social media.
2. Repurpose across platforms.
Look for opportunities to bring the same content to your audiences in different ways. This is an efficient use of your time, but it also ensures that even more people will see your work since different segments of people are drawn to different platforms. Repurposing across various mediums has the added benefit of connecting you to a wider audience.
I’ve found a lot of success with this method on one of my podcasts, Jump to Recipe. At the end of each episode, I share a weekly meal plan with my listeners. Guess where those meal plans come from? From my blog and website! I’ve already done the heavy lifting to thoughtfully develop the recipes in a written post, and on the show, my voice puts a new spin on them for people who prefer to consume audio content. Plus, with meal plans, I can mix and match individual recipes in different ways.
3. Edit the content based on what you know now.
Taking pretty, styled photos that will make a real impact on readers and followers can be seriously time-consuming. I have some good news for you: you don’t need to take brand new photos to brighten up your aesthetic and attract eyes. Since I’m constantly learning new photo editing skills, I’ll often repurpose old images from my hard drive with techniques I didn’t know when they were shot.
You can use the same approach for written content. Reread old blog posts or social media captions and consider what you might add to them, based on more recent experiences or knowledge. Swapping in a fresh anecdote for an old intro might be all that you need to give an evergreen post new life.
4. Bring content back in smaller chunks.
Short-form videos like TikToks and Instagram Reels are (obviously) a lot of fun, but they can also be used strategically for repurposing content. For instance, if I’ve created a full recipe video to walk audiences through every step of preparing a dish, I might break that same video into shorter chunks highlighting specific cooking techniques that my TikTok or Instagram followers can model.
The same principle can apply to written content. Do you have a longer blog post that’s had a lot of success and traction? Break it into shorter segments for Instagram captions.
5. Use repurposed content to engage your audiences as part of an in-group.
As I already mentioned, I’ve never once received negative feedback from people after reposting a recipe, meal plan, or cooking technique. My followers seem to get excited to let me know when they’ve already tried something and can attest to how delicious it is. It makes them feel like they’re part of some kind of special club.
If you share something other than recipes, your experience might not be the same, but there’s still a way to replicate it for different kinds of content. Are you repurposing advice on freelancing? Your long-term followers may want to share what’s already worked for them. Do you make content about DIY crafts? Let your audience get excited to see projects they’ve already made… with some of the minor tweaks I’ve suggested above, of course.
Here’s the bottom line. You work too hard on your high-quality content to let it live for only a short period. With a little bit of repurposing your content and some creativity, it becomes quantity!
About the author: Christine Pittman is the founder of More Cheese Please Productions, a culinary media company reaching over 2 million monthly readers. It was 10 years ago, while on maternity leave, that Christine started her first website, COOKtheSTORY. Shortly thereafter, she created her second successful site, TheCookful. Since then, she has written over 40 cookbooks, including The All New Chicken Cookbook, and created two podcasts, including the popular Recipe of the Day show, which airs 7 days a week.