Nostalgia is the face of the future. One of my favorite songs of this year so far is the Charli XCX – Troye Sivan duet “1999” which as the song title implies is a nostalgia trip down to an era where Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” ruled the airwaves and Jonathan Taylor Thomas was on every teen magazine covers. The Matrix-referencing video got even more prescient when it was announced just recently that Keanu Reeves has just been confirmed to don his trench coat and sunglasses once again and return as Neo for the fourth entry in the long-dormant franchise. Life is just a cycle and what was once old will soon be new again.

Two of the biggest films this year, Aladdin and Lion King are reimagining of the same stories I’ve consumed over and over again when I was kid only this time with more spotlight given to female characters and modern technologies that are more reflective of the current times. If big Hollywood studios do this all the time then why not pull the same trick in marketing as well? The value of fresh and original content tend to be bandied around a lot but any Melbourne SEO services or marketers worth their salt understand the value in repurposing contents.

Updated but with a twist

Repurposing contents isn’t about posting old contents and presenting them as new; it’s about about finding new angles or updating them with new information to better reflect what’s going on now. This is to say that even though repurposing contents might seem easier than coming up with a completely original idea, you’re still going to have work and look at a seemingly outdated topic and update it with modern lens. Repurposing contents is also a great way to see how much you’ve improved since the time you first birth those contents into existence.

Typically, repurposing contents is the practice of turning one of your old contents from one form to another. You can for example, combine multiple blog posts around a single subject into one comprehensive e-book or create a transcript out of a podcast interview and turn it into an article. The contents of a podcast aren’t easily Google-able so creating a transcript out of an episode can actually have tangible SEO benefits other than to make it easier for people who aren’t into podcast. If you’re still unconvinced at this point, the following 4 benefits should help sway you.

They allow you to include fresher perspectives

In 1992’s Aladdin, we only get to hear Jasmine sing during a duet with Aladdin in “A Whole New World” but in this year’s live-action remake, Jasmine finally get a chance to shine on her own with “Speechless”, subtly referencing the feminist movement around the world that has sprung up in recent years. Time doesn’t stand still and especially in the world of marketing that lies at the juncture between consumer trends and technological progress, the current landscape can be somewhat unrecognizable from the one just a decade ago. Repurposing contents allows you to highlight these differences and how things have changed.

As we grow older, it’s also quite natural to assume that we’ve grown wiser in the meantime which in turn might have included several changes in perspective. I mean, have you ever looked at some of your past works and not think to yourself, “I wish I could’ve done that one a little differently”. Hindsight is 20/20 and while it’s true we might not have the opportunity to correct some of our worst mistakes, the world of content marketing allows us to do just that by including some fresher and wiser perspective on some of our older contents.

They might allow you to participate in a current trend

Let’s say that you once wrote or create a video around a certain topic but since that topic wasn’t attracting much interest, your content never got the attention it deserves. It turns out however that some time after, said topic began getting traction online and as a result, various publications and marketers began to write around that topic as well. In this situation, it might be a good idea to simply use one you already have instead of creating a new one all over again. Remember, trends change all the time so if a content isn’t generating traction, it might simply be a matter of timing instead of quality.

They save you from having to think about something original idea all the time

Every once in a while, and I’m speaking from experience here, we tend to suffer from writer’s block and there’s absolutely no shame in this. Creativity and inspiration aren’t something that could just be summoned at will but for those working on a schedule, you’re still going to have to come up with something either way. We’ve all been here before and in times like these, I simply revisit some of my past works and see if there’s anything that can be done differently. This can be especially useful if you’ve got tons of things you wish to unload on a certain topic but due to space restrictions can only commit to so many words. Content repurposing allows you to add those previously unspoken thoughts instead of having to come up with something original every single time.

They allow you to diversify

Ask a random stranger to write about something and they might say to you that they’re not a writer but hand them a microphone and nine times out of ten, they’re going to have something to say to you. Everyone’s got something to say but they might not be inclined to put them into text and repurposing contents could have the benefit of turning a gifted speaker into an equally gifted writer as long as someone’s willing to write the transcript. With the rising popularity of podcast evidenced by Spotify spending US$230 million on podcast publisher Gimlet Media, content repurposing allows brands to try out podcasting without having to leave the world of text behind.