33 tips on repurposing content for your (health) blog

Let’s face it, when you invest in something really worthwhile it should last. Whether that investment is for good shoes, cookware, or the time and money it takes to publish a piece of valuable content for your health blog, you want to get as much out of it as possible.

When you purchase or create well-researched quality content like articles, blog posts, videos, podcast episodes, etc., they should pay off and last a long time. That’s where content repurposing comes in.

Repurposing your content helps you save time and money because the truth is that you don’t have to come up with a brand new “from scratch” blog post every time. Nor do you have to have separate strategies for blogging, your newsletter, and social media. You can have one smooth and super-efficient process for all of your content marketing.

I want to help you get the absolute MOST out of Every. Single. Blog. Post. so you’re not stuck in a content creation loop all the time.

Here are 33 tips to take one piece of existing content (e.g., blog post, video, or podcast episode), make it fantastic, help you build your email list, and repurpose it into lots of different pieces of content. (Yes, lots!)

Pro tip: You can pick and choose just one or all of these tips for any pieces of your content.

Creating that first awesome piece of content involves a lot of your time and/or money, so let’s make sure it goes as far as possible!

Benefits of content repurposing

Having regular high-quality content helps you establish yourself as an expert and build a relationship with your audience.

By repurposing content you already have, you become even more “on brand” because you have more messaging that’s consistent with what you’ve already put out there.

You also save yourself tons of time from having to start every single new piece of content from scratch.

Plus, your audience gets better, more up-to-date quality information from you.

Repurposing content is a win-win-win strategy!

But, before we look to repurposing a piece of content, we first need to be sure you’re choosing an excellent piece of existing content to start with. We’re going to build your repurposed content from a solid foundation.

Take the original content and make it epic

The reason why I personally love making great posts even better is because it will help you rank that post in search engines. In terms of SEO, it’s better to have one “epic” post, rather than two (or more) posts on related topics.

Here’s how to make that first piece of evergreen content and make it even more awesome so you can publish (or republish) it as a new piece:

1 – Ask yourself if the blog post (or video or podcast episode) represents your current branding/position and if the health info or industry news is still up-to-date. If not, pull some fresh data to make a quick update. Then republish this older piece as a new one with a new date.

2 – Can you make your content even better by adding a recent example or case study? What about a recommended recipe, supplement, or fitness routine? What other content do you already have that would complement this post and help your audience even further?

3 – Make sure you have an opt-in box at the end (and another in the middle) of your blog post, so anyone who loves it can sign up to your email list. (Your blog should serve the purpose of edutaining your audience and engaging them to connect further with you.)

4 – Add internal links. This means you’re adding links in that blog post to other content you have on your site. Plus, once it’s published, be sure to add links from other posts to this epic one. The links should be genuinely relevant and add value to the post, linking relevant content to each other. (Don’t just link for the sake of linking.)

Pro Tip: Use the keyword in your descriptive anchor text. This means, don’t link via “click here,” but instead, link to where you would naturally mention the keyword itself.

5 – Find a good keyword (with high monthly searches and low difficulty). Use your SEO plugin (e.g., Yoast) or another tool to optimize the post for that keyword so it can rank higher in search engines. This serves the secondary purpose of attracting new readers/viewers/listeners. Here’s a complete list of simple SEO tips so you can make that happen.

6 – Make your content piece even more engaging by adding a question or two for your audience at the end ask them to respond in the comments or email you personally. You can use your audience questions as ideas for brand new content in the future. Doing this gives your blog post another purpose: market research.

7 – You can create a survey or poll of your audience related to that topic and embed that into your post. Yes, another source of market research for you.

Bonus Tip: Sharing the survey/poll results a week or so later can become its own separate piece of content.

It’s simple (and time-saving) to schedule regular updates into your editorial calendar. Personally, I look for posts that are at least one year old to update into newer, more epic posts (like this one!). Then, when it’s time to republish it, make sure to change the date and reshare it as though it were brand new! (You can even make a simple notation at the top or bottom that it’s been updated.)

Pro tip: For more strategies on how to update old posts, see here.

Great! Now that you have an epic up-to-date post that reflects your current brand and is of the utmost value to your audience, let’s get as much out of it as possible.

First stop: Building your email list.

Repurposing content into a list-building machine

Now that you have an awesome piece of content, you want it to convert readers or viewers or listeners) into email subscribers to build your list. To do this, create a free opt-in offer as a lead magnet in exchange for your audience’s email address (tip 3). There are other ways to do this beyond a simple form asking people to opt into your newsletter, too.

8 – A fantastic option is called a “content upgrade.” This is something related directly to the content of your post and includes bonus “upgraded information.”

The reason why I love content upgrades and use them in this post on 60+ wellness blog ideas you can create in 60 minutes, for example, is because it adds even more value.

In this case, the extra value is the ability to quickly download the entire list of wellness blog ideas instantly. Someone might be in a rush, or want a “hard copy” to keep. Maybe they don’t have time to read the whole post and just want a simple checklist. So I simply created a graphically-designed pdf version of the post.

Pro tip: Your content upgrade can include even more than what’s in your blog post. I did that here where I had 21 reliable resources in the blog post, but readers can download that list, plus 17 extras for a total of 38 resources.

Beyond simply turning your post into a downloadable pdf, how else can you create a content upgrade for your blog post? You can…

9 – Create a checklist or “quick tips” that goes along with the post, to help your audience implement your awesome information as quickly as they can.

10 – Create a white paper or guide with extra bonus information and have it available for instant download.

11 – Create a worksheet that someone can use to go through the steps outlined in your post and help them document where they are each step of the way.

12 – What about creating a challenge or quiz for your audience using the same information from your original post. Then, your audience can opt-into the challenge or see their quiz results by email.

13 – Do you offer free 15-minute calls for potential new clients? Do you have a lower-priced offer ($99 or less) you can mention or link to in this piece? Are you currently promoting something? If so, add those calls-to-action in as well.

Now that we have perfected your original post and gave your readers at least one way to join your email newsletter, let’s create new content from it.

Repurposing content by using one main piece of content as another main piece of content (yes, kinda like a two-for-one)

Reusing one piece of epic content in many ways is key! With minimal effort, you can get another entire piece of epic content based off that first one. For example, you can take one awesome original article and:

14 – Republish your original post on Medium and/or LinkedIn. This is called “syndication” when you publish the same thing on different platforms. It will help you to reach new audiences and share your awesome content with even more people, like my Medium post on popular nutrition claims (imported from my blog).

Pro tip: When syndicating posts on Medium don’t forget to use their Import tool to include a “canonical” link to make sure search engines know your blog is the original version and the Medium version isn’t the one that should be listed in the results pages. In other words, don’t copy and paste your content, import it.

15 – Turn it into visual content like a video of you talking about the topic. You can post the video to your YouTube channel and embed it into another brand new post to make a standalone vlog post. (Then, remember tip 4 to link those two posts to each other.)

16 – Some people may prefer or only have time to listen. So consider creating an audio file of you reading or discussing your post, (or rip the audio from the video in tip 15) and use that as a podcast episode.

Pro tip: If your initial piece of content is already a video or audio file, simply transcribe and edit it into a blog post! That’s exactly what I did for this post on misinformation. It started as my first episode in the brand new rEATsearch podcast (the player for that episode is embedded in the blog post) and is now also a blog post (with more detailed info, internal links, etc.). You may have noticed that the blog post is linked in the show notes, too. So be sure to link each related post to each other as mentioned in tip 4. 👍

17 – Create an in-depth infographic with all of the salient points like the facts, stats, or quotes. Don’t forget to list your references at the end (this is very important for health information!) and share this on Pinterest or social media.

18 – Create a slideshow of your content and post that as a standalone piece. You can even consider posting that to Slideshare.

19 – You can take this one step further by creating a video of you presenting your slides (different from tip 15 where you’re recording yourself talking about your blog post). This can then become a standalone vlog post, embedded into your original post, or even a webinar, masterclass, or module in an online course you’re creating.

20 – If you’re open to Q&As, use the content in the post and host a live video. This might be a great list-builder if you have a ton of interest in your original post. Have people subscribe to your email list for details on how to attend your exclusive Q&A session.

21 – Rewrite the information in your post to write a completely unique one and offer it as a “guest post” on other blogs who reach your target audience.

22 – Combine the post with other related posts to create an ebook which you can offer for free (as a downloadable content upgrade) or sell.

23 – Interview a colleague, expert, or thought leader in this area and create fresh new content on the same topic with minimal time and effort on your end.

24 – How about expanding on one area? Many longer posts would have several sub-sections in them, and each section can turn into a post of its own. You can add new, relevant information, different examples, personal stories, or case studies to beef it up into a quality standalone post.

Content repurposing by turning one great blog post into several smaller pieces of content to promote and draw readers to your main one

Regular, relevant, valuable content is what your online business needs in order to help your audience get to know, like and trust you. Most people need several contacts with you before they’ll buy anything from you. A recent study found that this magic number –which used to be 7–is now 18. Yes, 18!.

Here’s how to use one stellar post to create multiple pieces of smaller content:

25 – Pull out excerpts or make branded quote images or memes from the info in the article. Then use those on social media to invite your followers to read your post.

26 – Film a short video (length: a few seconds up to a few minutes) explaining one element of or outlining the top highlights of your post. You can upload this video to your YouTube channel and embed it into your blog post like I did in this post on wellness blog ideas. Don’t forget to share the video far and wide—well beyond your blog readers (as mentioned in tip 32).

27 – Break it up into several different articles and create a blog series or new, shorter blog posts that link back to that first epic piece.

28 – Break it up even further to turn it into an email series to offer your audience to grow your list of subscribers.

29 – Use your epic post to pitch video or podcast interviews on that topic so you can share the great content with someone else’s (similar) audience.

30 – Is this post a fantastic resource? Why not add an image and link to it from your resources page? You’ll notice this exact post on my resources page here.

31 – Don’t forget to share the URL with your email subscribers via your newsletter. Invite them to read or watch or listen to your awesomeness!

32 – What about your wider audience on social media? From one epic blog post you can create dozens of social media posts to share on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn! Remember to use the social media images from tip 25 above.

Pro tip: Don’t forget to promote each blog post you publish with your social media followers many times over the course of an entire year. This digital content strategy gets your article in front of as many people as possible.

33 – Reach new readers/watchers/listeners via social media by hosting a separate “giveaway” or “contest” for a product or service related to your post.

Conclusion

As you can see, investing substantial time and/or money into one great piece of content can take you much, much further than just that single blog post. You can get other epic pieces and many, many smaller pieces of content when you start from one solid foundational piece.

Signing off and toasting: To the dozens of ways repurposing content saves you time, ensures consistent messaging, and attracts ideal clients to your website. Win-win-win!

Over to you

Which of these ideas on how to maximize health content you like the best (or dislike the most) and why? How many pieces of content have you been able to get out of one amazing article, video, or podcast episode? Will you be repurposing your content more often now? Did I miss any great ideas?

I’d love to know (in the comments below)!

Originally published Jan 2017; updated with even more awesomeness July 2018, April 2019, and October 2020.