Repurposing Content: 4 Strategies That Work to Gain More Visibility for Your Nonprofit

As a nonprofit professional, you have stacks of work to do and not enough time or help to get it done. At the same time, you’re struggling to churn out new, unique content in your newsletters, social media and email blasts.

The truth is many nonprofits are so focused on creating, posting and publishing new pieces of content that we forget about all the great content we’ve already created. There’s more than one way to tell a story. 

Repurposing, or recycling, content is one of the strategies that every nonprofit should be using. No, this isn’t cheating and your supporters won’t find it repetitive. You are reworking your existing content and presenting it in new forms in different mediums to different communications channels. 

What Is Repurposed Content?

To repurpose content, think about how you can use information you’ve created in a new way for a new medium.

Repurposing content doesn’t mean rerunning an old blog post from last year, but it could mean sharing a blog post that you’ve run previously that has been updated with new information and new quotes. 

Repurposing content doesn’t mean posting the full-length version of a TV interview everywhere, but it could mean taking a video clip from a TV interview and posting it on Facebook to highlight one aspect and generate interest from followers. 

Repurposing content doesn’t mean reposting an entire study your organization recently did and posted on your website, but it could mean creating an infographic from that study and posting it on Instagram. 

Repurposing your quality content will bring your nonprofit tremendous benefits, including:

• Time. This saves your team tons of time in brainstorming and creating new ideas and content from scratch for each medium.
• Consistency. Posting and publishing similar messages and content maintains a consistent brand and presence for your nonprofit.
• Visibility. Your nonprofit will have a constant and increased presence with content that is posted and published regularly. 
• Reach. Your content will reach a variety of different and potentially new audiences with a presence on different channels — and reach people through their preferred mediums. 
• Engagement. Regular posts, especially on social media channels, will generate more engagement from your audience.
• Awareness. All segments of your audience will benefit from what you have to share because you will reach more people with similar messages through different mediums.

4 Repurposed Content Strategies

Here are four proven strategies to repurpose content that are helping nonprofits everywhere gain visibility and awareness.

1. Think Broadly About the Time Period to Repurpose Content

Good, effective communication pieces should last beyond a week or two. Plan how the content may be used in a month, next quarter or even next year. If your nonprofit runs a monthly blog, you have a tremendous amount of quality content that can be repurposed for other mediums. 

Social media provides an endless forum. Post photos of past events to generate interest in future events. Post clips of interviews, testimonials and videos to highlight various aspects of your programs. Avoid news stories or event-specific articles that have a short shelf life and look for pieces that are relevant for an extended period of time.

2. Create New Content With at Least Three Different Uses or Formats in Mind

Develop a communications or editorial calendar with all of your given communications channels. Plan for original content, repurposed content, and leave space open for things that may come up throughout the month or quarter. New pieces of content should be created with multiple planned uses. If the content is so specialized it is only usable for one medium, it may not be worth the time it takes to create.

3. Adapt the Content Into Each Appropriate Format

Adapting content takes planning, but you’re not starting from scratch. You have the material, now refocus it for the medium. For example, turn a long-form video into a blog, a blog with hard-hitting statistics into an infographic, an eye-catching infographic into a social media post, an engaging social media post into an e-communication to donors or an instructional webinar into a how-to video.

Insider tips, strategies, best practices, statistics and lists are all useful pieces of info to share multiple times on various platforms. Use teaser posts or graphics and link to longer content pieces on your website.

4. Use Your Repurposed Content to Boost Your Search Engine Optimization

Updated content and keywords can boost your traffic and increase search engine results. As you revise content, rework the keywords so that the new piece shows up in more search engine results. Make sure your website and other communication channels are registered and optimized for search results.

Your nonprofit always wants to recognize donors, funders and supporters. On social media, you can do posts of thanks and “tag” key stakeholders and audiences. Utilize the connections that social media provide and make sure your organization is followed by or linked with your key funders and stakeholders so that “tagging” and sharing with others is possible. This will increase your reach, presence and engagement.

The bottom line: Repurposing content isn’t an alternative to creating new content, but a tool to enhance what you’re already doing. Continue to develop that new content while repackaging and giving new life to your existing quality pieces. 

Don’t make your audience work for the content. Make your content work for them. You’ll gain new audiences, more visibility and more supporters for your cause.

The preceding blog was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.