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Breathe New Life into Old Work: How to Upcycle Content The Right Way

Trying to crank out fresh, high-quality content every week can feel like sprinting up a never-ending hill. The internet never sleeps, and the demand for more and more can quickly lead to burnout.

But here’s the thing: you don’t always need to start from scratch. Content upcycling is a smarter, more sustainable way to keep the creativity flowing without exhausting yourself. It’s all about taking the content you’ve already created and finding new ways to make it shine.

Let me walk you through an alternative I swear by. It’s repeatable, manageable, and actually fun once you get the hang of it.

Note: The very thing you're reading is me practicing what I preach! This post is itself based on a presentation I gave a while back. I didn't even have to write about this from scratch – I'd already done the vast majority of the work, and just had to repurpose my slides and talk to make it work in this format.

Step 1: Take Inventory

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Think of this step as your creative treasure hunt. Having a clear inventory of your content helps you see the bigger picture. It highlights gaps where new content is needed while uncovering areas where you already have good material that can be used in new ways.

The first step in any upcycling process is figuring out what you have. This means doing a full content audit. Don’t overthink it. Start by gathering everything you’ve created so far, including blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media posts, presentations, case studies, newsletters, and even random ideas jotted down in a notebook. Once you’ve collected everything, start sorting it into categories. You can organize by topic, format, theme, or even the kind of audience it was made for.

A simple spreadsheet works wonders here. Create columns for the title, format, primary audience, and where it was published. Tag each piece with keywords like "SEO tips" or "design process" to make it easy to filter and find later. The idea is to build a complete picture of your content so that nothing slips through the cracks.

Quick Hits:

Make a master list of all your content assets (use a spreadsheet or tool like Notion).
Tag each item with relevant keywords for easy filtering.
Sort content by type (e.g., video, text, image) and audience.

Step 2: Transcribe Your Goldmines

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Transcriptions allow you to take your content out of its original format and make it accessible to a whole new audience. Not everyone has time to watch an hour-long video or listen to a full podcast. A quick blog post or a few social media snippets are digestible and easy to share, and can reach people who missed it in other formats.

Do you ever feel like your best ideas are stuck in a podcast episode or webinar that nobody remembers anymore? You’re not alone. Audio and video content are often packed with value, but they can be hard to revisit, let alone repurpose. The solution is simple: transcribe everything.

Start with your most popular or evergreen pieces, such as podcasts that people still reference or that webinar you know had great engagement. Use transcription tools like Otter.ai or Descript to turn spoken words into text. It won’t be perfect, so take some time to clean up the transcript and make it readable. Once you’ve done this, you can start slicing and dicing it into new formats.

For example, a podcast could be turned into a blog post, a series of tweets, or even an Instagram caption. If you hosted a webinar, you could pull key moments into a quote roundup or create a step-by-step guide based on the content.

Quick Hits:

Try out transcription tools like Otter.ai or Descript for processing audio and video into more easily-usable forms.
Edit transcriptions for clarity and readability.
Identify quotes, sections, or takeaways you can repurpose into new formats.

Step 3: Build a Digital Library

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A well-organized database saves you time and frustration, and if you have a team, makes materials more accessible and usable for everyone. This makes it easier to fully leverage work you’ve already done, and keep valuable ideas from slipping through the cracks.

Have you ever spent 20 minutes searching for that one blog post or article you wrote but couldn’t find? Let’s fix that. A searchable content database is your secret weapon for upcycling success. Think of it as your personal library, organized, tagged, and ready to be mined for ideas.

Use tools like Notion, Airtable, or Google Drive to store all your content. Make sure to tag or organize each piece by keywords and categories so you can quickly find what you’re looking for. Include notes about where and how the content has already been used, along with ideas for future repurposing.

There's no one best way of doing this, but I recommend using tools that let you tag instead of sorting into folders whenever possible to maximize your ability to find the same piece of content across many different topics when relevant.

For example, if you’ve got a podcast episode on leadership, tag it with "leadership," "career growth," and "team dynamics." That way, when brainstorming content for LinkedIn about workplace culture, you’ll know exactly where to look.

Quick Hits:

Set up a database in Notion, Airtable, or Google Drive.
Add tags and keywords to every piece of content for easier searches.
Make notes on where each item has been used and for what purpose.

Step 4: Repurpose with Purpose

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Repurposing content is both efficient and strategic. You’re meeting a segment of your audience where they already are, in the formats they prefer, without having to start from scratch.

Here’s where the magic happens. Upcycling isn’t about copying and pasting; it’s about taking what you’ve created and reshaping it into something relevant and valuable that can reach different people in their own preferred ways.

The key is to think about your audience and the platforms you’re targeting. For example, that long-form blog post you wrote last year could be broken into a series of shorter posts for LinkedIn or a thread on X. A detailed webinar could be turned into an infographic, a step-by-step Instagram carousel, or even a series of TikToks.

Think about how different formats serve different purposes. Instagram stories are perfect for quick, bite-sized takeaways. LinkedIn posts can dive deeper. Pinterest loves visual content that leads them to something they might decide to buy, try, or see in person based on their response to what they see. Tailoring your content to fit each platform means it will land better with that segment of your audience.

Quick Hits:

Identify one well-performing piece of content to start with.
Choose 2 to 3 new formats or platforms to repurpose it for.
Tailor the tone, length, and visuals to suit each platform.

Step 5: Do Things in the Right Order

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Doing things in the right order ensures you’re maximizing your ROI, and implementing efficient creation processes. It's not just about working smarter, not harder; it's about working smarter so that working hard produces quantity in addition to quality.

Look at what's already working. Instead of creating more from scratch, focus on the pieces that have already proven their value.

Begin by analyzing your analytics to identify the content that resonates most with your audience. Which blog posts consistently drive traffic? Which videos are shared the most? Pinpoint the high-performing pieces that deliver measurable results. These are already telling you something. These are your ideal starting point for upcycling content.

Once you’ve identified your top-performing content, think strategically about how you could reimagine and reshape it. A popular blog post or white paper could be transformed into a podcast episode, a YouTube video essay, or a multi-part thread on X. By taking advantage of the raw material from what’s already working, you can create a flow of content that amplifies your best ideas in many different ways, for many different types of readers, listeners, or viewers.

Don’t forget to prioritize evergreen content, the stuff that will stay relevant over time. You probably have plenty of this stuff sitting around, even if it's buried in email replies or sales materials that wouldn't usually be visible to the public eye. These pieces are packed with material that is ready for repurposing, and looking at them through that lens is bound to give you a ton of ideas for how.

Quick Hits:

Review your analytics to identify high-performing content.
Highlight evergreen pieces that remain relevant over time.
Brainstorm ways to repurpose a top-performing pieces in new formats.

Step 6: Keep Tabs on the Competition

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Nobody has a monopoly on ideas. Paying attention to what others are talking about in your industry will give you a lot of ideas about what you could create to position yourself as a leader.

Keeping an eye on others in your industry is one of the easiest ways to stay relevant. Follow thought leaders, competitors, and influencers in your field to see what they are talking about. Pay attention to what is working for them, such as trending topics, content formats, or specific ideas that get a lot of engagement.

Use this information as inspiration to create your own spin on similar topics. The goal is not to copy but to stay in the loop and bring a unique perspective to the conversation.

You should also pay close attention to what your competitors aren't saying – areas where you can offer a valuable perspective on something that isn't being addressed by others.

Quick Hits:

Follow key competitors, thought leaders, and influencers in your industry.
Take note of topics and formats that perform well for them.
Look for gaps where your expertise can offer something new.

Step 7: Make It Easy to Consume

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Making your content easy to consume increases the chances it will catch your audience’s attention, keep them engaged, and even encourage them to share it with others.

If your content has a ton of value, but it's not user-friendly, your audience isn't going to engage with it. Pay attention to what makes your content easy to read, watch, or listen to.

For written content, use short paragraphs, bullet points, subheadings, and visuals (including indicators like highlights, callouts, and bold text) to break things up.

If you are repurposing for social media, attention spans are short. Make your posts visually appealing, short, and formatted for quick skimming.

For videos, add captions so they are accessible even when viewers watch with the sound off. (You can also let YouTube auto-generate them, but double-check them for accuracy.)

Experiment with new formats when you can. Could your side of a coaching call you did with a client also be cropped and clipped up to make a handful of Instagram Stories? The easier it is for your audience to consume your ideas, the more likely they are to engage with you.

Quick Hits:

Break up written content with bullet points, visuals, and subheadings.
Add captions to videos for accessibility.
Experiment with new formats like infographics, carousels, or short clips.

Step 8: Measure Everything. Do More of What Works.

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Set up analytics now, even if you don't know how to use them yet. Measuring performance will help you identify what is working, refine your strategy, and continuously improve the effectiveness of your upcycling efforts. But you can't figure out how to do that with data you never collected in the first place!

The final step in the upcycling process is tracking how your content performs. Even if you've never done this before, start collecting the data now as mentioned above.

This takes a certain skillset, and if you don't have it, find someone who does. Once you're able to sustain publishing content regularly this is where the next big step up in value from creating and publishing content will come from.

Once you have data, you can use it to refine your approach and your priorities. If a repurposed blog post is doing well on LinkedIn, consider creating more posts in a similar format or style. If something is not performing, don’t be afraid to tweak it or try a different platform.

Take time to compare which platforms or formats consistently work best for you. Over time, this will help you understand your audience's preferences well enough to focus on areas that give them the most value where they are most responsive to it... and that have the most impact on your business as a result.

Quick Hits:

Use analytics tools to track engagement across platforms.
Keep a log of where and when you have shared upcycled content.
Adjust your approach based on what the data tells you.

Why Upcycling Is a Game-Changer

Content upcycling is much more than a time-saver or a way of compensating for not having content creation staff on hand. It's an efficient appraoch to maximizing the upside of everything you're already creating day by day.

In a noisy world where more content is always needed to reach more of your audience, upcycling can be your new favorite party trick for keeping your content strategy going without burning yourself out.

Dust off that old presentation, revisit that podcast, dig up those long-winded emails and pitches, and start transforming them.

Everything old is new again.