Key takeaways in this post about repurposing content:

  • Using existing, vetted content like patient stories, physician bios, and procedural information can be repurposed across multiple platforms (e.g., brochures, newsletters) to save time and money, while still engaging patients effectively.
  • Repurposing content into various formats like infographics, videos and social media posts helps healthcare marketers reach audiences across different platforms and stages of their journey
  • It’s crucial to adapt content to suit the specific platform, ensuring that the message is optimized for the medium in order to maximize engagement and impact.


Author: WG Content
Last updated: 03/27/24

You probably have a lot of content in your vault. And we bet you much of that content can be easily repurposed across other channels. Not only does this save you time and money (and makes you look like a rock star in your boss’s eyes), but it’s also a way to keep giving out great info to your patients.

When properly directed (and that direction is key), your staff and/or outsourced writers can simply use stories or content that is already vetted and fact-checked as source content for entirely new pieces. That means they have more time to focus on updating time-sensitive content or editing new content.

4 types of content ripe for repurposing

Here are some tips for how to create an engaging and supportive pediatric website for parents.

1. Patient stories

Patient stories provide an excellent means of repurposing content. Perhaps your website provides a few quotes from a patient who had a fast recovery as a result of a new minimally invasive procedure. Why not use a photo and some additional quotes from that same patient for a waiting room tri-fold, to further elaborate on how that procedure is becoming an option for many patients? This repurposing saves you considerable time and money because you’re not starting from scratch with a brand-new patient.



2. Physician bios

The experts in your organization have stories to tell, and your patients enjoy knowing more about the people taking care of them. Writing a full-length bio for your expert physicians will save you time and money in the long run, because you can quickly extract key sentences for future needs such as press releases, newsletters, emails, annual reports and web articles.

3. What to expect during a hospital visit

The website data we’ve seen from hospitals indicates that patients like this content. That makes sense: Going to the hospital for just about any sort of procedure is intimidating at best, frightening at the worst. So it’s helpful to have something to read that tells you what to expect, what to bring, what you can and can’t eat before your procedure and so on. And with readmissions becoming an ever-hotter topic in terms of hospital revenue, those instructions on what to do after a procedure are vital.

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4. Awards and recognition

Your content vault is probably richly stocked with useful nuggets of impressive, reusable content. Keep up to date with each department’s quarterly awards and recognitions, both in clinical and research settings. Remember to include grant awards as well as donor gifts. You might consider pulling patient testimonials in with some of your awards content, highlighting the unique and compelling aspects of patient care in your organization.

Ideas to create repurpose content into derivatives

Now that you have identified approved content, what are additional some ways you can repurpose it? Derivative content, or new content that is created from existing content by repackaging or reusing in different forms, is popular for time-and-resource-strapped marketing teams. It really focuses on a “create once, share everywhere” mentality. Repurposing content helps you connect with different audiences and connect with people at different stages of their journey. The key is to really optimize the content for the medium you want to share it on.

Take some of your most popular content assets and think if you can turn it into a:

And when it comes to blog posts, there is a whole philosophy around how to best reuse and republish blog content.

Let WG Content help you repurpose content like a pro

Today’s healthcare marketing teams are always looking for ways to do more with less. If you’d like help repurposing your content, contact us to get started.

Editor’s note: This blog post was updated on March 27, 2024. It was originally published in March 2014.

More tips on repurposing content

Look for high-performing content that has already shown engagement, like popular blog posts, patient stories or frequently accessed procedural information. Content that addresses common patient concerns or highlights your organization’s expertise and patient care innovations is ideal for repurposing across different channels.

Track engagement metrics specific to the platform, such as website traffic for blog posts, video views, social media shares and email open rates. Additionally, monitor conversion rates, such as inquiries, appointment bookings or patient interactions, to assess how well the repurposed content resonates with your audience. Learn more about content KPIs to track.

You want to avoid duplicating content. It can lead to redundancy and may negatively impact SEO rankings if the same text appears in multiple places online without any changes or adaptation. Repurposing adds value by adapting and optimizing content into a new format or tailoring it for a different medium or audience.

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