Do you hesitate to repurpose content because you don’t want to bore your audience? Next time you create a fantastic blog post, think about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

For over a decade now, Marvel has been recycling decades-old comic book characters and storylines into movies, television series, cartoons, toys, clothing, accessories, and conventions — with minor tweaks to suit each outlet and keep things fresh.

For example, the relationship between Wanda Maximoff and Vision, which stole TV viewers’ hearts in the 2021 series ‘WandaVision,’ was initially published in the 1970s, culminating in their wedding in 1975’s Giant-Size Avengers #4.

The lesson here is this: If you put a lot of effort into producing great content, don’t publish it only once. As long as your information is solid and your presentation is entertaining, your content can live in many incarnations.

How to masterfully repurpose content like Marvel

Think about your most robust evergreen content, perhaps an in-depth blog post, and make a list of all the ways you can spin it off to create your own universe of content a lá the MCU. Here’s a list of ideas to get you started.

More blog posts

Think about how Marvel spins off each Avengers character into their own series and movies. You can emulate this by poring over your best content to look for spinoff fodder. Each topic heading can be the subject of a related post, which can either stand-alone or be set up together as a series.

Make sure to link these new pieces of content back to the original to let search engines know which post you consider most important.

Guest posts

Guest posting is the blog equivalent of Marvel actors appearing on talk shows — except you send your ideas out to act as ambassadors for your site. Rewrite parts of your best content as new posts in different styles, and offer it to related blogs or self-publishing sites like Medium.

Make sure these guest posts entice readers to follow a link back to the original content on your website.

Podcast

Another outreach technique: Contact popular industry podcasts and offer to discuss your content in an in-depth interview.

Social media posts

Social media allows you to repurpose content in more ways than traditional written posts.

Break up your content into bite-size chunks of information and format it so it’s easy for social media users to digest on the go. Quotes and ideas from your blog post can become videos, GIFs, or infographics, for example.

One piece of content could be the source of many social media posts — all inviting traffic back to the original post.

Video

Film brought the Marvel characters to life in a new way, and it can do the same for your content. Be careful not to fall into the trap of simply reading your content into a camera. Instead, look for ways to visually bring your information to life by discussing it, acting it out, laying an audio track over relevant stock video clips, or creating a doodle video.

Share the resulting videos on YouTube, Vimeo, or other video channels as well as on your blog to attract a new audience.

More video

Marvel built on its movie success by adding TV shows and animated features to the MCU. You can do something similar by clipping the video you’ve created into snippets to use as social media posts or video ads.

Infographic

If your content includes a lot of data or a process, have a graphic artist rework it into an infographic. Then,  share the result on your site and clip it into sections for social posts.

Don’t miss the chance to circulate your infographic to related blogs and websites, with permission to use it with a link back to your original content.

Books

When you have a collection of in-depth content pieces, pull them together into an e-book, Kindle book, or paperback. You can use the book as a lead magnet on your site, but you might want to also consider listing it for sale on Amazon.

Even if you don’t sell enough books to make much profit, publishing a book grants your brand immediate authority.

Online course or webinar

If you’ve already created a video and a series of in-depth posts related to your content, you probably have everything you need to assemble a dynamite educational presentation.

Free webinars are a great way to connect with a new audience — especially if you partner with one of your vendors, clients, or some other industry contact. And online courses can be a source of both revenue and new customers.

Whatever it takes

Take a cue from the heroes of repurposing content — the MCU. If Marvel can keep bringing out storylines and characters from 40 and 50 years ago, you can certainly recycle some material you published on your blog last year.

The key is to start with great information and do whatever it takes to polish it in new and entertaining ways for your audience.