12 Ways to Repurpose Social Media Content for Email Marketing  

The beauty of digital marketing is that you have access to so many different channels, all of which can be used in tandem. This includes social media and email marketing. Of course, they both have different functions. 

For starters, social media is capable of reaching a wider audience and receiving real-time feedback. You also have access to user-generated content and reviews that can give you valuable business insights. The downside is that you have no control over the audience or their numbers – and you do not own the platform. 

Shifting our focus to email, it’s a more reliable way of reaching your audience. A relationship already exists with the customer, making it easier to share content. By bringing email and social media marketing together, you have the potential to accurately convey your message to your target audience. 

Unfortunately, creating high-quality content doesn’t happen overnight, it takes a lot of time and patience. And once it has been successfully created, you’ll want to ensure that it is used to its full potential, and this is where content repurposing comes in. 

12 ways to repurpose social media content for email marketing

To help you get an idea of how to repurpose existing content, here are a few simple ways other marketers have been able to do so.  

1. Create an infographic 

A great way to repurpose content is to cut it down into bite-sized, visual bits of data. It helps to simplify content while still getting the message across – and people love to read them. 

An example that comes to mind is when Dunkin Donuts sent out an email featuring an infographic made up of user-generated content from their social media platforms. 

2. Reshare your posts 

As a quick recap, you can send some of your best-performing social media posts in an email. This shows your audience what they may have missed and prompts engagement through the email. Social media digests are a great way to reach a wider audience.  

This means that, for example, if you weren’t subscribed to Tubik Studio, you would still be able to access their blog posts using Weekly Digest.  

3. Feature your best images 

A picture is worth a thousand words, and by using one that has won over social media audiences, you are sure to captivate your email marketing database too. Analytics can assist you in identifying these images. 

Starbucks did a great job with this during the festive season. They reused an Instagram photo with the caption “Ready for the holidays!”. Simple, sweet, and really effective. 

4. Polls drive engagement 

Social media polls have become increasingly popular as of late and audiences respond fairly quickly to them. Use your social media platforms to pose the question and generate the results and use email to share the outcome. 

Eventbrite knew how to use this to their advantage during the holiday season. They surveyed users to determine holiday patterns, and when the time came to share their results, they used one of the statistics as a subject line to hook the reader. 

5. Revive your Instagram stories 

Given the stories only last 24 hours, finding ways to reuse this content will help the content reach its full potential. Of course, stories are incredibly popular, and the content may be viewed, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t benefit from repurposing. Just be careful of embedding videos directly as certain email clients may not be able to view it. 

A simple way to do this is to follow in Shopify’s footsteps. They link through to an external player and simply have a static image with a play button on it for people to click on. 

6. GIFs of videos 

If you’re not looking to go through the effort of embedding or uploading a video, GIFs are the next best thing. Most email platforms will allow this content to pass through so there’s no risk of it not being seen. The best way to use this is as a teaser video that drives engagement. 

To keep in the feel of playing a video, Adrenaline Travel embedded a GIF with a play button to make it seem like an embedded video. 

7. Promote giveaways 

Everyone loves free stuff, right? Giveaways promote a ton of engagement and can attract a wider audience. A great way to utilize this is by launching a sign-up competition where people join the database and stand a chance to win an amazing prize. It can even go further than that and rerun previous competitions through your email marketing channel. 

Running Warehouse’s Freebie Fridays give readers the chance to win running shoes – hosted on social media of course and carried through into their email marketing efforts. 

8. Shine the spotlight on your audience 

People love having their five seconds of fame. People are also more inclined to buy products that have real user feedback. By combining these two things, you have powerful content to work with. Always ask for permission before sharing and try to relink to the original content whenever possible.  

An example of this is looking at the comments on one of your product posts and using positive feedback to help and promote the product.  

9. Share the reason why 

Tell your audience why customers support your brand by sharing reviews and testimonials. This would be more text heavy than the option mentioned above but provides more authority when it comes to making informed buying decisions. 

To help encourage customers to share their feedback, offer a discount coupon or free gift with their next purchase for every review they submit. Everlane always adds customer testimonials to their communications to help build trust with their audience. 

10. Host competitions 

Contests are another great way to promote engagement. By launching it on social media and sharing follow-up information via email, you can reap the benefits of both platforms. 

Quiz Clothing is one of the many brands currently making use of this technique. They launch the contest on their social media platforms and then send the information needed to compete in an email after signing up. 

11. Consider the social media platforms 

When it comes to sharing content, you need to know which platform is showcasing what.  For example, Instagram is great for selecting images while TikTok is a great place to find videos. Consider what you would like to share, and then visit the platform that will best enable you to do so. 

12. Consider your audience 

Above all, you need to identify what your audience is looking for. Are they more visually inclined or do they prefer text-based communications? This will help you identify the most relevant content as well as the platform housing it.

And there you have it, everything you need to know about repurposing content. The only thing left to ask, is what will you look at repurposing first? 

Ghia Marnewick is a creative content writer for Aumcore, a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO and creative content marketing services. She is passionate about finding new ways of sharing information with the world.