7 Clever Ways to Repurpose Content Into Video
One of the biggest challenges with content marketing is coming up with fresh ideas for your new blog, announcement, or social media post. Sometimes it just comes to you naturally—other times it’s easy to feel stuck.
The good news is your next video idea could be sitting right there in your current content library. In fact, you could find plenty of new ideas through content repurposing.
In this article, we’ll take you through what content repurposing is in addition to its benefits. We’ll also provide ideas on how you can repurpose your content and examples to help get you started.
What is content repurposing?
Think of content repurposing much like recycling your previous work. Instead of reinventing the wheel with fresh ideas, you’re expanding on or reworking previous pieces of content to present them differently.
You can also adapt your current content to fit another format. For example, you can turn a blog post into a quick video, making the information more suitable for social media. Doing so helps you explore new marketing channels and reach a new audience.
You can repurpose written content to video or reuse footage from video content more video content. The only thing you want to avoid is presenting the information the exact same way.
By presenting it in a new way each time, it stays fresh.
The benefits of repurposing content
Repurposing content saves you a lot of time. Essentially, you're searching for new ideas from your own content library instead of starting from scratch. Repurposing involves recycling written work, images, and any other media you’ve previously created.
If you’re repurposing content into a new format, you're increasing your odds of getting discovered by a potential customer on a new channel. You’ll also catch the interest of someone who prefers one format over another.
According to a recent Animoto survey, consumers rated video the #1 most helpful form of content when shopping online. They’re also more likely to engage with video content across all social media channels. So if you offer the same ideas in both formats, you’ll reach more people than if you were to present the information only one way.
Since you’re saving time and using work that’s already there, content repurposing is also great for your marketing budget.
7 ways to repurpose content as video
1. Social media shorts
You can present short videos to your audience in many places, such as Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. You can also create a video series that discusses one point from your original content per video.
The original content could be another video, webinar, eBook, article, white paper, or something else. With Animoto, you can resize your videos with a single click.
2. Demo video
Maybe at some point, you wrote an article that explains how to use your product or shares your expertise as a service provider. Use a video template like this one to turn it into a demo video.
Pull up some of the key points from your article that would be helpful to give a visual representation of. Soon you’ll have a valuable piece of content that’s quick and convenient for your viewers, and easy for them to share.
You can also pair your video with the written content to give your potential customers the option to watch instead of reading. Doing so also benefits those who are short on time.
If it’s short enough, these types of videos can make great advertisements as well.
3. Sales video
Turn a lengthy sales page, document, or pitch deck into a video by summarizing the key points for your potential customer. You can feature these on your website, a landing page, in an email, and many other places.
Unlike other digital sales tools, video allows you to make a personal connection with your audience. Record your webcam and speak directly to prospective clients to stand out and start building a relationship.
These videos are great for any stage of the buyer’s journey from prospecting to follow-ups and conversions.
4. Tutorial or informational video
Let’s not forget your current customers. You can keep them coming back with content that’s helpful or informative.
It’s likely you already have some written documentation or articles out there that help explain how to use your product. Turn them into video tutorials to help your current customers get started, help them get unstuck, or provide more information about it.
If you have a digital product, you can record your screen to show your audience exactly what they need to see. Plus, they can pause and follow along with the video as they go!
5. Video series
Perhaps people can’t get enough of your blog or social posts on a particular subject, so it’s time to make it into a video series. If you'd like to create a video series, look for similar pieces of content that perform well and think of a common theme you can use to tie them together. For example, you run a short social media campaign introducing your team and it performs well.
Then, you can look at the numbers and use the same copy and images to make an engaging video series. Other examples are a series of product demos, explainers, glimpses behind the scenes of our business, sharing tips, or turning your blog into a vlog.
6. Address FAQs
Addressing FAQs is extremely helpful for you, your sales team, and your customers. Plus, your customers have already done most of the work for you. All you need to do is gather your top FAQs and turn them into a quick video.
No one knows your business like you, so you'll likely have a few FAQs you want to address. You can also look at your written correspondence–comments, messages, and emails–to find the top questions that need answers.
In addition to checking your written conversations, you can also think back to verbal interactions with customers, or ask one of your sales or customer service reps which question they hear the most. Providing an FAQ video will help your potential customer answer their own questions instead of reaching out to your sales or service team.
7. Slideshow video
Using some of your current images and copy, put together a quick slideshow video to introduce yourself or your business, talk about a product, share your expertise, or anything else you can summarize into a video for your audience.
Since you likely have a library full of images, these are quick to put together. Just be sure to add some music to the background, and a call to action to inspire your viewers to take the next step—follow, subscribe, get in touch, etc.
5 ways to repurpose video content
1. Repurpose sales or explainer videos as email content
Videos make an excellent addition to your email marketing strategy, whether you’re including them in your newsletters or sending a series as part of a drip campaign. They also make an excellent sales tool that you can easily send directly to a potential client’s inbox.
Instead of starting from scratch, take a look at the videos you’re already using and look for top performers.
2. Share videos on different channels
Even if you create your video specifically for your website, why not share it on YouTube or another social media channel like Instagram. While most video formats on Instagram are on the shorter side, you can share your video on the channel’s video player IGTV if it’s at least one minute long and no longer than an hour.
Keep in mind you’ll want to tailor the ratio, length, and content of your videos depending on where you’re posting them. You can easily change the aspect ratio of your Animoto videos so they fit different social media platforms.
3. Break up key points into social media posts
If your video discusses top tips or offers some key takeaways, break it into pieces and use it on social media as an image or text post. You can quickly send off a quick Tweet to expand your reach.
4. Create teaser videos
Teasers are like a movie trailer for your content. Find the best clips of a longer video and make a short teaser to pique your audience’s interest before letting them know where they can go to find the rest of the video.
5. Create a podcast
If the audio from your video can stand on its own, extract it and list it on a podcast channel like Apple Podcast. Doing this will allow you to try out a new marketing channel and reach another audience.
Best practices for repurposing content
When you repurpose content, begin by revisiting your top-performing content. Consider why it performed so well and visualize how it could be presented in a different format.
If you find the content is outdated but still relevant, you can simply update it to make it more current. If you review previous content and now have a fresh take on the same topic or have more to add, this could inspire a new post using some of the old points.
Avoid reusing content that might be completely outdated. Also, make sure that your reworked content is fresh enough to ensure that you’re not sharing repetitive or irrelevant information.
As with most content, take a quality over quantity approach so each piece of content offers your audience value.
Content repurposing examples to inspire you
Damn Delicious
Chungah at Damn Delicious is another excellent content creator who repurposes her content. For example, the recipe for lemon chicken orzo soup was originally a long-form blog post on her website. You’ll also find she later made a video for YouTube that features the same information, as well as a teaser on Instagram and Facebook made from the exact footage.
Though the recipe was eight years old at the time of the social media posts, she brought attention back to it using the teaser and introduced a new way for her audience to learn how to make her soup. She also tailored her posts to suit the different audiences and formats of Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
The Minimalists
Josh and Ryan at The Minimalists do an excellent job of repurposing their content—perhaps it's because minimalism is what they know best.
This teaser for their podcast about just-in-case items is a snippet they took from the podcast, which is also available as a video on their website.
From the same episode, they also offer their audience Minimal Maxums which are text quotes from the recording. They take it even further to include links to the content they mention in the episode. Also, they repurpose content from the episode to promote it in their email newsletter and on social media. All from one recording.
To prevent repetition, they tailor each piece of content to its channel. That way, you'll see the information differently if you follow them on multiple sites.
Why choose Animoto to repurpose content as video
You don’t need experience in video editing to use Animoto’s drag and drop video maker. All you need to do is pick a template, upload your footage, and get creative.
You can turn scenes into shorter clips right in the editor and quickly customize the fonts, colors, and transitions. If you need some extra footage or images to give it a finishing touch, Animoto has you covered with an extensive stock library. Additionally, you can improve on existing content with screen and webcam recordings, all in one place.
There’s no need to hire an expert or use additional software to get the job done. With Animoto, it’s easy to resize, crop, and improve your content to fit any channel.
Get repurposing
When you repurpose content, not only are you saving yourself time, you’re saving money in your marketing budget as well. You’re also making your content available in more formats, which gives your audience a choice and opens up more marketing channels.
There are many ways that you can repurpose content into video. The first step is taking a look at your content library to see what you can use to create something fresh. In doing so, you will get some ideas for entirely new video content you can create as well.
Once you’re ready to start repurposing your content into video, Animoto is here to help you put it all together. Why not get started by reusing some of your website content in the about us template?