How to Repurpose Blogs to Create Brand New Video ContentNew Content with Little EffortHave you ever wondered what to do with those old blogs languishing on your website? They took time to write, so surely they’re not just going to lie there unseen? Or maybe you’re stuck on what to talk about for your next (or first) video project? Allow me to introduce you to the magic of repurposing blogs. Just as you upcycle goods to protect the environment, so you can upcycle your written content. It gives your brand the opportunity to say something new, in a different format, with only a little effort. Let’s look at how you can repurpose old blogs into new video content.
Why You Should Repurpose Your BlogsVideo content accounts for a third of online activity, so it pays to take advantage of this medium when developing your digital marketing strategy. Repurposing your blogs into video content has the potential to win over a whole new audience and convert that interest into solid sales and long-term brand loyalty. Repurposing also saves time and money. Rather than waste precious hours trying to create new content every week, you can sift through older posts for video-friendly content. By repeating this process every few months, you’ll create fresh content that appeals to video-hungry browsers.
How to Create Video Content from your Blogs
Creating video content can be daunting. Before you press ‘record’, you’ve got to develop a storyline and write and edit a script. With pre-existing content, that complicated stage of the process is taken care of, allowing you to move on to the fun part. Before you begin plucking potential blogs from your website, consider the following:
After carefully selecting your old material for new purposes, we’ll move on to editing.
Once you've decided upon the blog content that’s ripe for repurposing and which fits your marketing objectives, pull out the key points you want to convert into your new video content. This text will help shape your video script; bear in mind your script will be heavily influenced by your chosen video format (see next point).
The video format you choose is key to how you will transform your old blog content. It will influence how you engage with viewers, the language and tone of voice you adopt and the length of your script.
Boasting over 2 billion users, YouTube seems like an obvious marketing channel. But too many small businesses are afraid of it. If preteens can create channels that pull in millions of hits, you can do it too.
Let’s take my YouTube channel, ‘Nifty Fifty Photographers’ as an example. It has a clear mission: to help people take better photographs. ‘Explainer’ videos like mine are very successful on YouTube. How many times have you hit the YT search button for a ‘how to’ clip? My clips run at between 5 and 14 minutes in length, perfect for the average concentration span.
If your business lends itself to ‘explaining’ then I recommend using this medium to promote your product or service. Pick a blog you feel is best suited to YouTube (maybe product-based content or a ‘how to’ article), extract the key information that will translate well to video and make a simple clip that informs and entertains.
For more visual brands with a younger target audience, Instagram is a perfect video marketing platform. As well as photo content, Instagram also supports video: Instagram stories (max. 15 seconds), video posts (max. 60 seconds), IGTV (min. 60 seconds) and Instagram Live (live streaming).
After carefully choosing a blog you feel would best translate to Instagram, write a script that suits the length of your chosen clip and think of your target customer: how do they speak? What problem can you solve for them? What kind of video content do they engage with the most? Bear in mind that viewers love demonstration and reaction videos.
If you’ve written detailed blogs about specific products or services, why not take that content and create a product video around it? This could be embedded into the product’s web page or you could add it to a product landing page that you’ve linked to a social media post. People love to see products in action; more so than text, visuals allow people to watch how products might fit around, or even change, their lifestyle or solve a problem they’re experiencing.
Use the active voice when scripting your clip. Do not copy and paste the key points from your blog, expecting to simply read them out. Reading an article is a very different experience to watching a clip; viewers will expect a conversational tone and plenty of eye contact. Finally, end every clip with a call to action (CTA), whether that’s highlighting a clickable link to your product page, asking people to subscribe to your channel or to comment on your post.
Luckily, I’m on hand to help you transform your old blog posts into sharp, effective video content. For absolute D.I.Y. beginners, click here for my guidance on how to make your first ever video. If your repurposed content is aimed at social media, then my blog on how to create engaging social media videos should be your next port of call.
However, if you require professional support, as a videographer I can help you create powerful clips that will promote your brand to a wider audience. Get in touch for a chat.
Keywords:
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