Joseph Forte, Jr. — August 18, 2017 — August 18, 2017
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If you’re looking for new video content, one of the easiest ways that you can find it is by repurposing old content that your business has already used. Blog posts, white papers, and infographics can all be used as source material to fuel your videos — and once those videos have been made, you can further link to that other content to build a library. But how do you get started when creating videos from repurposed content?
Choosing the Right Content
Not all content can make a great video. In general, the more information that you have to work with the better — and the information has to be specifically appealing to your customer base. You want to find something that’s engaging and exciting. Here are some things to consider:
- Select from your most popular content. When looking for content to promote first, look at your most popular blog posts. These will tell you what content your customers are truly interested in seeing. You can also look at infographics and social media posts that have been re-shared and liked for information about the topics that are going to be most successful.
- Look for content that has a lot of value. You’re not going to be able to spin a video out of most 400-word blog posts. Instead, you should be looking at content that is either lengthy (such as a long form blog post) or content that is informationally dense (such as a large infographic).
- Try not to retread too much ground. At the same time, you also shouldn’t cover topics that you’ve covered too much; the blog posts and other content may have already been enough to cover the topic fully. Try to find something that has not yet been included in your posts to add.
Paring Down to the Most Important Parts
Once you have your content in hand, it’s time to create a brief outline. A video outline is usually far briefer than actual content, as video takes longer to digest; words need to be spoken and actions need to be taken. To that end, you’ll want to create a bare bones outline of the topic that summarizes the major points of the content in the form of a bullet point list. This list should include all of the highlights and the most important parts of the content… usually with an emphasis on the hard facts and statistics.
It’s from this content outline that you’ll now develop your script. Writing a script from a video is a very different experience than writing down a blog post. A script has to be able to flow very smoothly verbally. As you write it, read it out loud — and keep in mind that it’s very likely that modifications are going to be needed throughout shooting. Your script should be a draft that can be easily changed while still hitting key “moments” within the content. And in addition to the writing, you should also keep in mind how the video should look and feel.
Giving Your Content a Unique Spin
Though you can create a video directly from repurposed content, it’s usually to your advantage to give the video a unique spin. The video should have something that differentiates itself from the content that you’ve developed before; after all, you’re investing in creating it, so you might as well create something as valuable as possible. Here are some ways to create content that has a more unique spin:
- Choose a specific buyer persona. By changing the specific audience of content, you can vastly change its message and tone. While you should always have a consistent brand identity, the goal and drive of your media is likely to change depending on the persona that you are speaking directly to.
- Create a different angle for the product. Your content likely has to do with a specific product in your inventory. By approaching the product from a different angle (such as a different use case), you can still use the framework of the content that you previously created while still materially changing it.
- Refresh the content for modern times. If the content that you’ve selected is older, it’s likely that there have been new developments. Creating an update of sorts is an excellent way to develop new content in the same vein — and to keep building out your reputation for fresh information.
- Switch products or services. In addition to creating a different angle for an old product, you can also use an article about one product to create a framework for another product or service. The outline and content will be generally the same, but you’ll be describing a different product entirely (perhaps a new one that you’ve just introduced).
It’s not always necessary to do this; sometimes you can create a more than successful video straight from repurposed content. But if you truly want to build value for your customers, adding a unique spin on each individual piece of content is a great way. It’s also a better way to get more return on your investment, as either way you’re going to need to commit to the shoot.
You will also need to decide on the type of video that you’re making. Some white papers may lend themselves particularly well to “how to” videos or “explainer” videos. Blog posts may be more suited towards promotional videos, commercials, or simply event features. It all depends on the source content that you’re using — but it’s important to decide on the type of video that you want to make early on.
Translating Your Content Into a Video
There are a few things that don’t translate well to video. When creating videos from repurposed content, it’s important to remember not to be too wordy. People can generally read at a rate that is far greater than the average speaker; because of this, they simply can’t digest as much content when they’re listening to it. Tone also informs them more when they are listening to something rather than reading it out loud, which means that the narrator or actor is going to have a significant influence on how the video is perceived.
Video scripts should be very short and concise, made with small paragraphs and short sentences, compared to other types of media. When translating white papers, for instance, it’s likely that the source material will be too dry and lengthy for a video. Likewise, when translating blogs, it’s possible that there may be paragraphs that are easy to read but difficult to listen to. An emphasis is also going to be made on constructing the visuals that go along with the post, whether it’s an individual who is talking or something more complex like a “how to.”
Repurposing Old Videos for New Videos
Not only can you repurpose content from text, but you can also repurpose content from old videos — and sometimes that can even be more valuable. When you’re repurposing old videos, you usually want to go back to the original raw data; this will usually include content that you may have shot but didn’t necessarily use. A repurposed video may have a certain theme, such as discussing the changes that have been made to a product over time. The video would be repurposed by going through your content library to find information that you had used previously.
Repurposing old videos when you don’t have new content can be a valuable way to save time and money. New narration can be placed over old video shoots, so that the same content is expressed without having to invest in the shooting of new materials. Naturally, this isn’t something that can be overused; if you are constantly reusing footage it will eventually become noticeable. But when you’re simply trying to create a few one off videos to keep your content momentum going, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to do.
When repurposing old videos, you’ll usually make the same decisions you would when creating videos from written content. Search for the video topics that were most popular to find inspiration — and try to think of a new twist or a new spin on your old content. As noted above, one easy way to create new content is to update older videos; you can simply update old videos with new information and re-release them if there have been substantial changes to your product or your service over time.
It’s always good to have unique and fresh content, but sometimes it simply isn’t feasible. If you find yourself looking to create content without an idea or direction, looking through your old content can be an easy way to gain inspiration and even get a new video written for you from start to finish. At the same time, it does require knowledge of the video media and the way that scripting works for video platforms. A professional video service can always help you draw out the script, outline, and shooting list for a video based on your existing content if needed.
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