A great video marketing strategy should include ways to repurpose video content as well as create fresh content from scratch.

There are many reasons why this is a sound approach. Repurposed video content can:

• Help you maximise the value of each video you create, especially if you invested in a professional shoot
• Attract more views across multiple platforms
• Reach a wider audience
• Reinforce your brand messaging
• Boost your search engine optimisation (SEO)

After investing the time, energy and budget into creating video content that is perfectly targeted to your ideal clients in whichever relevant stage of the customer journey they’re in, it would be a waste to use it once and then park it.

Video can keep on delivering value and increasing its return on your investment (ROI). It can also continue to build brand awareness, engagement and customer retention.

But how?

There are many ways that you can keep your existing video content working for you:

• Reuse footage from your content library in new videos
• Recycle and refresh older videos for a new audience
• Repurpose video content across multiple platforms

Remember, it is important to plan the different ways in which you can use a piece of footage before production if you are to do this successfully.

You’ll find some ideas below for recycling, reusing and repurposing your video content.

Pull out short snippets from longer videos

While long-form video is great for platforms like YouTube and will be well-watched by its intended audience when properly targeted, there may be times when shorter 30-second videos would perform better. This will depend on which platform you plan to use.

If you have a long-form video, review it to pinpoint quick snippets that you could use for shorter videos.

For example, you might want to take a few soundbites of a client talking from a case study video and turn them into 30-second reviews or testimonials.

Reuse your “universal” footage

Look for “universal” footage in your videos, such as views of your premises, your long-established products or services, location, etc. This is footage of the constant, evergreen elements of your business that won’t quickly go out of date.

You may be able to use this universal footage in a range of different videos – mixed with fresh content – without having to pay for multiple shoots of the same scenes.

Refresh your old videos

Always keep track of what’s in your video archive.

For example, a video that attracted plenty of engagement two years ago may never have been seen by your newer customers. It could make sense to bring this old content back into circulation.

Another approach is to update the narration of old footage or edit fresh content into a video you’ve used before.

You could even go back to the original raw footage and see if there is content that you discarded before that could be used now.

What are your most popular videos? You could bring them back into circulation by adding an update.

Extract still images from your videos

You can make a video part of a wider campaign by using screen captures as stills for your posters, adverts and other promos.

This can be a strong way to create cohesion across your marketing materials.

High-resolution professional filming will help you here as you should be able to capture crystal-clear stills that display well in a range of sizes.

Create a transcript of a video

Although search engines are getting better at understanding video, it’s helpful to give the search bots some text information about video content so they know what they’re crawling.

A transcript of a video is the ideal solution when posted with a video on your website.

As well as the SEO benefits, transcripts have other positives too.

Someone visiting your website may not always be in the position to watch a video immediately. It could be that they’re in public or at work. A transcript provides a written overview that explains the video without it having to be viewed.

Like closed captions, transcripts also improve accessibility for viewers with hearing impairments.

Reuse the audio

Just as we can review a video for shorter visual snippets, audio snippets of the content can be repurposed too. For example, you could use audio from a video – a testimonial is ideal – as the basis for an ad on a podcast.

Create slides and presentations

As we’ve seen in previous blogs, video is one of the most engaging forms of visual media, which makes it ideal for keeping people’s attention.

Instead of filming something new for a presentation, could you use a video from your archive?

For example, a professional services firm could use footage from a client case study in a presentation about applying new legislation to client cases. Or footage from a training video could be used to show how your company is supporting health and wellbeing in the workplace.

Create GIFs for social sharing

GIFs are a series of images or soundless video that will loop continuously and doesn’t require anyone to press play. They are hugely popular on social media because anyone can watch them at any time. They also provide a good middle ground between text and video but go a step beyond a static image.

It’s possible to take short clips from your videos and add text to them. GIFs are highly shareable, especially if they’re humorous or visually impactful.

Repurpose your video webinars

If you have pre-recorded video webinars, there are several ways you can get more value from this session.

For example, you could pull short snippets from a webinar and turn them into a series of 1 – 2 minute video clips containing advice or information for your audience (just don’t forget to include a call to action with each clip).

You could turn short clips into teaser-style videos encouraging people to book on to future webinars. Alternatively, you could package the webinar so that it’s available for purchase via your website or only downloadable to be viewed in the customer’s own time once they sign up to your mailing list.

Compilation videos

People love compilations whether it’s a “Greatest TV Shows of the 80s” style programme on Channel 4 or a blog rounding up the best posts of the year.

Your archived videos might lend themselves to a compilation too. For example, you could take the highlights of your most recent footage to tell the story of ‘Our Year in Video’.

Key takeaway

When you’ve invested in video content, it should work as hard as possible for you to deliver greater value and increase your ROI.

By considering how you can repurpose content as part of your video marketing strategy, you can organise the video shoots more effectively to capture footage that you’ll need months and, sometimes, years in advance.

I’d always recommend that you work alongside video production professionals to design a video strategy and capture your video content. This is because professional companies will understand how fresh and repurposed content can be used to its full potential, extracting as much mileage as possible from every frame of footage.

Developing a strategy for using video in your marketing mix can be confusing if you haven’t worked extensively with video before.

If you want to make video a profitable part of your business, you must have a video marketing strategy that extends beyond your normal digital marketing or content marketing strategy and maximises the impact of the videos you produce.

Don’t know exactly what you need?

Get in touch for some free advice and discover:

• What videos will have the greatest impact on your bottom line
• The best way to have your videos produced, based on your needs and budget
• The video marketing channels that will deliver the greatest reach and engagement for your brand

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