Recycling Video: 5 Ways to Repurpose Your Existing Video Content -

When promoting your brand, creating a continuous stream of engaging, original video content can be challenging; but that’s what your audience has come to expect.

Still, it begs the question: What should we do when production hiccups or uncertain times make shooting a new video impossible?

The answer may come from the content you already have on hand.

Here are five ways to repurpose your existing video assets:

1. Reframe Your Videos for Mobile

Think about your mobile audience.

Chances are if you’ve created video content for a YouTube or Vimeo audience, you probably did so in a standard 16:9 format – the dimensions you’re most likely to see in television and commercial work. While this aspect ratio is ideal for playback on laptops and smart TVs, it’s not as readily consumable in a mobile environment, which means you could be missing out on millions of potential customers.

The solution? Reframe your existing content for mobile.

Vertical video is on the rise, with more and more original content rolling out from studios and influencers every day. The two most popular mobile aspect ratios you’re likely to see are 1:1 and 9:16, with 1:1 being square video and 9:16 being the reverse of the standard 16:9 format we’re used to (think hotdog rather than hamburger).

Whichever ratio you choose, by reframing your videos to be viewable on a taller screen, you open your content up to a wider audience.

Can reframing take time? Sure. As much time as shooting a new video? Not by a long shot.

Bonus: If you edit your own videos in Adobe Premiere, the job of reframing just got even easier. Premiere has a new feature called Auto-Reframe that does the heavy lifting for you – tracking the action to intelligently reframe your videos automatically.

Going mobile has never been easier!

2. Cut Down Longer Videos into Smaller Pieces

Think long-term with short-form video.

Let’s face it, no matter how interested we are in a topic, there’s an upper limit to our attention spans. It happens all the time. We find the perfect video we’ve been looking for, our interest is peaked, we go to press play, then we see the runtime.

We decide we’ll watch it later.

When it’s your brand behind the video, the last place you want to be is in a potential customer’s bookmarks bar. Instead, consider cutting down some of your longer pieces into smaller, more digestible videos.

Think about your content from the user’s experience. Short-form videos are easier to finish, easier to share, and most importantly – easier to remember.

3. Branch Out to New Social Media Platforms

If a piece of your marketing content lives solely on your website, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity for exposure. The same is true if you’re only posting your content to one platform.

Diversity is king when it comes to marketing. The more places you are, the more customers you can reach. And those customers are everywhere.

Over 40 percent of the world uses social media, with more than 350 million having joined in 2019 alone. With new users materializing every day, the more visible your videos are on these platforms, the better.

If you’ve cut down and reframed your videos as we discussed in the previous sections, then reaching into new markets should be a breeze. Just keep in mind the maximum video runtimes for your platform of choice:

Facebook: 240 minutes
Twitter: 140 seconds
Instagram: 60 seconds
Snapchat: 10 seconds

Whichever route you take, take the time to familiarize yourself with the platform, and be sure to share the videos most relatable to your target audience.

4. Repurpose Your Videos as Podcasts

Consider releasing your old videos as podcasts. It might seem like these two mediums are as similar as night and day, but you may be surprised by how much crossover you find between them.

If the intent of your existing video is to educate or inform your audience, there’s a good chance the audio may stand up on its own without video support. If that proves true, creating a podcast from your existing content can be as simple as exporting an audio file.

Can audio content really compare to video? In 2019, 32 percent of the U.S. population reported listening to podcasts on a monthly basis, with the average listener subscribing to an average of six shows. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Having a regular podcast not only opens this powerful new channel for users to find your content. The subscription-based nature of podcasting also opens up the possibility of reliable listenership for the foreseeable future.

5. Repurpose Your Video as a Blog Entry

Speaking of audio, in this day and age, we should all be transcribing our videos for closed captioning purposes. After all, many of our viewers are hearing impaired, and those who aren’t still report regular use of closed captioning to help with everything from overcoming environmental noise to increasing productivity.

If you haven’t yet gotten into the habit of captioning, YouTube is a great resource. Each video you upload to the site is automatically closed-captioned – though it’s wise to look over the final product for accuracy.

Once your video is transcribed, it’s ready to reach a whole new audience. But you can take this process one step further.

By reformatting your transcriptions as blog posts, you can create unique written content to help drive more traffic to your website.

Simply by having the text on your page, you improve your SEO by increasing your content’s searchability. And by adding your own flair to each post, you can connect to your audience on a more personal level.

Don’t forget to embed your video at the top of the blog. After all, it’s all about the content.

In times when producing new content is difficult, it’s helpful to know there’s always more we can do with the materials at our disposal. The most important thing is to think outside the box and keep creating!

Need help developing a strategy? Check out our blog Customer Engagement: The Go-to-Guide For Developing Your Strategy

Learn more about how we can help you to leverage your existing content by clicking here!

ABOUT US

CATMEDIA is an award-winning Inc. 500 company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1997, the company specializes in advertising, creative services, media production, program management, training, and human resource management. As a Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB), CATMEDIA provides world-class customer service and innovative solutions to government and commercial clients. Current CATMEDIA clients include Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

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