How to Repurpose Video and Blog Content to Maximize Efficiency and Reach

Repurpose Your YouTube and Blog Content Across Channels

Creating consistent, quality content for your website and social media channels has loads of benefits for your business. In fact, companies that engage in regular content marketing often experience: 

• Increased leads and sales 
• A positive return on investment (ROI) 
• Increased social media engagement 
• Improved audience retention 
• Higher search engine results page (SERP) rankings 
• Increased brand loyalty and authority 

Content creation can easily become a full-time job your team might not have the capacity to handle on its own. From developing a content calendar and brainstorming topics to producing, posting and monitoring the content to measure your success, content creation is time-consuming and requires a well-thought-out strategy to deliver on the benefits listed.  

The good news is that not all content needs to be created from scratch. If you have a video performing well on YouTube or a blog that’s driving higher conversions, it’s worth your while to repurpose that engaging content as much as possible to increase your audience reach and save time.  

Whether you’re starting with a high-performing YouTube video or a blog, here’s how to repurpose that content across your marketing channels. 

Scenario 1: Turn your blog into a YouTube video 

Video marketing is becoming increasingly important, as more people watch videos online than ever before. According to HubSpot, the amount of online video consumption nearly doubled between 2018 and 2022, and the pandemic increased online media consumption by 215% in the U.S.  

Better yet, 88% of video marketers say that producing video content delivers a positive ROI. With audiences spending an average of 19 hours per week watching videos online, companies can’t afford to omit video content from their marketing strategy. 

Luckily, if you’re producing regular blog content, creating consistent video content doesn’t have to be quite as time-consuming or expensive as you might think. In fact, posting ideas you have for a video as a blog first gives you the opportunity to observe audience engagement in a topic before investing in storyboarding, scripting and producing a video.  

If the topic doesn’t perform as well as you thought, you have a chance to avoid creating a costly video that might remain unwatched. 

How to turn your best-performing blog into a YouTube video 

Before beginning the process of converting a blog into a video, ask yourself the following: 

• Would this topic be conveyed well in video format? 
• What would be the goal of the video? 
• How would you use the video? (I.e., posting to social media, your website, e-blast, etc.) 
• What equipment or other resources would be required to produce the video? 
• Is it worth converting into a video? 

In other words, just because a blog is performing well doesn’t mean it’ll make a good video. Before investing the time, money and effort, make sure creating a video on the topic makes sense. 

Once you feel confident in your decision to move forward, use the following steps to help get you started. 

1. Convert your blog into a video outline 

Simply reading from your 2,000-word blog article isn’t going to create an engaging video. When developing a video storyboard, follow these steps. 

• Identify the top three to five main points that need to be conveyed. 
• Strike through any copy that isn’t integral to these main points or the goal of your video. 
• Organize the remaining content into supporting bullets for the main points you identified. 
• Consider the best way to begin and end your video to get your point across. 
• Brainstorm the best format for your video’s message. For example, will it be animated, acted out, include interviews with key stakeholders or use narration? What visuals will best convey your message? 

2. Develop the script

Once you have an outline, begin fleshing it out into the script. Keep in mind that the tone and formatting of a video script should read differently than a blog. Make sure your final script: 

• Is conversational in tone 
• Avoids jargon or words that aren’t easily recognizable for your audience 
• Uses shorter sentences to increase ease of comprehension 
• Is easy to follow 

3. Produce the video

The actual production of the video is often the hardest part. Whether you decide to outsource the production to a marketing partner or create it in house, you’ll need to make sure you clearly scope the work and be sure you have the funds, resources and/or equipment available to create it successfully.  

4. Distribute the video

Now that your video is created and ready to share with the world, how will you distribute it? A few options could include: 

• Posting it to your company’s social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or Twitter, depending on its length 
• Creating an e-blast to send to your contact list 
• Uploading it to your company’s YouTube channel (note: all videos should be uploaded here!) 
• Posting it to a relevant page on your website 
• Sharing across your personal channels and encouraging other employees to do the same 

5. Analyze and optimize your video content

Your work is not done when the video is live and distributed. It’s important to keep an eye on its analytics to help inform your strategy for future video content. Ask yourself: 

• What’s working well? What isn’t?  
• Is the video getting the engagement you expected? Why or why not? 
• How could you improve in future video content? 

It’s also important to optimize your video content on your YouTube channel for search engines. This includes adding timestamps, subtitles and keyword-driven descriptions that will make your videos easier to find. 

Scenario 2: Turn your YouTube video into a blog 

Just like videos, blogs offer many benefits for businesses looking to grow and engage their audiences. One benefit that blogs offer over videos is that they drive traffic directly to your website. While videos may drive traffic to your YouTube channel, it takes a lot of effort to get those viewers over to your site where you can capture leads and sales. 

How to turn your best-performing YouTube video into a blog 

1. Pinpoint your key points

Similar to turning a blog into a video, the first step should be nailing down a handful of key points. Once you have a list of the main ideas you’re trying to convey, convert them into subheads to guide your blog and make it easy to navigate. 

You should also consider the overall goal of the topic to help you format your blog to match the message you want to convey. For example: 

• If your video shares five steps businesses can take to increase sales, you can format your blog to number steps one through five as subheadings and provide details for each step in the paragraphs underneath. 
• If your video explains the best features of your product, you can break your blog down into sections that spotlight each feature. 

The goal is to think through the best and quickest way to convey your message while also making it skimmable and easy to follow. 

2. Draft the content

Use the outline you created around your key points to begin filling in content. Don’t forget that you can always add content that wasn’t included in the video if you think it needs more context. 

3. Optimize your blog for search engine optimization (SEO)

The goal of creating blogs is to lead users to your website and make your business more discoverable, so it’s important to take advantage of all of the tools you can use to enhance your blog’s SEO. A few things to consider include: 

• Identify relevant keywords: Determine which keywords have the highest probability of placing you on the first page for searches related to your topic, and seamlessly work them into your blog’s title, subheadings and content. 
• Establish authority: Link to credible sources throughout your blog (particularly .edu or .gov domains, when possible) to signal to Google that your content is well-researched and demonstrates authority. 
• Add internal links: Link to other relevant blogs and product or service pages across your website to keep readers on your site for longer. 
• Be intentional about length: Your blog should be at least 600-800 words to enhance your SEO. 

4. Publish, distribute and monitor results

Blogs can be effectively distributed in many of the same ways as videos, including sharing the link on your social channels, in newsletters or in e-blasts to targeted audiences. And just like for videos, blog traffic and engagement should be monitored regularly for opportunities for improvement and future topic ideas. 

Don’t have time for content creation and analysis? 

TruStar Marketing’s team of copywriters, video and multimedia specialists, and highly technical SEO experts is well-trained in creating discoverable and compelling content that increases brand recognition. Contact us for a free friendly intro request.