“What are we doing with video?” It’s an increasingly common question for B2B marketers. If you haven’t started including video in your content strategy, it’s time to start.
Building a video marketing strategy can be daunting and time-consuming, and it can generate a lot of questions—from technical matters like size and format to the brass tacks reality of “How much is this gonna cost?”
Whether you’re just getting started with video content or you’ve been making videos all along, there’s a savvy way to freshen up old content that folks have been using since the golden age of radio. It’s what we, here at Leadtail, like to call “The Magic of Content Upcycling.”
We’re not talking about using antiques as decor, salvaging parts from old furniture, or turning thrift store jeans into designer handbags. Content upcycling is all about leveraging all the different ways media can be shared on social media.
So, how does it work?
Here’s an example. A video is essentially an audio track with pictures strung together on top of it. Imagine you separated the audio track, cut out a section that was interesting, and shared that. This is the magic of content upcycling!
It’s certainly not a novel concept. Films have been producing trailers for nearly a century. But there’s a reason this practice has continued in the film industry. If you are not promoting your content with a sample of the content, you are missing a huge opportunity to activate your audience.
Why Should You Upcycle Your Content?
You might be asking yourself, “Is it really worth spending the extra time or money to create other types of content from your long-form video content?”
It’s a fair question. Video production can be time-consuming and expensive. Between the filming, editing, and pre- and post-production work, great video content isn’t easy to make.
But that’s exactly why using that video content in every possible way is so important.
Would you ever post a blog post without promoting it on your social channels? Or reserve a booth at an event and not tell everyone you were going to be there? Of course not!
Blog posts make great fodder for social copy. And you promote event booths with preview posts, advertising, and photos at the conference itself. In the same way, video can be transformed into bite-sized pieces for social media. The audio can be turned into a podcast. And you can even write blog posts based on your video content for even wider promotion across all your channels.
Not only does this process increase your content lifecycle, but it also increases the consumability and discoverability of your content.
Of course, the most buzz-worthy content right now is short-form video. In a post-TikTok world, we’re all looking for more value in shorter video, no matter what we’re selling or where our audience may be. Short-form video is everywhere.
Finally, an invaluable byproduct of this process is that it makes you review your content, leading to new ideas for future content. After all, everyone loves a good ol’ look back into the time capsule.
As with all strategies, you have to keep in mind your competition and buy-in from the leadership. But with all of the potential value in a single piece of content, senior management will love the idea of turning cost centers into profit centers.
Plus, you can be sure that your competition will be doing the same.
Where Can You Find Examples of Great Content Upcycling?
The truth is, this practice is not new. It’s so prevalent in the entertainment space that podcasts hosted by entertainment personalities have begun leveraging this process with great success on social media. Great examples include “Your Mom’s House” (Hosted by comedian Tom Segura), “Joe Rogan Experience” (Hosted by former “Fear Factor” host Joe Rogan), and “Bad Friends” (a show hosted by comedians Bobby Lee and Andrew Santino).
It’s not all fun and games, though. News outlets have begun leveraging short snippets from their broadcasts’ top stories as well as using this concept to highlight other, more niche stories. NPR, ABC News, and CNN have all created active TikTok channels, embracing short-form video and all the discoverability and consumability it provides.
So how does this get back to B2B? Well, your friends here at Leadtail have begun embracing the magic of upcycling our Leadtail TV podcast, and we’ve seen our engagement more than triple year-over-year in a monthly reporting period for LTTV content.
Give Me The Short-Form Blog Post
Here’s the long and short of it. Shorter video is the direction content is heading across the board. And if you’re not prepared, you will get left behind.
Our advice? Start figuring out how you can turn your video content strategy into more than the sum of its parts by engaging, activating, and driving value for your audience with shorter, more consumable video built from your current long-form video library.
Ready to get started with B2B social media marketing? Let’s talk!