content marketing
In this article, we'll teach you how to repurpose podcast content, so you can get the most bang for your content production buck.
Running a podcast isn't all talk. Fine, it is mostly talk.
But the point is: there's a lot more to a podcast than the podcast itself.
Think of your podcast like a turkey dinner. There's lots for everyone to enjoy, but there's usually some left over for the next day. You can choose to eat the leftover turkey as is (but that's gross), or you can repurpose it into an entirely new dish.
Sharing some sumptuous leftover turkey recipes for no particular reason, but I digress.
There are many ways to skin a podcast, and it takes absolutely zero effort. Or at least, it's way easier than it looks.
Consider Joe Rogan, one of the most widely listened to podcasters on the planet. While it's clear that The Joe Rogan Experience (full episodes) are the main attraction, we regularly see how his content can be stretched by slicing and dicing his podcast to produce bits for YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and a handful of other outlets. Create once, repurpose and deploy everywhere.
The best part is that your discerning audience won’t challenge you in court over whether this is truly a new piece of content or if it’s a derivative of a larger piece of content. As far as they’re concerned, people love familiarity.
By repurposing your content, your brand keeps on popping up with new nuggets of entertainment value in various formats for your audience’s pleasure - and to your benefit at that. The point I’m trying to make is, you shouldn’t feel like you’re repeating yourself when you’re repurposing. You’re creating brand new value entirely.
1. Repurpose podcast content into videos
As you may have noticed many of today's radio shows—the BBC Ones and Howard Sterns of the world—have since expanded aggressively into video. Most of the time, it's just a matter of adding a camera or two to the room. This type of content is also called a vodcast.
It really is as simple as filming yourself. Once you've got that down, there literally are thousands of ways you can cut and slice a video out of your podcast.
I. Repurpose into questions
If interesting questions were raised in your podcast, a video is the perfect opportunity for a round of "what do you think?" with your audience. You'll be surprised at how much value they can add to the discussion.
Who knows, your comments section might hold the inspiration you need for your next episode.
Helps start discussions (especially on LinkedIn)
Questions can especially spark discussions and evolve into interesting threads. Platforms like LinkedIn in particular are great for facilitating these kinds of discussions because they host a diverse group of users who are more than happy to share their perspective.
Pro tip: Focus on the meat and potatoes
When it comes to social media content, you're dealing with shorter attention spans.
The best performing videos on YouTube tend to be 3 minutes long. But let's pump the brakes on that statistic. That's because the top videos tend to be music videos. Ideal length varies per niche—10-18 minutes for TED Talks, 5-10 minutes for beauty videos, and a variety of lengths for other topics.
All in all though, video tends to hold attention for shorter periods than podcasts, which do well even with lengths greater than 1 hour.
One of the keys of podcast repruposing is getting straight to the important stuff, almost like you're reading bullet points. If you want to discuss things in detail, you're better off leaving that for the full episode, which can naturally be your CTA accompanying these clips.
Ideally, the video should be a preview into discussions that you've tackled on a much deeper level on your podcast. Think of it as a trailer: hook a viewer for 30-90 seconds to get them interested enough in your ten-hour epic (please let this be a joke).
II. Repurpose statistics
In case you were trying to describe an interactive time-series bubble chart on your podcast, a video might help clear things up. Statistics and data are more easily understood when presented visually.
Numbers are better when visualized
Like we said, it's much more effective to show a statistic than to talk about it—it's simply stickier. This is especially true for complex data that may require charts and other visualizations to be understood easily.
It makes it easier to quote, too
Think about it. It's easier to remember a number (or data for that matter) when you've seen it on a graph. Here are some examples of numbers you can't forget.
III. Repurpose engaging moments
Some of the best parts of your episode may have happened spontaneously or sporadically. Funny moments, surprising remarks, sarcasm, and so on. Hollywood trailers incorporate those all the time. Those can be perfect to pique people's interest into tuning into the full episode.
Let's see those pearly whites
You can show your range of expression and add some humor to the mix. Things tend to be funnier when people can see what you're doing. If you happen to look funny, half the job's already done :)
Noteworthy nuggets
Can you find noteworthy moments? Maybe it was a personal anecdote or learning that can be encapsulated in a repurposed clip.
IV. Brand-mentions
Naturally in business podcasts and shows, other brand names or industry players may come up. Maybe it's something they're doing right, or a brand that recently caught the eye of either you or the guest. Mention them! Provided you're mentioning them in a positive, desirable light, by all means tag them when posting and share the love (and reach).
It adds a layer of social proof
"You haven't heard of me, but you've heard of my clients". Sometimes, especially when you're still in that come-up phase when you're starting out, it pays to associate with brands. Psychologically, you're building credibility by association over time.
It adds a layer of brand recognition
Closely related to the point above, you can make it easier to breed familiarity when you discuss other brands that your target audience may have heard of. It's a way to de-foreign your show to them, and your repurposed content can be the vehicle here for that.
2. Repurpose podcast content into blogs
Ah, the written format. When you sit and talk for anywhere from 10 to 50 minutes at a time, you’re bound to come up with something worth writing about (one would hope). Podcasts are great fodder for blog content, improving your SEO and site value on top of brand equity.
I. Create episode summaries
Blogs are a great opportunity to deliver your podcasts content to people who don’t have the time to sit through an episode. Even if they do, different people consume content differently at different types.
People who love watching your stuff at night may also prefer to read during the workday. You can opt to summarise your episodes or produce word-for-word transcriptions; whatever gets your finest points across in the best way.
Make it easy to recap the episode
Sometimes people want to get to the gist of something before actually tuning in in depth, and an article can serve just that purpose. Let the article read like a table of contents of what was discussed in the video. This piece of content would add value (and perhaps entertainment) in and of itself, but also serves as a teaser to the episode you created.
Pro tip: Focus your headings on the main points
By the way, your goal isn't always to get people to forcibly sit down and watch your episode. Rather, your goal is to build a connection with them. Imagine if you have a burger restaurant, and you sell fries as well.
If a subset of your customers usually just come for the fries, that's ok too. It doesn't make them any less favourable to you. The same attitude should apply to your repurposed written content.
Be generous. Make it so that even if they don't watch the full episode, they've still gotten [some] value out of reading the article. Having said that, it should be clear that tuning into the full episode is the main attraction.
II. Fuse video with text
When you write an article, consider finding ways to embed the full episode and even video snippets amongst it. This helps you do two very important things.
Reduce the bounce rate
Building supplementary content around your podcast is a good way to generate traffic, lower your bounce rates, and provide better experiences for your listeners.
Create 'multimedia' content
Providing a rich experience to your audience is second to none, and a surefire way of doing that is to leverage the fact that you can embed videos (and images, more on that in a bit) in your article.
This creates a 4D experience of sorts, and different consumers of your article can pick out different pieces. For example, some people may like to read the headings and skip to the video snippets. Others may focus only on the images or text in isolation - you get the idea.
III. Treat the blog as a trailer to the podcast
Another option for repurposing your podcast is to use it as a “trailer” of sorts to serve as a starting point for new listeners.
This method involves placing a lot of emphasis on your SEO: find the right search terms, and direct users to your content. What they find upon landing should be rewarding (it’d have to be in order for you to rank), but thin enough to encourage a deeper dive into your audio material.
Strategically leave questions unanswered
Ever obsessively binge-watched a series? Don't lie to me now. Good, then you know the value of a well-placed cliffhanger.
When you end your blog with a question and promise to answer it on your podcast, it gives your audience a reason to listen. If it's a good question, they won't be able to help themselves. This too, my friends, is a pro-tip worth implementing.
IV. Use the blog as a vehicle to go deeper
Finally, repurposing your podcast into blog form can be used as a means of expanding the content of your discussions. Take your main talking points, and go deeper, for example:
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Embellishing further on points
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Doing research to test claims and fill uncertainties,
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Pointing listeners to more substantial material,
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Picking up on any points left unanswered due to time constraints
The name of the game here is adding value, and the rewards could take the form of increased traffic, more time spent with your brand, and greater listener satisfaction.
Not only can you expound on points already discussed, you can also use a blog to add more to what your podcast tackled, especially if you can lead your audience to additional research or different points of view.
Repurpose Podcast Content into Images
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then you should be sitting on a wealth of inspiration for images remixed off of the content you’ve produced for your podcast or original serise.
Images are great for boosting your social media game, as well as populating your site or channel profiles with gallery images and thumbnails.
I. Golden one-liners
Don’t be modest, we know you’ve demonstrated remarkable wit on more than one occasion during recording. Take those nuggets of wisdom (or comedy, or lunacy—really, whatever you’ve got) and present them in a compelling way.
You can check listener feedback to see what lines resonate with your audiences, or pick a personal favourite that you feel didn’t shine as brightly as it would have if your guest or co-host weren’t such a gab under more favourable circumstances.
II. Stats worth sharing
Be seen as a thought leading content show
If your goal is to create content worth the status of, “thought leadership,” then creating infographic pieces that cover key facts or statistics discussed on the show is the way to go.
Your best angle here would be to make sure that your statistics are clear, easy to recall, and most importantly, indicative of the insight that your show generates.
Make easy-to-remember takeaways
Numbers are sticky, especially when visualized (we said it earlier but we'll gladly say it again). When you leave your audience with knowledge they can cite, it makes them feel good because they can walk away with something memorable. Make those memories.
III. Guest learnings and maxims
Invite people to share their own views
Creating visual materials that highlight your guests and viewers’ learnings, maxims, or quotable quotes is a good way to draw positive attention and boost organic reach.
We urge you to feature stellar content generated for you by your show’s guests and viewer. This way, you invite a lot more shares from those featured, and bait engagement from people who’d love to be featured.
Commemorate your guest
Everyone wants to be remembered. Do yourself a favour and thank your guest through a post. It can be as simple as posting a picture with them with the caption "Thanks for being on the show! Glad to have you!", but even better if you can add a personal touch by embellishing the image with an interesting quote they said or a specific thing that you learned from them, that in turn drives discussion on social among your community.
IV. Questions and answers
You can and should engage with listeners wherever they choose to reach out, especially when they have questions for you. As a helpful expert, it’s only right.
Involve your audience
Now, we recommend taking this a step further and using those Q&A moments to inspire content worthy of publication. Off-show engagement is a natural extension of your podcast’s ability to inform and delight, and therefore the type of material you should be featuring on your social channels.
Invite differing opinions
While you might have your own views, part of being a good host is giving differing (even opposing) opinions the opportunity to be heard.
Even if you don't necessarily agree with what was said, taking the time and effort to make an image of that dissenting opinion goes a long way in showing that you're open-minded and level-headed.
Conclusion
When you take a look at the foremost examples of success in podcasting, or any show for that matter, you’ll find that repurposing your podcast is less of a bonus and more of a requisite. You can either get creative and build an empire to go with your podcast, or struggle to make it big amidst all the competition.
Your podcast should be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Beyond the show, your present and potential listeners ought to find a wealth of content inspired by (or derived from) the podcast and its impact across the internet.
Need a content repurposing service for creating a podcast or to repurpose your videos? We can help.
Chat to us now or book time to brainstorm.