Duplicate content is generally bad for search efforts, but re-purposing old content might help you keep up with the growth of video.

The best thing about video marketing might be how many content sweet spots it hits. Videos provide excellent social media posts, they engage with customers in ways that other media can’t and can be relatively low-cost productions. More and more, companies are adopting video as an integral part of content marketing strategies, but the form isn’t yet universal. That might change soon, as viewership is skyrocketing.

People will watch both entertainment and ads

According to comScore’s Video Metrix data, the number of Americans who watched an online video grew from 180 million to 183 million in the past year. More importantly, there were over 48 billion views of online videos in January 2014, up from over 36 billion during the same month last year. However, the most intriguing statistic might be the number of video ads that consumers viewed. People watched over 9 billion in January 2013, but the number was almost 27 billion in January 2014.

This indicates that people are increasingly watching online videos, whether they’re promotional or not. In fact, that data seems to show that commercial videos are gaining acceptance. This supports the notion that video marketing must be treated much differently than television advertisements in the past, as Brafton previously reported.

People watched over 9 billion video ads in January 2013, but the number was almost 27 billion in January 2014.

What was old is new

Over time, a strategist can help a brand find the right voice, but in the meantime, there are plenty of ways to make high quality video content quickly and professionally, including:

  • Recaps. If you’ve produced news and promotional content on a blog for some time, you’ve built up a library of interesting and relevant posts. Offering quick recaps of what you’ve covered in the past repackages content and allows it to be presented in a new format for audiences that prefer visual content.

  • Round-ups. Thought leadership is an important part of providing content. To demonstrate expertise and knowledge of your industry, create round-ups of news stories and analysis from around the web.

  • Updates. Some of your older content might be out of date, so you might think you can’t use it. Yet if you update these stories in video form with more recent information (or if you reiterate why they’re still relevant in the present day), you can get extra value out of what you’ve already produced.

As long as you aren’t superficially repackaging it, recycling content is a great way to get some extra value out of what you’ve already created. However, you’re eventually going to have to produce original content if you want the full benefits of video marketing products. So buy some time with the above tactics and get to work on a comprehensive video strategy. 

Alex Butzbach is a Marketing Writer at Brafton. He studied Communications at Boston College, and after a brief stint teaching English in Japan, he entered the world of content marketing. When he isn't writing and researching, he can be found on a bike somewhere in Metro Boston.