How to Repurpose Video Content into Podcasts, Audio Clips and Blog Posts

Repurpose video content

You’ve finally finished editing your YouTube video, published it and immediately start thinking about the next video you can create. Most creators do. There’s always another topic to research, another script to write and another video to create.

But what happens to the information in the video you have just published?

Quite often, it gets forgotten.

As bloggers and independent creators, we often spend a lot of time on individual pieces of content. This means that a 15-minute tutorial can contain enough information for a podcast episode, a couple of social media clips and even a full article. Yet, many of us use that recording just once.

I think there is a better way to approach content creation. Instead of constantly looking for new ideas, make better use of the material you already have.

What we do with our video content for our blog is what we call ‘video content repurposing’. That is we take the original video and rework the most useful bits for different people who prefer to listen, read or watch.

Let’s look at how this can work for a blogger who wants to maintain a presence across different platforms without spending the entire week creating content.

Your video probably has more value than you think

In our example of the typical YouTube tutorial, you might have spent 2 hours researching the topic, 1 hour recording the video and even more time editing it together. Once the video has been published, that content is essentially done for you.

Someone who doesn’t watch YouTube videos often might not see your content even though they are searching for the same information.

A podcast listener would prefer to listen to the same content that is being delivered by a YouTube video. Someone searching on Google for information on a subject would prefer to read written instructions on how to do something, rather than watch a video on the same subject.

These are different audiences, even though they may be interested in the same subject.

By repurposing your content, you can reach more people who are interested in the same thing.

Also, for smaller websites, there’s only so many things you can create per day. And as I’ve said, usually one person is researching, writing, editing and publishing content, so it’s good to have some things to reuse to make the workload more manageable.

I would also point out that just because you have made a podcast of your video, does not mean you can just publish the transcript of that video on your blog and call it a day. Each of the different formats will require some work to make them the best they can be.

The biggest thing to get your head around is the difference between audio and video.

Start with the audio, but choose the right video

Not every video deserves to become a podcast.

Just because you can create a podcast from your video doesn’t mean you should. A recording of someone demonstrating a complicated software process may lose much of its value without the screen. On the other hand, an interview, webinar or discussion about a particular subject can work surprisingly well as audio.

Before extracting anything, play the video and imagine listening to it with your eyes closed. Does the speaker explain things clearly? Can you follow the discussion without seeing the screen? Are there long stretches where nothing meaningful is being said?

This is what we will use in our further steps.

First, you need to extract audio from video. To do this, you can use CapCut’s online tool for extracting audio from video and save the recording as an audio file.

As you listen to the exported file, keep in mind that even though the video may sound great on your laptop, there could be lots of background noise or even microphone issues once the audio is played through headphones.

You can then use Audacity (a free program for Windows, Mac and Linux) or any of the online audio editors to remove any background noise, cut out long pauses and even adjust the volume.

Don’t spend hours trying to make a basic conversation sound like a professional radio program. It is better to have clean, understandable audio for your short clip.

One important point to keep in mind when recording audio for video is that you cannot reference visual material in your recording. This includes things such as “look at the second image” or “you can see the result here”.

Replace them with a short explanation, or remove the reference if it isn’t necessary.

The audio recording should feel complete and be understandable even without having watched the original video.

A podcast doesn’t need a completely new recording

The audio from your video is now ready to be used as the basis for a podcast episode.

This is especially true if you are already doing interviews, educational discussions or other types of content that don’t rely too heavily on visuals.

You don’t have to create a new intro for every single episode of your podcast. Your brand can be used for the intro of your podcast, and then you can have a separate intro for the content of the episode itself.

Think about the title of the video too. If you call it My Latest Blogging Discussion then that may be fine for your current subscribers but it won’t give any idea to someone new to your channel of what the video is about.

A title like “How to Find Your First 100 Blog Visitors” would be much more clear to someone searching for content to listen to on their way to work.

The description for the episode should also be thought through. It should outline the main content of the episode, highlighting the main points, and if the recording covers several topics, then include the timestamps for each of these.

There are many podcast hosting services available, such as Spotify for Creators, Buzzsprout, and Podbean. Research the current features, distribution and pricing for each of these options before making a decision on where to publish your podcast.

One thing I would avoid is making episode length the main priority. A useful 10-minute discussion does not become better simply because you stretch it to 30 minutes.

Instead of aiming for a certain number of episodes of a certain length, try to aim for as many useful episodes of as good quality as possible, of whatever length they happen to be, even if they are short.

Don’t overlook the smaller moments in your recording

Here is something worth trying the next time you edit a video.

Look out for any parts of the video that can be used on their own rather than watching the whole thing through to check for errors.

Perhaps you explain a mistake that many beginners make. Maybe you answer a question that is frequently asked by your commenters. Maybe there is a short explanation of something that would be more useful than the rest of the discussion.

Mark those sections while editing.

A 30-second clip containing one clear idea can be easier to share than a 15-minute video. You can use it on Instagram, LinkedIn or X, depending on where your audience spends time.

Keep it simple. Just add some captions, choose a good background image and make sure the text is big enough to be read on a mobile device.

This can be as simple as adding a waveform animation to the audio clip or even using a still image with some clear text as a background.

I also avoid cutting off mid sentence as this can create a very short clip, but it may not make sense to someone who hasn’t watched the original video.

Again, there is a big difference between creating a short piece of useful content and simply cutting out a random piece of video.

The transcript is a starting point, not your finished article

For a blogger, turning a video into a written article is the most interesting part of this process.

You have the core of the content for your article. Now you just need to make it into something that people will want to read.

Tools like Otter.ai and Descript will help you to transcribe your video content. This can be used as a starting point for your article, but be aware that automatic transcription can contain many errors. These errors will need to be corrected by you, especially if there are lots of technical terms, names, etc. in the video.

Once you have the transcript, read it as if you were editing someone else’s work.

There are likely to be repeated sentences, unnecessary explanations and thoughts that were relevant to the conversation but will look awkward in print.

Remove those parts.

This can be organized in many ways. It may be better to have the most relevant information at the beginning of the article, and then go on to more detail. This may mean that you have to reorganize the information from the video, as the video discussion may not have been organized in the best way for reading.

Don’t be afraid to add information either.

For example, your video about setting up a WordPress website for beginners could be turned into an article containing screenshots of the installation process, more explanation of things that beginners may not understand, and links to other WordPress tutorials.

The extra information provided in the article is what will make the written version of the video useful.

Look for what people are searching for before you make a headline for your article, because a video can be titled around a broad topic, but the article could be much more specific.

Headings can be used to help people navigate through the article, but do not make every two paragraphs into a separate section. The article should be written as if it were a connected explanation of the material in the video, not a collection of notes.

The video can be embedded near the top of the article or within relevant parts of the article. If you have already published the podcast version of the video then you can also embed the player for the podcast.

You could also create a downloadable checklist or template for people who want to put the information into practice.

What does a week’s content look like?

Let’s say you publish one video every Monday.

This could then be released as a podcast on Tuesday, a short clip on Wednesday, another short clip on Thursday and the expanded article on Friday.

This approach would allow you to create lots of content to promote on different days of the week, without having to research and create content for a completely new subject on a daily basis.

Here is a sample publishing calendar:

As I mentioned before, if you are a full-time employee and manage your website on your own, it might not be possible to create content for the whole week within 5 days.

You can spread the work over two weeks instead. You could even prepare the article before publishing the original video.

What is more important is to have a routine of creating content and not to feel like you are constantly running to create more content.

Let’s take a food blogger as an example

Imagine a food blogger who has recorded a video about preparing meals for a family during a busy working week.

The recording is around 20 minutes long. It covers grocery planning, preparing ingredients, organising meals and storing food.

There is no reason to leave all that information inside one YouTube upload.

The audio from the video can be extracted and published as a podcast episode for those who prefer to listen while completing other tasks around the house. Some of the most practical tips from the video can also be shared as short social media clips.

You can then create an article from the video with lots of photos, the ingredient list and a shopping list that you can print out.

This doesn’t have to be a word-for-word copy of the video. Additional content can be added to make the article more valuable to readers.

People searching on Google for weekly meal preparation ideas would then find your article. Someone scrolling on Instagram might see one of your short videos and another listener to your podcast.

One recording has now provided several entry points to the same website and brand.

This can be particularly useful when you have limited time for recording new material.

Give every format its own identity

One of the worst things that you can do when repurposing content is use the exact same title, description and look/ feel for each of the different pieces of content that you create.

The way that people search on the web is different from the way that people search on YouTube, and the way that people search on the web is different from the way that people search for podcasts.

A YouTube title is designed to get people to click on a link, a podcast title explains what the episode is about, and a blog post title explains what the post is about.

The same applies to descriptions.

The YouTube description can contain the timestamps and links to other videos of the channel. The show notes of the podcast can consist of a summary of the episode as well as other relevant information. The introduction of the blog post should explain what the reader can expect to read in the rest of the post.

In terms of how you record the original video, it is worth learning more about YouTube SEO tips. Good titles, descriptions and thumbnails will help your video to rank on YouTube and can help people to find your original video.

The way that you record the original video will determine how much work you have to do to make it look good for editing and repurposing. Good lighting, clear audio and sensible framing are key. We have a guide on recording better blog videos with a smartphone here.

The blog post can contain links to other related blog posts, images and alt tags, and help users to navigate the website to find more related articles.

You don’t need a dozen tools to get started

I would recommend not subscribing to all of the tools mentioned in a content marketing tutorial.

Start with a small set of tools and see where your workflow needs to improve.

CapCut can handle audio extraction. Audacity is useful for basic audio editing. Otter.ai or Descript can help with transcripts, while Canva can be used to prepare social media graphics.

For podcast hosting I would look at Spotify for Creators, Buzzsprout and Podbean.

WordPress can be used to manage the written content for the blog posts.

Most of these tools offer free versions with limited features and paid versions with more features. Check out the current limitations of each tool before committing to using it for your content marketing needs.

There’s no need to use 5 different tools when 2 will do.

Are people actually engaging with the repurposed content?

Once you have published a few videos in different formats, then you can start to see how each format is performing.

This can be a surprising finding. For example, your podcast may receive more attention than you expected, but the blog post brings in most of the new visitors. On the other hand, short clips can receive lots of views but not necessarily lead to many visitors to your website.

This information is very useful for determining where to spend your time with the repurposed content.

Google Search Console will tell you how your articles are performing on Google Search for various queries. You can see how many times your article was displayed, how many times it was clicked, what percentage of times it was clicked (the CTR) and the queries that people used to find your article.

Google Analytics for more information on how people are interacting with your website.

The information on your podcast hosting platform on how many times people are listening to and downloading your episodes. On social media, make sure you are looking at more than just views of your content – shares, saves and interactions of value are what you are looking for.

Keep a simple spreadsheet with the title of each original video, links to the podcast, clips and article for each, and the performance for each over time.

This will help you to determine after a few months which topics are worth more effort and which can be left as standalone videos.

Just because you can create four different formats for your video, doesn’t mean that you should. Most of your audience will only engage with two of the formats anyway.

A quick word about copyright

First of all, you need to check if you have the permission to use all parts of your video for your podcast or for the separate audio clips.

This is especially important if you have interviewed guests, included background music or used third-party footage.

A license to use music on YouTube doesn’t necessarily mean that you can use the same music on a separate podcast distribution. Similarly, stock footage and other copyrighted material may require additional licenses.

If you have interviewed people for your recording then you should check the agreement that you have with them before you use their words in any other format.

This is a minor point, but it could save you from copyright issues later on.

Final thoughts

You don’t have to create new content for every platform.

The material you need for other platforms is often already there in the videos you’ve created last week.

To start with just one video, extract the audio from it to see if it makes a good podcast. Then choose 2 or 3 parts of the video that would make good social media posts and use the full transcript of the video as the basis for a written article.

The most important thing is that you take your time to make each of the different versions of your content really good.

You will begin to see your videos in a completely different light. Instead of viewing them as end-products, you will be able to see them as material for other forms of content.

That is much more useful and much more practical than spending hours and hours creating something that can be used on only one platform.

Frequently Asked Questions