Planning, researching, recording, editing, and publishing a high-quality branded podcast takes time. But the biggest mistake marketers make with a branded podcast has nothing to do with the time invested.
It’s about what marketers DON’T DO after the podcast episode is published.
A podcast episode is so much more than a single audio file. However, most marketers just hit “publish” and distribute the audio from their podcast hosting provider. They don’t take it any further once the episode makes its way to Apple, Spotify, Google and other podcast platforms.
When you invest the time it takes to produce a high-quality podcast episode for your company, you’re better off squeezing as much “juice” from it as you can. And that’s where repurposing content comes into the picture.
Repurposing your podcast episodes into videos, blog posts, featured articles, images, or organic social media posts helps stretch one audio file into multiple engaging content marketing pieces. (You can get at least 13 pieces of content from a single podcast episode. Although Gary Vaynerchuk talks about getting up to 80 pieces of content!)
In order to break apart your podcast episode into this many forms of content, you need a process. This post will walk you through the process of repurposing your branded podcast to connect with more prospects, build trust with your audience, and gain credibility.
“If you put together a strategy & have a purpose for each episode, you can get a variety of content pieces for distribution.”
Tristan Pelligrino
Co-Founder
Motion
What does it mean to repurpose content?
Repurposing content goes beyond a quick facelift. And when it comes to repurposing a branded podcast episode, it’s all about two primary things:
1. Adding more context or a different point of view
2. Reshaping or refining the content based upon the distribution channel
Or, in other words, Hubspot states:
“When you repurpose a piece of content, you’re doing one of two things (or both): changing the format of the content, or changing the target audience for the content.”
To get a clear picture, here’s what repurposing content is not:
- Re-sharing podcast episodes on LinkedIn with a link to Spotify
- Taking an Instagram post and re-sharing it on Facebook, without any additional text
- Taking the transcript of a podcast episode and publishing it as a blog post
- Embedding an audio file on a webpage without any additional context
- Sharing an Apple podcast link on Twitter
Repurposed content is more of:
- Taking a podcast and turning it into a blog post, with additional context from your company’s leadership
- Taking a key quote from a podcast guest, developing a custom image designed to fit LinkedIn’s format
- Expanding upon a key theme included in a podcast episode by creating an entirely new blog post
- Building a short video from a guest’s highlights captured during a podcast interview
Want to build a content engine that drives revenue?
Content Logistics is a podcast we produce for B2B marketers looking to build a scalable content engine. Camille Trent, Head of Content at Dooly.ai, interviews the marketers behind the best content marketing flywheels to uncover the tactical aspects of content production — from first draft to first customer. This podcast teaches everything from developing a sound content strategy to drafting, optimizing and distributing that content to grow your audience. Listen in and figure out how to become the best content creator and distributor within your own organization.
Should your company repurpose content?
A 2021 Edison Research white paper reported that approximately 41% of Americans had listened to at least one podcast in the last month. That equals 116 million people age twelve or above…and that is a lot.
But what about the 59% of the rest of the population who didn’t listen to a podcast episode last month?
Repurposing podcasts for new distribution channels can help tap into this audience and introduce your brand. After all, people don’t consume content the same way. Some may prefer to listen to audio, while others may like to watch videos, view infographics, read articles, or scroll through social platforms.
But is it that simple?
From our experience, the reason why marketers create more full-length podcasts rather than repurpose existing episodes is that
- They don’t know how to build a process for it (or they’re confused about a repurposing strategy)
- They’re concerned their audience will be bored of listening/watching/reading the same thing over and over
Let’s debunk those fears.
First, if you don’t know how to repurpose your podcast, this guide will help you.
Two, repurposing is not revamping. (Please revisit the above section to see what repurposed content is and what it’s not.) Repurposing involves adding a spin – it could be personal stories, more stats, reformatted images or a highlight video reel. So the new content is hardly a repost of a full-length podcast episode (in an audio file format).
So the answer is yes. Your company should repurpose its content regularly. After all, someone in your target audience won’t always commit to a full-length podcast episode at first.
But when you repurpose a full-length conversation from your company’s podcast, you get an opportunity to connect with your audience in their preferred format. And this happens without them initially spending 45-minutes to get a taste of what your podcast is all about.
How do you repurpose long-form content from a podcast episode?
Even after it is edited down to its final form, many branded podcast episodes can still easily run 45 minutes or more in length.
Out of this massive amount of content, you’ll want to know what parts of the podcast stand out the most, and what you’ll want to pull out and repurpose into these formats:
- Audiograms
- Video snippets
- Promotional videos / Podcast trailer videos
- Quotes & social images
- LinkedIn sliders
- Audio excerpts
- Blog posts
Select the Best Content & Prepare Show Notes
The best way to select the highlights from your latest podcast episode and find content for repurposing is to summarize the podcast first. After you have a great summary and have prepared show notes, you then have a great foundation for repurposing the podcast episode into other consumable formats.
Here’s the 5-step process we use at Motion:
1. Generate transcript
The transcript is your secret weapon for really going through a podcast episode. At Motion, we use Descript (check out our case study on their website). This process allows you to listen/watch the episode while you have the transcript in front of you. You get the words and the audio/video content on the screen at the same time.
2. Highlight key themes
When going through the episode, I highlight key themes. This can include questions asked by the host or key segments presented by a guest. Key themes ideally tie back to the objective or title of the episode.
3. Identify short quotes
For social images or even opening lines for a promo video, it’s helpful to capture the quotes when going through an episode. Often, these are hard-hitting statements that’ll drive interest in an image or the first few seconds of a video.
4. Take notes
When using Descript, you can add inline notes when listening or watching an episode. This is helpful to add more context on “why” you think a segment is important or helpful for promotional purposes.
After you’ve gone through the steps above, you can then use this information to generate new compositions, videos, audiograms, and images.
5. Develop show notes
Keep in mind, in order to prepare effective show notes, you need to actively listen to the episode, take notes along the way and then draft a document once you’re done.
Here’s a breakdown of the most common sections of a podcast show notes document:
✅ Episode title – This is your H1. It’s the big idea discussed.
✅ Episode summary – This gives the readers a taste of what they’ll get with the full episode.
✅ Guest information – If you have a guest on your show, this is an opportunity to highlight them. Include links to their company website, social profiles and a brief description of their bio.
✅ Key themes – Include a brief summary of main themes.
✅ Episode highlights – To give visitors a peak at the actual dialogue, include specific highlights in the conversation and reference the quotes.
✅ Full-length episode – If someone is on the page, give them access to the full episode. Yes, people do listen to episodes on their desktop too.
✅ Links to subscribe – If you want people to subscribe, you should make it easy.
✅ Resources – Provide a link to any valuable resources mentioned in the podcast. You can either link to them within the summary or include a separate section.
✅ Additional episodes – To get website visitors to listen to more of your show, include a link to other relevant episodes.
A podcast episode page is a great “home” for each episode. It serves as an anchor for the conversation, allows you to build a library of content to reference, and helps build your audience.
Examples of repurposed content from a long-form branded podcast episode
After you have the show notes prepared, you can then use the summary, highlights and key quotes to create other forms of content. Check out the various examples we have pulled together below.
Show notes & featured articles
Qu develops a dedicated page for every single podcast episode of Restaurants Reinvented. Each page includes a set of show notes (approximately 1,200 – 1,500 words) capturing the best elements from the episode.
Featured articles (or blog posts) are also created from major themes referenced in the episodes.
Podcast trailer
Kinsta used a trailer to launch the Reverse Engineered podcast. The short video builds off of the show’s overall theme and is used to create more awareness for the podcast. Clips from podcast episode recordings were used within the promotional video.
Podcast episode teaser video
For the Rep Your Brand podcast (hosted by Nick Bennett and owned by Motion), there’s a teaser video developed for every single episode. The teaser video captures one or two key themes discussed during the show.
The short video is designed for distribution on LinkedIn and Twitter. The short (less than 2 minutes) format helps introduce viewers to the full episode.
Sliders / presentations
Have you ever seen the carousel posts on social media platforms? Or perhaps a LinkedIn post with a slider?
Sales Assembly uses quotes from the podcast episodes to build sliders for social distribution. The quotes provide snapshots of key moments in the conversation and drive prospects to learn more from the full episode.
Social images
Tyfone uses images to promote the Digital Banking podcast on social media platforms and the organization’s website. A variety of image sizes are produced to ensure specs meet the requirements for the specific social platform.
The social images are also used to provide additional context for blog posts and featured articles produced from the show’s episodes.
Full-length video episode
Tyrannosaurus Tech has an opportunity to showcase the full-length conversations from the Digital Footprint in the form of a video. Not every member of your audience consumes podcasts in an audio format, so the video provides listeners with another way to consume.
Summary
The old saying goes that you should work smarter, not harder. A lot of work goes into creating a quality podcast episode, but the benefits of that hard work can be multiplied by taking the final output and repurposing your brand’s podcast it into separate pieces of content. If you’re looking for a company to help you launch a B2B podcast, then Motion might be a good fit. Contact us today and we can help you get your podcast off of the ground.
Want to see how other B2B marketers repurpose podcasts?
We drink our own kool aid. And eat our own dog food (did you know we have Microsoft to blame for this saying?).
So go ahead & check out our own Recorded Content. It’s a show for small, scrappy marketing teams who are looking to launch & grow a successful B2B podcast. In each episode, we provide stories on how to overcome the challenges of launching, running and growing a show. We tackle issues with technology, content marketing, distribution and more. We help you become a B2B podcasting hero with an amazing show.
Written by Tristan Pelligrino
Tristan Pelligrino is the Co-Founder of Motion. He’s a serial entrepreneur who started his career as a consultant with large IT companies such as PwC, IBM and Oracle. After getting his MBA, he started and grew one of the fastest video production companies in the country – which was listed on the Inc. 5000. Tristan now enjoys leading the content marketing strategies of some of the most innovative B2B technology companies in the country. You can find him on LinkedIn and Facebook.
