The ultimate guide to B2B content repurposing

As 2024 takes shape, the ongoing challenge for B2B marketers is to make budgets stretch further. Economic uncertainty continues to plague creative departments, as evidenced in our 2024 Marketing Roadmap for Tech & Telco.

Against a backdrop of lower budgets, higher costs and skills shortages, repurposing content becomes a key tactic in the B2B arsenal. Throughout our survey of 286 UK-based marketing decision-makers, we noted a key trend: transitioning from survival mode to recovery.

Good ideas bear repeating. As the team at thinkbox notes, “Creativity is the biggest ROI driver within our control”. So how can we combine creativity with efficiency? Enter content repurposing: tailoring existing content for new formats or channels. It can also help us reach new audiences, and perhaps most importantly, do more with less.

Content repurposing in a B2B context

The bulk of the hard work is so often in the original idea: creating content from scratch. Whether we’re repurposing video content, written reports or social media posts, the first step is complete. Repurposing gives us a chance to be creative with existing resources.

So what are the benefits? In a B2B context, repurposing content:

Strengthens thought leadership and distribution of original ideas

Our audiences have short attention spans, and marketers know it. As discovered in our 2024 report, a top priority for marketers is to gain share of voice so that all eyes remain on their brand. Often, companies produce great assets but the ideas are too difficult to distil.

Repeating ideas in a different format helps us break this down. For example, if we’re repurposing content for social media, we might take a key point from a long-form report and turn it into a LinkedIn post. These smaller, more digestible chunks help to get our ideas across.

By doing this consistently, we reinforce our brand authority, sharing resources across our personal profiles and company platforms.

Supports lead nurturing with extended content lifecycles

Costs remain the leading concern for B2B marketers, with 15% saying they were concerned about inflation and economic uncertainty. This gives us all the more incentive to extend our content lifecycles.

By keeping your assets in circulation for longer, you’re giving your customers more touchpoints. In turn, you’re nurturing prospects along the sales funnel, for example, reminding them of a lead generation PDF download with a social media post.

Maximises the value of assets created

A common B2B marketing adage is to “create once, distribute forever”. The best marketers operate cyclically, producing one substantial resource like a report to share throughout the year. The best approach is to plan for repurposing – rather than spending all your energy creating the asset only to burn out before the next sales cycle.

We need to think big when planning our repurposing efforts. Consider both internal resources and external partnerships so that you can plan ahead – for example, asking thought leaders to distribute snippets from interviews.

You can also explore Market Development Funds to incorporate user-generated content, thereby helping your budget go further. By bringing in the voice of your customer, you welcome more diverse views with minimal investment.

Consolidates messaging and tone of voice

According to our 2024 report, some three-quarters (74%) of marketers said that brand-building work had a significant impact on performance. But how can we build a brand if we’re not being consistent with content creation?

Repurposing helps to move away from this “cottage industry” approach. Instead of using decentralised models with siloed voices and themes, this method brings it all together. It works on one or one small group of assets to convey the same message and tone of voice. Every internal team member is on the same page, and customers are left informed, not confused.

Puts an emphasis on distribution

While creativity should be a key priority, it is not the only factor to consider in an effective content strategy. There’s no point in creating something if nobody can see it. This is why we should think about distribution in tandem with creation.

This helps us to target our audience at different times and on various channels. Consider things like five key takeaways from a report to turn into blog posts or bite-sized videos. Rather than being an afterthought, we can create it at the same time for sharing later, while ideas are still fresh in our minds.

Targets your audience at different touchpoints

Let’s remember those Ps in marketing – including “place”. Not every one of our prospects will consume content in the same place or format. Some may prefer to take their time over digesting long-form articles, whereas others may want snappy infographics.

Not only does this appeal to different interests, but to accessibility needs. For example, some readers may appreciate short text in colourful, high-contrast visual formats, or others may prefer text over audio. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide more tips on how to make your content visible to the widest range of audiences.

How should you approach content repurposing?

While you may have the budget for a full content repurposing service, you can also save money by keeping these resources in-house. This may sound a little “meta”, but this very piece of content you’re reading is an example of repurposing in action.

Building on our core asset – the 2024 Marketing Roadmap for Tech & Telco – we’re focusing on key insights into how to do more with less. So, how can you apply the same principles?

Creating content repurposing workflow

Whatever message you’re trying to convey or actions you want your users to take, you should follow these six steps.

Step 1: Identify your core asset

We don’t always need to start from scratch. You might be conducting a survey to turn into a report, but you may also already have a strong bank of content. Whichever you choose, the asset needs to be impactful and relevant to your audience.

Start with a content audit to look at any pre-existing assets. You can look at pieces like high-performing blog posts, reports or webinars – anything with demonstrable ROI or great feedback from your target audience.

Remember that you have to be creative here. B2B decision-makers typically spend fewer than six hours per week engaging with thought leadership content, so think about fresh new angles. Let’s say you had a predictions piece before new industry legislation was introduced – can you go back and reflect?

Step 2: Extract key insights or angles

Once you’ve decided on your assets, look at the key takeaways within it. What are the notable statistics, insights, quotes or concepts? How can we expand on one nugget of information, or simply grab audiences’ attention with a stand-out fact?

Jamie MacDow, Head of Client Services at onebite, says: “One approach is to update approximately 25% of the content to tailor it to specific regions, verticals, industries or target audiences.

“Alternatively, leveraging the underlying knowledge or data from the original piece to explore a particular aspect in greater depth offers a way to keep some of the original content while introducing new insights on a familiar topic. Much like we are doing in this article!”

Step 3: Determine content format and channels

In 2023, there was a unanimous response across our data set that suggested digital campaigns and assets would be the best performing marketing approach. But within these, we need to keep the digital channels varied – looking at infographics, blog entries, podcasts, videos and social media posts.

Think about your industry when choosing your channels and formats. Some may prefer long-form blog posts, which also work better on social networks like LinkedIn or native websites. Others may be better suited to snappier campaigns, even expanding beyond digital with immersive experiences or OOH advertising.

This isn’t a “spray and pray” approach. Look into your best-performing channels and content shared among them. Trial, refine and go again, ensuring you’re homing in on your target audience.

Step 4: Tailor the content for each platform

If you’re sharing across multiple channels, this isn’t a copy-and-paste exercise. Consider the format and norms of each channel, thinking about things like tone, length or presentation style. Some platforms may have character limits, for example, whereas others may better lend themselves to visuals.

While the format may change, the tone of voice should be consistent. Your message is the same across each channel, so don’t try to be ‘edgy’ just because it’s TikTok and stuffy on LinkedIn. Customers will engage with a consistent, established brand.

Step 5: Decide on distribution process and frequency

Now that you’re ready to share your content, you need to think about when. Build a content calendar to schedule which asset will be shared, where, and when. Consider factors like “the speed of the feed” – TikTok will refresh much faster than LinkedIn, for example.

There are always opportunities to cross-promote between channels, too. For example, you might tease a blog post on social media, or link through to it from your email newsletter. To take this further, follow the advice of Head of Client Services, Jamie MacDow:

“Consider utilising content platforms like Turtl, which enable highly personalised content creation. Such platforms allow for the production of highly relevant content that engages effectively with your audience at scale.”

Step 6: Measure and optimise

As with any marketing strategy, repurposing is only effective if we can measure it. You should have KPIs in mind from the beginning, factoring in what’s relevant to your goals for each asset and platform. These might include:

• Impressions
• Average engagement rate
• Sessions/users generated
• Lead conversion rates

It’s important to review this regularly as it will help you to understand what kinds of content, formats and distribution frequencies work best. Keep an eye on trends, too. Audiences can change and we’re all slaves to algorithms.

Don’t forget to keep your content approaches fresh either – there’s nothing worse than a fatigued creative team. What’s more, make sure the core message is reviewed at intervals too. We don’t want to fatigue our audience!

Conclusion

As budgets become more stretched with ad spend and dwindling staff resources, content repurposing allows us to be creative. It gives strong assets further longevity and takes them to new audiences or guides prospects along the funnel.

Done right, repurposing will ignite your teams’ creative spark and remind customers of your brand voice. You’ll continue to establish your brand as an authority on a topic, leading to enhanced trust and better conversion rates.

Curious to know more about the biggest marketing challenges for the year ahead? Download our free 2024 Marketing Roadmap for Tech & Telco.