You hear this advice everywhere: B2B marketers need to do more with less. Nowhere is that more true than with your cornerstone content. Unfortunately, B2B marketers underutilize their cornerstone content studies such as whitepapers backed by data and ROI/business case analyses. 43% of marketers in North America and a staggering 69% of marketers in Europe who attended recent Forrester webinars said they create four or fewer content  assets from a single cornerstone study. This is a travesty. It is a lost opportunity to maximize the value you get from an existing content investment. Creating too few assets limits the reach of this important content, and your prospect base won’t find the content unless some of the key information is in a format they prefer to use.

Activating your cornerstone content using a range of formats that align with how your prospects want to consume it and how your organization can deliver it greatly extends its value and longevity. For example, let’s say you posted a report for download on your website based on a survey of 200 IT/LOB professionals about their digital transformation adoption priorities, challenges, and desired outcomes. Typically, we see marketers building some of the same data into a landing page, an infographic, and a webinar. But that only adds up to four content assets. The best practice among top marketers we work with is to repurpose cornerstone content into at least 10 or more different formats. Here’s a list of additional assets you can use to activate cornerstone content, with limited additional effort or expense:

  • Data points in executive keynote presentations.
  • Sales presentations.
  • Investor pitches.
  • Click fodder for online ads or social media.
  • Press fodder.
  • Bylined articles.
  • Channel enablement kits.
  • Employee communications.
  • Press releases.
  • Ad campaigns.
  • Blog posts.
  • Social posts.
  • A series of nurturing emails.
  • A written “Q&A” interview with a key executive.
  • “Fact” graphics to support a video.
  • A SlideShare story.

The benefits of repurposing and reusing your cornerstone content include:

  • Extending the initial financial investment across multiple assets.
  • Increasing your reach and influence among new buyers and current customers.
  • Delivering a consistent message across channels by focusing on the cornerstone theme.
  • Improving search optimization to get found more easily and more often.
  • Increasing the utility of your sales team by giving them something “new” to bring to customers.
  • Expanding loyalty and confidence among existing customers.

To put these recommendations into practice today, review your content assets and find ways to repurpose the foundational content into additional compelling assets. This easy exercise will help you “do more” with the great cornerstone content you already have — and extend the life of great ideas while increasing your brand reach and customer engagement.