Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs collaborate annually to produce a heap of research findings they call “B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends.” This year’s report just came out last month. (Presented on SlideShare here.)

In a section that probes respondents about what they perceive to be their biggest challenges, the top three results were: (1) producing enough content (2) producing content that engages, and (3) lack of budget.

Repurposing quality content helps overcome all these challenges.

If you don’t repurpose your best content, it’s time to start. And if you merely dabble in the practice, you’d be wise to step it up. The top three reasons why align with the challenges above in a big way.

• • More pages, more impressions = more content marketing power. 
    Well-planned, well-executed content begs to be repurposed. Examples are plentiful. Here, I’ll offer one super simple one. You published a how-to list. Readers appreciated it. Put it in presentation format—on SlideShare—and it becomes available to millions.

• • More plays.
    The example above includes two popular formats. Care to make it three? Present the content as a webinar. It was a list. Why not publish it on List.ly? Squidoo?

Interview someone about your list to record a podcast. You could even get more articles out of it by simply putting some twists on your list…

Repurpose the do’s into don’ts. Make ‘em questions. Drill down on just one. Construct a top three. Highlight the uncommon ideas as “secrets.” Expand on the best question or comment the article invoked. Storify makes it a snap to gather the social media feedback you received into a story of its own. Did it feature a cool visual? Cha-ching… Pinterest, Facebook, etc. Press release? Infographic?

• • More productivity.
    That was a pretty substantial pile of ideas I just tossed your way and I could go on and on. Even though I’m writing this article to help you understand the power of repurposing content, I can’t stop my mind a-straying into the many things I should probably do to repurpose this article.The ideas are already there. If the piece required research or photography or whatever, it’s already been done. This cloning approach leverages the time you’ve invested and makes it incredibly more productive.

 

Is an eBook a free book?

“eBook” no longer translates strictly to the digital form of a “real” book you buy online.

eBooks are electronic and can really grandfather your content.

Content marketers now commonly offer eBooks (usually for free) and the deliverable might be a collection of articles, a portfolio of some sort, an industry roundup, a collection of stories, or a whitepaper-like tutorial (usually with a more pictorial style).

There are no rigid rules regarding length, presentation, or even content type. For the purpose of this article, an eBook is a free book, a collection of informative and entertaining pages created with the goal of engaging readers seeking to gather expertise in your field.

eBooks make beautiful babies.

Your eBook has reproductive powers. A “stud” is an animal whose job it is to breed great offspring. eBooks are unquestionably studs in your content marketing stable. If you prefer a tamer metaphor, think of the eBook as “cornerstone” content. “

If you’re like me and don’t have the resources to create eBooks frequently, the goal is to offer them occasionally. That said, you should plan the eBook to: (1) cover big, wide, important territory that traces to your strengths, and (2) foster a series of “children”—meaning the eBook becomes the father of all kinds of magnetic content.

After creating an eBook that covers a wide swath of an important subject, you can mine sections of it to spawn content, content and more content. Think articles, presentations, webinars, podcasts, videos, infographics, etc. The list is long. Strategic content marketers create eBooks knowing one purpose is to continuously repurpose the content it contains.

Case in point.

If you’ll indulge me, I’ll tell share with you how I’m executing this strategy in my website copywriting business. My big beast of 2012, my stud, if you will, is an eBook called “21 Pointers to Sharpen Your Website.” I researched, wrote and labored over every detail of the publication for weeks, okay, months. Why? (1) I wanted it to be a seriously useful guide to optimizing your website and (2) I envisioned leveraging its themes for an entire year.

I succeeded, I think. The eBook itself has been downloaded and shared thousands of times. It’s my website’s most popular asset. And being that it also presents 21 carefully planned, thematically related subthemes, it’s gradually becoming 21 blog posts on my site. Many of the posts have been rewritten for other sites and online publications.One chapter, “Create Magnetic Content,” gave birth to its own family tree with variations including guest posts, a popular SlideShare presentation, a BigMarker webinar, a You Tube video, a List.ly feature, and a Squidoo lens. I might have left a few off this list. And I may not be done expanding it.

You get the idea. “21 Pointers” is my content stud. “Magnetic Content” has made for studly offspring. I haven’t even mentioned the Twitter, LinkedIn and social media implications.

That eBook has made the rounds, inspired readers/viewers to hire and refer me. One of its sires, the “magnetic content” presentation I put together, inspired your SlideShare’s editor to ask me to write for their blog, which is read by hundres of thousands of business people around the world. The SlideShare opportunity has expanded my audience, produced hundreds of leads, and many new clients.

This is how content marketing is supposed to work.

I suggest you try it. Gather your thoughts. Create and publish an eBook. See what happens. If you want to gather ideas for your eBook, may I suggest SlideShare? If you want some guidance, contact me via my site or call 916.984.9988. And if you have questions or comments, this SlideShare blog post is meant to be interactive, so type to me.