Content Creation a Big Headache? Here's Your Aspirin.

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		April 2009, Issue 62

Lead-Generation Best Practices
Content Creation a Big Headache? Here's Your Aspirin.
By Amy Bills, Director of Field Marketing, Bulldog Solutions

Make Your Content Work Overtime
Looking for ideas on repurposing content for better prospect engagement? View this short presentation.

See the full Webinar, "Promotion Planning: Maximize Your Marketing Calendar by Making Every Channel Count."
View now.

The question of content creation rears its ugly head about halfway through almost every discussion about building integrated online marketing plans. Talk about developing calls to action supported by content that's relevant to multiple buyer personas at various points in the buying cycle, and the conversation grinds to a halt as the parties realize how much or how little content they have to achieve this.

Depending on who's doing the asking, the next question goes something like this:

Marcom specialist: Who is going to create all of this content?
Marketing director: Who is going to pay for all of this content?
CMO: Wait a minute. We don't already have all of this content?

Or, as an attendee at our recent Webinar, "Promotion Planning: Maximize Your Marketing Calendar by Making Every Channel Count," put it: "How can you realistically stretch out a white paper into more than two touchpoints?"

Regardless of who's doing the worrying, content creation is a big pain point across the marketing organization. The writing of white papers and case studies, recording of Webinars and podcasts, and building of rich media pieces is very labor intensive. It takes time and resources, which aren't in excess in most companies even in a good economy.

Where Is That Ctrl-Content Key?

Unfortunately, there is no "Ctrl-Content" hotkey on any keyboard I've ever seen. But there are some genuinely effective ways to build a content library that can drive an integrated demand generation program.

Here's how Ahmed Taleb, Bulldog's Senior Director of Strategic Planning, answered that recent Webinar question.

"The reality of creating content is, it's very, very time-consuming and it's also very expensive, from a cost and a resource standpoint. We recommend getting as much mileage out of every asset that we create. "

Ahmed is talking here about repurposing content. It starts with a well thought out and well researched piece of content: A white paper, a presentation for a speaking engagement, or a Webinar. It also requires a little pre-planning.

If you do it right—and the more you do this, the easier it gets—that content can be used in multiple modes and adjusted to fit multiple personas. Here's an example Ahmed gave as he continued to answer this question:

"Start with a white paper on a given topic. There are probably three or four aspects or attributes of that particular topic relevant to a reader. It's important to lead in and wrap up each of those blocks as its own content piece. Imagine a 10-page white paper.

"You might have three or four topics covered within that...Each content block becomes a stand-alone piece. Turn that into a short series that you can start to send out. You might be able to deploy an executive summary as one touchpoint. A second touchpoint might be kind of an economic case study. A third touchpoint might be about the features and so on.

"If you start to structure content that way, take a storyboarding type approach to it, you start to architect it so you have the ability to edit it down into smaller pieces."

A Behind the Scenes Case Study in Repurposing

For a more specific example, look no further than the article you're reading right now. This article was generated by our promotion planning Webinar, and it wasn't the only content for which that Webinar (or in this case, an aspect of the Webinar's Q&A) was repurposed.

With some advance planning and compelling content, we turned one Webinar into six content pieces—not including blog posts and one-to-one conversations that took place via social media channels.

Here's a case study of how we're making this Webinar work overtime.

Primary content: Live Webinar, Promotion Planning: Maximize Your Marketing Calendar by Making Every Channel Count, generates:

Accompanying white paper on the same topic (view it here)
Newsletter excerpt featuring the white paper (read it here)
Chapterized on-demand archive (view it here)
Newsletter article inspired by compelling Q&A during Webinar (you're reading it right now)
Upcoming on-demand Webinar series featuring this Webinar and white paper
Sections of the Webinar featured at Online Marketing Summit in May

For more ideas, view our presentation on this topic, "Make Your Content Work Overtime."

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Amy Bills is director of field marketing at Bulldog Solutions, the lead-generation optimization and management company. Visit www.bulldogsolutions.com to learn more.

Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, a lead optimization and lead management company dedicated to helping our clients generate more, better leads and turn them into revenue. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Amy Bills, Director of Field Marketing.