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Repurpose your white paper to stretch your budget

Everyone wants your team to “do more with less.” But how?

One way to stretch your marketing budget is to repurpose your white papers in new formats.

By repurposing an existing white paper, you can:

  • Boost your SEO
  • Engage new audiences
  • Generate fresh leads
  • Send consistent messages
  • Improve the ROI on that campaign

We believe a white paper should be foundational long-form content with the best research, the most compelling logic, and the most persuasive arguments you can put together.

After you go to all that effort, why just park that white paper on your website?

photo of the word repurpose highlighted in dictionary

Sure, any well-done white paper will generate results.

But you can gain a lot more, for little added cost and effort, by repurposing.

You can squeeze more out of the content you’ve already got.

That’s how to do more with less.

What is repurposing anyway?

As you know, repurposing means recycling or reusing.

More specifically, to recycle B2B content in different formats for different audiences to access at different times. 

This works for one simple reason: Different people prefer different mediums.

Some like to read. Some like to listen. Some like to look at images. Why not give your prospects what they want?

Look at the proven formats you can recycle a white paper into:

Notice what’s not on this list: videos.

Yes, you can repurpose a white paper into a video. But that’s costly and complicated, especially if you’ve never done it before.

And it’s dubious how much decision-makers in complex B2B sales really value video as an information source.

For the same cost as doing a video, and much less risk, you can create all the other items on this list.

Here are some details on the formats we recommend most.


Get the word out with press releases

Savvy companies still publish press releases, and group them in a section of their website called “Newsroom.”

Of course, the traditional audience is for journalists and editors who cover your space.

But there are new audiences today, such as bloggers and social media mavens. They find press releases a quick way to find accurate information on products and companies.

Another new audience for press releases: search engines.

Everything else being equal, a B2B website with press releases will rate higher in Google than a site without.

That means more prospects will find your company online… exactly what you wanted from your white paper.

As a former journalist, Gordon can easily bang out a press release to go with your white paper.

Or you can get a marketing assistant to do that.

The key is to stick to the facts and to stick in a quotable quote from an executive.

For more details on writing press releases, see this article that explains how.

And if you need help, check out our affordable fees for repurposing.


Pump up your blog

Most companies blog once about their new white paper, and leave it at that.

But did you know that you can create between 3 and 9 blog posts from any good white paper?

You can do that quickly, using essentially the same text extracted from your white paper.

Then you can link all those blog posts into a series, with a call to action to download the full white paper.

Depending on the flavor of your white paper, there’s some tricks to do this effectively.

For more details, see this article that explains how.

And if you need help, check our our affordable fees for repurposing.


graphic of three slides repurposed from white paper

The power of slide decks

You can create a slide deck from a good white paper without doing any more research or writing.

All you need is some inexpensive stock photography and some visual skill to put together attractive slides. We do that all the time for our workshops.

And look at all the ways you can use a slide deck:

  1. Show it to prospects during face-to-face meetings or Zoom calls
  2. Use it to deliver a free webinar
  3. Record that webinar to run unattended on your website or at a trade show
  4. Send the slide deck to channel partners, with speaker’s notes to help them deliver a consistent message… instead of making it up as they go along
  5. Post it to slideshare sites

That’s 5 great ways to use a slide deck: 5 powerful channels to reach prospects that you wouldn’t have without repurposing.

For more details, see this article that explains how.

And if you need a hand with a slide deck, check out our repurposing fees.


Consider audio white papers

The average executive in the U.S. wastes half an hour stuck in traffic jams every workday.

In cities like Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York, it’s more like 45 minutes a day.*

During that time, many business people would prefer to do something more useful than pound on the steering wheel.

Such as listen to a podcast with insights on their industry or their role.

Why not give them an audio version of your white paper?

Audio is far simpler and less costly to produce than video, and far less demanding to access.

For example, a high-quality microphone like the Blue Designs Snowball used by many podcasters costs only $70.

Your prospects can listen to audio while they’re commuting, at the gym, at home even gardening or even out running or walking.

In fact, the market for audiobooks is surging ahead at 25% every year, with the annual global sales valued at $3.5 billion.

Podcasts are growing even faster, at an estimated 30% a year.

One key reason: Almost everyone has a smartphone they can listen to on the run.**

We’re amazed more companies don’t do audio versions of their white papers.

 


The bottom line: Do more with less, with repurposing

Why not do more with your marketing dollars than the other guys?

Why not “up your game” and run rings around them with repurposing!

Click here to see our cost-effective fees for repurposing.

 

Sources

* Inrix press release on 2019 Global Traffic Scorecard
** “The Ears Have It: The Rise of Audiobooks and Podcasting” Deloitte