Let’s face it, we often say we’re not - but B2B Marketers are magicians. We can pull a white paper out of a hat, and saw bounce rates in half. We can juggle blogs and e-Books, and make leads appear out of thin air, and one of our greatest tricks is turning one piece of content into three, or six, or… lots.

Repurposing content is a great way to extend its shelf life, dig a little deeper into a topic, and drive traffic to content that resonates strongly with your buyers. Plus, it takes a lot less resources than creating something brand new. So if you’re wondering how to go about conjuring up more content from your e-Book, blog post, or white paper, we’ve got you covered. You can use these tips to get started. Presto!

You’ll need a volunteer from the audience, but what kind of content do you choose? You might have that seemingly foolproof whitepaper that somehow always get the most downloads, or that article that resonates well on social because it’s related to a highly talked about topic.

Consider evergreen content, and look for within it sub-topics that can be repurposed. Thought leadership content tends to have broad topics and themes, which make it more flexible when you’re repurposing. If you have access to survey data or a study of your industry, that’s also a good place to find reusable content in the form of great stats and industry insights. For example, you can release survey findings in an infographics and a white papers, and then dig into individual trends as blog posts, and tease all of your assets with social graphics.  At Salesforce, we often start with our largest content piece, like a popular e-book, and then build out our ideas from there.  

Now that you’ve identified your magical, multiplying asset, try these three simple steps to get started.

1. Conjure Up a Content Plan

Creating a plan for repurposing your content will help you stay on track. Are you developing a series, with different pieces tied together by a central theme? Or would you rather have each piece function independently of the others? Both could be good options, but which path you take depends on the type of content you want to create. Consider what types of content you have already, and what types you’d like to create. It’s not necessarily always so simple to work out what kind of content goes where, but creating a content plan will help you plot the smoothest course.

2. Make Magic with a Blog Post

A blog can be a great place to express what makes your company different from others in your field, and when it comes to making marketing magic, blog posts can be a great fresh take on your content. You might balk at the thought of having to come up with topics for a new post every day, but that’s the idea behind repurposing your content in the first place. e-Books are a great source for blog posts, because your topic is already mapped out for you: for each section of your e-Book, you can write a blog post on the key themes and takeaways. Whether it’s top tips, or things to remember, you can break your e-books down into digestible pieces. Serial blog posts also work well, so you can take an ebook with five sections for example, and turn it into five blog posts linked together as a series.

3. Wow the Crowd with Social Media

If you’ve got an active social media feed, you can create content around the discussions you have with your audience. Infographics and blog posts work well for this, as do visual content types live videos, Slideshare posts and more. As you create your content. If you create a series of blog posts, infographics, articles, or e-Books, (or all of the above) you can turn it into great posts for your social media channels by encouraging your followers and subscribers to tune for the next installment. Bonus tip: Look for trends, interesting conversations, or frequently shared or ‘liked’ content to get inspiration for your next topic!

While our role as prestidigitators (that’s a fancy, schmancy word for marketers!) does require us to perform feats beyond the reach of mere mortals, you don’t always have to start from scratch. No matter what type or quantity of content you have, repurposing can increase your efficiency and help you produce quality content that appeals to your buyers without having anyone escape from a straight jacket.