Steal This 5-Step B2B Content Repurposing Workflow

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This is the content repurposing workflow we use to turn B2B whitepapers into blog campaigns and email nurture flows.

We’ve used this workflow to repurpose individual B2B content marketing pieces into dozens of assets and hundreds of leads. 

This workflow is a relatively high-level, mostly human-driven, look at the process we would use to turn a foundational content asset into a variety of other content types. 

You could use it to build out a full content marketing campaign, provided you have an initial strategy and a content calendar.

Although this content repurposing workflow starts with written content, you could also start with a long-form video content asset like a webinar instead — or even a podcast.

In our experience, quality content is format-agnostic. It doesn't matter if it's a video, blog post, podcast, or something else. If you have good information and an engaging narrative, you can adapt content to any format. 

Note: We recommend you follow this repurposing workflow manually. You could use an AI tool to help you pick out key points, but based on our experience testing the ability of AI tools to understand content, that isn't a good idea.

So here is how to repurpose content according to the team at Content Visit. 

1. Start with a Long-Form Content Asset

The easiest way to repurpose content is to repurpose downwards (in terms of size). It's easier to break down a long-form detailed content asset than to build upwards.

This means the best kind of foundational content repurposing asset is a whitepaper, report, or blog post. 

Ideally, you want to start with a content asset that has:  

a) Lots of statistics or new information.  

b) Been created with involvement from internal SMEs.  

c) Clear target audience.

At the start of your repurposing workflow, you want to have MORE content than you need, not less. This is why it is more common for books to get made into films than films into books. 

The more content you start with, the easier it is to repurpose your original content asset.

2. Break Down the Chapters/Subheadings Into Short-Form Content

When repurposing content, subheadings are your friend.

Every H2 (or paragraph) within a high-quality blog post or report potentially contains a fully formed content asset in its own right.

Content repurposing example

This means that you can take the main point, and possibly even the exact text, from a subheading and turn it into shorter-form content assets, including:

  • Blog posts based on ebook/report/whitepaper chapters.

  • Short-form videos. 

  • LinkedIn articles that take the core points and turn them into opinions.

  • Graphics with quotations that can also be made into social media slideshows.

  • Infographics highlighting statistics.

  • Press releases if you have new information to share.

  • PPC ad headlines and copy.

3. Abstract the Content “Story” Into an Email Nurture Campaign

What is the narrative underlying your content asset? 

In order words, what is the story? Ideally, your content asset should take a reader/viewer/listener from not knowing something to knowing something.

This journey is a perfect fit for repurposing a content asset into an email nurture campaign.

Each point in your content asset’s story can be turned into an email designed to nurture leaders (and possibly into downloading the asset itself).

This might be as simple as asking yourself, “What is each section about?” and then writing an email that tells someone why they should read it.

For example, if you have a chapter in a whitepaper about why IoT devices are difficult to protect against cyber threats, you could turn that into an email with the header “Are your IoT devices secure?

4. Turn the Whole Asset Into a Webinar

It's possible that you (or someone in your sales team) can just talk off the cuff about a topic into a camera and create a highly engaging and informative webinar.

More than likely, though, you need a script.

Long-form assets can easily become webinar scripts. You just need to break them down into readable single-line sentences.

The best way to do this is to read your whitepaper out loud. Cut out anything that sounds unnatural and read it again.

Alternatively, you could line the main talking points up in order on a page with a rough guide on how long you should talk about each one

5. Condense It Into a One-Pager or Solution Brief

At Content Visit, we believe that your sales and marketing teams should be on the same page (literally) when it comes to the content they share with leads. 

Your sales teams need solution briefs and one-pagers to close deals and engage buying teams.

We know that it makes sense to build these sales enablement content assets from your marketing assets.

To make sales one-pagers, you can repurpose a marketing content asset by condensing its messaging and taking a more solution-oriented approach.

A marketing whitepaper is 80% information about someone's problem and 20% about your solution.

Sales enablement content is 20% information about someone’s problem and 80% about your solution.

Typically, you take the foundation for sales enablement content from the end section of a whitepaper. 

Looking for content marketing support for your content repurposing campaigns? We can help.

FAQs on Content Repurposing 

Here are some common questions and answers on content repurposing. 

What is repurposing content? 

Repurposing content means taking the central message within a piece of content and then communicating that message through different formats. It's like when a book becomes a film. 

How do you repurpose content?

The easiest way to repurpose content is to take long-form assets and turn them into:

  • Blog posts based on ebook/report/whitepaper chapters.

  • Short-form videos. 

  • LinkedIn articles that take the core points and turn them into opinions.

  • Graphics with quotations that can also be made into social media slideshows.

  • Infographics highlighting statistics.

  • Press releases if you have new information to share.

  • PPC ad headlines and copy. 

Is it OK to repurpose content? 

Not only is it OK to repurpose content, but you should actually be doing it all the time to make the most out of your content assets. 

Is repurposing content illegal?

Repurposing content is not illegal as long as you’ve created it (i.e., it’s your own). 

Can you repurpose other people’s content?

You might be able to repurpose other people’s (and brands’) content - you just need to ask their permission first. 

Written by Robert Galvin