Creating marketing content is challenging, especially if you’re a team of one or have a small business. Fret not – we have all the tips you need to take one topic and turn it into ongoing pieces of content that will keep your audience engaged in promo and you running your other business operations.

#1 Identify Your Platforms

First, you need to decide where you’re driving people to take action and where your main content will live. How do you want to market your business and engage with prospects? Do you want them to visit your website? Watch a YouTube video? Listen to a podcast? Read your blog?

From there, you work backwards: What supporting platforms will you use to direct people to that main content source? Common platforms include emails, newsletters and social media, like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

The type of platform drives how you craft and deliver content, which is why this is such an important first step.

#2 Plan Your Main Content

Make a list of all the topics you’d like to cover for a least a quarter of the year. We suggest some topics that are seasonal and evergreen. That means discussing specific promos at certain times of the year, as well as overall trends, and even generic promos and marketing ideas that can be used year-round.

Don’t forget to market a quarter AHEAD of the season. Back-to-school season takes place in Q3, which means you should start asking customers for orders in Q2. Holiday season is Q4, so start reaching out to clients in Q3. Even if they aren’t ready to pull the trigger on a decision, you want to be the first to start the conversation with prospects and customers. Don’t let competitors beat you to the punch. Plus, it’s important to pitch a quarter ahead of time to allow ample time to deal with supply chain and shipping delays. Tip: Remind your customers to think ahead too! If they wait too long to place an order, they may have to pay – literally – with rush charges. You can use this angle to try to close sales sooner rather than later.

Here are just some examples of topics for your main content:

• Attract Prospects to Your Business Using Promo
• How To Throw a Company Picnic
• Improve Customer Loyalty With a Company Store
• Promos for the Perfect Corporate Gifting Program
• All the Promo You Need To Prep for Fall Sports
• Gearing Up for Graduation
• Get Ahead of Cold & Flu Season

What do you put in your content? You’ll want to include actual promo suggestions, as well as advice on how to distribute these items. If you’re having a podcast, invite current customers to share success stories. If you’re writing a blog article, you can link to actual products on your website. For emails, you can suggest seasonal items and link them to your website. See? The options are endless.

Remember, the goal of any content is to position you as an expert and resource for your clients. Tell them everything they need to know to successfully grow their brand.

Once your content piece is created, post it on your main platform. Now the fun really begins.

#3 Promote Content on Supporting Platforms

Now we need to direct people to your main content. Of course, you can do a simple written post with an image or video and link to the content – that’s the most obvious (and common) way to do it. But you already know how to do that! Let’s talk about some more creative ways to promote your content on common platforms.

Email – Plan for multiple email sends and divide up the information in a more digestible way. Have one email that is an overview of the entire content piece, then have separate emails that tackle just one aspect of the content. For example, if you have a back-to-school blog post you’re trying to get people to read, you can have separate emails talking about separate products, parts of the school year or even actual age groups. Not only will you try to snag customers from all sides, but you can also look at the data from your sends after the fact and find out what aspect was most interesting to your prospects.

Newsletters – Of course your goal is to get viewers to view your main content piece, but newsletters present you with the unique opportunity to also educate readers and help build your credibility as a resource. In your newsletter, we recommend a section or two on actual news stories or trends that your audience would enjoy. Then, include a section that summarizes and links to your main content piece. You may want to have another section that shows something like “Hot Products” or “Branding Tips” to, again, provide useful info to your audience. Combining marketing with education is a great way to elevate your status to expert!

Social Media – Want to get more engagement? Try to use other aspects of social media in addition to regular posting. Fun polls or quizzes entice viewers to take an action. You can also run contests or giveaways (after all, nothing says how important promo is than using it for yourself!), share testimonials and use stories, reels or lives to connect. (Unsure how to do Facebook Live? Check this out!) While our business is promo products, don’t miss out on the human aspect. People do business with people they like, so be sure to include yourself, children, pets or customers in some aspects of your social media. Make sure you tag anyone you reference in your video to expand your reach. And always include a link to your main content asset. If this all feels overwhelming, remember you can attack it the same way you attacked the email and newsletter: Do one post that’s an overview and then break down the rest of the content into bite-sized, digestible pieces!

Don’t forget to use each platform appropriately. For example, a longer video may work on Facebook, but you’re better to stick to a quick, witty message on Twitter. It’s okay for educational videos to be longer on TikTok, but if sharing smaller details, the shorter the better.

#4 Expand Your Content Into Even More Posts

You’ve launched your main content piece. You’ve used supporting platforms to get the word out. Now what? It’s time to recycle and reuse because sustainability with content is also in!

Look at your main content. What else can you create from it? The answer is always a lot.

Whether you wrote a blog post, recorded a podcast or did some other type of content, you can pull more information from it to make more! Here are some of our suggestions for how you can repurpose the same content:

• Checklist
• Infographics
• FAQ
• Gifts
• Stats
• Quotes
• Webinars
• Videos – Learn how to best use video.

You can use all your supporting platforms to post this content, or even use it to create additional main content.

The best part of content is you can get dozens of additional pieces of content from one topic. Keep in mind that not everyone in your audience sees the original content, and even if they do, they may not remember or notice that you have repurposed it. You don’t need a million good ideas – you really just need a handful to engage with customers, grow credibility, improve your reputation and increase sales!