How to Transform One Video Into 12 Pieces of Content

Do you feel like you’re on a content creation hamster wheel, and there’s no end in sight?

I hear you.

What if you could create one big piece of content — and repurpose it into multiple mini-segments that could be distributed through different platforms?

Cool, eh?

Jay Baer talks about this tactic, called “content atomization” (first coined by Todd Defen) in a Convince and Convert blog post. Baer creates a short, six-minute video discussing a word of mouth case study. From that six-minute video, he’s able to create 12 pieces of content, including:

• A podcast
• LinkedIn video post
• Instagram teaser
• Blog posts

Granted, some pieces of content are small (for instance, a tweet.) Some take more time — such as creating blog posts based on the video. 

But, by focusing on a single piece of awesome content, he’s able to get more traction (and see more reach) than if he was to write multiple blog posts.

Jay Baer’s quote, which I love, is:

“Don’t continue to reinvent the wheel. Just make more versions of the wheel you already own. Take your key pieces of content and re-package tweaked versions to fill out your content calendar.”

Nice, eh?

Content creators tend to work hard — but they don’t optimize their efforts.

We’re so busy pumping out blog posts “for Google” that we forget that cranking out multiple blog posts isn’t the real name of the game.

We optimize sites for a living, but we don’t optimize our time.

After all, our main goal is to be everywhere our target audience “lives” — and to do that in the easiest, most time-effective way.

Here’s another quote from Jay Baer that illustrates this point:

“You need to give your audience a chance to find your content in their preferred channel and format and deliver it them in a steady stream over a period of time. You can’t simply post an article and expect leads to contact you.”

(Ah, for the good old days when posting an article could immediately drive leads. Sadly, those days are long gone.)

So, what does this mean to you?

How can YOU atomize your content?

Sure, you may already tweet about your latest blog posts and do some repurposing…

…but how can you turn this up to a Spinal Tap 11 and maximize the reach of every piece of content you write?

That’s going to mean three things:

• Getting super-strategic about your content generation. That may mean publishing less so you can write bigger and better content assets — assets that can be repurposed (or atomized) in various ways,
• Learning where your target audience hangs out, and,
• Deciding how to slice and dice your content and where to post.
• Need ideas? This article outlines 49 tactics you can use to atomize your content marketing. Enjoy!

Does this change how you look at your content marketing strategy?

It changes how I look at mine.

After all, most of my blogging habits are 10+ years old. I’m used to publishing certain types of content on a certain day. Shaking things up and blasting my content into tiny bits could drive amazing results.

I’ll have to try and see.

How about you?

Here’s your content repurposing challenge…

Think about how you can atomize content for your own site (or your company’s site.) Check out the list of 49 tactics and choose some that could work for you. After all, you never know — a “just for the heck of it” experiment could drive some qualified leads your way!

What do you think? 

What’s your favorite content repurposing tactic? Leave a comment and let me know!