The sheer volume of content that an organization needs to produce if it's to match the marketing efforts of competitors is becoming overwhelming. A whopping 76% of marketers will produce more content in 2016 than they did in 2015, according to research from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.
Keeping up is a tall order, but there's at least one safe shortcut you can take, and it's simply repurposing the arsenal of great content right under your nose: your company's presentation decks.
Here are my top tips for turning any common presentation, such as a sales deck or a company overview, into an asset that provides valuable information, turns prospects into buyers, and drives the bottom line.
1. Adjust top-level information
Unlike presentations, on-demand assets have to work hard to attract the attention of viewers. A good place to start is to rework the most prominent information, such as the title and whatever else is initially displayed.
For example, presenters spend very little time on the title slide of their presentations, so more often than not those slides are pretty boring. When refining this content for an online audience, you need to be compelling right out of the gate. Try introducing the piece with your most interesting or engaging visuals, or pull out something interesting from the body of the asset and place it at the beginning to help craft a new, more enticing introduction.
It's also important to rethink the title: It's what will appear in search results. And remember: You get only one chance to make a first impression. To be specific and relevant enough, dig through your data to determine who your online audience is and carefully re-craft a title based on those findings. If you need a little help with that latter part, check out services like Buzzsumo or Spike to help garner ideas.
2. Fill in any gaps and simplify what's already there
A lot of information is shared purely vocally during a presentation, so when considering an asset that will be viewed without a presenter, it's important to fill in the gaps. Carefully walk yourself through your content to determine where it needs to be fleshed out. If you're finding it difficult to identify those areas, try sharing it with colleagues or friends who haven't seen it, and ask them what's not quite clear or what's missing.
Next, simplify wherever possible. It might make sense for your presentation deck to be fifty slides long, but with the average attention span at only 8.25 seconds, nobody will want to wade through all of that content. Take a big-picture look at your information and cluster it into different categories. Then, trim what's redundant and boil down what's left to clear, concise statements. (Good data visualization is great for helping your cause!)
3. End with a clear CTA
Most live presentations end with the contact information of the presenter, but an online audience is more broadly poised to engage immediately after they've viewed the content. A strategic ending is absolutely crucial, so make sure your asset's conclusion is adjusted to get viewers into your company's funnel right away.
The call to action should be direct and convenient, such as a button that reads "Reserve your spot now" or, "For more tips, subscribe to our blog." Even just a little ambiguity or a passive tone at this stage in a piece of standalone content can render your efforts to drive leads and grow your audience ineffective.
4. Plan for agility
Once you've repurposed your presentation, you can modify and recycle parts of it once again to get even more value. For example, when promoting the asset, rather than creating new content or paying an agency, you can increase traffic to your modified presentation by identifying some of the most compelling parts and screenshotting them for social platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
Further, you probably don't need to be told how crucial it is for content to be optimized for mobile viewing, but here's a fact that made headlines last year for good measure: Mobile digital media time is now greater than desktop (more on that here). And assuming many of the assets you're planning will be sent to inboxes around the globe, here's another: More email is read on mobile than on desktop email clients, according to Litmus.
In other words, mobile can no longer be thought of as a separate channel, so make sure the experience is just as compelling and functional on a small screen as it is on your computer, and you'll be in good shape.
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Whether you're dusting off old PowerPoint decks, turning prezis from private to public, uploading your content to SlideShare, embedding a presentation on a landing page, exporting it as a video, or handing it off to a designer to turn into an infographic, you can successfully transform your assets into something that will generate leads and spread brand awareness using these tips.
And when creating new presentations, keep a visual focus in mind to make the transformation even easier. Interactive platforms, including the one I co-founded, help you start you off on the right foot by focusing on visuals from the beginning, and other features (such as voiceover and media support).
