How to Turn One Idea into 10+ Pieces of Content

Over the past 10 years, I’ve worked in various content roles. From journalism to content marketing, to content strategy and copywriting — I’ve done it all.

I’ve worked with a variety of brands and businesses, too. Magazines, ecommerce groups, global brands with household names, and startups trying to get their new product or website off the ground.

Content marketing has boomed during my career. Thanks to the growth of all things digital, we’ve seen blogs, online publications, eBooks, webinars, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more, dominate our media landscape. More and more platforms burst onto the scene, our appetites for new and exciting content formats grow by the day, and brands are finding more creative ways of getting themselves out in front of their target audiences.

One question I get asked again and again is: how can we create more content? Growth is good, yes, but more often than not, content teams and marketing teams struggle to keep up. Constantly being creative and trying to come up with new ideas can lead to burn out — especially if you’re doing it solo or in a small team.

Hopefully you’ve already come up with a few content pillars (read more on that here), which will help with the ideation process. Then you can start to think about how to execute that idea in the most efficient way possible.

One of the most effective ways of using content is to take one idea and turn it into multiple pieces of content. That way one idea can effectively cover a couple of weeks’ marketing activity, without you straining to come up with multiple ideas. It also helps you get a message across in multiple ways, reaching your audience through different platforms and mediums.

Let’s say you’re a natural skincare brand and you’re launching a new serum. The results from your clinical trials show it can help increase collagen production in skin, thanks to a plant extract you’ve used. This is a big selling point in a competitive market and reiterates one of the reasons you’ll always favour natural ingredients.

Here’s how that could be turned into multiple pieces of content:

1. An infographic showcasing the stats and the science, shared on social media
2. A blog post explaining the science behind the product and the importance of collagen production for skin, featuring quotes from your product development team and subject matter experts
3. Sharing customer reviews that reflect this increase in collagen, in emails and on social media
4. Before and after images of customers or influencers who have used the product for a certain period of time, visibly showing plumper skin or a reduction in fine lines
5. Videos from relevant skincare influencers, showcasing them using the product and giving their honest opinion. These videos can be shared on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and your website

With this, we’re essentially talking about the same thing, but we’re taking a slightly different angle or approach depending on the content type, and giving you lots of content to play with.

Parts of this article are taken from my book, ‘Making Content Work: Tips, tools and templates for your brand or business’. Available now on Amazon, in paperback or Kindle.