Marketing | Make the Most of What You Have

Every small business is working harder than ever to make the most of what they have by optimizing every tool in their marketing toolkit. A relatively easy and cost-effective strategy is to leverage one content piece in a variety of ways.

In the DIY Success Stories series, we pointed out that once you have a well-developed success story in hand, you can frame and reframe it to suit multiple purposes and venues. To illustrate this concept, let’s look at three versions of one success story.

Example 1– Condensed Version

As you can see, the condensed version consists of one PowerPoint slide. It provides a high-level overview focused solely on project challenges, solutions and results. We use this and several other success story snapshots in our basic company presentation, which emphasizes simple, clear solutions.

Example 2 – Compact Version

The compact success story provides a bit more detail, but remains focused on the same key elements of challenges, solutions and results. It’s included in a dual print/digital compilation of success stories that serves to introduce Crossbridge and our clients, range of projects and measurable outcomes.

Example 3 – Complete Version

We use the complete version of success stories in print and online. This one is targeted to manufacturing, industrial and Lean engineering prospects and clients, because they appreciate the additional detail, grasp the importance of part cost reduction strategies and understand the full impact of the outcomes produced. They're also able to see how such cost-saving and revenue-generating opportunities might impact their own businesses.

Bottom Line

Beyond the direct face value as success stories, these examples can be adapted to become an email campaign, forwarded as an email attachment, and used as print material for meetings, presentations or tradeshows.
 
Do you have one or more success stories that lend themselves to multiple customer groups, uses and venues? Do you have other brand-building content that could be developed into a cohesive package (e.g., tipsheet, case study, how-to guide and white paper)? Have you translated your most persuasive results into multiple formats and media to reach different customer groups?
 
Take a good look around. If you're like most small businesses, you're overlooking countless opportunities to tweak, modify and expand high-value content you already have.

Use it to supplement your brochure and website, anchor a series of blog posts, flesh out a slide presentation, provide a continuous flow of fresh material to enhance your sales and marketing efforts, and make the most of what you have.

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