Maximizing content ROI with AI

Creating a powerful anchor piece of content—whether it's a comprehensive whitepaper, an insightful webinar, or an in-depth case study—requires significant time, effort, and budget. Unfortunately, these assets often fail to reach their full potential. Many marketers deliver these assets in just one format or through a single channel, limiting their impact.

People consume content in diverse ways. Some gravitate toward long-form content, while others prefer quick, digestible insights. Some are drawn to visual content, while others prefer reading or listening. And different channels appeal to various segments of your audience—whether it's LinkedIn for lunchtime browsing, YouTube for catching up on the latest trends, your website for in-depth research, or a podcast during a commute. To maximize the value of your core assets, meet your buyers where they are by offering content in the formats and channels they prefer.

This is where generative AI truly changes the game. AI makes it easy to adapt your content to meet these diverse preferences. By leveraging AI, you can quickly and cost-effectively transform a single asset into multiple pieces of tailored content. This is why it's no surprise that a recent Gartner study found that 49% of businesses are implementing or planning to implement generative AI for content marketing. Content repurposing doesn't have to be a daunting task. Instead, it becomes a streamlined process that enhances your reach and effectiveness.

This guide will show you how to do this, providing practical prompts and strategies to help you dive into AI-powered content repurposing. Whether you're looking to extend the life of your anchor assets or connect with more buyers in their preferred ways, this guide will equip you with the tools and insights you need to get started.

The importance of content repurposing

Content repurposing is the key to maximizing your return on investment (ROI) by meeting your audience with content that fits their needs across different formats and channels.

• Meeting your audience's needs. Repurposing content is an audience-focused strategy that expands your reach. For example, a customer video can be turned into a written case study, a blog post, social media snippets, and even visual evidence for presentations. Similarly, a whitepaper can be transformed into an infographic, a series of blog posts, social media updates, or even a video or a song! This approach increases the content's reach and enhances its impact by delivering it in the most effective format for each audience segment.
• Improving ROI. Repurposing content is a cost-effective strategy that minimizes the need to constantly create new content from scratch. Instead, you can extend the life and value of existing high-quality content by adapting it to different formats. This approach isn't just about reusing content—it's about enhancing its value. For example, turning a whitepaper into an infographic or a series of social media posts allows you to extract more value from that initial investment, reducing the need to produce as much new content.

Though not comprehensive or applicable to every situation, the table below offers sample asset types and content ideas for repurposing. By fully embracing content repurposing, marketers can make their content work harder, reach a broader audience, and drive better results—all while saving time and money.

How AI changes the content repurposing process

Historically, content repurposing was handled in one of two ways: by generalists or agencies managing the entire process, or by subject matter experts (SMEs) adapting the content. Both approaches had their benefits, but they also came with certain limitations.

• Generalists: Jack of all trades, master of none. Many organizations relied on generalists to handle the repurposing of hero assets. These individuals were responsible for adapting content into various formats, from blog posts to social media updates. This approach offered flexibility and efficiency, but often sacrificed depth and precision. Generalists often lack the deep specialization needed to tailor content perfectly for each channel or format. Additionally, they might not be as well-versed in the original content or subject matter, which could lead to misrepresentation or dilution of the anchor asset's core message. The result was often content that, while serviceable, didn't fully capture the potential impact of the original material.
• SMEs: Depth without breadth. On the other hand, some organizations tasked SMEs with repurposing content. These experts had a deep understanding of the original material and subject matter, ensuring that the core message was preserved. However, SMEs might not fully grasp the nuances of different platforms, leading to content that doesn't perform as well as it could across various channels. While the content maintained its integrity, it sometimes lacked the strategic adjustments needed to thrive in different formats or on different platforms.

The AI-driven model: Combining the best of both worlds

With AI, the content repurposing process has evolved dramatically, offering a solution that combines the strengths of both generalists and SMEs while mitigating their weaknesses. Instead of relying on a single generalist or SME, you can now use AI models specialized in specific content types. These AI tools undergo the same general training as others but are further enhanced with high-performing examples specific to their domain. For instance:

• LinkedIn AI specialist: Imagine an AI trained on thousands of your brand's LinkedIn posts—both those that have done exceptionally well and those that haven't. This AI can identify unseen patterns, such as the optimal length, tone, and even timing for posts, allowing it to generate LinkedIn content that's more likely to resonate with your audience and perform better.
• Email AI specialist: Similarly, an AI specializing in email content can be trained on emails with high open and click-through rates. By analyzing successful patterns, this AI can generate new email content in a similar style, tailored to your target audience's preferences.

These AI specialists aren't just tools—they're valuable colleagues who bring specialized knowledge to the table, allowing you to create content that's finely tuned to the needs of each platform and preserves the integrity of the original message.

Collaborative expertise: AI and SMEs working together

One of the most powerful aspects of using AI for content repurposing is how it enables a true collaboration between SMEs and AI specialists. As an SME, you know the ins and outs of your subject matter and anchor asset. You can call on these AI specialists whenever needed to quickly generate multiple options for each type of content. For example, if you need to turn a webinar into a series of LinkedIn posts, a blog, and an email campaign, you can work with the relevant AI specialists to get several drafts in seconds. This rapid generation of high-quality content allows you to create a comprehensive bill of materials with minimal effort and budget.

Once these AI partners are set up, they become a reusable resource. While the initial setup requires some work—training the AI on high-performing content and fine-tuning it for your specific needs—once established, the collaboration between an SME and AI specialists is faster, more efficient, and more aligned with the original content's intent and quality. The result is a streamlined process that enhances your content's reach and effectiveness without requiring extensive outsourcing or additional resources.

Building your AI specialists

To fully leverage AI in your content repurposing strategy, it's important to set up AI specialists tailored to specific content types. For text-based content, it is best to use Large Language Models (LLMs) that support custom AI models, which include GPTs in ChatGPT and Bots in Poe. For non-text-based content, there are specialist tools available that can create audio, video, graphics, infographics, and even songs.

In a perfect world, your AI specialists should be created by, or in collaboration with, the channel experts themselves—for example, the social media expert or team should develop the social media specialists, the web expert or team should create the landing page specialists, and so on. By involving the right people and teams in the creation process, you ensure that the AI is trained with the most relevant best practices and high-quality data, leading to better outcomes.

How to build your AI specialist

In your preferred LLM, navigate to the screen to build your customized AI model. Name it, provide a description, upload the appropriate data (see table below), and prompt with something like the examples below.

These are just a few examples of AI specialists you can create. Marketers should develop an AI specialist for every content type they want to produce, using this format to ensure each piece of content is optimized for its specific purpose and audience.

Note: In the above prompts, fill in [TARGET AUDIENCE] with as granular or broad a persona as makes sense—for example, "an IT security manager" or "an IT security manager, working at a Fortune 100 retailer, responsible for securing the retail kiosks."

How to call your AI specialists for text-based content

Now that you've built your text-based AI specialists as GPTs, Bots, or Gems, the next step is to effectively use them to repurpose your hero assets into a variety of content formats.

1. Prepare your hero asset: Start by ensuring your hero asset is in its final form. This could be a video, a white paper, a keynote presentation, or any other substantial piece of content that you want to repurpose.
2. Select the appropriate AI specialist: Identify which AI specialist(s) you need based on the type of content you want to create. For example, if you're turning a white paper into social media posts, call on your Social Media Specialist AI—usually done using the "@" symbol and the name you gave your specialist.
3. Provide context and guidelines: Upload or copy/paste the asset you want to repurpose. Give your AI specialist the necessary context by sharing details about your target audience, the desired tone, and any specific goals for the repurposed content. This ensures that the output aligns with your overall strategy.
4. Generate the content: Run the AI specialist to generate the content. The AI will create the output based on the information you provided and the training data it has received.
5. Review and refine the output: Review the AI-generated content and make any necessary adjustments to refine the messaging or format before finalizing the piece. As a marketer, your most important job is to ensure that the content is accurate, on-brand, and tailored to your audience.
6. Deploy the content across channels: Once you're satisfied with the content, deploy it across the relevant channels.

Example scenarios

To illustrate this process, here are two examples of how you can use AI specialists to repurpose different types of anchor assets:

By following this general approach, you can effectively repurpose your hero assets into a wide range of content formats, ensuring that your message reaches your audience in the most impactful way possible.

How to call your AI specialists for non-text-based content

To repurpose your content into other formats, such as audio, video, or infographics, use one of the many AI-powered solutions available. Each of these tools works differently but generally speaking, they take as input your anchor asset (or a summary of it) and will output the desired media asset. See the Sample AI Tools table in the Appendix below for recommended tools.

Maximizing the impact of repurposed content

Once you've repurposed your anchor assets into various content formats, it's crucial to ensure that this content not only reaches your audience but also drives the desired outcomes. While this guide doesn't focus on distribution strategies, here are a few key points to consider for maximizing the impact of your repurposed content. Note: Each type of content and platform has its own relevant metrics, so tailor your measurement approach accordingly.

• Engagement: Look at metrics like likes, shares, comments, and time spent on content to gauge how well your content resonates with your audience.
• Conversion rates: Monitor how effectively your content drives actions, such as form submissions, downloads, or purchases.
• Views and reach: Track the number of views or the reach of your content to measure its visibility and potential impact.

Repurposing content with AI helps you make your content work harder—amplifying your message across multiple formats and channels with ease. As you deploy your repurposed content, keep an eye on the metrics that matter most to your goals, and continue refining your approach to ensure you're achieving the best possible results.

Appendix

How to create content without custom AI models

If you haven't created a GPT, bot, or gem, you can still use AI effectively by providing detailed, tailored prompts. The main difference is that you will need to work through this process each time you want to create repurposed assets:

1. Prepare your hero asset: Ensure your hero asset is finalized and ready for repurposing.
2. Select the appropriate AI tool: Choose your preferred AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Poe).
3. Craft a tailored prompt: Here are two sample prompts for a LinkedIn post depending on whether you have performance data:

4. Generate the content: Use the AI tool to generate the content based on your prompt.
5. Review and refine the output: Review the AI-generated content and make any necessary adjustments to fine-tune the messaging, tone, or structure before finalizing the piece.
6. Deploy the content across channels: Once you're satisfied with the content, deploy it across the relevant channels.

Sample AI tools for content creation

While this is not a comprehensive list, this table highlights some of the most effective tools available for repurposing different types of content.