HOW TO MAXIMIZE PUBLISHING WITH MICROCONTENT

HIGH-VALUEEVERGREENCONTENT

HIGH-IMPACT,REAL-TIMECONTENT

IDEALCONTENT

MIX

I

To kill it in content marketing, you need a diverse content mix: high-value evergreen content to educate your core consumer and high-impact, real-time content that entertains, educates, and builds awareness. The problem is that these approaches are often at odds. How do you grab the attention of your audience with real-time content when your resources are invested in foundational pieces? One proven way is through the use of microcontent.

Microcontent is a flexible approach that empowers you to produce relevant, real-time content that extends your brand’s reach, enhances your content marketing mix, and engages your audience—without breaking a sweat. No joke.

WHAT IS MICROCONTENT?

Microcontent is any type of visual content that can be shared on owned properties such as social accounts, blogs, or newsletters. Think of it as an appetizer of small items extracted from larger content to entice viewers, or a steady serving of snack-sized pieces created to supplement your larger content mix. Microcontent can take many forms.

FACTOIDS ILLUSTRATIONS

QUOTES

IMAGES

CHARTS

TIPS MINIGRAPHICS

DIAGRAMS GIFS

WHY CREATEMICROCONTENT?

Microcontent is an approach to producing a high volume of original content. In a real-time world, working ahead of the curve is more important than ever. With microcontent, not only can you contribute to the conversation, you can own it. Whatever your goals are, creating content in smaller pieces helps you.

PUBLISH CONSISTENTLYViral videos, e-books, and infographics are great, but most brands don't have the resources to produce them often enough to build momentum. Your audience craves a steady stream of interesting, engaging, and educational content. Because microcontent is easy to produce, you can publish more original, news-oriented content at a high frequency.

A piece of microcontent in the form of a

Gary Vaynerchuk quote.

A minigraphic, created by Column Five, published on social media during

Super Bowl XLIX.

Microcontent is primed for sharing on social platforms, whether as standalone pieces or to promote other content. While many social users may not want to share lengthy white papers, they are more likely to tweet interesting statistics, inspiring quotes, or funny GIFs. Microcontent is a great way to engage your audience and extend your brand’s social reach quickly.

Microcontent is ideal for sharing across platforms. See the same graphic shared on Facebook and Twitter.

INCREASE SHAREABILITYADDING VISUALS TO YOUR SOCIAL

CONTENT INCREASES ENGAGEMENT.

PERCENT INCREASE IN RETWEETS WHEN YOU ADD:

Hashtag Number/Digit

Quote Video Photo

16% 17%19%

28%

35%

Creating a steady stream of content is an enormous challenge that requires time, money, and energy. Microcontent is e�cient and economical in many ways. It’s a lean approach that takes minimal design time, allowing for quick turnaround. It can also be created from existing pieces, helping to extend the life of your evergreen content.

GET MORE VALUE

Microcontent takes less time to produce, which means you can invest more time in targeting content to di�erent audiences. Whereas a comprehensive study may seem too dense to market to a general audience, tailored microcontent helps provide points of entry for di�erent demographics.

TAILOR CONTENT TO DIFFERENT AUDIENCES

BLOGGERS DESIGNERSMARKETERS

PHOTOOVERLAY

MICROCONTENT CAN HELP YOU:

SHOW OFF BRAND PERSONALITY Think employee quotes, life hacks, and behind-the-scenes photos.

EXTEND THE LIFE OF CURRENT CONTENT Tailor excerpts and tips to di�erent audiences.

JOIN A NEWSWORTHY CONVERSATION Find statistics and pieces from content related to a news topic.

ADD A DEEPER LAYER OF STORYTELLING Use quotes, data visualization, images, etc.

ENGAGE WITH CONSUMERSAsk or answer a question.

CREATENEW PIECES

REPURPOSEOLD CONTENT

Microcontent is easy—and, dare we say, fun—to produce. Once you start noticing it,you’ll see potential sources everywhere. To begin, consider these two approaches.

HOW TO CREATE MICROCONTENT

AND

PHOTO OVERLAY

CREATE NEW PIECES As you go about your day-to-day, keep an eye out for things that could be turned into a compelling piece of microcontent, such as:

NEWS ARTICLES SOCIAL TRENDS

PHOTOOPPORTUNITIES

MEMES

QUOTESINTERNALSOURCES

DATA IS ESPECIALLY

POWERFUL AS MICROCONTENT.

Visualization increases the appeal, comprehension, and retention of your data—and its overall impact.

When you see a relevant stat, consider how it might enhance your content mix, whether added to an article to support an argument or tweeted to promote a case study.

Q&A/INTERVIEWS

E-BOOKSWHITEPAPERSCASE STUDIES

INFOGRAPHICSCONSUMER

SURVEYS/DATA

BLOGPOSTS

REPURPOSE OLD CONTENT Not feeling inspired? Comb through your existing assets.

Whether you’re creating new pieces or repurposing old content, consider the content pillar approach. It’s a lean and e�cient way to get the most mileage from your major pieces, fueling both inbound and outbound channels while communicating the right messaging. Here’s how it works.

CONTENT PILLAR PUBLISHING

3) MICROCONTENT

1) CORE CONTENT

2) BLOG CONTENTBreak apart individual elements from your pillar and use them as derivative assets to create a content cluster for publishing through various channels. Think blog posts, infographics, slideshows, etc.

Create micro-content pieces from the derivative assets to drive to the core pillar content or other assets. Think videos, blogs, social graphics, emails, etc.

Identify a key theme around a substantial asset that’s focused on your buyers’ interests. Think e-books, white papers, research reports, decks, etc.

Almost anything has the potential to be microcontent, if you think visually. Sometimes the best material is the

stuff that makes you pause: an image, statistic, or quote.

You might be surprised at how much microcontent you can make from a single piece of content.

MICROCONTENT FROM THIS E-BOOK

Kapost provides a proven framework for planning, executing, distributing, and optimizing the critical content that drives all of marketing. From big ideas to microcontent, Kapost standardizes

and simplifies the management of your B2B content lifecycle. Take a product tour and learn more at kapost.com.

We created Visage because we believe that good design should be available to everyone, not only organizations that can a�ord design agency premiums. Our unique web-based software lets non-designers create beautiful, on-brand data

visualizations and visual content. Learn more and schedule a demo at visage.co.

The Marketing Content Engine