What is a waterfall content strategy?

12/02/2020 - Content Strategy

2 Minute Read

Many marketing tactics rely heavily on content creation and over the long term, being able to keep a consistent flow of content that’s fresh, and useful can be extremely exhausting.

One way to keep content flowing is to have a waterfall content strategy.

Like any waterfall from the top, there’s a constant flow of water flowing from one source. Flowing over the edge, spreading out into a wider spray of water to its final destination at the bottom.

Keeping that visual in mind whilst translating that into content. You start off at the top with a key piece of content that will form the source of many smaller content pieces that will hit the mark as the water naturally falls hitting the bottom.

So, what is a Waterfall Content Strategy?

It’s basically taking a single substantial piece of content such as a video, eBook or a podcast, and having a breakout of expanded information or repurposing sections into independent content that can be distributed and promoted. In a nutshell, the material from the original source is used to create micro-content.

For example, you have an original piece of material that is a four-minute video, here’s what your micro-content could look like:

• A number of short video clips from 20 seconds to a minute of an interview or just a single piece of the entire video.
• Instagram or Snapchat stories.
• Facebook posts that links to the original video on YouTube/Website.
• A blog on the video topic, backlinks and quotes from the video.
• A prospects or customers email with a video clip embedded along with links to the full video.

How can a waterfall marketing strategy help businesses with their content?

• Provides content creators with a framework to work more efficiently.
• A welcome relief from the constant need to come up with new content.
• Provides more time and resources elsewhere when pieces of content can be repurposed.
• Shows leadership on a topic in an industry by expanding on and adding depth to the content.
• Gives you more reach to a wide variety of media with related content that reinforces your message.

With a waterfall content strategy, you can use quotes, points, and other messages from your original piece of content instead of having to think of and develop new content.

So let the targeted content flow out from the top of the waterfall into a stream that will naturally spread through multiple media streams.

Content marketers can feel a lot of pressure trying to churn out quantities of content and even more so if their creative thinking is hitting a brick wall. They are finding that a waterfall content strategy saves time, resources, and energy without sacrificing quality or quantity.

Why create a piece of content and then create more when you can repurpose it to feed prospects and customers with a better understanding and purpose for your products and services?

Lenny Davies
Director
BamBoo Smart Growth

By BamBoo Smart Growth - 12/02/2020 - Content Strategy