How many concerts did you attend last year? 1 concert? 2 concerts? Every other weekend?

For most performers, a concert is a one-time event. They move from city to city scooping up revenue from each performance’s ticket and merchandise sales.

I want to share a story about how one savvy superstar rejected that model so she could spend more time on other priorities.

This story comes with a very important lesson for marketers.

My wife and daughter recently watched Beyoncé’s new concert film, Homecoming. It is her live headline performances at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last year and the story behind it.

The visually-impressive film caught my attention as I made dinner and afterwards, I sat down the join then. By that time, I was hooked since I had been watching from a distance.

Apparently, the release of this film on Netflix coincided with her new live album featuring these performances.

Beyoncé had not released a new album in several years.

Since her last album, she had a very difficult pregnancy and gave birth to twins.

Beyoncé’s big comeback was this Coachella performance in 2018.

Beyoncé’s Powerful Lesson For Small Marketing Team

Leading up to the music festival, Beyoncé and her team had a choice.

Option #1) They could work really hard to put together this performance for Coachella.

OR

Option #2) They could work slightly harder and accomplish:

1. The headlining Coachella performance.
2. A new live album that will sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
3. An impactful concert film documentary that is packaged as a cultural moment and will keep Beyoncé on top of the relevancy ladder for the next year.

They chose to work harder and so they could get more from the effort they were putting into preparing for the Coachella event.

In marketing and sales, I call this approach to prioritizing inputs and outputs a “Mileage Mindset” and it is a key to growing your business with a small marketing team.

To understand if you have a “mileage mindset,” let me ask you a question.

How many times have you done the hard thinking and writing around creating a whitepaper or webinar then left it in that singular format when the campaign was over?

Have you ever prepared for a presentation at a conference or industry event and then never re-purposed that into a webinar, ebook, or video series?

Beyoncé prepared 4-5 months for Coachella. She put in the brutal effort of preparing for a mega-concert once, but leveraged that work in other assets that would continue to pay off.

You may be thinking to yourself, “I’m really stretched thin. I don’t have time to plan out or repurpose my content to make the most of my investment.”

Beyoncé had a similar problem. She has twin infants. She had a 6-year-old daughter. She had an extremely busy megastar husband. She was getting pulled in all directions at once.

How did view the hill she needed to climb? Beyoncé knew this was not going to be easy, but she chose to push hard and put in the extra time upfront, so that her investment would pay dividends for the next 1-2 years without her needing to be in the spotlight all the time.

You see? Content repurposing is not a time suck. It is a marketing strategy for getting hours back in your day.

I think Beyoncé is great, but I’m not an avid fan. However, watching this concert film made me realize the brilliant marketing move that Beyoncé employs to do more using less of her time.

Just like you, Beyoncé’s time and attention are needed elsewhere.

Her lesson for content marketers, especially those with small marketing teams, is one that every growth-oriented company needs to take seriously.

This is a lesson in leveraging your time.

When it comes to marketing, all of the hours you put into your work are not equal.

Beyoncé shows us that one hour of work does not need to produce one unit of your desired outcome.

How To Copy Beyoncé's Content Repurposing Playbook

If she had thought of Coachella as a one-time concert, she would have generated 7-21 days of buzz and revenue from that one performance.

Instead, Beyoncé has a “mileage mindset.”

How about you?

If you work for a week to create a new content marketing campaign, it could generate leads for a week or two when you launch the campaign.

Here is how “Marketing Professor Beyoncé” would look at this.

She’ll say, “I’ll work hard for a week and a half, so I can generate leads for a year.”

When you create a marketing asset, you have done the hard thinking.

You have researched and developed your ideas.

You have organized them into production-ready content - whether it is a lead magnet (like a report, ebooks, white paper), a blog post, a video, a webinar, a presentation, a podcast, or many other content formats.

You may not know it, but you have done the hard and the most time-consuming part.

Beyoncé’s lesson is about putting in a little extra work to get the most from that investment.

The beauty of this model is that you are now working with leveraged hours.

To create a video series from that ebook, you don’t need to put in the same amount or type of hours that you did to plan and create the ebook.

The thinking is done. The content is done.

Now, channel your inner Beyoncé to take that thought leadership and turn in into multiple potent content assets.

First, you need to understand that Beyoncé did not mix the live album or edit the Homecoming concert film or even upload the finished product to Netflix.

She just did the part that only Beyoncé could do upfront.

So, I recommend outsourcing (or offloading to someone on your team) a large portion of the content repurposing. This part of the “mileage mindset” allows you to work on other strategic initiatives or get started on the next content campaign.

Let’s take this further so you can start putting this into action today.

Here are your steps to develop a “mileage mindset” to turn your content marketing strategy into an engine that will generate traffic, leads, and sales for years to come.

Step #1) Evaluate Your Current Marketing And Sales Assets.

Some of them might be out of date or less relevant to your target audience. However, if it is still accurate and important to your audience, put it in the pile of assets to turn into additional formats.

Step #2) Bring A “Mileage Mindset” Into Your Next Marketing Campaign.

Go into your next content campaign with a plan to turn the upfront thinking, planning, and content creation into as many formats as you can over the next few months (along with the corresponding mini-campaign launches).

Step #3) Pick The Right Formats.

Identify the content formats that make sense for your content and market. If you created an executive report for the buyers in your market, know that turning that content into blog posts or an infographic will serve a different purpose and drive different outcomes than using that information in a webinar, in-person lunch and learn, or presentation at an industry conference.

Step #4) Prepare Your Content Distribution Strategy.

Content creation is only half your growth equation. Just like you did with the original content asset, you will need to get each new asset that you create in front of buyers. Common content distribution channels include emailing your list, digital ads, and partner communication.

Step #5) Analyze And Adjust.

This may feel like a lot of work, but as a leader in your business, you need to set the expectations that content is not fully published until it has been repurposed into 4-5 additional formats.

Small Marketing Team Takeaway

Everything from doing more with less to getting hours back to work on other priorities while leads are automatically generated starts with your “mileage mindset”.

Then, be clear about the content repurposing process and each person's role in the system.

Soon, just like Beyoncé, you’ll be able to squeeze every drop of marketing power from everything you do.