Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Content creation is challenging and time-consuming. Therefore, you have to be strategic with your content planning and execution. Anticipate the topics and audiences you’ll need to support your business goals, and use this information to create your content accordingly. However, remember that you don't have to create more original content to win the content game. Instead, focus on repurposing your pillar, centerpiece assets throughout each quarter by using the Big Rock Content approach.
What is Big Rock Content?
“Big Rock” content is your foundational content marketing asset, anchoring your strategy and sowing seeds of interest across multiple platforms. But what exactly does that mean? Think of Big Rock content as a comprehensive guide or resource on a specific topic crucial to your audience. It's not just any content; it's the content that addresses your target market's core issues or interests, detailed enough to be broken down into smaller pieces like blog posts, infographics, and even social media snippets.
Below is a great description from LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions blog to help you understand exactly what Big Rock Content is.
The Big Rock Strategy involves taking a large, robust piece of content and breaking it down into smaller pebbles of information. These pebbles of content can be used to create a journey for your customers, moving them further down the funnel, one small piece at a time. The pebble-to-Big Rock framework doesn’t just break hefty concepts into readymade pebbles of content—it allows your brand to build and nurture a relationship with your potential customer.
Why Big Rock Content?
Why invest in such a mammoth task of producing an in-depth white paper or guide? Because Big Rock content is designed to provide significant value, it draws in leads and nurtures them through detailed, insightful information. It’s the kind of content that positions you as an authority in your field, which is particularly valuable in B2B marketing, where decisions are information-driven and relationships are king.
But your Big Rock is more than just this big piece of content: It also acts as source material for numerous derivative works that help you spread the word across multiple channels in a variety of formats.
Identifying Your Big Rock
Pinpointing the perfect Big Rock topic involves understanding your audience deeply. What are their most pressing questions? What challenges are they trying to overcome? Utilize tools like Google Analytics or conduct surveys to gather this data. The goal is to find a theme broad enough to be impactful yet specific enough to provide actionable insights.
Creating Your Masterpiece
Once you’ve chosen your topic, it's time to create something memorable. This step is all about depth and quality. Start with thorough research—interview experts, gather data, and compile case studies. Make your Big Rock content diverse in format—videos, podcasts, and infographics can make the content more digestible and engaging.
Repurpose Big Rock Content with Purpose and Spread the Word
The beauty of Big Rock content is its versatility. The original content can be segmented into blog posts, used in email marketing, or even transformed into a series of webinars. Each piece should maintain a consistent message and visual style, reinforcing your brand and maximizing exposure across different platforms.
Repurposing your Big Rock content is a great way to keep delivering relevant content in various formats for your audience. While you must put in some upfront work on developing that Big Rock masterpiece, breaking off little chunks to repurpose into different types of content isn’t so hard.
Another great thing about focusing your content strategy on Big Rock efforts? You can break the bad habit of creating new content for the sake of creating new content. Yes, fresh content is terrific. However, if it’s irrelevant and not useful, you’re wasting your time and your audience's time.
With the Big Rock approach, you use a significant piece of content as your ongoing source for period of time.
For example, you may choose a theme for a quarter, develop a white paper around that theme (the white paper = Big Rock), then break that content into smaller pieces to repurpose it in various forms. Each of those smaller pieces can lead back to your gated Big Rock content. Gate that rock—it is very valuable and should be used to generate leads.
New Opportunities in the Content Pebbles
What else can happen when you repurpose your Big Rock content? Believe it or not, you have new opportunities to capture your audience’s attention in different ways. Just like we all learn in different ways, there are different ways your audience wants to gain knowledge from your content. So, don’t force them into learning via only one form. Give them the opportunity to take it in via a method that is comprehendible to them that will stick with them. The more they enjoy your content and understand it, the more they will share it.
Do You Go Beyond Written Content?
In 2023, businesses that used Wistia to host their videos experienced a 15% increase in video plays and a 44% surge in total viewing time. Wistia State of Video Report
On average, listeners dedicate an impressive 7 hours each week to engaging with their preferred podcast app. Backlinko
On average, webinar attendees dedicate 53 minutes to viewing and interacting with live webinars. ON24
When executed correctly, your Big Rock content can fuel your content plan for an entire quarter. This process will help keep everyone on the same page. With a focused approach, you can start enlisting the help of subject matter experts in your organization to help develop both Big Rock content and those repurposed "chunks." If you build your quarterly themes around business goals and align them with department objectives, people will be more inclined to help you.
The Content Marketing Pyramid
Curata’s Content Marketing Pyramid is another way to think about the Big Rock content marketing approach.
The premise is the same, but the pyramid concept may help you better visualize exactly how the Big Rock approach should work. Similarly, the top of the pyramid is the Big Rock. Curata shows how Big Rock gets repurposed in your content marketing strategy.
Here are just a few ways you can repurpose your next piece of Big Rock content:
Blogs – Break the Big Rock up into pebbles. Share long and short-form blog posts related to various pieces of the larger piece of content. Make it easy to digest in smaller portions.
Infographics/SlideShare – Make your story visual. Turn your content into a visual display. Use imagery to help tell the story in fewer words but still get the point across.
Webinars – Conduct webinars to engage your audience. Webinars can be great learning tools and give your audience the chance to engage with you by asking questions.
Videos – Create videos about the different aspects of your Big Rock content. Make video series for sections of your content.
Social Media – Share insights, facts, stats, etc., from your big content in short posts on social media. This will drive engagement and leave the audience wanting to know more.
In short, remember this: You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every piece of content your company creates. Keep it focused on your big content. Develop a content inventory and develop various ways to share it so that your audience will be more engaged.
Measuring Success
How do you know if your Big Rock content hits the mark? Set clear KPIs—website traffic, download counts, social shares, and lead generation can all indicate success. Use analytics tools to track these metrics and gather insights to refine future content strategies.
Conclusion
Big Rock content isn't just a one-hit wonder; it's a strategic asset that boosts visibility, engagement, and authority. Investing in a substantial, value-packed piece of content sets the stage for ongoing engagement, turning casual visitors into loyal followers.
Ready to rock your content strategy? Start planning your Big Rock content today and watch your engagement soar. Share your thoughts or plans in the comments below, or contact us to discuss how our our B2B digital marketing services can help your organization.
