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.

1. HOW TO MAXIMIZE PUBLISHING
WITH MICROCONTENT

2. HIGH-VALUE
EVERGREEN
CONTENT
HIGH-IMPACT,
REAL-TIME
CONTENT
IDEAL
CONTENT
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.

3. 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

4. IMAGES
CHARTS
TIPS MINIGRAPHICS
DIAGRAMS GIFS

5. WHY CREATE
MICROCONTENT?
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 CONSISTENTLY
Viral 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.

6. 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 SHAREABILITY
ADDING 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%

7. Creating a steady stream of content is
an enormous challenge that requires
time, money, and energy. Microcontent
is efficient 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

8. Microcontent takes less time to produce, which means you can invest more time in targeting content to
different audiences. Whereas a comprehensive study may seem too dense to market to a general audience,
tailored microcontent helps provide points of entry for different demographics.
TAILOR CONTENT TO DIFFERENT AUDIENCES
BLOGGERS DESIGNERSMARKETERS

9. PHOTO
OVERLAY
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 different 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 CONSUMERS
Ask or answer a question.

10. CREATE
NEW PIECES
REPURPOSE
OLD 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

11. 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
PHOTO
OPPORTUNITIES
MEMES
QUOTES
INTERNAL
SOURCES
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.

12. Q&A/INTERVIEWS
E-BOOKS
WHITE
PAPERSCASE STUDIES
INFOGRAPHICS
CONSUMER
SURVEYS/DATA
BLOG
POSTS
REPURPOSE OLD CONTENT
Not feeling inspired? Comb through your existing assets.

13. Whether you’re creating new pieces or repurposing old content, consider the content pillar approach. It’s a
lean and efficient 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 CONTENT
Break 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.

14. 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.

15. MICROCONTENT FROM THIS E-BOOK

16. 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 afford 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