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5 ways to repurpose your annual report into the ultimate marketing tool

In our last blog on how to make your annual report more engaging, we established that your annual report is one of your most crucial pieces of marketing material. It’s full of fascinating data, intriguing human stories and insider knowledge about what makes your company tick (or at least it should be!).

So, if all that info is good enough for your annual report, then it MUST be good enough to be shared in other ways too, right? In fact, if you strategically use the information in your annual report, you could have enough content to see you through the next 6 months!

(As an aside, this is a good way to make decisions about what goes into your annual report in the first place. Ask yourself, “Is this worth sharing outside of this report?” No? Maybe it’s not worth including at all.)

Here are 5 ways to repurpose your annual report into the ultimate marketing tool:

1. Blog Posts

Not everything you write can make it into your annual report. Blog posts are a great way to publish anything that didn’t make it into the final product.

By hanging on to any data that didn’t quite make the cut, you might find you’ve got enough detail to publish a blog post or even a series of posts that dive deeper into an element of your annual report.

Or why not document your process? For example, do you think people might be more likely to read your annual report if they understand the amount of work that went into creating it? Why not jot down notes as you’re preparing your annual report, and write up a ‘behind the scenes’ blog post once your report is released. Better still, why not shoot some video to go along with it (see our next point)?

2. A Video

Data within annual reports can be perfect for videos. Combining still shots, or a complete animation with text and backing music can bring information to life in a way that is often more compelling than say, a PDF.

Why not turn the data in your report into a short ‘Did you know?’ series. Take a look at our video 10 years 10 facts where we take data around Ideaseed (how many clients we’ve worked with, how many Microsoft Office templates we’ve built) and turned it into an animated video

3. A Presentation

There’s a high chance that someone within your organisation is going to have to stand up and present the data within your annual report, so make sure you keep this in mind when you’re preparing it.

When it comes time to prepare the presentation, don’t start from scratch – pull out the most important pages of your annual report and turn them into slides. Keep the images and graphics but remove the text and use it as your script. Voila!

4. Social Media Posts

Dissect your annual report into bite-sized chunks and share the highlights through social media. Quotes, numbers and icons are perfect for most social platforms and the captions should be already sitting there somewhere within your report.

(Keep in mind that since social media is so widely used and the audience so diverse, it’s a good idea to try to pull out information that the average Josephine might find interesting – you probably don’t want to go too niche!)

If you use Instagram stories, you could hold a poll or a guessing game and encourage viewers to participate (e.g. guess how many staff we have, what’s our current stock price?)

Scatter your posts over the course of weeks or months and include a mention of the full report each time. If you’re clever, you’ll have enough content to last you for months!

5. A Microsite

If you’re hosting your annual report online (of course you are), make the most of your landing page by including content from your annual report. Not only is this a more welcoming experience for the reader, it’s great for SEO and accessibility.

And if you want to go a step further, create a microsite with separate tabs and sections that might be of interest to a wider audience than just your shareholders.

It doesn’t need to be complicated, but taking the opportunity to reinforce core messages, showcase staff and highlight key findings could be just the thing that wins you new fans and business in the future.

Turn your annual report into the gift that keeps on giving. Contact Ideaseed today to unlock your ultimate marketing tool.