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 crucialpieces of marketing material. It’s full of fascinating data, intriguing humanstories and insider knowledge about what makes your company tick (or at leastit should be!).

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

(As an aside, this is a goodway to make decisions about what goes into your annual report in the firstplace. Ask yourself, “Is this worth sharing outside of this report?” No? Maybeit’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 intoyour annual report. Blog posts are a great way to publish anything that didn'tmake it into the final product.

By hanging on to any data that didn’tquite make the cut, you might find you’ve got enough detail to publish a blogpost or even a series of posts that dive deeper into an element of your annualreport.

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

2. A Video

Data within annual reports can be perfectfor videos. Combining still shots, or a complete animation with text andbacking music can bring information to life in a way that is often morecompelling than say, a PDF.

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

3. A Presentation

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

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

4. Social Media Posts

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

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

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

Scatter your posts over the course of weeks or monthsand 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 yourannual report online (of course you are), make the most of your landing page byincluding content from your annual report. Not only is this a more welcomingexperience for the reader, it’s great for SEO and accessibility.

And if you want to go astep further, create a microsite with separate tabs and sections that might beof 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.