By the marketingSHOWCASE Editorial Team – Featuring insights from Gemma Edwards, Director at So Contented:
Let’s be honest: the modern content hamster wheel is exhausting. Marketers are told they need to be posting daily on LinkedIn, filming TikToks, writing weekly blogs, launching podcasts, and sending regular email newsletters.
It’s a recipe for creative burnout, and worse—it often results in thin, rushed content that doesn’t actually drive business results.
At our recent marketingSHOWCASE Manchester event, Gemma Edwards, Director at So Contented, stepped up for her 5 in Twenty masterclass to deliver a much-needed reality check. Her core message? Stop creating more content. Start squeezing every ounce of value out of what you already have.
Here is how Gemma suggests you crack the content code without losing your sanity.
1. The myth of ‘more’
The biggest mistake marketing teams make is equating volume with value. We get so caught up in the pressure to look “active” on every single platform that we forget why we are creating content in the first place: to build trust, demonstrate expertise, and convert leads.
Gemma challenged the audience to shift their mindset from a creation-first model to a distribution-first model. If you spend 5 hours writing an incredible, deeply researched industry report or blog post, you shouldn’t just share it once on LinkedIn and move on to the next task. That core asset is a goldmine waiting to be excavated.
2. The ‘1-to-10’ repurposing framework
How do you practically turn one piece of long-form content into weeks of social media coverage? Gemma’s session highlighted the art of “atomizing” your content.
If you start with one cornerstone piece of content—like a detailed 1,500-word guide or a 30-minute interview—you can easily break it down into:
- 3x LinkedIn Text Posts: Extracting distinct arguments or opinions from the article.
- 2x Short-Form Videos: Recording a quick 60-second summary of the top tips.
- 1x Infographic or Carousel: Turning a step-by-step process into a swipeable visual deck.
- 1x Email Newsletter Feature: Sending the most impactful takeaway directly to your subscribers’ inbox.
- 1x Quote Graphic: Highlighting a powerful, single-sentence statement that challenges industry norms.
Suddenly, one afternoon of hard work yields two weeks of highly targeted, cross-channel marketing materials.
3. Tailor the tone, don’t just copy-paste
A vital takeaway from the So Contented session was that repurposing isn’t just about lazy copying and pasting. Every platform has its own native “language” and user behavior.
- LinkedIn requires professional context, storytelling, and an invitation for industry debate.
- Instagram demands aesthetic appeal, quick consumption, and personality.
- TikTok/Shorts need an immediate hook within the first two seconds and high-energy delivery.
When you break down your cornerstone content, you must re-clothe it to fit the platform it’s landing on. The underlying insight stays exactly the same, but the delivery adapts to how the user wants to consume it.
What did we learn? quality over quantity
Gemma’s 5 in Twenty talk was a powerful reminder that the best marketing teams aren’t the ones working themselves to the bone creating raw material from scratch every morning. They are the ones who build smart systems to make their best ideas travel further.
By mastering the art of repurposing, you save time, protect your team’s creative energy, and ensure your target audience actually sees your best insights – no matter which platform they prefer.
To catch more rapid-fire marketing masterclasses, secure your tickets to the next marketingSHOWCASE event! Next stop London – book here