Your Ideal Customer Is a Person, Not a Job Title

Ask a business to describe its ideal customer and you’ll often get a fairly confident answer.

Marketing directors in UK businesses with 20–200 employees.

Great. That’s a starting point. But what does it actually tell you about the person you’re trying to reach?

You know their job title, the sort of business they work for and roughly how big that business is. What you don’t know is what’s going on in their working life, what they’re trying to achieve or why they might need your help.

And those are the things that can make all the difference when it comes to creating content that gets their attention.

How well do you really know your ideal customer?

Most businesses have come across the term ideal customer profile, or ICP. It’s a way of defining the customers you most want to work with, and it’s an important part of any marketing strategy.

But it’s easy to stop at the basics.

Take our marketing director, for example.

Perhaps they’ve recently joined a growing business. They’ve inherited a small team, the managing director wants to see results quickly and they’re trying to work out how to deliver everything that’s expected of them.

They’re very capable at their job and know what good marketing looks like. What they don’t have is enough time or enough people to do everything they’d like.

Now imagine you’re a marketing agency trying to reach that person. You could spend weeks creating content about your impressive range of services and explaining how your approach to marketing works.

But would any of that make our marketing director stop scrolling?

Possibly, but probably not.

An article about keeping your marketing moving when your team is already stretched might get a very different reaction. You’re talking about something they’re experiencing, perhaps even struggling with, rather than something you want to sell.

Of course, another marketing director with the same job title in a similar business might have completely different priorities.

That’s the point. A job title can help you find the right people, but it doesn’t necessarily help you understand them.

We’re often far too interested in our own businesses

There’s another problem that tends to creep into content marketing, and I think most of us have probably been guilty of it at some point.

We get a bit carried away with our own businesses.

Which is understandable. We’ve worked hard to build them, we’re proud of what we do and naturally we want people to know about it.

So, we talk about our latest service, explain how clever our product is and share the finer details of how everything works. And sometimes that’s exactly what our audience needs to hear.

The trouble is, we’re so familiar with our own world that we forget other people aren’t.

Think about how often you’ve visited a business website and had to work surprisingly hard to understand what the company does for its customers. There’s plenty of information available. Sometimes there’s an extraordinary amount of technical detail. But after reading three paragraphs, you’re still wondering what any of it means for you.

The business knows its product inside out. It has simply forgotten that the person reading about it probably doesn’t. And all that knowledge and expertise is valuable. We just need to get better at explaining it in a way that means something to the people we’re trying to reach.

What Apple understood about its customers

One of our favourite examples of this goes all the way back to 2001, when Apple launched the original iPod.

The device had a 5GB hard drive, which was pretty impressive technology at the time.

But Apple didn’t make that technical specification the headline. Instead, it led with a wonderfully simple message:

“1,000 songs in your pocket.”

You didn’t need to know anything about storage capacity or digital audio technology. You could immediately picture what owning an iPod would mean for you.

Imagine having all that music in your pocket, wherever you went.

Apple hadn’t made the technology any less impressive by describing it that way. It had made the benefit instantly understandable. The technical specs were still there for anyone who wanted them. But you didn’t need to understand the technology to understand why you might want an iPod.

Now, most of us aren’t selling the next revolutionary piece of technology. But the principle works just as well for a small business selling a service as it does for Apple.

We can be so busy explaining what we’ve created that we forget to show people what it could do for them.

So, what does this mean for your content?

For a start, it means getting a bit more curious about your customers.

And you don’t necessarily need an expensive research project or a complicated buyer persona exercise to do that.

Think about the conversations you’re already having. When somebody gets in touch, how do they explain what they’re looking for? What prompted them to start looking for help in the first place?

Pay particular attention to the words they use.

You might describe your service as an integrated content marketing solution. Your customer might simply say they need somebody to keep their marketing going because nobody on the team has the time.

Both might be accurate descriptions of the same service.

But we know which one we’d be more inclined to use when writing something intended to reach that customer. This is also where having a good understanding of your audience changes the sort of content you create. Instead of sitting down each month and trying to think of something new to say about your business, you can start with what your customers are interested in.

Maybe there’s a question that comes up in almost every sales conversation. Perhaps you’ve noticed a common misunderstanding about what you do. Or you’ve had a really interesting conversation with a customer that made you think about something differently.

There’s a good chance somebody else would be interested in reading about it.

And this isn’t about turning every blog or social media post into a discussion of somebody’s problems.

People aren’t defined by their pain points any more than they’re defined by their job titles. They have ambitions, interests and ideas of their own. Sometimes they want practical help. Other times they want to learn something new or see an opportunity they hadn’t considered.

Nor does it mean stripping out all the technical detail. If you’re speaking to a specialist audience, they may want that detail, and they’ll certainly notice if you don’t know your subject.

The point is to understand who you’re talking to well enough to know what will interest them.

The closer you get to that, the less your content feels like a business broadcasting information and the more it feels like a conversation worth having.

Get to know the person behind the profile

Your ideal customer profile is a good place to begin. It helps you understand where to focus your marketing and who you’re hoping to attract.

But there’s a real person behind that description.

Someone who’s busy with their own work and probably hasn’t spent much of their day thinking about your business. They’re not sitting around waiting for your next LinkedIn post or newsletter to arrive.

Which means we have to give them a reason to be interested. And that starts with knowing a little more about them than their job title.

So, next time you’re planning your content, it’s worth asking yourself a simple question.

Are we talking about what we want people to know, or what they’d actually be interested in hearing?

You Can’t Communicate Your Way Into Inclusion.

You can’t communicate your way into being an inclusive organisation. But the way you communicate can tell people a great deal about whether you really are one.

No statement, campaign, social post or carefully worded leadership message can create an inclusive culture on its own.

Communication can, however, give people the evidence they need to believe and trust you.

It helps employees, customers and other stakeholders understand what leaders pay attention to, how decisions are made, whose experiences appear to have been considered and whether the values an organisation talks about seem to influence what it actually does.

That feels particularly relevant to this year’s National Inclusion Week theme, Build Trust. Navigate Change.

Change has a habit of making organisational values easier to see. Because when there is pressure, uncertainty or a difficult decision to make, people are no longer judging inclusion by the words on a values page alone. They are also looking at what happens next.

Communication gives people something to judge

Organisations put a lot of work into communicating what they stand for.

There are values statements, policies, campaigns, internal communications and public commitments. During National Inclusion Week, there will quite rightly be conversations about inclusion across many of those channels. But saying that inclusion matters and giving people reasons to believe it are different things.

People build their own view over time.

They notice whether leaders acknowledge that a decision may affect people differently, whose perspectives appear to have been considered and whether difficult questions are addressed rather than smoothed over. They absolutely notice whether leaders listen and respond, or whether communication only travels in one direction. And they compare what they hear with what they experience. That’s key because inclusion has substance only when it reaches beyond the statement.

A leader cannot prove through communication that every person in an organisation feels included. What they can do is make the thinking, priorities and behaviours behind the organisation more visible. That gives people more evidence from which to decide whether its stated values feel credible.

Visible leadership makes values easier to see

This is one of the distinctions we keep returning to as we explore leadership visibility at Colour Me Social.

Visibility is often discussed in terms of profile, reach or how often a leader communicates. But perhaps the more interesting question is what people are actually able to understand because that leader is visible.

Can they see how decisions are approached? Do they understand what the leader pays attention to? Can they see how a leader handles uncertainty, difficult questions and challenge? When different people may experience the same decision differently, does the communication recognise that?

Leaders don’t have to comment on everything or have a polished answer ready for every situation, but when they are visible, people have more information against which to judge them and the organisations they represent.

We’re already hearing this in the first few interviews we’ve conducted for our Leadership Visibility Report.

“Using our online communication channels to connect with our stakeholders is one of the most important ways we can share our values and culture. And enabling them to hear from the leaders and the people within our organisation is the most valuable of all. People trust people more than businesses!”

That relationship between visibility and trust is reflected in wider research too.

RepTrak’s 2026 research found that 48% of global stakeholders saw the CEO as the most appropriate person to communicate company vision. But its findings also make an important distinction: people placed particular value on leaders listening and responding to feedback and being open about their actions.

RepTrak’s conclusion was clear that visibility alone does not strengthen reputation; what people see still has to meet their expectations.

That supports an important distinction.

Leadership visibility can support trust, but being seen is not enough.

For an organisation that says inclusion matters, visibility makes some fairly fundamental things more open to scrutiny: whether different experiences are recognised, whether challenge is treated seriously, whether leaders appear prepared to listen and whether the organisation’s values remain present when the conversation becomes uncomfortable.

Change is when values have to do some work

This is where the second half of the National Inclusion Week theme, Navigate Change, becomes particularly relevant.

Values are relatively easy to describe when circumstances are comfortable. They become more revealing when an organisation is restructuring, changing priorities, introducing new technology, reducing budgets, altering ways of working or making another decision that may affect different people in different ways.

In those moments, employees may be trying to understand far more than what is changing.

Why has this decision been made?
Who has been considered?
Will different people experience this change differently?
Do the values we hear about when things are going well still matter when decisions become harder?

Good communication can’t remove all uncertainty, or make every difficult decision feel fair to everyone affected by it.

But the way leaders explain those decisions can reveal whether different experiences have genuinely entered the thinking.

So can the way they listen.

There is good evidence for the wider relationship between trust, belonging and the ability to navigate change.

Great Place To Work UK’s 2026 research found that employees in high-trust, high-wellbeing cultures experience 3.2 times greater levels of belonging. In those environments, 80% of employees say they adapt quickly to change, compared with 60% in typical workplaces.

Those figures don’t mean that communication alone creates trust, belonging or adaptability. It clearly doesn’t. They do, though, underline why trust matters when organisations ask people to navigate change, and why inclusion cannot be separated from that conversation.

When people feel valued, listened to and included, they experience change in a very different environment from one where trust is already fragile.

Trust forms in the gap between words and experience

Any communication strategy has its limits.

An organisation can say that people should speak up. Whether people believe they can depends on what happens when someone does.

It can say that different perspectives are valued. People will also notice whose views influence decisions, who is repeatedly heard and what happens when someone disagrees.

It can talk about inclusion as an organisational value. People will compare that language with decisions, behaviour and their own experience of the organisation.

That comparison builds or weakens credibility. One principle we return to frequently at Colour Me Social is simple:

Trust is built when the message and the behaviour match. That does not mean organisations have to be perfect before they communicate about inclusion. Most organisations will have gaps between what they aspire to and what everyone experiences. Pretending otherwise is hardly a strong basis for trust.

Credibility can also come from acknowledging where work is unfinished, explaining the thinking behind difficult choices and being prepared to hear when a decisions impact is different from the one intended.

You have to be consistent.

If inclusion disappears from view whenever a difficult commercial decision has to be made, people learn something. When leaders talk about listening but become less accessible when they face challenge, people learn something. And if the same inclusive values expressed publicly can still be recognised in difficult decisions, explanations and responses, people learn something from that too.

What happens during the other 51 weeks?

Building trust is not simply about communicating more.

More messages do not automatically create more confidence and more leadership visibility does not automatically make an organisation more credible.

People need reasons to believe what they are hearing. Reasons that accumulate through what leaders say, what they are prepared to acknowledge, how they respond when circumstances become difficult and, crucially, whether the organisation’s behaviour supports the story being told.

That is where communication has a genuine role in inclusion.

It cannot manufacture an inclusive culture. And it cannot compensate indefinitely for behaviour that contradicts the message. What it can do is make enough of an organisation’s thinking, decisions and values visible for people to form a more informed view of what it really stands for.

National Inclusion Week gives organisations an important opportunity to talk about inclusion. But the real test is what people see during the other 51 weeks of the year, particularly when things change, decisions become harder and those values are put under pressure.

And leadership visibility, and how and what is communicated, is part of what people are judging in those moments.

You can’t communicate your way into being an inclusive organisation. But the way you communicate can tell people a great deal about whether you really are one.

Read more of our thoughts, views and opinions on the value of trust and leadership visibility here.

Trust Is How Inclusive Cultures Are Built

Visible leadership is the cornerstone…

Colour Me Social is a proudly inclusive marketing collective.

That isn’t a description we bring out for a particular month, campaign or audience. It reflects the kind of business we want to be, the people we want to work with and what we believe about strong organisations.

But being proudly inclusive has to mean more than saying the right things.

It has to shape whose ideas are heard, whose experiences are valued, how decisions are explained and whether people feel able to contribute without first calculating how much of themselves it is safe to reveal.

That is where inclusion becomes a business issue.

A business can recruit people from different backgrounds, publish commitments, introduce policies and run awareness programmes.

Those actions can all play a part.

But they don’t automatically create an inclusive culture.

Inclusion is what people experience after the statement has been published and the campaign has ended. It is visible in meetings, decisions, opportunities, everyday conversations and the behaviour leaders are prepared to model.

At the centre of that experience is trust.

Diversity brings potential. Inclusion determines whether it is realised.

There is a strong case for bringing together people who don’t all think, work or experience the world in the same way.

Different perspectives can expose assumptions that might otherwise go unchallenged. They can help businesses understand a broader range of customers, recognise risks earlier and approach problems from more than one direction.

There is also evidence of an association between diverse leadership and financial performance.

McKinsey’s 2023 Diversity Matters Even More research examined 1,265 companies across 23 countries. It found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 39% more likely to financially outperform those in the bottom quartile. The same increased likelihood was found when comparing the top and bottom quartiles for ethnic diversity on executive teams.[1]

That is an association, not proof that representation alone causes stronger performance. A diverse team cannot compensate for a weak product, poor leadership or an unsustainable business model.

But it reinforces an important point: diverse leadership and commercial performance are not competing priorities.

Representation, however, is only the beginning.

The presence of different perspectives doesn’t guarantee that those perspectives will influence the organisation.

Someone may have an important concern but decide it is safer not to raise it. A colleague may spot a weakness in a plan but assume challenge will be treated as negativity. A person with relevant lived experience may be invited into the room but find that the real decisions have already been made elsewhere.

The knowledge, perspective and opportunity all exist. But without inclusion, the business may never benefit from it.

Diversity affects who is present.

Inclusion affects who can participate, who is listened to and what happens as a result.

Representation at the top still matters

Despite years of discussion about diverse leadership, representation remains uneven.

Deloitte’s 2024 Women in the Boardroom research covered more than 18,000 companies across 50 countries and geographies. It found that women held 23.3% of board seats globally. At the rate of change recorded, Deloitte estimated that gender parity in boardrooms would not be reached before 2038.[2]

Gender is only one part of diversity, and global figures cannot describe every organisation or individual experience. But the numbers show why businesses cannot assume that inclusion will develop naturally with time.

Who reaches senior positions matters.

Leadership teams influence priorities, investment, recruitment, recognition and the assumptions that shape decisions. They also affect who can imagine themselves progressing through an organisation.

Representation creates visible possibility. Inclusion determines whether people are able to turn that possibility into influence.

Trust makes participation possible

People contribute more fully when they trust the environment they are working in.

They need to believe that asking a difficult question won’t damage their standing. That admitting uncertainty won’t automatically be mistaken for incompetence. That challenging an idea won’t be treated as challenging someone’s authority.

This isn’t about creating a workplace without disagreement or discomfort.

Inclusive cultures still contain tension. People will have competing priorities, different interpretations and strongly held opinions. Difficult decisions will still need to be made.

The difference is that challenge can take place without people feeling they must protect themselves first.

The CIPD’s 2024 evidence review of trust and psychological safety found that psychological safety is linked to outcomes including people sharing information, speaking up and contributing ideas. It also identified a relationship between a positive inclusion climate and people feeling safer to take appropriate interpersonal risks.[3]

In a trusted environment, disagreement can improve an idea rather than end a relationship. People can say, “I think we may have missed something,” and expect the concern to be considered fairly.

That gives a business access to more of the knowledge already inside it.

It also creates a workplace in which people are more able to participate as themselves rather than continually editing their contribution to fit what they think the organisation will accept.

Leaders show people what inclusion means here

Policies matter, but people often take their clearest cultural signals from leadership.

They notice who is invited into important conversations.

They see whose work is recognised and whose is overlooked.

They remember how a leader reacts when someone disagrees with them.

They pay attention to whether difficult subjects are addressed directly or avoided until they disappear from view.

They also notice whether the public language of inclusion is reflected in ordinary business behaviour.

This is where visible leadership matters.

Not visibility as performance. Not a constant stream of polished statements. And not the expectation that every senior leader should turn themselves into an online personality.

Leadership visibility is about helping people understand how a leader thinks, what they value and what those values look like in practice.

A leader who talks about learning but punishes honest mistakes sends one message.

A leader who celebrates diversity publicly but repeatedly listens to the same small group sends another.

A leader who explains a difficult decision, acknowledges its impact and remains open to challenge gives people something different: a clearer basis on which to decide whether the organisation can be trusted.

People are not judging perfection.

They are judging consistency.

The external message and internal experience must match

An organisation communicates its culture long before someone becomes an employee or customer.

People read its website. They see who represents it publicly. They notice the stories it shares, the subjects its leaders discuss and the people whose achievements are celebrated.

That public communication creates expectations.

The internal experience then either reinforces or contradicts them.

A business may describe itself as inclusive, but people will form their real judgement through what happens when a concern is raised, an adjustment is requested or an established way of working is challenged.

This is why proudly inclusive cannot be treated as a marketing moment.

It is a commitment to making the message and the behaviour match.

That doesn’t require an organisation to have solved every problem or found perfect language for every situation. It does require willingness, honesty and a readiness to continue the work when there is no campaign attached to it.

The businesses that earn trust are not necessarily those that claim to have every answer.

They are often the ones prepared to explain what they believe, acknowledge where they are learning and demonstrate that their values influence real choices.

Inclusion strengthens the whole business

Inclusive culture is sometimes confined to conversations about HR, recruitment or employee engagement.

Its influence is much wider.

When people can contribute fully, a business has access to more of the knowledge, experience and judgement already inside it. Teams can identify weak assumptions earlier. Leaders receive information they may not otherwise hear. Products, services and communication can be shaped by a broader understanding of the people they are intended to serve.

Inclusion can also affect how well a business adapts.

When only a narrow group feels able to challenge established thinking, blind spots can survive for longer. When people know their contribution will be considered seriously, organisations have a better chance of recognising change and responding to it.

It affects reputation too.

Employees, candidates, customers and partners are all looking for evidence that a business behaves in a way they can trust. They are unlikely to base that judgement on a values page alone.

They look for consistency between what the organisation says, what its leaders make visible and what people experience when they interact with it.

That consistency can strengthen relationships inside and outside the business.

Its absence can weaken them remarkably quickly.

Visibility should create understanding, not simply attention

At Colour Me Social, we help leaders and businesses turn their ideas, expertise and experiences into content that builds visibility and trust.

Our work on leadership visibility isn’t about presenting leaders as flawless or manufacturing a polished personal brand.

It is about helping people understand the human thinking behind a business.

That might mean a leader explaining why a decision was made, sharing what they have learned, acknowledging a difficult issue or discussing the principles that shape how they work.

Often, the strongest material already exists in conversations, meetings and everyday experience. The barrier isn’t a lack of something to say. It is finding the time and structure to capture it properly.

Through Leader Brand, one guided monthly conversation can become a connected month of content across the channels that matter.

But the content isn’t the starting point.

The leader’s actual thinking is.

That distinction matters, particularly when communicating values such as inclusion. Generic statements are easy to produce. Credible communication must be grounded in what a leader believes, notices, questions and is prepared to stand behind.

Leaders don’t need to share every opinion or narrate every decision. They need to be visible enough for people to understand the judgement, values and experience behind the organisation.

Proudly inclusive means making it part of the work

For us, inclusion is not separate from marketing, leadership or business performance.

It influences who feels represented by communication. Whose expertise becomes visible. Whether different voices are treated as a genuine source of insight. And whether the story a business tells publicly reflects how it behaves when nobody is writing a campaign about it.

There is a moral case for inclusion because people deserve dignity, respect and the opportunity to participate fully.

There is also a business case. Inclusive cultures give organisations a better chance of hearing what they need to hear, drawing on the abilities of their people and building relationships founded on trust.

The commercial evidence supports that principle. It doesn’t replace it.

Our belief can be expressed through a simple chain:

Visible leadership builds trust.

Trust creates inclusive cultures.

Inclusive cultures build better businesses.

The strength of that chain depends on what happens between the words.

Leaders must be visible in ways that help people understand them.

Trust must be supported by consistent behaviour.

And inclusion must be experienced, not merely announced.

That is what being proudly inclusive means to us.

References

1. McKinsey & Company, Diversity Matters Even More: The Case for Holistic Impact, 2023.
Read the research

2. Deloitte, Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective, eighth edition, 2024.
Read the report overview

3. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Trust and Psychological Safety: An Evidence Review, 2024.
Read the evidence review

An Easy Way to Create Leadership Visibility Without AI slop

As a founder, business owner and senior leader, we’re pretty sure you have no shortage of ideas.

You have opinions shaped by experience, stories from working with customers, lessons learned through difficult decisions and an understanding of your industry that cannot be found in a generic content prompt.

You probably also recognise that leadership visibility online matters.

People increasingly want to hear from the individuals behind a business, not only through carefully managed company updates. They want to understand who is leading the organisation, what they believe and how they approach the issues that matter.

The difficulty is rarely having something worthwhile to say. It is finding the time, space and energy to turn that thinking into content.

The expertise is there. The time often is not

A leader may fully intend to write a LinkedIn post, contribute to an article or send some thoughts to the marketing team.

Then the week begins.

Customers need attention. Teams need direction. Problems arise. Meetings expand. Decisions cannot wait.

The draft remains unfinished. The note saved on a phone never becomes a post. A request from marketing sits in the inbox because even a seemingly simple contribution requires more headspace than is available.

As a result, a great deal of valuable thinking remains inside the business. This creates a frustrating gap. The leader knows visibility matters. The marketing team knows their insight would strengthen the company’s content. The audience would benefit from hearing it.

But the process being used to capture it does not fit around the realities of leadership.

Being visible is not the same as becoming an influencer

Leadership visibility can sometimes feel more demanding than it needs to be.

It does not require sharing every detail of your life, posting several times a week or creating a highly polished online personality. At its most valuable, visibility simply helps people understand how you think. Prospective customers, partners, employees, investors and others within your network are forming an impression of both the organisation and the people behind it.

They may be asking:

  • What experience do you bring?
  • How do you approach difficult decisions?
  • What have you learned from doing the work?
  • Which industry assumptions do you agree with, and which do you challenge?
  • What matters to you?
  • Are you someone they could trust?

Research from Edelman and LinkedIn found that 73% of B2B decision-makers considered an organisation’s thought leadership a more trustworthy way to assess its capabilities than its conventional marketing materials and product sheets.

Three-quarters also said that a piece of thought leadership had prompted them to research a product or service they had not previously considered.

That does not mean every leader needs to make bold predictions or attach the label “thought leader” to their profile, but it does demonstrate the value of sharing informed perspectives before somebody is ready to buy, recommend, apply, partner or begin a conversation.

Why asking leaders to “write something” often fails

The blank page creates more work than it appears to.

Sitting down to write a post means deciding on a topic, finding an angle, choosing an opening, working out how much context to include and judging whether the finished piece sounds worth reading.

That is a lot of decision-making for something that may only take a minute to consume.

There is often a layer of discomfort as well.

Many leaders do not want to sound self-important or overly promotional. They do not want to post simply for the sake of being seen. Nor do they want their name attached to generic content that could have come from almost anyone.

They may also be wary of handing everything over to AI. Yes, AI can produce grammatically correct, polished copy in seconds, but much of it follows the same patterns, uses the same phrases and makes the same broad observations.

It looks like content, but it does not contain much authentic, human thinking.

For marketing teams, this creates a different version of the same challenge. They know that leadership perspectives would add personality, credibility and depth to the wider marketing activity. They may already have ideas for articles, campaigns and social posts.

What they do not have is a reliable way of getting regular input from people whose time is already stretched.

The problem is not a lack of expertise. The problem is the method being used to draw it out.

Start with a conversation, not a content request

Most people communicate their ideas more naturally when they are speaking.

A well-timed question can uncover much more than a request to write 500 words.

An example comes to mind. A strong opinion begins to take shape. A customer question reveals a wider issue. A lesson that seemed ordinary becomes valuable once it is explained.

The language is usually more natural too, because the person is focused on the idea rather than trying to sound like a writer.

This is the principle behind Leader Brand.

Rather than asking a leader to begin with an empty document, the process starts with one guided conversation each month.

It is recorded, focused and relaxed.

There is no need for weekly writing sessions, repeated requests for commentary or hours of preparation. The conversation explores the subjects the leader already understands, including:

  • Changes within their market
  • Recurring customer questions
  • Problems the business is helping to solve
  • Lessons gained through experience
  • Industry developments
  • Strongly held perspectives
  • Stories that illustrate how the organisation works

From there, the strongest ideas can be identified, developed and turned into a connected body of content.

One hour of conversation provides the raw material for a month of leadership visibility.

One strong idea should not be used only once

A good conversation can become far more than a collection of LinkedIn posts. It might provide the basis for an article, newsletter, company update, short video, website insight, podcast discussion, campaign theme or webinar topic.

Not every business needs every format.

The point is to make the original thinking work harder.

Instead of sharing an idea once and returning immediately to an empty content calendar, the same perspective can be explored in different ways, for different audiences and across the channels that matter.

This also creates more direction.

Rather than commenting on a random collection of subjects, leaders can become associated with a smaller number of relevant themes.

Over time, people begin to understand what they know, where their experience lies and which issues they care about. That familiarity helps visibility become trust and credibility.

The benefit is not simply having posts ready

Saving time is an obvious advantage.

One focused hour can replace several fragmented attempts to write, plan and contribute content throughout the month.

But the value extends much further.

  • Leaders remain visible when work becomes particularly busy.
  • Marketing teams gain a regular source of genuine insight rather than depending entirely on corporate messaging.
  • Personal and company content can support one another more effectively.
  • Ideas can be developed across multiple formats without losing their original meaning.
  • Most importantly, the finished content continues to sound like the person whose name appears on it.

It begins with their experience, stories, opinions and natural language.

The process is not designed to manufacture a personality or invent a point of view. It is designed to make the thinking already present within the business easier to see.

Human thinking must come before content production

AI has reduced the time required to produce content.

It has not reduced the need for that content to be worth reading.

LinkedIn and other platforms are increasingly filled with posts that are polished but interchangeable. They use familiar structures, predictable openings and confident-sounding language without offering much substance.

This is what people often mean when they talk about AI slop: content created at scale without enough original thought behind it.

Leader Brand approaches the process differently.

AI may be used to support editing, organisation or repurposing, but it is not asked to invent the expertise.

The leader remains the source.

Their knowledge.

Their experiences.

Their stories.

Their language.

Their point of view.

The conversation comes first. The content comes second.

Because audiences do not need more posts created to fill a schedule; they need ideas that help them understand a problem, make a decision, learn from experience or view an issue from a different perspective.

Most leaders already have those ideas. They simply need a process that allows them to share them without adding another substantial task to their week.

One hour. One conversation. A month of credible leadership content.

A human-led way to turn the expertise already inside a leader’s head and business into consistent, trust-building, credible leadership visibility.

The Answer to Rainbow-Washing Isn’t Silence in Pride Month

There was a really interesting observation and subsequent conversation at a recent OutBritain online networking event that also tracked what we have been noticing: that there appears to be less outward support across LinkedIn and other social channels by businesses towards Pride Month this year.

And the questions that kept coming up were:

Do you think it’s because of a worry that businesses will look like they are just doing it as a marketing tick-box exercise?

Or is it that allyship is reducing?

Or simply a fear of “getting it wrong”?

Any one of those is a huge concern, to be honest.

Most people would agree that Pride Month should never be treated as a have-to-do, marketing thing.

But we also don’t want businesses, organisations and allies who genuinely care to hide away because they are worried their support will not be “perfect”.

There’s a big difference between a business using Pride Month as a convenient content moment or performative inclusion and a business trying, carefully and sincerely, to show support.

And there’s also a big difference between choosing not to make a hollow gesture and quietly disappearing from the conversation altogether. That’s the balance businesses are having to navigate.

And it’s not always an easy one.

Pride has become a more sensitive communication moment

Businesses and their leaders are facing a question that is both simple and surprisingly complicated.

Do we say something for Pride Month?

For some, the answer is immediate. Yes, of course. Change the logo. Share the post. Celebrate the team. Support the community. Make the message visible.

For others, there’s hesitation.

Not because they don’t care, or because they don’t support the LGBTQIA+ community.

But because Pride Month has become a more sensitive communication moment than it used to be.

There’s the worry of looking performative, saying the wrong thing, being accused of rainbow-washing, or turning something deeply personal, political and human into a piece of content.

And increasingly, we think there is another worry sitting underneath it all.

The worry of showing support publicly and getting it wrong.

We have a lot of sympathy for businesses here.

Many small businesses, founders, marketing teams and organisations are not trying to exploit Pride Month. They are trying to navigate something that feels important, emotional and public, often without a huge communications team or inclusion strategy behind them.

They may care deeply but not know the right language to use.

They may want to support but feel nervous about what to say.

They may worry that if they say something, someone will ask what else they are doing.

But maybe that question isn’t something to fear.

Maybe it’s the point.

If someone asks what you do beyond Pride Month, that does not have to be a threat. It can be a useful prompt. It can help you look at your business more honestly. It can help you move from message to behaviour.

Because allyship doesn’t require perfection. It requires willingness.

A willingness to listen, learn, be consistent and keep going after the June calendar moment has passed.

That’s where trust then begins. Not in getting every word perfect. But in showing that your support is genuine enough to keep working at it.

Allyship matters

There’s a danger, when we talk about rainbow-washing, that businesses hear only the warning and not the invitation.

Don’t be performative.

Don’t make it tokenistic.

Don’t just post and disappear.

But we also need to say this clearly: allyship still really matters. Visible support still really matters.

For the LGBTQIA+ community, especially those who may not feel safe, seen or fully accepted in every part of their life, a message of support can mean more than some businesses realise.

It says: You are welcome here.

It says: We have thought about this.

It says: You don’t have to leave part of yourself at the door.

Of course, a post can’t do all the work. A rainbow logo cannot create culture on its own. A Pride campaign cannot replace policy, safety, representation or everyday respect.

But visibility still has immense value.

And when businesses quietly withdraw from public support, even with good intentions, that absence can be felt. A lot.

Meaningful support doesn’t have to be huge

One of the reasons businesses get stuck is that sometimes they think Pride support has to look “big”.

A campaign. A launch. A major statement. A full content plan. A polished video. A bold brand moment.

It can be those things. But it really doesn’t have to be.

For many businesses, especially smaller ones, meaningful support might look much more grounded.

You could share why Pride matters to you as a business. You could highlight LGBTQIA+ voices, creators, suppliers, employees or community organisations (with care and their consent, of course!). You might choose to donate to or fundraise for a relevant charity, review your policies, look again at your language, or check whether your hiring processes and employee and client experience are as inclusive as you intend them to be.

It might also mean looking at the process parts of your business. Your website. Your forms. Your onboarding. Your internal communications. The places where people can be included properly or unintentionally excluded.

And sometimes, meaningful support starts with some simple honesty.

“We know we are still learning, but our support is genuine.”

That kind of message, when backed up by action, is often far more credible than a perfect-sounding post that disappears on 1 July.

The better question is what sits behind the logo

Changing your logo for Pride Month is not automatically wrong.

Sharing a supportive post is not automatically performative.

Using rainbow colours is not automatically meaningless.

The problem isn’t the visible gesture itself.

The problem is when the visible gesture is all there is.

So, the better question is not only “Should we change the logo?”

It’s: What sits behind it?

If you post about allyship, can your employees, clients, partners and community recognise that in their experience of you?

If you say everyone is welcome, have you thought about what welcome actually feels like?

That’s where businesses need to spend more time.

Because Pride Month is not only about what you say publicly. It’s about whether the public message matches the private reality.

And if it doesn’t yet match perfectly, that’s not a reason to say nothing.

It means you should be honest about where you are and committed to doing better.

People don’t need businesses to pretend they have everything sorted.

But they do need businesses to mean what they say.

Support has to live beyond June

If Pride Month is the only time a business talks about LGBTQIA+ inclusion, people will notice.

We’re not saying you need to talk about Pride every week or that every business must become an inclusion commentator. And it doesn’t mean forcing identity into every message.

It means inclusion should be visible in the way the business works.

We’re talking about year-round support that feels achievable, practical and real.

From the suppliers you choose to the people you platform.

In how you respond to discrimination and whether your team feels safe raising concerns.

The language you use without making a performance of it.

It also means asking whether LGBTQIA+ people are only represented during Pride Month, or whether they are part of the everyday story of your business, your sector and your community.

And sometimes, it can show up in content too.

Because communication is part of culture. What you say, share and choose to make visible tells people what you value.

The answer to rainbow-washing isn’t silence

Support doesn’t have to come from a place of perfection.

A business can care deeply and still be learning. It can support Pride while improving its policies, language and internal culture. It can ask for help, be honest about where it is, and make that support visible without pretending everything is already sorted.

That’s very different from using Pride Month as a marketing exercise.

A tick-box post says, “We have said the thing.”

Meaningful allyship says, “This matters to us, and we know our actions need to reflect it.”

And people can usually feel the difference.

That’s why silence isn’t always neutral.

There will be businesses that decide not to post about Pride Month, and that’s absolutely their choice. No judgement from us!

Sometimes support is happening internally. Sometimes there are conversations, donations, policy reviews or team moments that are not immediately visible online.

But we should also be careful with the idea that saying nothing is always the safer option.

Watching visible support appear to shrink, especially in a climate where inclusion feels increasingly contested, silence can feel like a message too.

That doesn’t mean businesses should post out of a feeling of obligation or guilt.

But it does mean businesses should think carefully before stepping back from visible support simply because the conversation has become more difficult.

Pride Month shouldn’t become a seasonal costume or a moment where businesses appear for the rainbow and disappear for the reality. Or a place where fear of criticism becomes an excuse for doing nothing.

Support just needs to be honest enough, consistent enough and human enough for people to trust that you mean it.

In June.

And in every other month too.

Why People Need to See the People Behind the Business

Most people are surrounded by marketing all day. Buy this. Sign up for that. Book a call. Download the guide. Don’t miss out.

After a while, it all starts to sound the same.

The businesses that cut through are not always the loudest. They are not always the ones posting the most, using the trendiest format or shouting the hardest about what they do. They are often the ones that feel the most genuine. The ones that sound like there are actual people behind them. The ones that make you think, “I get them.”

That is what brand humanisation is really about.

Not making your business overly personal. Not sharing everything. Not turning every team member into a content creator. And definitely not trying to be relatable for the sake of it.

It is about helping people see the humans behind the business, the values behind the work and the thinking behind the message. Because people do not build trust with logos. They build trust with people.

A human brand is easier to trust

Trust is one of those words that gets used a lot in marketing. But really, it is very simple. People want to feel that you mean what you say.

They want to know there is substance behind the message. They want to understand how you think, what you care about and whether your business feels like one they would want to work with, buy from, recommend or join.

That is much harder to do when your brand sounds like everyone else.

There is nothing wrong with professional content. Your business still needs clear messaging, useful information and well-presented communication. But if everything feels too polished, too distant or too anonymous, people have very little to connect with.

A human brand gives people something more. A point of view. A tone they recognise. A sense of what matters to you. A feeling that there are real people behind the work. That is where trust starts.

People connect with what feels real

We all know the difference between content that has been created to tick a box and content that actually feels like someone meant it.

The first is easy to scroll past. The second makes you pause. Not because it is perfect, but because it feels specific. It feels useful. It sounds like it came from a real conversation, a real experience or a real belief.

That is why humanising your brand matters. It helps your audience understand not just what you do, but how you see the world.

What do you care about? What do you believe should be done differently? What have you learned from your work? What do your clients, customers or community often misunderstand? What makes your approach yours?

These are the things that make a business feel more alive. And in a crowded market, that matters, because people are not only comparing services. They are comparing confidence, chemistry, trust and fit.

Human does not mean unprofessional

One of the biggest worries businesses have is that sounding more human means becoming less professional.

It really doesn’t.

Human does not mean casual to the point of carelessness. It does not mean oversharing. It does not mean abandoning your brand guidelines, posting every passing thought or trying to sound like someone you are not.

A human brand can still be polished. It can still be strategic. It can still be thoughtful, expert and commercially focused.

The difference is that it does not hide behind empty language. It says things clearly. It sounds like the people inside the business would actually speak. It knows when to show warmth, when to show expertise and when to have a point of view.

That balance is important. Because the goal is not to make your business sound informal. The goal is to make it feel believable.

Your people are part of your brand

Your brand is not just your logo, colour palette, website or latest campaign. It is also the way your people show up. Your leaders. Your team. Your client-facing people. Your culture. Your stories. Your values in action.

For many businesses, this is where the strongest content already exists, but it often stays hidden. It comes out in client conversations, team meetings, event discussions, proposals, workshops and all the little moments where people explain what they do and why it matters.

But then the public-facing content becomes safer. More distant. More generic. More “brand voice” than human voice.

That is the missed opportunity.

Your people often hold the clearest proof of what your business is really like. The founder who can explain why the business exists. The leader who can make sense of change in your sector. The team member who can show the care that goes into the work. The client story that reveals the impact behind the service. The behind-the-scenes moment that helps people understand your standards, values or personality.

These are not just nice extras. They are trust-builders.

Stories make your business easier to remember

People remember stories far more easily than they remember service descriptions. That does not mean every piece of content needs to be emotional or dramatic. It simply means your communication should help people understand the human context behind what you do.

Why did you create this offer? What problem were you seeing again and again? What did a client conversation make you realise? What has your team learned from delivering the work? What belief shapes the way you approach things?

Those stories create meaning. They give people something to hold onto. And they help you move away from content that simply says, “Here is what we do,” towards content that says, “Here is why this matters.”

That shift is powerful. Because when people understand the why, they are much more likely to care about the what.

Social media is where your human side can show up

Social media gives businesses a real opportunity to sound less faceless. Not because every post needs to be personal, but because platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook allow people to see the texture of your business.

The thinking. The team. The process. The opinions. The values. The moments that might not make it onto a service page but still shape how people experience your brand.

This could be a founder sharing what they are learning, a team post that feels genuinely proud rather than forced, a behind-the-scenes look at how something came together, a reflection after an event, a client story told with care or a simple post that explains something your audience keeps asking about.

None of this needs to be complicated. In fact, the best human content often is not. It is clear, honest and useful. It sounds like you.

Practical ways to humanise your brand

Humanising your brand does not need to mean starting from scratch. Often, it means paying closer attention to what is already there.

Let your leaders have a voice

Your leaders do not need to become influencers, but they do need to be visible enough for people to understand what they believe, how they think and why they care.

A leader’s perspective can add weight to your content because it gives people access to the thinking behind the business. That might be through LinkedIn posts, blogs, video snippets, interviews, event reflections or comments on the issues shaping your sector.

The format matters less than the voice. The point is to help people see the person behind the role.

Share the thinking behind the work

Do not only show the finished result. Show the thinking that led to it.

Why did you approach something in a particular way? What problem were you trying to solve? What did you learn? What would you want others to understand?

This kind of content helps people see your expertise in action without it feeling like a hard sell. It also makes your work more meaningful, because people can understand the care, passion and experience behind it.

Use real stories, not generic claims

Lots of businesses say they care about clients. Lots of businesses say they are passionate, expert, friendly and different.

The stronger question is: where can people see that?

Real stories make your values easier to believe. That could be a client challenge, a team moment, a lesson learned, a community initiative or a small example of how your business does things differently.

You do not need to make everything into a case study. But you do need to give people something real to connect with.

Sound like yourself

This is one of the simplest and hardest things to get right.

So much business content sounds like it has been filtered through what people think a brand “should” sound like. The result is often content that is technically fine, but completely forgettable.

Humanising your brand means finding a tone that feels like you. Clear. Useful. Warm. Confident. Not trying too hard. Not hiding behind jargon. Not sounding like every other business in your space.

When your content sounds recognisably like your business, people start to build familiarity. And familiarity is part of trust.

Make engagement feel like a conversation

If someone comments on your post, replies to your email, leaves a review or asks a question, there is an opportunity to show the human side of your brand.

A thoughtful reply can do more for trust than another perfectly scheduled post. People notice when businesses listen. They notice when responses feel considered rather than automated. They notice when the tone feels warm, helpful and real.

That does not mean every interaction needs to be long or deeply personal. It just needs to feel like someone is actually there.

The takeaway

Humanising your brand is not about trying to be more interesting for the sake of it. It is about making your business easier to trust.

When people can see the humans behind the brand, they can better understand what you stand for, how you think and why your work matters. That is what creates a connection.

Not noise. Not endless posting. Not polished content with no personality. Just clear, useful, human communication that helps people feel closer to the business before they ever get in touch.

Because in the end, people do not just want to know what you do. They want to know who they are choosing to trust.

Your Leaders Are One of Your Strongest Credibility Assets

Many businesses are sitting on one of their strongest sources of credibility without using it properly.

We are not talking about a campaign, a polished company update or a shiny whitepaper. We are talking about their leaders: the people inside the business who hold the values, perspectives, experience and stories that help others understand why the business is worth trusting.

And yet, in many organisations, that thinking stays behind the scenes. It comes out in client meetings, team conversations, strategic decisions, event discussions and the way leaders talk about the business when they are face-to-face with people. Meanwhile, the public-facing content carries on doing the safe, sensible thing.

A company update. The obligatory service post. The “what an amazing…” event post. That carefully worded “we’re delighted to share our latest…”

All useful. All valid. But often missing the thing that brings people into the conversation: a human point of view.

Because people do not only buy into businesses. They buy into the people behind them. The leaders. The thinkers. The decision-makers. The ones with experience, opinions, values and a real sense of where the business is going.

In a world full of noise, where trust is harder to earn, attention is harder to hold and every business is trying to sound credible, your leaders may be one of the strongest credibility assets you already have.

Not because they need to become influencers, post every day or perform online. But because people want to know who is behind the business. They want to understand what your leaders believe, how they think, what they care about and whether there is a real human voice behind the brand.

Visibility is not vanity

This is where the conversation often gets slightly uncomfortable.

Leadership visibility can sound like self-promotion. And for many business owners, founders and senior leaders, that is the bit they really do not want.

They do not want to become the face of everything. They do not want to overshare. They do not want to spend their working week thinking of LinkedIn posts. And they definitely do not want to sound like they have suddenly appointed themselves as a thought leader.

Which is fair. Nobody wants that.

But visibility is not vanity when it helps people understand the business more clearly. It is not vanity when it builds trust, or when it helps prospective clients, employees, partners and referrers see the thinking and the people behind the work.

And it is not vanity when it makes the business feel more human, more credible and more connected to the world it operates in.

That is the distinction. Leadership visibility is not about being seen for the sake of being seen. It is about being understood.

People form an opinion before they ever speak to you

We all do it.

Before we work with someone, buy from them, partner with them, interview them or even reply to them, we look them up. We search their name, scan their LinkedIn profile, read what they have shared and notice whether they sound thoughtful, human and credible, or whether there is not much there at all.

That first impression does not always happen on your website anymore. It happens in search results, LinkedIn posts, event clips, podcast snippets, comments, interviews and all the small public signals that help people form a view.

This is one of the strongest themes in our sister agency Social C-Suite’s report, Your Voice Matters: The Rise of the Social Leader. Leadership today is not only experienced in boardrooms, meetings or formal announcements. It is experienced in public, often before a conversation ever takes place.

The report explores this shift through conversations with senior leaders, looking at how visibility, consistency and a clear social voice are becoming part of how trust is built.

That does not mean every leader needs to be on stage. It means their visibility, or lack of it, is already saying something. And that really does matter.

Because if someone searches for your leadership team and finds silence, outdated profiles or content that says very little, it may not destroy trust. But it does not build it either.

And that is the missed opportunity.

The missed opportunity is credibility left on the table

Of course, a silent leader can still be a brilliant leader. A low-profile founder can still have a brilliant business. A senior team that rarely posts can still be doing excellent work.

But if nobody can see their thinking, hear their perspective or understand what drives them, a huge amount of credibility stays hidden.

That is the real missed opportunity.

Not “we could have got more engagement on LinkedIn.” Not “we should have posted three times this week.” But people could have understood us better. They could have trusted us sooner. They could have felt more confident in our expertise. They could have seen the values behind the work. They could have remembered us when the right conversation came up.

That is what leadership visibility does. It helps trust start earlier.

Company pages can inform. Leaders can create belief.

Company pages matter. They give your business a place to share updates, services, news, events and proof of work. They are important, and they absolutely have a role to play.

But a company page can only do so much on its own.

A company page can say; Here is what we do.

A leader can say; Here is why we believe this matters.

A company page can share a service, but the leader can explain the problem behind it. A company page can celebrate a client win, and the leader can reflect on what the work taught them. A company page can promote an event, while the leader can talk about the conversation that needs to happen in the room.

That is the difference.

Brand content gives people information. Leadership visibility gives people the story. And that is often what builds credibility.

Final thoughts

Your leaders are already one of your strongest credibility assets. The question is whether their thinking is visible enough to build trust.

Because people want to hear from people. They want to understand the humans behind the business. They want to know what you believe, how you think and why they should care.

They do not need to become influencers or be seen everywhere.

They just need to be visible enough to be understood.

Want to make better use of the voices inside your business?

At Colour Me Social, we help businesses turn leadership thinking, stories and expertise into visibility that builds trust, credibility and connection. From strategy and content planning to LinkedIn posts, blogs and leader-led campaigns, we help your leaders show up in a way that feels human, useful and true to them.

Why Every Leader Needs a Strong Social Voice (And How to Do It)

These days, leadership isn’t just about what happens in the boardroom – it’s curated, shared in your social voice and judged online. Your digital footprint is your modern-day badge of credibility.

The Stakes Have Never Been Higher

  • 82 % of employees will research a CEO’s online presence before even considering joining that company. So whether your socials are live matters, especially when talent is doing their due diligence.
  • 92 % of professionals are more likely to trust a company whose senior executives are active on social media—presence builds trust, period.
  • 71 % of consumers are more likely to buy from a company if its CEO is active on social media—leadership visibility drives behaviour.
  • 70 % of consumers feel more connected to a brand when its CEO is active on social, and 72 % feel equally close when employees share stories too. Connection is the new currency.

The Influence of Authentic Connection

When a leader shows up authentically and humanly, the payoff is far bigger than vanity metrics:

  • Talent is magnetised. Leadership that’s visible and values-driven makes people want to belong.
  • Credibility gets real. You don’t need polished PR; you need to sound human.
  • You become part of the greater conversation. Whether it’s ESG, AI or purpose, your voice now shapes stakeholder perception.
  • Sales and trust align. Visibility and authenticity often mean shorter sales cycles and stronger brand loyalty.

Why a Strong Social Presence Creates Impact

A well-defined leadership voice does more than boost visibility. It creates tangible business outcomes.

1. Attracting and retaining talent
Employees don’t just want a job; they want to work with leaders who inspire them. A strong social presence demonstrates vision, values, and humanity – the things that make people choose to join and stay.

2. Building trust and credibility
In an era of information overload, trust is currency. People look to leaders for clarity, reassurance, and perspective. Sharing your expertise, your values, and your story helps build the trust that underpins every relationship – with employees, customers, investors, and partners.

3. Shaping the narrative on big issues
From AI to climate change, diversity to the future of work, stakeholders expect leaders to engage with the issues shaping the world. A visible, authentic voice positions you not just as a business leader, but as a thought leader who is actively shaping the conversation.

4. Driving commercial growth
Leadership visibility is no longer separate from business outcomes. Buyers, partners, and clients are influenced by what they see and hear from executives. When leaders show up consistently online, they shorten sales cycles, open doors to new opportunities, and create the kind of trust that drives revenue.

Yet So Many Leaders Still Miss the Mark

Why doesn’t it happen more?

  • Time-starved – there’s just no space in the diary for “posting.”
  • Message misfires – don’t know what to say or how to say it, without sounding corporate.
  • Inauthenticity – the fear of being “cringe” prevents realness.
  • Bad support – agencies and ghostwriters can’t capture nuance at the speed leaders need.

The result? Silence. Or worse: bland, forgettable chatter.

Enter: Leader Brand – Own Your Social Voice

This isn’t another content service. It’s the antidote to strategic silence.

Here’s the simple, no-BS process:

  1. A guided monthly chat – just one conversation.
  2. We extract the real strands – key quotes, tone, themes.
  3. We spin that into a suite of content – blogs, social posts, videos, audiograms. All your voice.
  4. You approve, we publish or support publishing. No ghostwriting. No corporate clichés. No AI vanilla noise

Why Leader Brand Works (Even in a 24/7 Era)

  • One conversation, many assets. Big impact, zero overwhelm.
  • You stay in control: your voice, your stories, your rhythm.
  • Visibility with integrity. You become the leader people want to follow, not the one they tolerate.
  • Business outcomes follow. Talent, trust, influence, when the messenger is real, the message lands.

Ready to Own Your Social Voice?

Start with one conversation. We’ll amplify your authenticity.

👉 Discover Leader Brand

Overcoming Content Repurposing Challenges as a Small Business

For small businesses and lean marketing teams, content creation can feel like a never-ending treadmill—write a blog, post on social, create a newsletter… and then do it all over again next week. But what if you could get 5–10x more value from the content you’re already creating? That’s where content repurposing comes in.

Content repurposing means taking one piece of content—say a blog post—and reworking it into multiple formats: social posts, videos, infographics, carousels, podcasts, or newsletters. Instead of starting from scratch every time, you extend the life, reach, and ROI of every idea you produce.

Why It Matters (Especially for Small Teams)

For SMEs, every hour and every resource counts. Repurposing allows you to:

  • Maximise your content investment – one idea can fuel weeks of material
  • Reach new audiences – different formats suit different platforms and people
  • Boost SEO – with more related content, you build stronger topic authority
  • Stay consistent – without burning out or constantly chasing new ideas

Despite these clear benefits, many small businesses still struggle to embed repurposing into their marketing strategy. Below, we unpack the most common hurdles—and how to tackle them head-on.

Challenge 1: “I don’t have time to repurpose content.”

The Reality:

You’re already stretched thin managing day-to-day content. Finding time to revisit and rework past content can also feel impossible.

The Fix:

The secret is to plan to repurpose from the start. When you write a blog, plan the related social posts, video snippets, or LinkedIn carousels upfront. Repurposing doesn’t have to be an extra task—it can be built into your existing workflow.

Time-Saving Tools:

  • Repurpose.io: Automatically transforms videos or podcasts into platform-ready clips.
  • Lately.ai: Uses AI to turn long-form content into dozens of social posts.
  • Canva: Easy drag-and-drop design with templates and resizing.

Pro Tip: Block out a monthly “Repurposing Power Hour” to batch your best-performing content into multiple formats.

Challenge 2: “I’m not sure what content is worth repurposing.”

The Reality:

With so many blog posts, social updates, and newsletters, it’s hard to know what’s actually worth revisiting.

The Fix:

Let your analytics guide you. Look for:

  • Blog posts with the most page views or the longest time on the page
  • Emails with the highest open or click-through rates
  • Social posts that sparked conversation

If it performed well once, chances are it can be reimagined to perform well again, especially in a different format or on a different platform.

Tools That Help:

  • Google Analytics or GA4
  • Social media insights (LinkedIn, Meta, X)
  • BuzzSumo to see top-performing industry content

Pro Tip: Evergreen topics (e.g. “how-to” guides or tips) are goldmines for repurposing—flag them in your content tracker.

Challenge 3: “My team lacks design or video editing skills.”

The Reality:

You might be a wizard with words, but feel stuck when it comes to creating visual or video content.

The Fix:

You don’t need an entire design team or video editor—just the right tools. Platforms like Canva and Descript are built for non-designers and automate much of the creative heavy lifting.

Tools That Simplify:

  • Canva: Pre-made templates, Magic Resize, and drag-and-drop ease.
  • Descript: Edit video and audio by editing the transcript.
  • Pictory: Turn blog content into videos with AI-generated visuals and voiceover.

Pro Tip: Choose one brand template for your carousels, stories, or quote graphics so your visuals stay consistent without extra effort.

Challenge 4: “We’re worried repurposed content will feel repetitive.”

The Reality:

No one wants to sound like a broken record or post the same thing over and over.

The Fix:

Repurposing is about reframing, not recycling. One message can be reshaped through different formats, tones, or contexts:

  • Turn a blog into a carousel
  • Extract a quote into a visual
  • Turn FAQs into video explainers
  • Turn stats into infographics

Audiences consume content differently across channels—most people won’t notice repetition. In fact, repetition reinforces brand messaging.

Ideas to Vary Format:

  • Quote graphics
  • Expert “tip of the day”
  • Behind-the-scenes posts
  • Mini video series from blogs

Pro Tip: Use the 3R framework: Reformat, Reframe, and Resurface your best ideas.

Challenge 5: “We forget to repurpose—we’re always focused on the next campaign.”

The Reality:

Getting caught in the “create-and-forget” cycle is easy, always focused on the next thing.

The Fix:

Make repurposing a core part of your content lifecycle, not an afterthought. Build a content calendar that includes a “repurpose & reshare” phase.

Tools to Systematise:

  • Notion, Airtable, or Trello: Track each content piece and its repurposing status.
  • Use Zapier to connect AI tools and automate moving content from draft to publish.

Simple Workflow:

  1. Create: A blog, video, or podcast
  2. Repurpose: Extract 3–5 new pieces from it
  3. Schedule: Distribute across channels
  4. Revisit: Refresh and reshare quarterly

Final Thoughts

Repurposing content isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a smart business growth strategy for small businesses. By breaking from a content creation mindset into a content expansion mindset, you gain more exposure, engagement, and time in your day. Don’t let great content die after a single use. Begin repurposing your most valuable concepts into a lasting digital asset—with less stress and more impact.

What Organisations Are Missing by Not Repurposing Content

We’ve all heard the phrase content is king – but let’s be honest, that’s only true if it’s utilised effectively. Despite many marketers already repurposing their content, many organisations still treat repurposing as an afterthought. This oversight means they lose opportunities to extend their reach, improve SEO, save resources, and build consistent brand authority. By failing to repurpose content strategically, companies waste valuable assets and miss out on significant business growth.

1. Untapped Audience Reach

Multichannel Exposure

One of the most significant advantages of repurposing content is the ability to reach a wider audience. A single blog post can be transformed into videos, infographics, podcasts, or social media snippets catering to different consumer preferences. With 94% of marketers already engaged in repurposing efforts, it’s clear that maximising reach through content diversification is an industry best practice.

Missed Demographics

Without repurposing, companies risk alienating potential customers who prefer alternative content formats. For instance, some users favour watching videos over reading articles, while others engage more with visual storytelling. Repurposing a webinar into short video clips can boost engagement by over 20% on platforms like YouTube and Facebook.

Expanded Engagement

When content is available in multiple formats, engagement rates tend to rise. Studies indicate that multi-format distribution can increase overall engagement by up to 25%, as audiences are more likely to interact with content that matches their consumption habits.

2. Reduced SEO and Organic Traffic Opportunities

Content Freshness & Keyword Expansion

Search engines reward fresh, updated content. Repurposing evergreen blog posts into videos, infographics, or social media content increases their chances of ranking for additional keywords, thereby enhancing organic reach. In fact, 15% of marketers cite increased website traffic as a major benefit of repurposing, largely due to improved SEO.

Link Equity and Topic Authority

Repurposed content contributes to topic authority and backlink acquisition. Multiple formats provide diverse entry points for users and search engines, reinforcing a brand’s presence. Campaigns leveraging repurposed assets have experienced up to a 40% increase in organic search traffic.

3. Inefficient Use of Resources

Maximising ROI

Creating new content from scratch is time-intensive and costly. By repurposing existing content, organisations can extend the life and reach of their initial investment. Since the average full-length blog post takes approximately 3 hours and 48 minutes to produce, repurposing that content into other formats requires significantly less effort.

Time and Cost Savings

Up to 65% of marketers agree that repurposing is more cost-effective than creating new content. Studies suggest repurposing content can cut production time by as much as 40%, freeing up resources for higher-value tasks.

Resource Optimisation

Organisations that do not repurpose their high-quality content essentially waste its full potential. Companies can extract maximum value with minimal additional investment by leveraging existing materials across multiple platforms.

4. Lack of Consistent Brand Presence and Thought Leadership

Building Authority Through Consistency

Repurposing content across various channels ensures that a brand’s message remains consistent. A steady and repetitive presence across multiple formats builds trust and positions an organisation as a thought leader. Nearly 46% of marketers believe repurposing is more effective than creating new content when reinforcing brand messaging.

Increased Engagement and Retention

Consistently repurposed, high-quality content enhances audience retention. Studies show that when the same core message is seen in different formats, message retention can improve by up to 30%.

Enhanced SEO Benefits

A well-executed repurposing strategy leads to multiple assets around the same topic, ultimately boosting domain authority and search rankings. Organisations that neglect this strategy miss a prime opportunity to strengthen their online presence.

Our Conclusion?

Content repurposing is not just a way to recycle old material – it is a strategic approach to extending reach, maximising ROI, and reinforcing brand authority. The statistics speak for themselves: up to 25% more engagement, 40% increased traffic, and 40% less production time. Organisations that fail to adopt a repurposing strategy are leaving immense growth potential untapped. In a digital world where content visibility and efficiency define success, repurposing is the key to staying competitive and relevant.

Get more insights into the value of content repurposing here.