Budgets are being finalized, priorities are set and everyone’s racing to get a head start on 2026. But there’s a silent problem most teams won’t see until Q2.
Your content engine is stale.
The blogs, whitepapers and campaigns that once performed are now background noise in your buyer’s feed. And while your team is busy building next year’s plans, a huge chunk of what you’ve already invested in is sitting untouched and collecting digital dust.
According to Forrester, between 60% and 70% of the content produced by B2B marketing organizations goes unused. That’s time, money, and opportunity left on the table.
If that stat hits a little too close to home, you’re not alone. The good news: fixing your content doesn’t always mean creating more. It means activating what you already have.
The Disconnect Between Content and Conversion
Every marketing team says they’re “doing content.” The real question is, does it move deals forward?
Too often, content is created to check boxes:
- New quarter, new campaign
- New product, new deck
- New goal, new landing page
The result? A pile of assets that feel busy but don’t build momentum.
When content isn’t aligned to your sales motion, it doesn’t serve a purpose. It exists in isolation. Sales doesn’t use it. Prospects don’t remember it. And leadership starts wondering if marketing is driving any measurable impact at all.
When this happens, it’s not a production issue. It’s an activation issue.
Audit, Activate, Amplify
Before you commission another batch of new assets for 2026, take a breath. Don’t task your already-overburdened staff with creating yet another tranche of materials; instead, take inventory and do it with a fresh perspective for the upcoming year. You might just be surprised to find the solution already lives in your library.
Audit: Identify what’s still relevant and what’s expired. If the message still fits your buyers and their pain points, keep it. If it needs refinement, mark it for an update. Look for content that’s buried, hard to find or no longer aligned with your value proposition.
Activate: Don’t just refresh — repurpose. Turn that high-performing whitepaper into a new infographic. Pull quotes into organic social. Rebuild a landing page with a more modern hook. Add an email nurture to support it. Extend the lifespan of a past asset by pairing it with current campaigns. Unearth those buried pieces or modify the misaligned content to regenerate older assets.
Amplify: Build connective tissue between assets so content works harder across channels. A refreshed piece of content becomes the anchor for supporting assets, such as email, sales scripts and social, creating cohesion between marketing and sales enablement.
You don’t always need to start from scratch. You just need a plan that makes what you already have work harder.
Questions Every Leader Should Ask
If your team is planning for 2026, start here:
- When was the last time you audited your content library for accuracy, relevance and usage?
- How much of your current content directly supports sales conversations?
- Are your highest-performing assets easy for sales to find and reuse?
- How often do you revisit content performance metrics to decide what deserves an update?
- Who’s responsible for ensuring your best content stays activated and visible?
If you’re not sure, or if these questions make your to-do list longer, it’s time to revisit your approach. Assign a trusted team member as the steward of all-things-content and enlist the help of the entire staff to BOLO for pieces that can be easily leveraged or adapted to serve your upcoming needs.
How to Jump Start 2026
Here’s how to put your 2026 plan in motion before the calendar turns:
Step 1:
Take Inventory of What You Have
Make a complete list of all active content and sales collateral. Mark what’s outdated, what’s underperforming and what’s still valuable.
Step 2:
Identify the Hidden Wins
Spot the assets that can be updated or repurposed. A single refreshed piece can fuel an entire campaign when activated correctly.
Step 3:
Build a Content Activation Strategy
Layer in a plan that connects refreshed assets to new initiatives — email nurtures, social and sales enablement materials are great places to start.
Step 4:
Identify the Resources to Execute
If your team is stretched thin or your in-house resources are tapped, a strategic partner can accelerate your start. Agencies like ours bring outside perspective and bandwidth to help you expand your team and extract full value from your existing investment.
Start the New Year with a New Approach
As you plan for 2026, remember that your most significant opportunity might already be in your archives. Reinvesting in existing content can accelerate pipeline impact, strengthen alignment with sales, and free your team to focus on strategy rather than production. By activating what you already have, you’ll stretch your budget, speed execution and enter 2026 with marketing that drives measurable revenue, not just more activity.
Most Marketing Agencies Sell You Activity. We Sell Impact.
At Access Marketing, we help marketing and sales teams connect their content to revenue outcomes. We turn static assets into sales tools and marketing motion into measurable momentum.
We’ve outlined the process in our free Content Activation Guide, a practical resource for marketing leaders who want to drive real impact in 2026.
Need Help? Let’s Jump Start 2026.
If your content isn’t driving deals, let’s fix that together.
Contact us to start your content activation plan.
Sources
Forrester Research, The B2B Content Guide: Make Sales Your Ally in Content Marketing (2023). Read it here.
