What’s relevant online changes by the hour. With so many trends calling for audiences’ attention, you need to get content out the door faster in order to own your industry.
Quality content takes time to develop and publish, but it doesn’t have to take all day. These 10 tips will help you create relevant content faster without sacrificing quality in your work:
Creating content is so much easier, and quicker, when you go into it with a plan. Your content strategy will lay out your marketing goals, which will inform the content you create and distribute to reach those goals.
A content strategy takes out the guesswork. Determine what type of content you need, how much you’ll need, and by what deadlines. Now, all that’s left is putting in the work. Nothing cuts out content delays quite like organization.
The hardest part of content creation is the creative aspect. Writer’s block will get everyone eventually, and when ideas run dry, so does content.
At least monthly, dedicate a time for your content team to share all of their ideas. Brainstorming as many ideas as possible in a single session saves time. Write them all down, even the ones you aren’t sold on initially. You can always go back and cut the weak ones from your queue.
With that said, don’t be afraid to write down ideas as they come, even outside of planning meetings. Writing them down before you forget will extend your idea pool and get you out of a pinch when the ideas won’t come.
To concentrate your content efforts, focus on keywords and phrases. This will optimize your content creation by giving you creative boundaries. Develop smaller content units, such as headlines and social media posts, this same way.
Let’s say your next marketing campaign’s goal is to generate more leads from local organizations. Think of keywords that can help accomplish that, such as the name of your city or county, and use them to direct your content creation. This will help you create relevant content for people in your area.
The more tasks you can automate, the less time it takes to push out content. Why bother posting blogs one at a time, for example, when you can schedule them to go live days in advance?
Another content automation solution worth investing in is a grammar checker, such as Grammarly. This software allows you to upload content and get immediate feedback on your syntax and punctuation. No longer do you have to worry about sending content to an editor, or going line by line to make sure your sentences make sense.
A lot of your content will follow the same style as you work on developing a voice and perfecting your brand image. For content and graphics of similar styles, develop some templates to speed content creation.
A good template goes a long way. Just be careful not to oversaturate your audience with repetitive content that decreases in quality. Create enough templates to have a good content cycle, and switch them out regularly.
Some assignments can be divvied out to contracted workers. This frees up the time of your own marketing team and adds some extra horsepower to your content engine.
Determine some tasks that would be worth contracting out. A photo editor could be of assistance by helping you gather quality images. A designer could help you put together those time-saving content templates discussed earlier.
Why do it all yourself? Your social media followers and devoted blog readers can create relevant content of their own. Sharing their creations gives you extra content to post and creates a closer tie to your regular readers.
You can ask for user-generated content by holding a social media contest or sharing a hashtag. As followers post their own pictures and videos, share them to your own pages. They get public recognition for their work, and you take some of the content responsibilities off your shoulders.
As great as your content creation system might be, it won’t get you far if your team is running out of gas. Their productivity is key to creating relevant content quickly. Help them succeed, and they’ll do the same for your content strategy.
What can you do to energize your content team? Get an espresso machine as a treat and to provide a boost. Encourage proper breaks to help them re-energize. Offering incentives or setting up a friendly competition can motivate them to move faster. The right approach depends on your team’s unique dynamics.
Need to focus on productivity yourself? Try timeboxing. This time management technique involves separating your day into different blocks dedicated to single tasks. When in one time box, focus on nothing but the task at hand until moving to the next.
How often does content get slowed down because of a particularly difficult task? Whether it’s the initial brainstorming, copywriting, or editing process, some steps take teams more time than others. Invest in an extra hand or two for the most time-consuming parts of the process.
When your content creators aren’t worried about making time for those tough tasks, the rest of the content creation process will come easily. Ask your extra hands to share their secrets with the rest of the team to improve their efficiency over time.
Keeping things short and sweet makes content creation go by much more quickly. Not only that, but concise content tends to be easier for readers to digest, making it more effective.
Look for ways your content can be simplified. Cutting out fluff can be tough, but it will speed up your process once you get the hang of it. When in doubt, hand the red pen to a trusted editor on your team.
Your content is what keeps your business connected in a constantly changing world. Use these tips to up your relevant content creation game. Get it right, and you’ll be there in time to capitalize on every trend relevant to you.
