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How To Boost Your Content Marketing Productivity

Content marketing is a key activity in any business’s digital […]

boost content marketing productivity

Content marketing is a key activity in any business’s digital marketing strategy. It’s also a time-consuming job that requires creative thinking and fresh content to stand out online. Content marketing also involves multiple processes which include actions by several people.

Higher management plays an important role in setting the goals of content marketing. Other people may plan and do the actual writing of the content. Editing and proofreading can be done by the writers themselves or by an editor. You may even involve a graphic designer to help with creating visuals for your content.

Finally, there may be more people and more steps involved in the final approval, publishing, and distribution of the content. With so many processes and people involved, it’s easy to lose time in wasteful activities. You can save several hours a day or week by improving productivity with the help of tools and strategies.

You’ll also be able to channel your energy towards improving the quality of your content, and understanding what your audience wants. Let’s dive into some helpful ways you can improve productivity in your content marketing activities.

Use Idea Generation Tools

An important part of content creation is generating ideas for blog posts and articles. You need to be aware of important keywords to use that help you rank for the right keywords. Using appropriate and relevant keywords also helps customers find your content.

You can use online tools to help with your research and planning. Use keyword research tools, and content research sites to generate ideas. Content curation platforms are also useful for content ideas. You can get insights that save you time and help you create blog post titles faster and more easily.

You’ll also stay on top of content trends and will be able to identify the best formats to use. A content research platform will tell you if images, videos, lists, infographics or other formats are best for the content you’re working on.

Such tools can also show you trends from historical content data. You’ll also be able to get insights from your competition’s content that you can leverage in your own. Getting insights from content curation and research platforms will save time and effort in making content.

Launch Drip Content and Campaigns

If you have an online site based on a membership platform, then you can boost productivity by using drip content. In an online course or any kind of subscription model, you’ll have several repeat activities from your users. Some examples are, a user signing up for your online course,  completing a module, or upgrading to a different subscription package.

You can use drip content to boost productivity by automating content access. You can make specific content available for specific users. This can be in the form of providing access after a specific time period, or when someone completes an activity. You can also combine drip content with email marketing to send timely emails. Drip campaigns work well to re-engage customers who are dropping out, to nurture leads, and more.

Leverage Social Media Management Tools

Once you have created your content, it’s important to share it on social media platforms to boost attention and traffic. However, this can take up a lot of time. You have to post to multiple platforms and you have to post several times a day. Posting your content a few times daily lets you reach out to people who have not seen your content.

A key way to boost productivity is to use a social media management tool. Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer allow you to post to several platforms at once. You can also schedule content to be posted in advance.

Using social media platforms like these is also great for sentiment analysis and social listening. You’ll be able to track brand mentions on different platforms in a single place. This will help you monitor what’s being said about your brand and you’ll be able to respond faster. Using social media management tools helps you get data from several platforms in one place. It creates convenience and also gives you overall insight into your social media strategies.

Repurpose Your Content

Creating fresh and timely content is essential for any business to rank on search engines. However, you can create new content by repurposing your older material. Repurposing content boosts productivity since it makes use of the content you already have. There’s no need to do the research and planning needed to create fresh content.

It is important to note that repurposing content is not about rewriting posts that you’ve already written. Your goal is to use the content you already into different formats.

For example, you can repurpose content in the following ways:

  • You can host a webinar and then create transcripts for the webinar. You can offer supporting documents, resources, and links in an article or a post. This will help people find follow-up information about the webinar.
  • Create interviews for podcasts and build posts out of the interview content. You can also publish the transcripts as a helpful blog post. Another great idea is to create a post featuring top quotes by different people you’ve interviewed as a single blog post. 
  • You can get more traffic to your site by creating videos using material from your popular posts. You can attract more people who prefer to view rather than read content
  • Offer an eBook consisting of the top blog posts and articles that you have written
  • Share content from events such as presentations, videos, and transcripts of speeches. You can build a post about the latest developments and trends in your industry based on the event.

These are some examples of ways that you can repurpose your existing content. This saves time and effort needed to come up with newer content. It’s a smart way to work with content that also boosts productivity.

Share User-Generated Content

Another way to build content is to make use of what people are saying about your brand online.  User-generated content is powerful because it is made by your audience’s peers. Your audience will trust the content created by real people since there’s no agenda behind such content. User-generated content consists of:

  • Product ratings and reviews
  • Blog posts
  • Social media images, videos, and written content
  • Product hauls, trials, reviews on video platforms like YouTube
  • Forum discussions and questions and answers on places like Quora

By featuring user-generated content in ads, blog posts, and social media, you create social proof. You also show people you’re listening which can encourage even more online content. You can generate content by encouraging your audience to create content and share their ideas. Use a form to allow users to submit blog posts to your WordPress site.

Leveraging user-generated content builds trust and boosts conversions. It also saves time, making you more productive.

Content Marketing Productivity
Customer success stories can be built from user-generated content

Create Content Production Workflows

Very often, productivity goes down simply because you don’t have a content production workflow in place. A workflow is an established way of creating content that allows you to track the process of content development. It starts from the ideation stage to the publishing and distribution of content.

You can create a content workflow by simply creating a checklist or a set of tasks. These tasks cover the steps needed to create content. It can look something like this:

  • Keyword research and planning
  • Topic or title generation
  • Writing the first draft
  • Editing and proofreading
  • Making the final draft
  • Final approval
  • Publishing the content
  • Sharing it on social media

There is no single recommended workflow that is best for every business. You can create a workflow that makes sense for your work. It boosts productivity as you can use it over and over again. Your workflow is a template that guides your team to build content.

It makes it possible to track progress and the time taken to finish a task. You can use workflow automation software to automatically send notifications to make changes, edits or to update your team on a task’s progress.

Having a content creation workflow is an important way to boost your productivity and to keep everyone on the same page. It’s also important to document your content creation process so that you can transfer knowledge whenever necessary. Tools like Asana or Trello can help you keep track of your workflow process and stay on track and on time.

Boost Productivity with Tools and Planning

Content creation is by definition a creative process that needs human effort. Today, you need to build unique and useful content to create value and to get attention in a sea of online content.

This does not mean, however, that you have to put in a great deal of effort into tasks that are repetitive and tedious. It’s smart and more productive to use tools that automate activities for you or enhance your content production.

We’ve looked at various ways that you can boost productivity. The main goal is to free up your time and your team’s time to find better ways to create content that meets business goals. Take steps to boost productivity today and support your content marketing efforts.