It’s no secret that most of us need more hours in a day or fewer things on the to-do list. As a result, we can feel overwhelmed by our workload. So if there’s an opportunity to improve your productivity and buy back some time, we’re the first ones to take it. When it comes to content marketing, there are plenty of ways to streamline the process, help you to be more organised and most importantly, more efficient. But if you wonder, how to do content marketing, here are some tips to help save you time and your sanity.
How To Plan Content Productively
Let’s start at the beginning with the idea stage. Yes, even brainstorming can be done more efficiently with no cost to creativity or effectiveness.
Here’s how.
Have Brainstorming Sessions
Schedule a time to sit down and focus on being creative and make the most of it. Once you’re in the zone don’t stop at one idea, let the creativity juices flow and come up with content ideas for the week, month or even the quarterly. Basically, until you run out of ideas. Because as any creative will know, the first idea is always the hardest so why stop when you’re on a roll.
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Take Note Of Ideas As You Have Them
Don’t allow fleeting ideas pass you by, make sure you make note of them somewhere. There are lots of platforms out there to help you get organised but one we really recommend is Monday.com. Simply create an ideas board and keep track of them as they occur.
And while we’re on the subject, Monday can help you organise your socials, editorial plan, client projects, to-do list, time tracking and so much more.
Plan Your Promotions Before You Create Them
Finally, planning shouldn’t stop at your long-form articles and blog posts. It should include how you’re going to promote the content and even repurpose it to increase your ROI.
As a result, you won’t waste any time wondering what to do next once you’ve hit publish.
During the planning stage consider the following:
- Where you’re going to promote your content
- What kind of format you’ll use to promote it
- How you can repurpose the content
In fact, sometimes the planning process can seem like more work than the writing process. It’s true what they say about the best laid plans.
How To Create Content Productively
That being said, there’s no denying the hard work that goes into the writing process. Luckily, there are ways you can streamline this too.
Draft Your Content First
Yes, this does include more planning but, outlining what you’re going to say first will deliver a more succinct piece of content.
You wouldn’t go on a road trip without planning your route, the same goes for writing before you’ve drafted what you’re going to say. The more effort you put into outlining your content the more time you’ll save during the writing process.
Keep Research And Writing Separate
Another way of saving time during the writing process is to do all your research beforehand.
This research might include:
- Sourcing any internal links to any relevant existing blog posts
- Resources that back up your point or support your viewpoint
- Ensuring you have all the information you need to complete the content
The idea is to make sure that once you’re in the zone, you don’t have to interrupt your flow to source further information or resources.
Create Long-Form Content In Multiple Sessions
Don’t exhaust yourself writing hours and hours of copy in one go (unless you’re in the flow of course then write as much as you can). Writing beyond your point of wanting to do so can compromise the quality of your content.
If your content is going to take more than a few hours, give yourself a few scheduled sessions to get it done rather than one solid block of time.
Adapt your writing sessions to suit your writing style to ensure you remain productive.
Related: Do You Have Topically Relevant Content?
How To Distribute Content Productively
With our content digital marketing tips, unfortunately the hard work doesn’t end when you hit publish. In fact, there’s still a lot to do when it comes to distributing the content you’ve worked so hard to create.
That being said, it’s surprising how many marketers skip this step with their content being lost in the internet abyss and seen by few.
If this sounds like someone you know, then having a system in place will help.
Implement A Repeatable Process
Firstly, organise the content distribution process. This might include:
- What social media channels you’re going to post on
- When you’re going to post
- Other areas of distribution such as forums or relevant communities
- Contacting relevant influencers
- Creating an email to send out to your subscribers
Of course, this can be adapted to meet the needs of each piece of content but having an overarching guide will save you a lot of time.
Repurpose Content
Rather than writing all your promotional copy from scratch, such as social media captions and teasers, make the most of the copy you have.
You’ll probably need to tailor it slightly for each platform but main gist you can simply copy and paste.
An efficient way of doing this is by simply having the copy open on a different tab as you work your way through the different promotional platforms. That way you can easily pull quotes from the content.
Allocate Time To Look Back Over Your Content
One of our final content marketing tips is to allocate time, perhaps 3 or 4 months later to re-promote, repurpose, and update to keep it working hard for you and to boost SEO.
Repurposing old content can often get dropped to the bottom of the list. However, it’s one of the biggest time saving methods out there. Why create more content when you already have content that just needs a little tweaking.
As trends come and go, evergreen content will retain its value and relevance, making it an essential part of a successful marketing strategy. Furthermore, it helps increase SEO, drive more site traffic and provide readers with a valuable go-to resource.
Content Marketing Tips And Strategies Shat Work
Have you found these content marketing tips helpful? For help generating your own evergreen content, enlist the help of our expert copywriters at AIM Internet. They have the skills and experience to create quality content, quickly and effectively to save you time and drive your digital marketing forward.
If you found this blog useful, take a look at a previous one: How Many Topics Should Be In A Content Cluster? Or 5 Reasons Your Business Needs A Content Cluster Strategy
