Something I do often is look at businesses and what they’re doing with their blogs.
A common sight for me is seeing companies that have started blogs, but that haven’t updated them for awhile.
You see this on all content channels (blogging, email newsletters, podcasts, etc.). Maybe not as much on social media, but it does happen there too.
And I understand it. I’ve done it myself. My wife and I had a podcast for a few months only to give up on it. I think that just happens after awhile. The ideas run out. You lose your sense of purpose and you’re not sure what to do next.
This seems to be a pretty big problem for businesses whether you’re a single-person company or a large enterprise.
So if you’re struggling to create enough content, the amount you need for success then here are some tips.
1. Start With A Content Calendar
It’s important to start with a content calendar. It helps so much.
We’ll go over tasks in a bit, but one of the biggest things we did at GBW from the beginning was to create a content calendar for every new client (and for ourselves).
It’s impossible to sit down and try to come up with an idea and create content for it at once. You might be able to do that for a bit, but after some time you’ll reach burnout and writer’s block.
Create a calendar for whatever content you’re creating and keep it filled out. Set time aside each month or so to brainstorm and add ideas.
2. Determine Your Limits, Then Outsource
We all have our limits. I think as Internet marketing has become more common, especially content creation, we’ve kind of overestimated the amount of content we can create. I know it happens with social media.
Some businesses charge one person to spend a portion of their day updating all the company’s social channels. That’s next to impossible. Well, it’s possible, but not possible to do well. It just takes more time than you might think.
And if you’re creating blog posts, videos or whatever it will usually take more time than you think.
So look into your limits and from there hire and outsource people to handle the creating of the content and the other tasks involved (more on that later).
3. Repurpose
This is just a quick trick for creating more content from content you already have. You don’t want to create duplicate content, but you can get away with a little repurposing from time to time. And you could even turn it into a regular practice.
Examples of this that I see including turning a blog post into a slide deck to publish on SlideShare. I see videos that are also turned into audio-only podcasts. I see videos with snippets pulled out and used on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook.
There are a number of different ways to repurpose content so you have more content to share across more channels.
4. Automate Idea Channels
I linked to a post in the intro about coming up with ideas for content. Something to think about is automating or documenting the processes you discover for idea channels.
Let’s say you have a good source of ideas by visiting Quora. Set up the process and put someone in charge or setup a feed and email that sends you an update once a month on new questions posed for your industry or query.
Make the ideas channels automated or a regular, recurring thing and it will help keep those ideas flowing so you always have something to create.
5. Limit The Number Of Content Channels
I’m a fan of quality over quantity when it comes to the number of content channels a business uses.
I like it a lot for social media. Instead of trying to be on all the social channels just pick one, like Twitter, and put all your efforts there. Instead of creating 10 updates for five channels (two per channel), create 10 for one channel. You’ll get much more out of your efforts.
It works for most channels like blogging, YouTube videos or whatever.
Once you have a really good hold on a channel with a good process and a good resource team then you can move into a new channel.
6. Tap Into Unlikely Sources (Hint: Sales Team)
This is an idea source again, but sometimes other sources on your team can provide content. I like going to the sales team. Ask them about what the customers are asking when they first interact with the salesperson. You can get some really good ideas from those sources.
Another idea is to talk to your customer service reps and see what answers they’re providing to customers or to prospective customers. Sometimes you can take the answers that your team is providing and turn it into content for your website or for marketing content.
7. Audit Your Processes
Sometimes creating content can get bogged down. I’ve run into it with my own blogging and I’ve seen it with other writers too. We all have our own unique research process, but you never know if there is another way of doing it. So at GBW we have our writers share tips with each so that all can benefit from ideas and better processes.
From time to time, take a look at your content creation processes (every step) and see if there are inefficiencies.
8. Separate Your Tasks
Another part of content creation for us at GBW has been separating the title process from the writers. The writers are certainly capable of coming up with titles, but we have a person that is specifically assigned to come up with titles for clients.
We’ve separated some other tasks as well. It seems to have helped with efficiency and has allowed us to create more content.
Look for tasks that you can separate to different responsibilities. It can save time and allow for better content because people can become experts are their tasks.
9. Use HARO
I subscribe to HARO (Help A Reporter Out) so I can respond to inquiries, but if you’re struggling to create content you can use HARO to get content to publish.
I like to submit answers because it exposes me and the GBW brand to new audiences. And the authors or content creators get all kinds of good content from different people and all they have to do is ask, organize and edit.
This is a good thing to do along with creating different types of content.
10. Curate…A Little
Finally, you can curate to get more content. It’s similar to using HARO or I guess using HARO is a form of curating. But you can curate in many other ways. You can pull content from other posts and other sources.
The value you’re providing is that you’re doing the searching and bringing great content into one place for your audience. You’ll see this is weekly roundups and things like that on blogs and on podcasts and in email newsletters.
Conclusion
Creating enough content is a big challenge for marketers today. It takes a lot of content to start getting noticed by the search engines. It takes a lot of content to be able to feed social media channels and email newsletters and things like that.
Stick to it and use some of the tips above and you should be in good shape. If you are able to get things going good and in a bit of auto-pilot then your business can really take off.