Online Content created in chunks
When you want to get it right, think of writing content as several small steps or chunks.
Writing content for quantity over quality means that your website will expand substantially, and there will be more opportunity for people to find your website. But at a certain point, traffic to your blog may start to drop off.
So to create content in chunks, let’s look at the process of how this can be done in a sustainable way. Start by focusing on the stuff you’re good at, and get help with the things you’re not so good at.
With the above in mind, who will be responsible for what in your process, which may look something like the list below?
- Find keywords
- Choose a format/tone of voice
- Outline the blog
- Write the blog
- Edit the blog
- Review the blog
- Choose images
- Assemble this all together on the web page
- Final checks
- Publish the blog
- Create and send a newsletter
- Share on Social Media
This means that, with a little support and sharing the chunks out, you may now be able to write more and retain the quantity, but without sacrificing quality.
Your content creation process will probably look different from the above, with more, fewer or different steps.
We encourage you to document the process of these steps, and assign each chunk to the most appropriate and skilful person for the relevant chunk. Having a process also means that if one person leaves, or falls ill, then you know which parts of the process they were responsible for and can easily assign their chunks to another person(s).
You may even wish to outsource experts to help with some of those steps.
Create an Organised Content Calendar
Creating content is a process with lots of smaller chunks, and if you want to scale up the amount of content you produce, you need a way to list each step that needs to be done, who is responsible and the current status of those chunks.
Our clients’ content schedule acts more like a project management system than an actual calendar. We use a combination of Google Sheets and Podio.
If you already have a content calendar, that’s fantastic, but if not, make it your top priority. However, even if you have a content calendar, is there any way that it can be improved?
Maybe have your content chunks detailed in a list, and have columns on a spreadsheet relating to responsibility, one table per piece of content
Plan Out Your Content Schedule for the Next 6-9 Months
Planning out blog content means there are no surprises, no rushed projects, no stressed-out staff, and posts will also be of a far higher quality than if they were an afterthought.
Everyone on your team will know exactly what’s coming up, which reduces the stress of wondering what the future looks like, and you can also plan for seasonality, events and awareness days well in advance.
The other great thing about having a 6-9 month plan is that you can batch things.
For example, instead of logging into a keyword research tool every single time you want to write something, you can spend a day 100% focused on finding topics and keywords. Then, you can map those topics in your content calendar for the next few months.
Like many agencies, we use Semrush’s Topic Research tool to generate dozens of content ideas for our clients.
For example, if we want more topics to complement this article on content writing. Type “content writing” into the search box, and click “Get content ideas.”
Create an Outline for Each Post
A good content outline provides a clear direction and objective for every article you create. >An outline document could include the following:
- The primary and secondary keywords
- The post type (is it a how to? Or something else)
- The search intent
- The target audience.
- Notes for the writer (featured snippet opportunities as an example)
You could use AI tools such as ChatGPT or Frase to understand what’s currently ranking, and to find a unique perspective that aligns with your own company’s brand tone of voice. Please note using these tools act as a guide, or support, and they are not to be used to create the content, as this will most likely cause plagiarised content, for which you will be penalised by the search engines.
You should then be in a position to start to write your blogs from your detailed outline. This helps to ensure your content is more organised and structured.
An outline gives you a high-level overview of what you want to cover, so that you can see if you’re missing any important steps or strategies before you start to write.
Use Helpful Resources
Checklists, guides and evaluation tools are essential when creating content, as they help your team produce exceptional content on a consistent basis. Here are examples of what you could include in your helpful resources pack:
Guidelines
This is where you should document how you approach search intent, post titles, visuals, formatting, and more.
Checklist
A few items you could include on your checklist are as follows:
- Introduction – key point, result, preview.
- Perspective – write in the second person “you” not “I”.
- Readability – make it simple to read, shorter sentences and paragraphs, lists and relevant images.
- Examples – include case studies and real life examples where you can.
- Imagery – screenshots, relevant images etc.
- H2s – what descriptive H2 headings will you use in your content?
- Conclusion – next steps, cue up the next article.
- Call to Action – why the reader should stay in touch or connect, and how.
Outsource
Work with outsourced editors or content writers who are knowledgeable and experienced in your industry and intimately understand your brand style. They’ll ensure your content remains top-notch and consistent, no matter how much you increase your output.
Hiring an editor(s) or a content writer(s) means your content creation is more scalable, otherwise it is just down to one person, often you!
Find editors and content writers through referrals, job boards, and even LinkedIn. Provide them with resources for when they start working with you.
Repurpose Content
Content repurposing involves taking a single piece of content and repurposing it in several formats. For example, you can take a blog post and turn it into an email marketing campaign, a video, a podcast, or a social media post.
Repurposing is a great and economic way to scale content creation, however, if you are considering turning a blog into a video, you may need to tweak the original content so it 100% fits the new format, by just going through the highlights rather than the whole content, adding a few helpful tips and examples to make the video more engaging, and adding a Call to Action at the end directing them to the complete article.
Test, Measure, Improve
Content is ever evolving. Look at engagement, traffic, and rankings, and analyse this data to find areas of your content you can improve.
And then improve it!
Next Steps
If you want to create way more content, yet not compromise on the quality, then you do need to consider planning ahead and doing things a bit different. You need to plan ahead, consider outsourcing and ensure you have the right tools to manage your content writing project!
