Is your company in the process of reviewing its current content marketing strategy, looking for ways to improve it? It’s a smart step to take, as you want to be sure you’re getting the highest return on investment when it comes to content marketing. One thing you will want to give focus to is how to streamline the strategy, which means making it more efficient, productive, and effective. Here are six tips that can help the company to accomplish each of those goals.
Start Planning Out Content
At its core, streamlining is all about better planning and organization and this tip can be applied to your content marketing strategy. Rather than developing content on the fly and seeing where the winds blow, creating a content calendar makes a lot more sense. This allows you to plan weeks, even months in advance so that nothing is last minute or harried.
Companies often find the adoption of an editorial calendar works quite well. That’s not to say it’s written in stone, but it does provide a clear picture of where things are going and what is in progress. If necessary, changes can be made, but at least there is a general plan in place. There’s also the fact that planning allows for better accountability, so people are more likely to hit targets and deadlines.
Assign Clear Tasks to Each Content Creator
Once you have created an editorial calendar, it also makes it easy to assign content and tasks to writers. Again, this will streamline the process in that writers can be working on multiple tasks at once and nothing is being duplicated or overlapped. You’re making the best use of time, resources, and people power. Depending on your staff and the content that needs to be produced, you may also find that some are better suited to particular tasks or niches.
Ensure the Content is Unique
Your content also needs to be unique, in that you’re not simply copying and pasting already existing blogs and information. Sometimes this is done on purpose, whereas other times it is inadvertently copied. The best way to prevent this from happening is to use a quick and easy tool that checks for plagiarism. By using a digital tool to scan the content, you’re streamlining the copy-editing portion of content creation.
Facilitate Communication within the Team
Pointing out how important planning is for creating a smooth and streamlined process is only half the battle. There also needs to be an emphasis on communication within the entire content creation team. You want to be sure that staff comes to you with issues or problems promptly. This ensures that nothing is overlooked and that all targets and deadlines stay on track.
Some experts suggest holding weekly content creation meetings. This is a chance for staff to bounce ideas off each other, discuss potential issues they’ve encountered and look at what’s coming up. This kind of tip can apply to any company really, as communication is always important.
Don’t Be Afraid to Re-Promote Existing Content
A common mistake that companies can make is to place all the focus on creating new content. While fresh content will certainly be important, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to forget about existing content. Ideally, all content you post will be a hit, but that’s not the reality. Some pieces will hit and resonate with readers more than others. For those pieces, it can make sense to re-promote them. There is no new content creation involved, so in that sense, the process is streamlined. Instead, it’s a matter of promoting that post on the company’s social media channels and drumming up some buzz. This is much less work, time, and effort than new content creation.
Make Full Use of Social Media
If you haven’t yet used social media to its full advantage, it’s time to do so. Content has a place on the company’s website of course, but often it is the social media channels that get all the attention. This means cross-promoting things that you post online. If you’re posting a new blog to the company website, make sure you drum up interest and provide the link on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – whichever applies.
The great thing about social media is that it can target such a huge audience at once. If you’re trying to increase traffic, using social media networks is certainly a way to streamline the process. To be effective on social media, it can make sense to have a dedicated social media content creator whose job is to ensure these channels stay relevant, up-to-date, and fresh and that they engage with followers.
With so many different ways to streamline the content marketing strategy, the only question you should be asking is where to begin. In reality, a combination of these tips will probably yield the best results.
