It could be that you are managing to upload a blog post to your website each week. And for a busy business owner, that’s no mean feat.
But did you know that to give your website a better chance of ranking well in the SERPs (search engine results pages), you need to be uploading between two and four pieces of new content each and every week? You might be thinking that sounds like a lot of extra work. And it is. But content creation should be taken as seriously as your sales pitches.
Uploading high-quality blog posts, how-to articles, infographics and even videos is something you need to be doing on a regular basis.
In this article, we’ll reveal nine ways in which you can scale content production without sacrificing quality. We’ll also explain why it is essential that you do so.
Some of the ways you can scale up your content production include creating a content marketing strategy, hiring a content marketing team, working with a content marketing agency and thinking about your content structure.
You can also repurpose your content across a variety of channels, recycle existing content, create multilingual content, create a content calendar and utilise content tools.
We’ll explain exactly how to go about implementing some of these upscaling measures, but first, you might find it helpful to know why scaling content production is so important.
Why do you need to scale your content production?
There are many reasons why you should increase the amount of content you produce for your website:
- It builds brand awareness — Creating a high volume of high-quality content is the best way to get noticed on Google Search and significantly increase the traffic to your website. The more your content ranks, the more brand recognition you will have.
- It improves user experience — The more content you have, the more internal linking you can do. This means that if a reader wants to delve further into a topic, you will be able to take them to another of your posts (via an internal link) where they can read about the subject in more detail. Unlike with a Google search, which can sometimes throw up articles that don’t answer the exact question, the reader will have confidence that the post you are taking them to will be relevant to the sub-topic they want to know more about.
- It leads to more sales — Including relevant calls to action (CTAs) in your content enables you to collect information about your visitors. And more information leads to a better understanding of your audience and how you can satisfy their needs.
- Your social media presence will grow — Creating sharable content on social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter will increase social media traffic to your site.
- You will position yourself as an expert — The more you post about industry news and other relevant topics, the more you will be viewed as a voice of authority in your field. And this means your customers will regard you as more trustworthy.
Nine ways to scale your content production without a drop in quality
Before we explain some of the ways you can scale your content production, it is important to remember that quality is just as important as quantity. Content that’s badly written, irrelevant to your target audience or spammy can do more harm than good. It frustrates your readers and damages your SEO efforts.
Publishing lots of high-quality content, on the other hand, has the opposite effect. With that in mind, here are some of the ways you can ramp up your content production:
1. Create a content marketing strategy
If you are serious about publishing more content on your website, you will need to determine your goals, create a style guide, understand how to go about achieving your goals and put some processes in place to ensure the work gets done:
- First, you need to decide how many posts you aim to upload each week.
- Then you should create a style guide to ensure your content is consistent and adheres to your brand values. Your style guide is essentially a detailed manual that standardises your brand language, tone of voice and content structures and clarifies what you expect from your content creators.
- Next, you should ensure you have the right tools to achieve your goals and a firm understanding of what steps you need to take in order to publish professional content:
- Ideation
- Keyword research
- Outline the brief (to save time and help with your upscaling efforts, it is a good idea to create templates for different types of posts, for example, product reviews, listicles or how-to guides)
- Create the content
- Proofread and edit
- Optimise for search
- Source images and choose web layout
- Publish
- Finally, you should create a detailed plan of when and how your content is to be created, including who is responsible for what.
2. Hire a content marketing team
It is unlikely that, as a business owner, you have the time to produce double — or even triple — the content you are currently producing. As you probably know, it takes hours to write a single blog post. And that’s not even taking into account the time spent on ideation, keyword research, finding images and formatting. This means that upscaling your content production without a drop in quality usually means hiring content marketers to handle the extra workload within the timeframe you want.
When you are deciding who to hire, you might want to consider candidates who have content marketing experience or those who have expertise in your particular industry.
If you are in a position to hire a whole content department, some of the roles you will need to consider filling include:
- Content manager or editor
- Content strategist
- Researcher
- SEO specialist
- Copywriter
- Videographer
- Photographer
- Project manager
- Proofreader or subeditor
- UX designer
- Graphic designer
- Web developer
Smaller teams tend to see businesses outsourcing some of these roles or employees fulfilling multiple roles, but even in this case, it is important to define the individual roles in order to upscale content production effectively. If you aren’t currently in a position where you are able to fulfil all the roles you need, try to look at your current situation as an opportunity for further expansion and more upscaling in the future.
3. Work with a content marketing agency
If you want to upscale your content production but you’re not in a position to hire a whole new team, another option is to work with a content marketing agency. This is better than asking your existing employees to focus on creating more content, as they may struggle with the increased workload, which will likely result in a drop in quality.
A content marketing agency will be able to scale your content while maintaining quality. They can also help you with your content marketing strategy. And you have the flexibility to outsource the whole content creation process or just part of it.
If you do have the resources, you may want to consider hiring a content manager or internal editor who can act as a gatekeeper to ensure all the content that’s produced is on brand and consistent. They will also be able to help with ideation, keyword research, writing briefs and publishing.
When deciding on an agency to work with, ask to see samples of their work and find out who their previous clients have been. If you can, try to go with an agency that specialises in your niche or at least has writers who are experts in the industry you work in.
4. Think about your content structure
Having lots of content that’s published according to a well-thought-out content structure is necessary for SEO purposes. But not only that. Producing multiple pieces of content about a whole topic will position your company as a voice of authority because it demonstrates in-depth expertise in your field.
When scaling your content, you need to think about how your posts relate to each other. The best way to do this is to group it into large themes, with one blog post acting as a “pillar page” of between 2,000 and 4,000 words long that links to other posts called “topic clusters”, which go into the topic in more detail.
Scaling your content requires you to have a steady stream of ideas for future posts, which you should try to have at the forefront of your mind while you are writing or proofreading articles. Every time a sub-topic is introduced, think about how it can be turned into a piece of content in its own right.
5. Repurpose content across a variety of channels
It’s true that we’ve been focusing on producing more blog posts, but written content isn’t the only way to scale up your content production.
Posting videos and infographics, for example, are some other ways you can post more content more frequently. Plus, diversifying your content production means you will be reaching different types of audiences, as not everyone enjoys reading in-depth articles; some people prefer scrolling through social media or watching videos.
For every post you write, consider whether it could be duplicated in a slightly different way on another channel. For instance, you could turn a top-tips article into an infographic to post on social media — or vice-versa.
Depending on the topic, a blog post could also be turned into a how-to guide, video, newsletter, podcast or webinar. Similarly, soundbites from a podcast could be posted on social media.
6. Recycle existing content
If you are struggling to come up with new topics to write about, you might find it helpful to go back through old blog posts and update them with current stats or give them a newsworthy angle.
This will ensure that all the information on your website continues to be valuable and relevant, and it is quicker and easier than creating content from scratch.
7. Create multilingual content
Unless you can afford to pay for translation services — or you have bilingual employees who can translate your content for you — this won’t be a viable way to upscale your content production.
If it is an option, though, you will be opening yourself up to an international audience. Your content will be able to penetrate more search engines, and you will be upscaling to a global level.
Note that if you do want to create multilingual content but you don’t have the resources to translate it professionally, it is not a good idea to use a service like Google Translate. Many phrases don’t directly translate, and sentences often don’t make sense when they are translated word-for-word. If you want to upscale your content, you will be better off using one of the other methods in this list.
8. Create a content calendar
Creating a long-term editorial calendar not only helps you stay organised as you upscale and ensures you are publishing frequently, but it enables everyone who is working on your content to be on the same page.
Having your content plan laid out in front of you also allows you to see which areas can be upscaled more easily. Additionally, it highlights any opportunities you might be missing in terms of keyword phrases or important dates.
You should make a note of events like Christmas, when the summer holidays are and any industry tradeshows or conventions to make sure you are posting relevant content at the right time of year. Knowing that these events are approaching can also help with ideation throughout the year.
Some of the things to include in your content calendar are:
- Post title
- Keywords
- Due date
- Publish date
- Type of content
- Platform for publishing
- CTA
- Author
9. Utilise content tools
When you upscale your content, you will need to streamline your processes to ensure everything runs as accurately and efficiently as possible. And content tools can help you do this.
Import tools like Wordable, for example, allow you to transfer Google Docs copy to WordPress quickly and easily. Not only does this save you time, but it prevents you from making errors as you manually fiddle around with the formatting, and it also ensures you are not missing any SEO details.
Additionally, you may find the following content tools useful:
- Ahrefs or Moz — For keyword analysis
- Duplichecker or Quetext — For plagiarism detection
- Grammarly or Hemmingway — For spelling, punctuation and grammar
- Hootsuite or TweetDeck — For scheduling content
Summary
As a business owner, you need to be uploading high-quality blog posts, how-to articles, infographics and other types of content, such as videos, on a regular basis.
Some of the reasons why you should be producing lots of content for your website are as follows:
- It builds brand awareness
- It improves user experience
- It leads to more sales
- Your social media presence will grow
- You will position yourself as an expert
The nine top tips we've listed will help you scale your content efforts and position your brand and show that you are an expert in your field. We hope this inspires you to start ramping up your own content!
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