If you’re selling online, you need to be creating content.
The content marketing industry has grown significantly in the last decade. The data is speaking for itself: content marketing is the way to go. This is especially true when you look at the ROI of content marketing as compared to something like paid advertising.
If you do even 10 minutes of research on your industry, you’ll likely see similar data. Marketing on the right platform can drastically improve the trajectory of your business.
However, the number one factor that stops many digital marketers from following a compelling content strategy is time.
You probably realized this the first time you wrote a blog post or social media caption.
Content creating takes so. much. time.
Personally, I applaud people who specialize in mediums like YouTube or TikTok. Although video content takes a lot of time, it has one of the most impressive ROIs.
Regardless of how you’re creating content for your business, you won’t see results if you don’t have a process in place to create a lot of content.
Having processes in place is the fastest and clearest way to make content. The sooner you find a content creation process that works for you, the sooner you’ll be attracting that ideal audience.
I’m giving you my advice for creating content quickly, but first, we have to get clear on a couple things:
What matters more: quantity or quality content?
When you’re just getting started with content marketing, everyone will run into the same conundrum:
What do I prioritize? Quantity or quality?
I know it’s super annoying, but the answer is both.
As in, you should find a happy medium.
When you put proper processes in place, you can create a lot of high-quality content without agonizing over every word.
Most business owners don’t know these processes when they first get started creating content. In the beginning, they will choose to only prioritize quantity or quality.
Pretty soon, many business owners find that creating a lot of B- content gets them better results than only posting on their blog once every other month.
So yes, I guess if you forced me to choose, I would say focus on quantity of content rather than quality in the beginning.
Knowing what I know now, though, I can see how you can easily have both.
So why not have your cake and eat it too?
How to make content quickly
Like any content marketing nerd, I’ve realized that creating processes in my business is actually a creative outlet for me.
This creativity helps me improve my client’s processes time and time again too.
You need processes in place to create content. When you know precisely what to do every time you create content it cuts down on tons of time.
So, analyze what’s worked for you in the past.
Do a gap analysis of where you are and where you want to be. Take a look at these ideas and cherry-pick the ones to add to your own process to create content quickly:
1. Keep an extensive list of ideas
Sometimes just coming up with ideas is the hardest part of creating content.
The muscle that allows you to generate content ideas needs to be strengthened over time.
When I work with my clients, I’m able to spout off content ideas a mile a minute. This alone saves you a ton of time. We can create a year of content ideas in an afternoon.
I have dozens of lists on my computer and on my phone of content ideas at all times.
Get into the habit of keeping a list of topic ideas. Make sure you share a doc with your team too, so you can access their brains for generating content ideas. Don’t worry about the organization of ideas at this point. Your lists can be long and messy, because this works great for getting those creativity muscles strong.
2. Make your blog the cornerstone of your content strategy
I absolutely love blogs for so many reasons:
- Boosting SEO
- Building brand visibility
- Gaining trust with your audience
- Showing you’re an authority in your field
Blogs, or long-form content, are great for your content strategy because you have an extensive and thorough piece of content that acts as the cornerstone of your content that week.
If you learn how to create blog content thoroughly, you can take one blog and turn it into:
- 5 LinkedIn Posts
- 3 Instagram reels/TikToks
- 1 Twitter thread
- An infographic
- 5 Pins
- An email series
- Instagram/Facebook posts
- A poll
If you were to set out to create each of these pieces of content by themselves, it would take your entire week! Getting good at repurposing content into other platforms becomes easy when you start with one thorough, well-outlined blog post.
Pro tip: use numbered blog posts (like this one!) to make it really easy to share. This blog post you’re reading now can be used to create 9 different pieces of content that can be posted across multiple platforms. Easy.
3. Decide how much time you have to invest
Decide upfront how much time you want to invest in your content strategy each week.
It’s fine for all of us to dream big about how we’re going to scale our platforms aggressively, but we have to be realistic about how much time we can invest.
I’ve learned this the hard way, and therefore have become frustrated with how long it actually takes to create amazing content.
If you’re just getting started, I recommend a minimum of 3 hours per week you can dedicate to your content.
During this time, you can write one 1000-word blog post. After editing, turning the blog post into an email and 3-5 social media posts should only take a half hour.
You can accomplish a lot in a short amount of time, but you have to decide how much time you have to invest upfront.
Otherwise, you’re always going to be playing catch-up on content creation.
4. Don’t try to be on every platform right away
Ok, I know I said it was totally possible to create a lot of high-quality content for multiple platforms quickly…
But just because you can be on every platform right away doesn’t mean you should be.
Mastering a new social media platform is like slaying a new dragon every day. It takes a lot of research and help to truly become a master at Instagram, or TikTok, or Pinterest, or Twitter.
Just pick one or two platforms where your ideal audience hangs out and get good at those.
Especially at the beginning, there are so many little things that make you successful on a platform that you won’t know. This is the perfect time to learn through trial and error, researching pieces that can make you successful as you go.
For example, did you know that LinkedIn won’t boost posts nearly as much if they include an exterior link?
A LinkedIn specialist (winks) can help you with small, but impactful tips like this.
Show up imperfectly on 1-2 platforms and learn as you go. You don’t have time to do it any other way.
5. Use the sections of the blog post for 3-6 social media posts
As I mentioned, use the sections of your blog for social media posts. Don’t sweat about making it perfect, you can literally just copy and paste them into the social channels.
If you’re able to outsource this to a VA or writer, that could save you a real headache too. A copywriter will be able to zhuzh them up to fit the platform really well. A VA will be able to communicate with a graphic designer or create graphics for you around the post.
As long as you are writing the content, make the best use of it as you can.
6. Use the introduction of the blog as an email
Do not forget to promote your blog post to your email list. It’s super quick and easy to take the intro of your blog post, convert it into an email, add the link, and send it out to your list.
This gets further eyes on your post and provides valuable content to your subscribers.
Consistently providing value to your email list is one of the best ways to turn them into loyal clients and customers.
7. Convert social media posts into video or reel scripts
Video content is hot right now, and that’s not set to change anytime soon.
Many business owners often find video intimidating, but from my perspective, they’re making it a lot more complex than it needs to be.
For reels and TikToks, you are going to want to focus on quantity over quality at first.
- Cut down the length of time you’re thinking these reels need to be.
- 15-30 seconds should be sufficient to begin with.
- Film 10 a week.
- Give yourself an hour.
- Use points you’ve already written out on your blog.
To further save time, you can outsource the editing, captions, and uploading to an editor or VA.
8. Outsource graphics, scheduling, or writing of content
Outsourcing is a gold mine when it comes to creating a lot of content in a short amount of time.
It’s not an all-or-nothing game either. Just think about what you could do if you saved 1-2 hours a week by outsourcing.
You can outsource your graphics for social assets, scheduling posts, or writing content.
I’d even recommend outsourcing content strategies and content calendars too, since that can take a lot of brain power and creativity off your hands.
The bigger your business gets, the more moving pieces you will have to keep track of. Outsourcing is not a matter if, but when.
9. Use user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is content that is created and shared by your clients. It consists of reviews, testimonials, photos, and videos.
UGC is great for building trust and credibility with your audience. It’s comparable to word-of-mouth marketing, since your current clients are directly sharing the value of working with you.
To use UGC in your content strategy, encourage customers to share their experiences with your brand on social media platforms and review sites.
Share user-generated content on your own social media channels, and feature customer testimonials or case studies on your website.
Additionally, you can create user-generated content campaigns, such as contests, which can help to increase engagement and encourage more clients to share their experiences.
At the end of the day, you can pour hours of research into developing content strategies, but if you don’t have a process in place to create original content quickly, your strategy won’t work.
Pretty much every platform you can think of (google, social media, email) relies on consistency to boost your brand. You need to stick with a consistent strategy in order to see results.
You need to be able to do the same thing every week or month without struggling with it.
As I mentioned earlier, creating these processes is a creative outlet for me. I love to be the project manager nerd for my client’s content strategies.
If you want some inspired eyes on your content strategy, reach out to me here.