The definitive guide to ‘creating’ content marketing (even when you don’t have the time)

According to HubSpot’s ‘Not Another State of Marketing Report,’ almost 70% of businesses are actively investing in content marketing in 2020. I don’t know about you, but that certainly does suggest that content is in fact, King! While many of us may know that the key to modern marketing is content, the problem usually is time. How do we create enough content to position ourselves as an expert when we don’t have the time? This article outlines the three ways of creating content marketing in less time.

3 ways to produce content

Creating content marketing is time-consuming, but it doesn’t always have to be. When professionals think about how to create content, they thinking of writing articles anew but there are actually three ways to create content:

1. Create: This is content which we have created from scratch.
2. Recycle: This is repurposed or repacked content, which we have adapted from its original form.
3. Curate: This is where we filter or select/share other people’s or our firm’s content, which we think that our network, contacts, clients or social media followers will find useful.

Create

This could include:

• Blog posts written from fresh (not adapted from anywhere else).
• Updates on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn where you say where you are, what you are thinking, what you are about to do or pose a question to your followers.
• White papers, reports, guides, workbooks etc.
• Video interviews with your fee earners.
• Conversation on Twitter and internet forums.

The internet is flush with content, and more and more keeps getting published every day. So how can you write content that sets you apart? How can you make an impact amongst all the noise? Creating content marketing takes time, so to get the most bang for your buck you need to:

1. Know your client personas (including what they find interesting and what their specific pain points are.
2. Know what sets you apart from the rest (how can you appeal to your clients? What is your ‘one thing?’)

Once you know this you can write quality content that actually gets read and elicits the response that you want. This is exactly what you want from your content when it takes you so long to write it! Read: How to create content which will continuously bring you in new business

Recycle

This could include:

• Recycling a piece of work you do for a client to use with others (e.g. The idea for this blog came after talking a client through content planning on the phone).
• Publishing another person’s blog post on a firm blog (which they have already published elsewhere).
• Repackaging a white paper or report into several blog posts.
• Repurposing a webinar or video into several blog posts.
• Syndicating your firm’s blog posts onto another blog (e.g. we regularly publish our blog posts on the blog we have on Training Zone, AccountingWeb, BusinessZone, Roll on Friday and HR Zone).

We all know we need to be creating content marketing, but the most common misconception is thinking that we always need to create more. A good content marketing strategy doesn’t just add to the never-ending pile of content that is being published. A good strategy is improving what you already have! You probably have plenty of content that you’ve created already, so use it. Go back to it, improve it, update it, maybe add some videos or turn some information into an infographic. When you improve the content you already have, you can repurpose and reuse it. You can republish it in no time at all rather than creating yet another article from scratch. Read: 6 unexpected places to get ideas for content. Download our free content planning guide to help you make your content your best work-winning asset.

Curate

This could include:

• Tweeting a link to a blog post or article (whether or not it is your own article).
• Retweeting somebody else’s tweet (or other post).
• Sharing a link to a blog or a post on LinkedIn.
• Adding old presentations, video clips, white papers, reports and guide to your fee earner’s LinkedIn profile.
• Sending out an article (newspaper, magazine, or electronic) to selected people in your network – if it will be of interest to them.
• Creating a discussion on a LinkedIn group where you share a link to an article.
• Using a newsletter to share interesting articles on a theme.

Much like repurposing your own content, why not use some of the content that’s already out there too? A lot of it is great and will be useful to your audience so use it. You can even curate the content from trusted sources and include your own perspective too. Just remember to give credit for the content that you’re using. Read: 5 super easy ways of producing highly valuable content without doing any writing.

Quick tips to save time when creating content marketing

As you can guess from what we’ve talked about, recycling your own blogs and curating existing blogs is a big way to save time when creating content. The big question remains then, “how do you save time when creating your own content?” From coming up with your content marketing strategy to writing your articles, here are 8 tips to save time when producing your content:

1. Streamline your research – start with your analytics and decide to write more about the topics which are working best for you. Look at your competitors and review their best content too.
2. Compile multiple topic ideas at one time – sometimes you have ideas for multiple blogs when you read one article, so plan your topics for 1-3 months in advance. That way, you won’t sit done at your computer and waste time thinking about what to write.
3. Write less but with more value – write fewer but longer blogs with far more value for the reader. These blogs have a massive impact on authority and offer 10x more value for your audience.
4. Set your writing goals – how many blogs do you want to write every week and month? Have these goals in mind so that you know what you’re working towards and you can make the plan to achieve them.
5. Schedule in writing time – if it isn’t in your diary, it won’t get done. Block out some time each day or week and only write during that time!
6. Eliminate distractions – for the time that you set aside for writing, turn off your phone, mute notifications, and work in a space where you won’t be distracted by anyone.
7. Identify your best-performing articles and improve them – which articles get the most traffic consistently? Start with updating and improving these to offer more value to your readers.
8. Streamline your promotion and distribution process – create a process that you can repeat every time you write a blog so that you’re not wasting any time. Where will you publish it? Where will you promote it? And how, when and where will you repurpose the content?

Read: 6 tips to make the time to produce valuable content

Produce better content, consistently (and in less time)

The key to time-effective content creation is getting a good balance of ‘create’, ‘curate’ and ‘recycle’. Only after you have identified gaps in your content or have updated and recycled your existing content should you move on to new content creation. The idea is to maximise what you have so that you can offer more value, and then create new if needed. This will save you heaps of time when creating content marketing AND without sacrificing quality! Download our free content planning guide to help you make your content your best work-winning asset.