How to scale your content effectively
Kadambini Rana
Marketing & Communications I Harvard Business Review Advisory Council Member
“Clothes, they say, make the man—or unmake him, as the case may be.”
Though Shakespeare's quote has a much deeper meaning, it primarily highlights how clothing can greatly influence one's appearance and the impression one makes on others.
Similarly, content holds the power to elevate the brand — or impair it.
In the dim and distant past, brands did not have the luxury to invest heavily in content initiatives. Nor were there many formats to focus on, let aside AI tools and content strategies that aligned with the buyer’s journey.
Over the years though, companies have increasingly recognized content marketing’s potential for reinforcing their brand awareness, generating demand, and engaging with potential buyers.
Content is experiencing a renaissance today.
This is to say that content existed, but sat in the outback; lacking a systematic approach, compared to where it sits now — on its well-deserved throne.
In today’s increasingly digital era, if you don’t have content — you don’t have a presence.??
The demand for content is on the rise and is diversified. Whether about thought leadership content, videos, or podcasts, content conversations have seeped into the nooks and crannies of the marketing landscape. Yet, companies are still figuring out how to best scale, store, and distribute content — seamlessly.
With this growing demand and the democratization of content creation with generative AI tools, it is faster and easier to dole out content. But now, the challenge goes beyond just creation and raises concerns about quality — and efficiency at each stage of the content lifecycle.
What’s the rub?
Companies, to scale their content, first wrangle with some of these vexed questions:
How to?:
1.???? Keep up with growing content demand for different channels that the audience prefers
2.???? Increase speed-to-market to deliver content at the right time
3.???? Integrate the different stages of the content lifecycle to build a unified strategy
4.???? Maintain brand consistency and uniqueness while scaling content
5.???? Stand out in the generic content cover scattered over the marketing landscape
6.???? Fix operational dysfunction and enhance content management in-house
7.???? Avert creative burnout, and reduce ad-hoc and rushed content creation
These challenges reflect the lack of a fully-baked content strategy, without which content remains in the clutches of recurring ad-hoc and urgent requests, that, in the first place, cause these issues.
What should we do?
Like a local guide who keeps you from the tourist trap,?I spotlight my "Top five practical ways" to scale content effectively.?
Be aware, though: this list informs you of some long-term strategic decisions, not easy quick fixes.?
Here goes:
1.??? Align Content with Objectives
Producing meaningful and purpose-driven content begins with outlining business objectives without which content is at the mercy of random production.
Content produced under pressure, silos, and urgency warrants a pressing need for a content strategy — aligned with business objectives — that will steer you away from relentless ad-hoc requests or at the least minimize its need.
To be realistic, urgent requests are inevitable, however, if they are frequent, they can lead to creative burnout, and cost implications, and cause your strategy to topple.
Ensure your content supports your business objectives as you increase the volume — creating room for value — and preventing random production from taking over.??
I touch upon a few examples of setting goals in my article posted here.
2.???? Establish Brand Guidelines
Brand guidelines have guided most aspects of marketing for years, and content is no stranger.?
Take brand guidelines; rooted in the brand's unique perspective, to be the sentinel of the content quality at each stage of its lifecycle. Content produced without embodying the style guide lacks voice, uniqueness and quality, and appears regurgitated.
Content has its glories and flaws; depends on how you nurture it.
Imagine having all the essential elements — logos, key visuals, color schemes, usage guidelines, fonts, and tone of voice — at your fingertips. These elements are the building blocks of a recognizable brand presence.?
With these elements at their disposal, content creators work more efficiently knowing what is admissible and what is not, while reducing the need for extensive iterations and approvals.
While you produce diverse content under pressured timelines, you have a firm hold on quality, consistency and coherence, across all channels and platforms.
3.???? Implement Technology?
One often-overlooked part of content strategy is the technology: the automation tools, that power the content engine.?
Marching forth on the tech road is not easy with the constant evolution of technology and its integrations, and training that come by and disrupt the system. However, content marketers and strategists are scrambling to find the best of it, to scale content end-to-end, easily.
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Having integrated automation tools is a business imperative for scaling your content operations.?
Think of it as having a live dashboard that lets you visualize the entire lifecycle of content from creation to final distribution to governance and performance analysis.
I refer to it as a “unified content lifecycle map”: a sophisticated system that captures every stage of your content process while highlighting relevant details and pinpointing the gaps.
Technology has evolved over the years bringing in high efficiencies, the tools still work in compartments (editorial tools, storage tools, workflow management and governance tools, and so on), which if integrated, significantly helps in scaling content without adding a lot of extra resources or costs.
The idea is to have a technology stack that addresses all the stages of the content lifecycle and brings unique tools to interact, and to work in harmony — giving more bang for your buck.
4.???? Optimize Content Creation
A couple of decades back, the culture of use-and-throw was not ubiquitous. Things would have to go through multiple rounds of examination and evaluation before they were finally tossed out or chosen to be refurbished.
You get the drift.
Over time, content pieces get stored up in content silos, and new content is created and recreated, and used willy-nilly — with no looking back at what exists in the store.?
Before you go on producing more, scour for what you have — a fast way to scale your content.?
Mix magic with the mundane. Repurpose, refresh and rejig the content you already created.
Review unused assets and play with them as long as they are relevant to the purpose.
Create derivatives: For instance, if you’ve made a podcast, create a blog from it. From your blog, create social media messages. Gather your blogs and consider tweaking them to make a downloadable e-book.
For instance, you have a few customer stories: cull quantified benefits from them and create factoids for your web pages. Repurposing content opens up the possibility of using the same content in different formats, across channels.
This is one of the most efficient and effective ways to scale your content without cost implications while directing your team to the path of creative brilliance.
5.???? Manage Content Repository
What first interested me in “content asset management” is that professionals lived in an ocean of scattered assets and spent enormous time looking up content templates, lost contracts, the latest and correct file versions, and the right source of truth out of many that existed.
Imagine just how painful the process of the asset hunt is — amid boiling business pressure and unproductive searches — when you could have automated systems manage it.?
Digital asset management (DAM) is one such system that has it all covered.
It can store templates, gated content folders, stock of images, brand guidelines, style guides, contracts, best practices, and so on, that you can rely on as — the single source of truth.
It's an important consideration to make in elevating content operations and supercharging production, as companies produce more content.
In essence, harmonizing your content strategy with objectives, integrated technology, brand guidelines, asset management, and content optimization can transform the content creation process to new levels of scalability, without compromising on its quality.
Reluctant to start big? Try these smaller tasks — repurpose content, manage assets and create a content style guide.
Like absorbing content insights? Read perspectives on content by Kadambini Rana:
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I help scale businesses by targeting the 90% of missed opportunities
2 个月This post captures the challenges and opportunities of scaling content creation so well. The point about aligning content with business objectives really stands out, without that alignment, it’s easy to fall into the trap of producing content for the sake of it, which only adds to inefficiencies. I’ve also found content repurposing to be one of the most effective ways to scale. Turning a single asset like a webinar or whitepaper into multiple blogs, social posts, and even infographics is a game-changer when resources are tight. For anyone exploring scalable content strategies with technology and automation, here’s a helpful resource to consider: https://www.dhirubhai.net/smart-links/AQET4DodOMGKBA. How are you balancing speed and quality in your content creation process? Would love to hear how others are tackling these challenges.
Making robots ?? triple your income??????
6 个月Clothing defines perception; content defines brand identity these days.
Senior Consultant
6 个月Hi Kadambini This is another solid article by you that really does reflect your expertise and passion in the arena of Content marketing. I really enjoy your writing style too. Thanks for sharing