Scaling your content creation is a significant challenge for most content marketers. As reported by Demand Metric, 48% of marketers see staffing restraints as their most significant setback.
Yet, even if you work with a scaled-down team, there are ways you can fast-track your content creation. Shaping up your editorial calendar and outsourcing your content is one way.
But getting your team to write outlines can be of great help too.
Let your team know this early in the game and you need more desirable results. Read on! This article will help you up your game and speed up your content creation.
Maximize the Time You Have
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that can be effectively applied to content creation. Here’s how you can use the Pomodoro Technique in your content creation process:
- Set Clear Goals: Define specific goals for your content creation session. It could be completing a certain number of paragraphs, researching a particular topic, or drafting an outline.
- Set a Timer: Set a timer for a predetermined amount of time, traditionally 25 minutes, known as a “Pomodoro.” During this time, focus solely on your content creation task and eliminate distractions.
- Work Intensely: Work diligently on your content creation task during the Pomodoro period. Avoid multitasking and stay focused on the specific task at hand. If any unrelated thoughts or ideas arise, jot them down quickly and return to your content creation work.
- Take Short Breaks: Once the Pomodoro timer goes off, take a short break of around 5 minutes. Use this time to relax, stretch, grab a drink, or briefly engage in a different activity. This break helps refresh your mind and prevent burnout….its also a great opportunity to put on a load of washing, fill the dishwasher or top up your tea
- Repeat the Cycle: After the short break, start a new Pomodoro session and continue working on your content creation task. Repeat this cycle of focused work and short breaks.
- Long Breaks: After completing four Pomodoro cycles, take a longer break of around 15 to 30 minutes. Use this time to recharge, reflect, and rejuvenate before resuming your content creation work.
- Evaluate and Adjust: After each Pomodoro cycle, take a moment to evaluate your progress and adjust your goals if necessary. Reflect on what worked well and what needs improvement, making adjustments as needed.
The Pomodoro Technique helps you break down your content creation process into manageable chunks, enhancing focus, productivity, and time management. By working in concentrated bursts and taking regular breaks, you can maintain a high level of focus and avoid burnout. This method also provides a structured approach to tracking and evaluating your progress, allowing you to refine your content creation workflow over time.
Why Should You Write Outlines for Your Blog Posts?
You need at least some plan before you set out to write any content piece. Otherwise, you risk meandering along the topic with no particular purpose.
And you don’t want that to happen to your articles, right?
With an article outline, your writers will be likelier to stay on the topic. And even if they do, they’ll do it with just the right amount of ‘wrong’.
Nudging your content team to write outlines is an innovative business for more reasons than one. They’ll be able to strike a balance of neither going too broad nor too deep into their article topics.
Other than that, writing an outline will enable your team to:
- Jump-start their writing process
- Write with a better flow
- Create well-outlined, high-quality blog posts
Also, as we’ve hinted in the intro, crafting an outline will help your writers write more quickly. A productivity expert, Stever Robbins uses outlines to be a more prolific writer. And so do the Copyblogger and Quicksprout writing experts. Enough said.
How to Write Briefs that Nudge Your Team in the Right Direction?
Your writers can and should do their share of work to brush up on their writing skills. But how can you, as their content manager, chip in and assist them in progressing their writing and the prewriting stage?
Here’s the kicker! Encourage your content team to use article outlines. On top of that, make sure you create briefs to give them a nudge in the right direction.
A well-developed brief will make their writing more accessible and more time-efficient. Besides, it will save everyone’s time, reducing communication barriers and back-and-forth communication.
Now, let’s delve into the nuts and bolts of how to craft your briefs so you help your team write excellent blog post outlines.
Lay Out the Big Idea for the Content Piece
Nobody likes being left to their devices in uncharted territory without a signpost. It’s the same with writing content without enough clues to get you started.
So this is where you come in to set clear expectations and give your writers something to work with.
You’ll want to make your brief as granular as a topic calls for it, but you should start with the Big Idea.
The Big Idea is the focal point of a blog post article, the central concept the article will discuss. It’s an anchor, so to speak, that keeps your writers out of the “murky waters” of too much tangential talk.
Your writer should respond with a fully-developed outline. Providing you with a summary of points they’ll cover in a given article.
They’ll take a Big Idea and break it down into relevant key points. Next, they’ll add bullet points to further help them organize their paragraphs as they write.
Source: Coschedule.com
To illustrate, here’s an example of the Big Idea for our blog article, X Top Property Investor Traps.
Big Idea: Pinpoint common property investment mistakes and provide readers with solutions to avoid them.
Also, your writers should use the info provided to work out the user’s search intent and the client CTA. Now, this is very useful! They’re thinking about the impact of their content before they’ve typed a single word on their keyboard.
Include briefs like this in your processes, reducing the writer’s odds of going off a tangent.
Provide Your Content Writer With Resources
Providing your writers with relevant resources is a huge time-saver. And consequently, it’s a great way to speed up your content creation. It cuts down on their research time. Plus, it gives them something to chew on before writing their outlines.
If you’ve pulled an idea for an article out of your daily read of the industry experts, go on and share your findings with the writer. Pull a short list of helpful sources: white papers, instructionals, statistics, etc.
The writer can then rely on these resources to figure out an angle you had in mind.
Picking up relevant data early will give them the confidence to jump-start their writing. Then they can reference them in their finished piece to support their claims. This will add authority to your content.
“Statistics boost your credibility and appeal to rationality. But be careful: Don’t let the numbers undermine the clarity of your message. Only add research results and other numbers if they help clarify your ideas.” Source: Copyblogger
Determine the Word Count
Different content types will call for a separate word count. Clients may ask you to write lengthy white papers, ebooks, and case studies. At other times, they might commission a set of short podcasts, social media snippets or short posts for social media fodder.
And although longer content formats are shown to receive more backlinks and social shares, you’ll need to determine the depth of each article. This will depend on the topic.
Article outlines will be of great help here. You can see whether the points go toward your intended word count when you get an outline for review.
For example, if the points don’t cover enough depth, you can ask the writer to edit their points before they’ve written the article, and there’s no turning back. This is how you prevent both the waste of your writer’s time and the waste of your resources.
Now, here’s HubSpot’s chart that shows the effect of word count on social shares.
Source: Hubspot.com
Grab Your Blog Post Outline Example
How do you follow through with your intent to include outlining into your processes? Pitch the idea to your content team. Also, you can share an example of an outline to inspire them.
Below is an example to help guide your team.
Article Title: X Top Property Investor Traps.
Big Idea: Highlight common property investment mistakes and offer solutions to avoid them.
Search Intent: I have money and think I’m ready to invest in a rental property and earn a rental income; how do I take the risk?
3 Top Property Investor Traps (And How to Avoid Them Now)
Introduction
Highlight the cost of mistakes in property investment. (Include research data: Residential investment in Australia can bring you up to 8% return on investment per annum.)
How Can Property Investors Build a Property Portfolio?
Tips on how to grow your investment portfolio and the risk/cost of making mistakes.
Common Property Investment Mistakes You’ll Make in the Australian Market (And How to Avoid Them)
Failing to Educate Yourself on Property Investment in Australia
How to Educate Yourself and Become a Successful Property Investor
- Learn State Tenancy Laws (Include source: https://www.tenancycheck.com.au/landlord-information/obligations/landlord-rights-a-state-and-territory-breakdown/)
- Study Australian Property Tax Laws
- Take a Property Investment Course
Making Emotional Property Investment Decisions
- Setting Property Investment Goals
- Familiarizing Yourself with Property Market Trends (Include source: https://www.domain.com.au/research/the-seven-major-property-market-trends-in-the-2020s-920665/
- Learning How to Use the Media
Being a Greedy and Impatient Property Investor
- Create a Goal With an Exit Strategy
- Research the Market Extensively
- Choose Properties With Room for Growth
CTA: Invest like a pro by downloading Lodge Property Investment Ebook. It will offer you all the information you need to start as a property investor in Australia.
Your Next Step
Time efficiency and content scalability are top concerns for any content marketer. And using article outlines can help.
Yet, even if you include writing outlines in your processes, staffing restraints can hold you back. You need to generate enough content to increase organic traffic and rank for your target keywords.