Efficient content creation during short-time work
Your working hours have been cut but you still want to deliver meaningful content? I know how that feels. That is why I want to share my experience and help you to boost your content production despite time restrictions!
8 am. Your alarm rings.
First things first: Dressed in sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt (Size: Tent), you get up and let the caffeinated black nectar brew while your laptop boots up.
Normally you would have snoozed two times by now, forcing you to be brushing your teeth and getting dressed simultaneously to leave the house in time.
But it is not a normal situation.
It is one year since your company switched to remote work. Casual Friday at the office is a red-carpet event compared to your home-office attire.
One look at the Google Calendar. Yup, no scheduled zoom-meeting today.
No need for a shirt and proper pants like ‘Hide the pain Harold’ in this image.
There is just one problem. Your working hours are reduced drastically because of short-time work during the Coronavirus pandemic.
How are you supposed to create meaningful content in a short amount of time?
Stick to your schedule
If content production was a house, then your editorial calendar based on your content strategy would be the bricks that hold everything together.
Yes, I know. Creative people may not always be the most structured workers but hear me out.
Creating content-based on a strategic plan will be a huge leap in efficiently producing content.
An editorial calendar is not a scary deadline monster, but rather an organizational superhero, saving the workday.
What the plan should look like in the end is totally up to you and should be adapted to your needs.
To ensure efficient workflows and processes, I recommend including:
- Deadlines
- Publication dates
- Content types
- Status of content
- Feedback opportunities
- Distribution channels
To always hit the right voice and tone, think about adding style guidelines. These serve to create an essential framework within your communication for your brand.
Want to set up your own editorial calendar now? Here are some great resources and step-by-step guides for getting started.
Create repeatable workflows
The work of content creators is multifaceted. Writing a few sentences here, designing a few graphics there, and editing a video on the side.
This is what makes the job a rainbow-colored playground full of opportunities. However, it also poses a challenge.
Your 4-hour workday cannot be taken up by just one slide of an Instagram Story. Maybe this one slide would be an astonishing piece of art, but you probably have more on your plate than that.
This is where repeatable workflows come into play.
While producing content, break your workflow down into small steps and create a standard for each of these steps. This could be done in any form, be it checklists or templates.
Repeatable workflows could also include team members, so inform them in time and plan accordingly.
A detailed guide on how to create content strategy workflows would go beyond the scope of this article. However, the colleagues from SEMrush have already given a very good indication of this process. Recommended reading!
Produce content based on data
For my first project in the master’s program, I worked on a way to improve the efficiency of the content production process of the blog I write for.
Long story short: The answer was to include as much meaningful data in the process as possible.
“Good for you, but I don’t have time for a project like this” you will probably think now.
Fair enough. However, every step you take in content creation should be done for good reason.
With data gathered from tools like Google Analytics, SEO software, or our own customer research, we can come close to our biggest goal:
Delivering the right content
at the right time
through the right channel
in the right format
to the right user.
Sometimes, we do not have enough data. In this case, think outside the box. Be creative and combine as much information as you can find to a valuable set of facts and figures.
Go outside. No, really. Get out!
If you are facing a creative mental block, go outside. Take a walk and let your focus shift for a while. Some of my best ideas came from casually strolling through a park and getting some steps in.
This is even backed up by science. A study by Stanford researchers in 2014 found that walking boosts creativity and inspiration. A change of scenery can help wonders, not only for your body but also for your mind.
Improving content production workflows is a huge topic. I can imagine going into more detail on this blog in the future. Until then, I wish everyone who has read these lines a nice day, lots of energy in the home office, and a lot of fun creating content. And now get up, stretch, and go outside!
To dive deeper into the topics I mentioned, see the following links:
Contentmarketinginstitute: How to Create a Strategic Editorial Calendar
Cosschedule: Content Marketing editorial calendar (Template)
Semrush: How To Develop a Content Strategy Workflow
