Accelerate your content production with technology

Get out of the content hamster wheel: In this article, you’ll find out which tools and software solutions can help you speed up and optimize the entire content production cycle.

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eally good content makes the difference in marketing. Only tailored, high-quality content convinces the target audience. But we all know that producing high-quality content is quite time-consuming: from the initial idea all the way to publication and analysis, there are several steps to go through. Especially if you can’t rely on an editorial team but rather have a smaller content team, this can become a challenge in day-to-day work.

So how do you quench your target audience’s thirst for content without getting stuck in the content hamster wheel and constantly chasing after it? How do you speed up your content production without sacrificing quality? The answer: MarTech solutions that enable more effective production. We’ll introduce you to some software and tools for your MarTech stack.

1. Ideation: Collect ideas with brainstorming tools

Brainstorming tools are specifically designed to collect ideas, organize them, and make virtual idea gathering easier. They can be as simple as a shared Google document or as sophisticated as an online whiteboard where you can add Post-it notes in real time, categorize them, and have people vote on their favorite ideas. In addition, there are keyword tools that make it easier for you to find the best keywords for your content piece.

2. Planning: Visualizing with a task management or newsroom tool

Once your topic has been decided, the next step is to delegate tasks and define goals. A task management tool or a newsroom tool can help here. A task management tool is used by an individual, a team, or an organization to complete projects more efficiently. Tasks are organized and sorted by priority. Task management tools come in many forms, for example as simple Excel spreadsheets. These tools help you stay organized, work more efficiently, and meet deadlines.

3. Production: Creating content with the right content marketing software

Now it’s time to get down to business: the ideas are put into action. To keep everything clear and organized, you should think in advance about which platform you ideally want to use to create and collect your content. Classics include Google Drive, Word, and various graphic programs. In addition, there are also content marketing software solutions and editorial tools that serve as a central platform for the entire content production process. Don’t forget: producing content is time- and labor-intensive.

Automating content processes and using the right tools can therefore make a big difference in your content creation. Such platforms are especially helpful for large companies in which different units manage many channels (multiple websites, social media platforms, magazines, etc.). This ensures that content is consistent and uniform across all channels and that the topics you talk about follow a unified strategy.

Of course, it’s even faster with the help of artificial intelligence. You can read more about the most important tools in the article: “AI for your content marketing? A status quo report on Generative AI”.

4. Approval: Feedback and Workflow Management

Another aspect of content production is workflow management. Some marketing experts use programs like Excel or communicate via emails to plan content. You may have used these methods before too – however, this approach to content workflows often takes a lot of time and is prone to errors. That’s why there are workflow management software solutions that make all of this considerably easier.

Appropriate tools orchestrate the processes of planning, production, approval, and distribution of content. This way, content that has been created can, for example, be released via workflow management software for revision, for a feedback loop, or for publication. The respective phase a text or a video is currently in is thus visible to all participants at any time. Content marketing software usually already has a workflow function integrated.

5. Distribution: More Content and Less Chaos on Your Channels

Content distribution is the process of sharing, publishing, and promoting your content: you show your target audience what you have to offer! You make content available to customers via various channels and media formats.

One of the most important channels is email marketing, for example, which enables direct contact with your target audience. The automated sending of larger quantities of emails via newsletter tools allows you to reach all recipients easily and quickly.

A content management system (CMS) is another important tool that lets you manage web content and have it edited by multiple users. CMS are suitable for teams of all sizes.

Social media management tools also support you in distributing your content. They are particularly helpful and efficient for managing multiple channels in parallel. This way, for example, you can share your finished content on several platforms at the same time. Depending on the focus, social media tools also offer numerous additional functions, such as creating content, monitoring trends, or community management.

6. Analysis: Use web and social media analytics for optimization

Last but not least: analysis. In this final step, it’s about analyzing the success of the content using data.

Web analytics can help you identify the highest-performing and lowest-performing content and optimize it as needed to achieve more visitors and higher revenue. For example, with the help of the relevant tools, you can find out whether you chose the right keywords or how often your blog posts were clicked. This knowledge then helps you again with your next research and topic development.

To measure the success of your content on social networks, social media analytics software is used. Using the appropriate tools, you can get an overview of your reach and users’ engagement with your content and define successful topics as well as areas for optimization.

Build yourself a suitable system that runs like clockwork

With the right content tools and software solutions, you always have a clear overview of the entire content production process—from ideation through to analysis. Content marketing is not a one-off task, but a cycle, so it’s especially important to be well prepared—and the best way to do that is with automated processes. That gives you the opportunity to focus on what matters: the content itself.

For your MarTech stack, you need to figure out which systems fit together best and which interfaces you can use. Build a “sub-stack” within your MarTech stack that lets you produce your content as quickly and efficiently as possible—without time-consuming coordination via email, without lack of transparency due to siloed systems, without duplicate and triple work because you produce separately for each channel.

How do I find the right software for content production?

Do you want to significantly speed up your content production? And are you therefore looking for suitable software? Then simply start the matching with the providers most relevant to you.

Use our Match Assistant for content marketing software (or for a new content marketing agency), and we’ll take care of the rest for you. Just a few minutes of your time to get much closer to your new software.

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About the author

René Kühn is CEO of Matchilla and thus Matchmaker No. 1, a MarTech enthusiast, a NETworker at heart, a marketing trend explorer, and much more.

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