Scaling Content Marketing: How to Do It with the Right Tools

Building a robust content marketing program takes a lot of time and effort, and you’ve probably made your fair share of mistakes along the way (and learned from them, I hope). But one of the most challenging parts of content marketing is scaling.

To scale, you must have a repeatable process that has been proven to generate a desired result. Luckily, technology helps us all become better at the process of content marketing. In scaling content marketing, you’ll need the right tools.

Content Is Becoming Saturated

Millions of blog posts are published every day. It’s a daily competition for brands trying to attract audiences with relevant content. With so much saturation, you’re probably not only concerned with creating more content but also its quality and relevancy.

You need to stand out. And that’s especially important in scaling content marketing. While you need a solidified process with efficient content workflows, you can’t let quality suffer.

With the right tools, you’ll never have to sacrifice quality for quantity. It all starts with a content marketing platform. There are many different options available for you, but how does the right technology allow you to scale purposefully?

Scaling Content Marketing Challenges

scaling content marketing

Growing pains are inevitable as you begin to scale your content marketing. You are most likely adding human resources to your team while also trying to define, improve and streamline your processes. So, you have to acclimate new team members and identify how you’ll scale all aspects of the process, from topic generation to approvals to content promotion.

One of the biggest challenges you’ll run into is low efficiencies. This is often the case when there are many manual processes involved and multiple systems being used to manage them. Purpose-built and well-integrated technology can assist significantly in improving productivity and thus allowing you to scale.

Tech Tools Content Marketing Teams Need to Scale

Starting out with a content marketing software solution is a good first move. But you must ensure that it has the features needed to assist with scaling. Your focus, at this point, needs to be on how technology can help your team work better, saving time, and fostering productivity. Here are some key tools you’ll need for scaling.

Content Calendars

content calendar is your central hub for every content piece. It includes all the details of how to take an idea and transform it into a high-quality piece of content. It also includes timelines and deadlines for every resource needed in the content creation process.

Content calendars can include a host of functionality. Some of this is central to scaling, such as:

  • Organization by team, region, or other factors: keeping all teams on the same page via your calendar is critical to efficient scaling
  • Automated notifications: eliminate the need for constant, time-consuming emails with a content calendar that sends automatic notifications to users related to tasks and timelines
  • Customizable configurations: no cookie-cutter calendars—you need to be able to create calendars that meet your company’s specific needs
  • Powerful filters: having the ability to search and filter allows users to view important information quickly
  • Consistent campaign management: with one place to manage campaigns, your team will be able to review past and current projects for insights

Content Automation Tools

Chances are, you’re already using some type of automation in your efforts. But are you leveraging all the possibilities with content automation? In this context, content automation has more to do with processes versus robots writing content, although that’s becoming a new norm, too.

Here are the content automation features you should seek out:

Production workflows

Workflows are essential to scaling as they define how projects move from step to step. Within your content marketing software, you can develop workflow templates and then reuse them for similar projects. Thus, you may have one workflow template for infographics and another for white papers. The workflow is able to define all steps and resources needed as well as calculate the production schedule.

Content publishing and social media posting

Use content marketing software that integrates with your content management system (CMS). This integration allows you to transition content data/assets to your CMS and schedule publishing without having to log into your CMS. Further, you’ll want social media profiles to be accessible as well. As soon as content is ready, you can then automate its publishing on your website as well as social posts.

By having these tools, you’ll save considerable time in these efforts, allowing you to publish more often without putting in more work.

Automated reporting

Another automation tool you’ll need is for your content analytics. Scaling also includes how you measure content performance. You need to have easy access to this data so it can inform what you do next.

If you are currently pulling data from multiple sources, aggregating it, prepping reports, then distributing or presenting the reports, this is a huge time waster. Instead, use a platform that does all that for you. Get a real-time view of all stats and information from one dashboard.

Need to share your reports with specific stakeholders? DivvyHQ Analytics, for example, allows you to set up automated report emails per your desired frequency.

Content Collaboration

Scaling content marketing must involve content collaboration. While your team may grow, it should never be siloed. Content marketing in silos just doesn’t work. Everyone needs to be working together, but collaboration isn’t always simple.

When you make it convenient for your team to collaborate with anyone involved in the content process, they are more likely to do so. So, what tools do you need?

  • Centralized idea repository: content starts with ideas, so create a place where anyone who has topic ideas can share them
  • Shared content calendars: content calendars are a transparent space where everyone has visibility to tasks and schedules; it eliminates the “I didn’t know” from the conversation
  • Real-time notifications: everyone is always in the loop with real-time notifications related to changes or task completion; this improves accountability as well
  • Project management tools: manage all projects centrally to create that repeatable process so integral to scaling

Scaling content marketing is a necessity for growth. Don’t let the fear of scaling impact your content marketing efforts. Instead, use the right tools to support you like DivvyHQ. You can try it for free today.