Need to speed up content creation❓ (organize w/ these baby steps)

I’m mad as heck and not gonna take it any… ok, I’ve reconsidered…

Kidding. All good here. Except, I hate it when I have to dig for an old graphic I want to reuse for the newsletter. 

This also happens with stats I can’t locate, so that led to today’s Feature Story — a simple guide to avoid having to hunt for stuff as you’re creating content.

After I save your life (and mine) with that, chew on the following sections…

• The Knowledge Base 

• Self Help (viral hypochondriacs)

• Facts & Stats  

• Get Hacking (always a bigger fish)

Now, let’s see how to be organized with writing and other content creation. 

Treat Yo Self - To Organization

I’ll add key details after handing you the meat and taters in a methodical manner. 

These steps could save you an hour or two a week. More if you’re as jacked up systematically as me.

Step 1: Set Up a Central Content Hub

• Choose one place to store all your writing stuff

• Make it easy to find and use your content (use specific file names!)

Step 2: Create Content Categories

• Make a list of topics you cover (and hope to)

• Group similar topics together

• Use these groups to organize your work

Step 3: Use Smart Tools to Summarize

• Find tools that can shorten long texts

• Use these summaries to get quick ideas

• Save time on research

Step 4: Write Once, Use Many Times

• Create content that works for different places

• Keep your writing style the same across projects

• Don't waste time typing the same thing repeatedly (🔑get a good clipboard tool)

Step 5: Use Smart Writing Helpers

• Find tools that suggest related content

• Let these tools help you find similar topics

• Use them to make your writing better

Step 6: Make a Content Toolbox

• Save useful parts of your writing (🔑like slick intros)

• Keep important facts and numbers in their own folder

• Collect sayings, quotes, and examples you like to use

Step 7: Mix Your Writing with Others' Ideas

• Share good stuff you find online

• Add your own thoughts to make it special (reaction-type content)

• Balance your own writing with others' work

Step 8: Get to Know Your Readers

• Talk to people who read your work

• Find out what they like and don't like (bribe them to reply, says Matt McGarry)

• Use this info to make your writing better

Step 9: Create Writing Outlines

• Make fill-in-the-blank outlines for common writing tasks

• Include spots for important info

• Make checklists to keep your style consistent

Step 10: Clean Up Regularly

• Look through your old writing stuff

• Get rid of outdated material

• Find topics you haven't written about yet (🔑look beyond your field)

Details on Multi-Use Content (Step 4)

Example A

If you’ve written a lengthy product description, that’ll work on your website. 

But chisel it down for Amazon listings. 

Use key parts for a product brochure.

If your original product description isn’t long enough, no worries. 

Write out as many bullet points about the product as you can (old Ray Edwards tip from one of his mentors, I believe.).

Example B

Do a few customer interviews.

Use these as blog posts and case studies.

Then toss pieces of them in your email marketing campaigns.

Include customers’ best quotes in a pitch deck.

Work them into an infographic when possible.

Tools to Dig Up Related Content (Step 5)

Related content gives you different angles to spark new content ideas.

But if you despise using the Googsters like I do and are too busy to search every web crevice, let these tools do the excavation for ya:

1. Semrush

2. Ahrefs

3. ContentStudio

4. Curata

5. Monitor Backlinks

6. Majestic

7. Serpstat

8. Sprout Social

9. Oktopost

10. Mention

No Duh, but How (Step 6)

I struggle with keeping content handy that I know I can use in a variety of places and even for different writing niches. 

My desk is a nightmare filled with sticky notes and index cards and my Kanban boards are breeding like rabbits.

The only solution is to take the time to print out a cheat-sheet. The key is to only put the top 10 or 15 items on it - else it’s too jumbled up with info. I’m preaching to myself here. 

You might do digital cheat-sheets, but you’d have to name it carefully so you can find it quickly, and recall you ever created it! 

Index cards are another option if your memory is sharp. 

Just put one key fact or saying you want to reuse on each card and review them like once per week. Put them on top of your laptop or coffee maker to force yourself to look at the cards.

The Bottom Line

I’m gonna take my own advice with this stuff. Hopefully it’ll save you time and lower the aggravation of always hunting for things you could easily use repeatedly if you could easily find them.

Still, all the tips and steps won’t help unless we make a choice to organize. And repeat that choice 365 days a year. 

It’s the same problem as creating good habits. James Clear has awesome advice on habits. Yet, when the thought comes to eat Cheetos, vape, or scroll TikTok, it comes down to making the right choice at that moment - over and over.

Two extra resources for organizing yourself for faster content creation.

• Effortless (audiobook)

• PARA system

Writer RAG tool: build production-ready RAG apps in minutes

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Integrated into Writer’s full-stack platform, it eliminates the need for complex vendor RAG setups, making it quick to build scalable, highly accurate AI workflows just by passing a graph ID of your data as a parameter to your RAG tool.

Learn more about our production ready RAG tooling here.

Self-Help

Awareness of a problem should help solve it. 

Yet, social media, with its uncanny capacity for negative outcomes, may be flipping that on its head.

This new study finds lots of people now think they have ADHD because they see it talked about nonstop on social platforms.

I’ve heard the same theory about depression and anxiety spikes being possibly due to an avalanche of focus on mental health problems.

Problems that go viral just might be making hypochondriacs out of us all.

Bonus: I just read that these new weight loss drugs will combat unemployment🙄. Next week, look for Big Pharma to announce these drugs are shown to repel shark attacks and make rattlesnakes harmless.

Facts & Stats

Bonus: Using a ________________ can improve customer recognition of your brand by up to 80%. Answer at end of email.

Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

Even someone with a huge personal brand needs to test partnerships to increase sales. Proof?

Grammar Girl has built her brand to incredible heights. But she said partnering with LinkedIn ramped up her course sales because LinkedIn’s email list is:

1. Enormous

2. Laser targeted

She also noted how sales were hardly affected by her big promos (sales stayed steady). But any extra promos by her partner LinkedIn, moved the needle big time.

So, go seek a partner to help promote your offers (unless you’re more well-known than Grammar Girl, and even then…).

Inbox Hacking is read by smart marketers like yourself at Procter & Gamble and John Deere. Please share this newsletter and boost the IQ of the masses (it’s never too late).

Shane McLendon, Copy Kingpin 

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: A signature color can improve customer recognition of your brand by up to 80% (Ecommerce Bonsai)

P.S. TrafficGrid uses 30 intent signals to find proven newsletter junkies who will make loyal subscribers for your newsletter (for < $1 CPL)*.

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The meme account laying waste to its own advertising industry👇👇👇.