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- Need to speed up content creation❓ (organize w/ these baby steps)
Need to speed up content creation❓ (organize w/ these baby steps)
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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.
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:
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)
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The Knowledge Base
🔉Breaking down audio branding
Dara dissects top-performing Meta Ads 2024
🔍New search traffic benchmarks across the 7 Kingdoms
10 major brand logos in motion
📃How Neil Patel boomed his email list to 800k
Efficiency hacks for drained editors & writers
🏦SEO for financial services
4 steps to freshen up your online presence
🍎Apple’s version of BIMI?
3 incentives that rake in email subscribers
🧠Sam Altman approves of GPT being your sensei
⏬ Seen the ad meme king? At end of post.
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
By Mennen… 139 out of 250 major brands now have a sonic logo (Marketing Interactive) | On Blast… 64% of shoppers have stopped buying from a brand with a poor employer reputation (Career Arc) | Headcount… There are now over 10,000 branding & positioning agencies worldwide (Exploding Topics) |
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:
Enormous
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)*.
*In partnership with TrafficGrid.
The meme account laying waste to its own advertising industry👇👇👇.