Everyone ought to take their trip time.
Research present stepping away from work can decrease stress, reduce the chance of coronary heart illness, and provides extra motivation to realize objectives.
However when folks comply with that recommendation – typically in bigger numbers in the summertime and on the finish of the yr – content material entrepreneurs wrestle to search out sources within the workplace, approvers to evaluate their content material, and so forth.
As an alternative of letting that frustrate you, why not use the compelled downtime productively?
I’m not advocating that you just push your self and your workforce out of the relaxed zone and into the intense sports activities zone. However you may work on helpful issues that don’t essentially require a lot mind energy (or shut supervision) however fall off the precedence record throughout busier instances.
The outcomes will inform and enhance your content material advertising and marketing technique year-round. Attempt a few of these concepts.
1. Dig into your analytics manually
Positive, you may pull a variety of automated analytics experiences about your content material. However I guess you don’t get each quantity you need within the bundle or format you need.
For instance, I’ve a shopper who distributes an e mail publication via a advertising and marketing hub supplier. The platform’s analytics record open and click-through charges alongside every challenge title. However there’s no choice to create a report with the outcomes from each challenge in a single spreadsheet.
To check outcomes or establish developments, I’d must manually enter the information right into a spreadsheet. It’s a time-sucking activity that I by no means get round to doing.
I employed some assist this summer time and put that activity on his to-do record. When he finishes, I’ll have a big-picture view I can use to replace the editorial technique.
Right here’s one other instance: Dig into your click-to-tweet efficiency. Have you learnt whether or not placement (starting, center, or finish of the article) impacts the variety of clicks? What about who’s tagged within the tweet?
The purpose is to establish out there information – quantitative or qualitative – that requires (or advantages from) handbook work to make it extra useful to your content material advertising and marketing program.
Determine out there information that wants handbook work to make it helpful to your #ContentMarketing. Put interns or further sources to work on that, says @AnnGynn by way of @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet
2. Hearken to and watch your content material
Guaranteeing content material accessibility is a great advertising and marketing technique – and the proper factor to do.
You most likely write alt textual content in your photographs, use Pascal case in your hashtags (#SummerLull, not #summerlull), and supply captions in your movies. (If not, begin there.)
However have you ever ever skilled your content material as individuals who have a imaginative and prescient or listening to impairment may? Take the time to do it now.
Have you ever skilled your #content material the best way individuals who have a imaginative and prescient or listening to impairment may? @AnnGynn suggests you attempt it by way of @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet
Obtain text-to-speech software program and feed your hottest written content material belongings into it. (Microsoft already embeds text-to-speech software program in Phrase.)
How is the listening expertise? Are there generally used acronyms, phrases, or phrases that don’t translate effectively to the ear? Are there different glitches you may treatment by enhancing the content material or avoiding them sooner or later?
Get one other perspective in your vocal content material. Obtain speech-to-text software program and/or learn the outcomes (i.e., video captions and transcripts) phrase for phrase. Are the spoken phrases simply translatable into textual content? Do the phrases you utilize have a number of spellings that would trigger confusion? How is background sound translated or disclosed within the textual content?
Assessment a number of items of content material in every format, then be aware and share potential bother spots along with your content material creators. That means, they’ll keep away from them sooner or later.
3. Create almost-finished evergreen or predictable content material
Get a head begin now on creating some content material items you understand you’ll want within the subsequent six months or so.
Determine deliberate content material that doesn’t contain many different folks (scheduling time with them might be exhausting in peak trip instances). Content material items which are updates or refreshes of stuff you wrote final yr are good candidates, whether or not they’re articles, infographics, movies, e-books, or different sorts.
Then get to work. Notice what may should be reviewed or up to date nearer to the publishing date.
Throughout sluggish durations, get a head begin on creating content material items you understand you’ll want a while within the subsequent six months, says @AnnGynn by way of @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet
4. Remodel top-performing content material into different codecs
Many content material advertising and marketing applications give attention to a single content material sort for his or her major channel (assume articles on their web site or movies on their YouTube channel). However you may add one thing totally different to your combine with out a lot effort.
Convert a few of the highest-performing content material in your major channel into new codecs or attempt publishing on lesser-used channels:
- Flip a how-to weblog right into a step-by-step infographic.
- Flip a video right into a handful of photographs and publish a carousel on Instagram.
- Flip a webinar into an article.
Sure, these are content material repurposing alternatives, however they’re additionally methods to find new viewers preferences for codecs or distribution channels.
5. Add content material accouterments
Possibly you’ve met your publishing deadlines by skipping small however necessary features of the content material – timestamps, episode descriptions, captions, custom-made excerpts, meta descriptions, and so forth. Wait, you’d by no means do this, proper?
OK, let’s say you’ve inherited a program the place these parts weren’t understood or valued. Possibly your predecessor felt their absence wouldn’t have an effect on content material efficiency and even be seen. In spite of everything, if somebody fails to put in writing a caption, the public-facing web page doesn’t say “caption wanted right here” (except one thing’s gone very incorrect).
Even with one of the best intentions, you usually don’t have time to return and end including these content material accouterments. And if nobody tracked which belongings want these little content material updates, the duty takes even longer.
Do that method to sort out the updates throughout your sluggish time:
- Create a guidelines of must-have gadgets for every content material asset sort.
- Resolve on the interval you wish to deal with (final six months, a yr, a set of years, and so forth.)
- Create an stock of belongings that want evaluate.
- Assessment every merchandise for all the mandatory parts and test them off as accomplished.
Bonus: Onboard short-term workers for potential year-round work
I’ve heard corporations say they resist bringing in interns or different momentary workers as a result of, by the point they rise up to hurry, they’re nearly prepared to depart. But the funding might be price it for those who take a protracted view.
For instance, the summer time individual in my enterprise grew to become my year-round proofreader. We labored collectively remotely after the summer time ended. Proofreading didn’t require the identical period of time or formalized construction as all of the summer time work, so it suits his new schedule.
Ongoing duties work effectively for retention. However search for different alternatives to maintain former interns or momentary workers concerned:
- Ask them to deal with duties for somebody who is perhaps out on household depart.
- Ask them to cowl gaps when workforce members resign or take new positions.
- Assign them to particular initiatives that match their expertise or information.
Lean into the lull
Whether or not it’s a summer time lull or a pure downtime in your corporation, you may take it straightforward and nonetheless be productive at work. Dig manually into your analytics, vet the accessibility of your content material, convert current belongings into new codecs, or provide you with one thing mundane that’s all the time in your record however by no means appears to get completed.
You’ll thank your self for the assistance when instances get busy, or your remodeled content material will get excessive marks from the viewers.
What do you’re employed on throughout sluggish instances? Share your solutions and plans within the feedback.
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Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising and marketing Institute
