Content automation has revolutionized content marketing, empowering marketers to get content produced faster and, for those who take a strategic approach, execute targeted content campaigns with better results vs. other marketing tactics.
While content automation doesn’t mean robots will be writing articles and coming up with killer ideas, there are many areas of content production that can be automated. It’s all about streamlining repetitive tasks that don’t need human interaction. Before we dive into the benefits of content automation, it’s vital to understand what you can automate.
Content Automation Applications
With the right content marketing software platform, you’ll have the ability to automate several processes, making your content marketing more effective and efficient. How you apply content automation dictates the benefits you can achieve. Here are a few areas to consider for content automation.
Production & Content Workflows
Depending on the scope and format of what you are producing, production and content workflows can be super simple or customized and dynamic. If it’s a workflow you use over and over, you can automate task management, team member assignments and production schedule calculation.
Content Calendars
Content calendars are the hub for your content marketing plan. Automating your content calendar means you will no longer have to manually format, update, or distribute to keep everyone notified as your content schedule changes. It’s a central and visible repository where notifications are sent and information can be instantly updated.
Publishing and Distributing
Publishing and distributing your content are critical steps to its success. You need to reach your audience but you may spend way too much time posting your content on your website or social media platforms.
Using a content marketing platform that integrates with a CMS like WordPress and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can automate this process for you. You can synchronize multiple elements like content, images and metadata, and schedule publication in the future.
Email Automation
One channel that you can leverage for automation easily is email. Depending on how prospects engage with you, you can set up different processes that will automatically send the person an email with specific content. This saves you time and keeps your prospect engaged.
Reporting
Analytics on your content marketing efforts are vital. But gathering your data and creating reports is another process that can be timely. With preconfigured dashboards, you can pull data from multiple sources and produce automated reports that give you the insights you need.
Notifications and Reminders
Most employees receive hundreds of emails each week. As a result, inboxes can get crowded very quickly. If your main way to communicate on content projects is via email, then things are going to fall through the cracks sooner or later.
Instead, when you use a software solution, the work happens in-platform and notifications and reminders are available on the user’s dashboard. Email collaboration can be all but eliminated and replaced with email reminders to help team members stay on top of their projects.
6 Benefits of Content Automation
Automation is certainly something that many organizations are taking advantage of, with spending on marketing automation tools to reach $25.1 billion by 2023. The benefits are certainly worth this investment as content automation can actually help reduce costs and generate revenue.
Here are the top 6 benefits of content automation.
1. Save Time
The biggest benefit by far, according to marketers, is saving time with 74% in a survey noting this. The problem with time is there actually is a finite amount of it. And your team may be pushed every day to do more with less. So, why not provide them the helping hand they need that won’t add extra employees to your payroll?
By implementing automation tools to help with scheduling, publishing, notifications, and more, you could remove hours of busy work from your team. That’s time they can use to focus on higher level strategy and creating more, better content.
2. Reduce Costs
As noted, automation software could help your company do more without hiring new people. As labor costs are likely some of the highest you endure, any break you can find here will help. Plus, the individuals you do have working for you can be earning those paychecks by performing tasks that are central to your company’s growth.
3. Generate More Qualified Leads
Studies have shown that companies that use marketing automation to nurture prospects have an increase in qualified leads. Why? Because you are able to set up targeted content campaigns that better align to the buyer’s journey.
But one of the harsh realities of marketing automation platforms, which many companies learn the hard way, is the fact that they’re only as good as the content you feed into them. Thus, fully utilizing marketing automation takes a great deal of ongoing strategy, planning and content development. Oh, looky there…the three things content automation platforms help to manage.
4. Improve Accountability
Content automation can provide you with a clear picture of where the bottlenecks are in the process. When they are exposed, those responsible have to be accountable for how they are hindering the workflow.
5. Inspire Creativity
Your content teams probably crave creativity. They don’t like to do repetitive tasks (well, who does?). With automation taking care of these things, your team can get their creative juices flowing, hopefully coming up with ideas that will set your brand apart from the rest.
This could also mean a happier staff. Those that are happy tend to be engaged in their work and remain loyal, so it’s good for morale and culture.
Cultivate a More Inviting Social Media Presence
While what you post and where you post it are important to your social media presence, being consistent is also key. It’s hard to do that if you rely on manual distribution to your profiles. You’ll spend all your time just getting things published and have no time to truly engage with followers.
By using a content distribution tool, scheduling and posting are automated, so you can then pay more attention to your community, which will have a bigger impact on your brand’s reputation.
These benefits of content automation can all be realized by your organization. All you need are the right tools to make it happen. DivvyHQ has the infrastructure you need to take advantage of content automation. Find out why it’s a great solution for your team with a free, 14-day test drive.