Content scaling: 8 essential steps to boost your marketing impact

June 12, 2024 - 7 min read

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Content scaling: 8 essential steps to boost your marketing impact

Author: Mary Mattingly

You arrive at work and open your laptop, feeling a hum of excitement. 😊 Why? 

You're really proud of the article you recently wrote. It's engaging, well-researched (you dedicated hours to it!), and has just the right touch of flair—surely, it will resonate with your audience.

But when you check for likes and shares...

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…there’s nothing. Absolutely NOTHING! 😱

You start to wonder what went wrong. Here's the reality: posting just one article a month isn't enough to draw people to your website. 

You're not the only one trying to climb the ranks on search engines, especially Google. You're up against hundreds of other businesses that post more frequently to gain greater visibility. 

That’s why consistent effort is crucial. You need to strike the right balance between producing high-quality content and maintaining regular output. 

This is where the concept of content scaling becomes essential. In this article, you'll learn what content scaling is, why it matters, and how to get started. 

What is content scaling?

Content scaling is a marketing practice that helps you produce more quality content pieces at a faster rate. The goal of this strategy is to generate more leads with fewer resources. 

Think of that saying, “Work smarter, not harder.” In a nutshell, you post more blogs, guides, whatever you want — and you get customer engagement in return. 

A fair trade, no? 😀

Let’s put it like this: imagine you’re in Santa’s workshop and you need to craft a HUGE number of gifts for nice children. You have a whole year to do it, but you can’t waste time. Every day, you have to pump out at least 10 gifts to reach your quota. And they must all be high-quality.

So it is with churning out content. Content scaling helps you increase output without compromising on quality.

What happens when you do it right? 

You maximize your return on investment (ROI), increase brand visibility, and drive more conversions. 

⚠️ Remember (and this is important) — content scaling is not about spewing out thousands of content pieces and calling it a day. Each piece needs to be in-depth and offer value to visitors. It should meet customer needs AND your business goals. 

Sounds like a chore, but content scaling is super important to every content team. 

Why is scalability important for content marketing?

Methinks:

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Of course, you wanna know why. Well, it’s super easy: you get your money’s worth. 💸

Let’s make this clearer. When you scale your content production, you can reach your target audience effectively. This content strategy helps your team generate more leads without investing too much time, money, and effort. 

In a nutshell, you: 

Since it’ll have more content to index, you’ll have a better chance of ranking high in search results (for the right audience, of course). 

  • Boost user engagement — You always have to be on your toes and make people crave more of your content. 🤤 That means creating inclusive content that appeals to a larger audience and encourages repeat visits. 
  • Become an authority — Creating high-quality, well-researched articles boosts your brand awareness, yes. But it also makes you an industry expert, which in time nurtures trust and credibility. 

It’s safe to say that content scaling is hella helpful when you want to boost your traffic and conversions. Marketers who post 16 or more blog posts per month receive 3.5 times more traffic than those who don’t. 

Content is a very effective way to attract new customers — and once you create a piece, you can repurpose it for different social media channels. 

In time, your new content will become an important part of your brand that people will share over and over and over again…

However, content scaling is not easy. 😢 It's challenging to find the perfect balance between high-quality content and the right amount of it. Just like when you’re cooking for 10 people and the clock’s ticking…

It is possible to do both things well, though. Let’s show you how. 

How to scale content without sacrificing quality

Hold on — I know you want to get to content scaling right away. If you’re ready and want to skip this part, go ahead. 

Keep in mind, though, that getting it right isn’t as easy as it seems. To scale content creation, you need a great plan. Before you tackle this strategy, read our tips for producing quality pieces of content. 

You won’t regret it! 😉

1. Create a comprehensive content plan

Everything starts with a plan. 

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It can’t be just any plan, though. You need to think hard about it and craft the best roadmap for your content management efforts. 

This starts with: 

  • Understanding your audience — Your content is not for everyone, no matter how hard you try. You need to tailor it to people who really do want to see more about AI design tools or whatever your niche is. 

But why? You want EVERYONE to read your blog. 

Because people outside your circle will read your blog and that’s it. Creating content that resonates with a certain group of people and speaks to their needs encourages them to act, aka buy your product. 

  • Finding your objective — Take a step back, a deep breath, and think. What do you want to achieve by scaling your content? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Drive more sales? WHAT IS IT?! 

Once your goals are clear, you can then take strategic steps toward achieving them. 😉

  • Identifying the metrics for success — After setting your goals, you should start actively working to achieve them. This means you need to analyze metrics tied to your specific objective, such as engagement and conversion rates. 

These metrics help measure your content marketing efforts to see if you’re doing a good job or not.

Metrics can include stuff such as shares, likes, comments, or lead generation rates. 

  • Selecting the right content type — Make sure your favorite type of content aligns with your business goals. Choose with your heart, but remember: it needs to reach your audience. You can’t post a video in an email and expect people to click on it. 

Instead, do some research into where your audience hangs out online. If your audience spends a lot of time on Instagram, for instance, consider crafting content specifically for this channel. Tailoring your content to the platform's unique dynamics can significantly boost your engagement metrics.

  • Creating a content calendar — Sadly, you can’t just post content whenever you feel like it. You need to schedule your posts by using a content scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite. 

A calendar helps you stay organized and makes sure you post regularly, without overwhelming viewers. With it, you’ll find the right balance between too much content and not enough to keep people hooked. 

What are you waiting for? Start planning! 

2. Develop a content style guide

Your content team is pretty diverse. While it’s nice to have different opinions and people who work in their unique style, there’s a small hitch.

The content you produce is never consistent. 

Your articles are super detailed, with a dash of humor and good vibes. Your brand looks super approachable — and everyone wants to be friends with you. But on your LinkedIn page, things look a bit different. 

All videos are corporate and, honestly, kinda boring. They have none of the charm people see on your website. 

Why is this happening? You don’t have a style guide.

Style guides are key for keeping your content consistent. This manual makes sure your message is always on-brand by providing the necessary guidelines, no matter where you post. 

Moreover, it’s important for keeping everyone — stakeholders and external and internal collaborators — on the same page. Having the same brand voice on all social media channels will increase your credibility and boost awareness.

A good style guide needs to have the following ingredients: 

  • Your brand’s tone of voice 
  • The ‘no-no’ words your writers should never include in your posts
  • How long your sentences or paragraphs should be
  • Logo or color palette for visual graphics
  • How you structure your content (subheadings, headings, outline, etc.) 

Pro Tip #1💡: Make sure you update your style guide from time to time. 

Sometimes, needs and demands change, especially if your company scales. Your guide should reflect that. By keeping it updated, your writers will be able to write content faster. 

Plus, they can always go back to it any time they need a refresher. 

Pro Tip #2💡: If you need help with creating the style guide, Ceros can help. Use Ceros' no-code tools to quickly generate and iterate on creative ideas efficiently.

But we can chat about AI tools later; stay tuned! 

3. Tailor content for different audience segments

Content is like a gift: everyone likes it as long as it’s for them.

This means that your content should make your audience feel special, like you’re acknowledging their presence. 

The desired reaction should be, “Aww, me?” 

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For example, let’s say you want to send weekly newsletters to your followers. Sounds easy enough! Just pick some of your best-performing articles, put them in a neat graphic, aaaaand hit ‘send’! 📨

❌ WRONG! ❌

People have different tastes. Maybe a part of your audience doesn’t want to see tips about losing weight. You saw them clicking on posts about healthy diets — they’ll surely appreciate seeing more of that content. 

To do that, you need to understand their preferences and needs. 

A customer insight platform like Qualtrics or Hotjar can make sense of what people like and hate. You’ll see where they linger, their purchase history, and all the tiny details that’ll help you personalize your content. 

With that info in mind, you can send different audience segments the right email. It doesn’t mean you need to create four separate email campaigns for different people. 

You create one and add a bit of love to each of them. As a result, a CEO will get a slightly different email, maybe more formal, while freelancers will have a more friendly greeting.

It’s these tiny details that truly matter to your people. 

4. Leverage AI tools

Change can be as daunting as a Monday morning without coffee. However, integrating AI into your content marketing strategy isn't just a change—it's an upgrade!

Artificial intelligence tools excel in streamlining content production and automating the labor-intensive tasks of the creative process. These tools do more than generate text or ideas; they can execute specific actions like updating logos, changing color schemes, or standardizing font sizes, which significantly streamlines both planning and execution.

The use of AI doesn't replace human creativity but enhances it by eliminating repetitive tasks. This allows content creators to focus on scaling content production efforts and engaging in tasks that require nuanced thinking and emotional depth. 

What's more, integrating AI tools into your workflow is straightforward. The right tools blend seamlessly with existing operations, demonstrating that advanced technology can enhance traditional content creation methods.

5. Make use of content templates and frameworks

Oh, we love templates so damn much! They’re highly useful when creating great content at scale. They make our lives so much easier. 

Imagine: you need to create ten blog posts about different diet plans. These posts have a similar format, but target multiple audiences. Instead of writing the articles from scratch, you can use a template. 

This template can have predefined sections, like an introduction, a ‘what is’ section, and a schedule example. All you need to do is replace certain parts of the template (like the ‘what is’ section) while keeping the same structure. 

Without a template, this task would’ve been a chore. You save time without sacrificing quality — each template will keep your content structurally consistent. 

The templates have other uses, too. You can create outlines for your blogs, which come in handy when you’re stuck with writer’s block. 

As for the types of templates you can have, it depends on your content. Here are some examples: 

  • Buyer persona templates to learn more about your ideal customer
  • Blog editorial calendar template to help you schedule your content accordingly, without hassle
  • Pinterest templates for sharing infographics, white papers, and promoting your content
  • Social media templates to easily post content when you’re in a hurry 

There are plenty of templates out there! Now, it’s up to you to choose the best one for your workflow.

6. Streamline repetitive processes and workflows

You’re probably confused by now, thinking, “Wait — isn’t the point of AI to automate manual and repetitive content-creation processes?”

Yes…

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…but THIS is totally different. 🤭

Having repetitive processes and workflows in place aids with optimizing the content production process. There are plenty of tools that help you do this, including content management systems, scheduling platforms, and other AI-powered tools! 

It won’t happen right away, but gradually. 

It all starts with a content marketing plan. Here, you’ll need to include: 

  • Your strategy’s goal
  • The content types (and the amount) you need to create
  • How you’re gonna tackle the pieces monthly
  • Who’s gonna take care of the content
  • The deadline for each piece
  • Tracking performance to ensure you achieve your goals

After you map out all these details, you can create a content calendar with deadlines and workflows. No more guesswork — every piece gets the same treatment, the process will flow more smoothly, and you’ll become a beast at creating content. 

BUT the process is also iterative. As you constantly learn new things about your team’s and audience’s preferences, you can make adjustments to the process to make it even more efficient! 

PS: This tactic is great for seasonal buyers or new product launches. 🎄 You have a clear plan you can follow without starting from square one each time. 

7. Repurpose existing content

Once upon a time, you created such a juicy post, everyone talked about it for months. 

Since then, though, it’s like you lost your spark. You can’t recreate the same success with your new social media posts and it simply saddens you. 

That’s why the concept of ‘repurposed content’ exists. It means you adapt the format or messaging of existing content into something new. 

For example, you have a blog post that gets plenty of organic traffic on its own, but you want more. Maybe you can try to appeal to your audience on YouTube. 

Great! All you need to do is repurpose that content into a video or podcast and you’re set. 

The result? You stop wasting time on reinventing the wheel and you can build engagement on different platforms. Moreover, it definitely helps your SEO efforts since you adapt your keywords to different audience segments. 

Pro Tip: Use AI to change any webinar into a LinkedIn post. 

8. Strategically outsource content creation

Oh, your poor lone copywriter. 😿 Imagine their face when you tell them that they have to write 10 pieces of content per week — can they really handle all that?

Probably not. You’re gonna ask too much of them and they’ll probably burn out soon. 

Sometimes, it’s not shameful to ask for outside help. Freelancers, agencies, or content partners can help you with your scalable content production efforts and make it a success. 

Tips for vetting guest contributors: 

  • Look at job boards — Pretty self-explanatory, huh? If you want to look for new team members, it’s best to look on platforms like LinkedIn or use hiring tools. You can select the right matches through filters and ratings. 
  • Word-of-mouth tactic — Referrals are probably the best way to recruit content creators to your cause. It’s proof that these writers provide a good service, so you know you’ll only hire the best.
  • Guest-posting options — Your rivals don’t have to be your worst enemies. Even in times of war, two sides ally against a bigger threat. What we mean is, you can invite other writers to post directly on your page.

Why should you outsource? 

Because your lone writer can’t do it all, even if you promise them the moon. Outsourcing some parts of the writing process will help you reach your content scaling dreams faster — and without losing a valuable member. 

Plus, it’s highly helpful when writing content briefs, editing pieces, or doing keyword research. 

Now you have all the tips to scale your content to the max. The only thing left on our list is: how do you measure the success of your efforts? 

How to measure the success of content scaling efforts

You did it. 🎉 You launched your first content scaling effort — but is it going well?

No? Hmm, that’s because you didn’t measure the success of your campaign and adjust your strategy. It’s fine — you’ll know better next time. 

Let’s start by showing what metrics you need to pay attention to: 

Infographic: 'Key metrics for scaling your content game.' It covers these metrics: Traffic, Conversion Rates, Engagement, ROI with brief descriptions.

  • Traffic — The goal of content scaling is to drive more traffic to your website. If it’s not doing that, umm, you’re probably doing something wrong. Check the tips above again! 

That’s why it’s important to pay attention to how many visitors land on your site from either search engines or social media channels. 

“But what if my current content scaling strategy isn’t good enough?” you might ask. 

In this case, try to optimize your content for SEO by adding meta descriptions, alt tags, etc. Or you can do more thorough research to identify relevant keywords for your audience. 

  • Engagement — Are people interested in what you post? Do they click your compelling CTAs and read your blog like it’s Vanity Fair? If yes, that’s great! Your content scaling was a success.

If not, then you might need to see what went wrong so you can adjust your strategy. 

  • Conversion rates — Measure your click-through rates or time on page to see whether your content is interesting enough for your audience. 

For example, people often click on your links, but they don’t convert. 🤔 Maybe you need to tweak your content a li’l bit to deliver on its promise. 

The conversion rates, though, depend on your company’s goals. Maybe you don’t care about how many people signed up for your newsletter.  But you do wanna see the number of people buying your product going up. 

  • Return on investment (ROI) — Probably the most popular metric you should pay attention to. It shows how well your investment performed, aka if you got your money’s worth.

The usual formula for ROI is: 

ROI = (Gain from investment) / (Cost of investment)

You’ll see if your content scaling effort is helping you save resources — or if it’s just not for you. A helpful tip? Compare the ROI of different content strategies to determine which is the most effective. 

You’re welcome. 😉

With all these tips in mind, you’re ready to set out on a new adventure!

Start scaling content the easy way

You know what the easiest way to scale content is? Using Ceros. 

You don’t have to believe us (we might be a bit biased 🤭). You can ask any reviewer on G2 for their opinion. Don’t worry — we don’t shy away from criticism. 

Screenshot of 'Content Scaling - Ceros Review' form. Ratings: Content Quality 4/5, Ease of Use 5/5, Overall Experience 5/5. Comments: 'Ceros streamlined our content creation, easier to scale.'

Source: G2

Their words, not ours. 

What we can promise is that Ceros is the only tool your marketing team needs to handle a large volume of content AND make it high-quality. 

What are you waiting for? Request a demo today and see Ceros’s true power. 💪

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