As a school marketer, you wear many different hats. Most school marketers must seamlessly glide between idea generator, tech pro, school communicator, team player/leader, social media manager, SEO expert and content creator, among other roles.
Marketing content is important to your overall marketing strategy. Content helps you:
- Educate potential parents about your school
- Fuel your SEO campaign to attract more potential families through search engine inquiries
- Enhance your social media strategy
- Encourage other sites to link to your website and blog.
But keeping up with content publishing can be challenging. You have to stay on target with your strategy and marketing plan, you have to write compelling stories, you have to get it published and track your results.
The extent of everything that has to be done can be overwhelming. It’s easy to procrastinate when other priorities pop up. There is no shortage of other things that need to be done. Having to continually generate new content can feel like you’re stuck on a treadmill with no end in sight.
When it comes to content, consistency is the key to success. So how can school marketers become more consistent with content creation?
Tip #1. Plan your content out in advance
Having a content calendar (also called an editorial calendar) is by far the best tactic for consistently publishing content.
Knowing your:
- Topic
- SEO keyword
- Headline
- Contributors
- Images needed
- Any other assets required
ahead of time will help you enormously.
Tip #2. Create a blogging template
This is especially helpful if you are able to delegate the task of blogging to someone else.
A blogging template lays out the format of your blog article. For example, it might include:
Introduction
- Grab the readers’ attention, introduce and explain the topic
- Include an interesting fact (and link to the source)
- Layout the problem your article will solve
- Explain the benefit the reader will receive if they read this article
- Give the reader the feeling if they keep reading they will overcome a challenge
Body
- Covers the main issue
- Expound on the introduction
- Informative and engaging
- Use sub-headings
- Use numbering and/or bullets
Conclusion
- Summary
- Call-to-action
Tip #3. Create a blogging checklist
A blogging checklist breaks down the blogging process into easy, actionable steps to make the task easier.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Choose your focus keyword (may need to do keyword research)
- Use the focus keyword and related keywords appropriately
- Add an attribute tag to any images you upload
- Select a category
- Check the slug to make sure it is SEO-friendly
- Add external and internal links and make sure they open in a new tab
Content
- Check your grammar and run a plagiarism check (just to make sure nothing comes up)
- Check your headline (use CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer)
- Stick with one central theme
- Include an example or anecdote if possible
- Make sure the takeaway is clear
- Strong call-to-action
- Format for skimming
Marketing
- Customized social graphics (Canva.com)
- Schedule social media posts
- Write email inviting list subscribers to read your post
- Schedule email
- Follow social media promotion tactics
Tip #4. Streamline your keyword research
Sometimes you might need to do more extensive keyword research, but sometimes you can use a more time-efficient approach.
To do this, simply use the power of Google.
- Start with your idea of a good keyword and type it into Google
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see the “searches related to” section
- These may be better keywords or you can use these terms within your content
Tip #5. Research your topic and create an outline
Sometimes you will have an outline of your content already in your mind based on your knowledge or experience. But sometimes you might have an idea of what you want to write about, but you don’t want to write the whole post from scratch.
You can speed things up by researching similar topics by reputable writers without plagiarizing their ideas or verbiage.
- Type your focus keyword into Google or other online platforms like Buzzsumo or Slideshare
- Find articles that sound interesting
- Skim through the article, note key ideas and consistent themes
- Organize your notes into a logical structure and fill in any gaps in the outline
Now you can easily write your post based on your outline without having to struggle to write your copy.
Tip #6. Use an SEO plugin
SEO can be time-consuming. An SEO plugin on your website can speed things up. I use Rank Math but there are other ones to consider, like Yoast SEO, All-In-One-SEO Pack or SEOPress. The beauty of these tools is they make it easy to add in your SEO content and make suggestions for improvement.
Tip #7. Leverage dictation technology
If you’re someone who does better speaking your thoughts than writing them, dictation technology (also called voice-to-text) might be just the ticket for you.
If you’re on Google Docs, try using their Voice Typing feature. Or, you can use your smartphone to record your content and then use a service like Speechpad to transcribe it for you.
Once you have a rough draft, you can ask someone on your staff to edit it for you or edit it yourself and add your final touches to your post.
Tip #8. Try chunking
Chunking is the concept of speeding up tasks by “chunking” them together. For example, if you want to write four blog posts per month, you can sit down and write out four topics at once. Then, you can chunk together crafting four perfect headlines. Your next chunk might be writing four introductions, doing keyword research for all four topics at once, source four images, etc. You get the idea. Chunking can really be a game-changer when it comes to consistent content.
Tip #9. Set goals
Goals are great motivators for getting things done. Try turning your content creation into a quantifiable task to make it more approachable.
If you find goals are a good motivator for you, try a goal-setting app like Goals on Track to set, monitor and evaluate your progress.
Tip #10. Reward yourself and others
Content creation can feel like a thankless job. Recognizing and rewarding the work you, and your team members/staff are completing can do wonders for morale.
There are many ways to reward yourself and other – maybe it’s food-related, a gift-card, a virtual event, e-gift or any other number of ways to celebrate the hard work you’ve done. Need some ideas for rewards during the COVID-19 restrictions? Check out this list from SnackNation.
Publishing quality content consistently needs to be a priority for school marketers. If you’re tired of spinning your wheels and making excuses, try applying the above tips and see how well they work for you.
What content creation tips have helped you produce consistent content? Please share with the rest of the school marketing community in the comments below.
