7 Content Automations Used by Real Content Pros

Content selling tin go analyzable and effortful precise quickly.

Content teams request to negociate ideation, writing, editing, proofing, publishing, promotion, analytics, and reporting crossed a squad of writers, reviewers, and dozens of articles each month. Smart contented leads find ways to automate immoderate of these processes to fto them absorption connected what truly matters.

So, to animate you and amusement you not lone what’s imaginable but besides the benignant of things that are truly worthy automating, we asked 3 experts to stock their favourite workflows.

• Eric Doty, Content Lead astatine Dock.
• Tommy Walker, laminitis of The Content Studio and big of The Cutting Room.
• Caitlin Burns, Content and SEO Lead astatine Dovetail.

You can’t automate everything, but you tin automate your full contented accumulation workflow.

My interviewees usage Airtable arsenic a “central basal of operations,” arsenic Tommy Walker puts it. A basal similar that controls everything:

• Topic ideas with keywords and their SEO data.
• Briefs.
• Outlines.
• Articles.
• Tasks with their statuses and antithetic ways to presumption them (calendar, kanban, etc.)
• Contributors and their roles.
• Notifications.

Airtable, base view.

The wide thought down this is the usage of triggers and actions. A implicit acceptable of a trigger and astatine slightest 1 enactment is often referred to arsenic a Zap (coined by 1 of the automation instrumentality providers Zapier).

All of our experts person this benignant of cardinal base, and I conjecture it’s hard to defy having 1 erstwhile you commencement automating things. So here’s 1 of those systems by Eric Doty:

Eric mentioned utilizing Ahrefs arsenic his root of keywords. If you’re going to bash the same, here’s a speedy extremity for you — usage automated keyword clustering close wrong Ahrefs, truthful you won’t request to fig it retired later on.

Tip

Keyword clustering allows you to radical keywords with the aforesaid intent — and you’ll travel crossed these a batch (e.g., “car insurance” and “auto insurance)”.

All you request to bash is click the Cluster by Parent Topic tab successful the Matching terms study successful Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. You tin besides export the database and usage it successful Airtable, Notion, oregon similar.

Returning to our cardinal contented base, it’s important to enactment that not everyone volition request to sojourn it regularly. As Tommy pointed out, a contented automation strategy tin integrate with processes your teammates travel (and perchance adjacent different automation).

For example, immoderate stakeholders request real-time notifications astir presumption changes, portion others lone necessitate a play digest of contented output. Automation handles this excellently.

You tin besides person radical capable retired forms that volition provender into system. For instance, income squad could usage a signifier similar that to petition caller contented without needing to participate your Airtable setup.

Caitlin showed maine however she automates assigning tasks to 3 types of contributors based connected the enactment progress: writers, taxable substance adept reviewers, and editors. All this is to support the output of 20 - 30 published articles per month, without leaving Airtable.

Caitlin was precise generous, truthful you’re astir to spot not lone what this workflow does but besides transcript the conditional logic for Airtable and ready-made Zaps!

The full process starts erstwhile Caitlin assigns the presumption of an nonfiction to “Writing”.

This triggers an Airtable automation that adds the little to the writer’s Google Sheet. A Zap is past triggered by the caller enactment successful Google Sheets, which adds the duty day and sends an email to the writer, notifying them of their caller assignment.

Here’s what the setup of this portion looks similar successful Airtable:

When the writer finishes their part, Caitlin gets an automated notification in Slack.

Next, the nonfiction goes to the adept for a review. This is important for Caitlin’s strategy due to the fact that it enhances the contented with unsocial expertise and real-life experience.

Thanks to automation, each Caitlin needs to bash is alteration the presumption to “Reviewing”. This adds the nonfiction link, brief, and connection number to the reviewer’s Google Sheet.

On apical of that, this automation sends an email to the reviewer notifying them of the assignment. And here’s the chill part: the email volition disagree depending connected whether nonfiction is simply a wholly caller 1 oregon a 2nd review. Here’s however you tin acceptable this up successful Zapier.

When the reviewer is finished, they cheque “Done” and prime a tract successful a “Next steps” dropdown successful their expanse to bespeak whether the nonfiction is approved oregon needs changes made by the writer. Then Caitlin gets a connection similar this in Slack:

If the writer needs to marque changes, there’s a peculiar presumption for that, too. When Caitlin changes the presumption from “Reviewing” to “Writer is updating”, this automatically changes the presumption successful the writer’s Google Sheet. And to marque definite the writer won’t miss that presumption change, there’s an automated email notification, too.

Finally, we person the editing stage. Now Caitlin changes the presumption to “Editing,” which adds a enactment successful the editor’s Google Sheet, conscionable similar it did for the writer and the expert.

When an nonfiction is done, the exertion changes the presumption successful their sheet, and adds immoderate comments if they privation to, Caitlin receives this message:

You tin transcript the nonstop Zaps Caitlin used here:

• Send caller nonfiction to writer 
• A writer has submitted an article 
• Send an nonfiction backmost to the writer for changes 
• Assign articles retired from Airtable to an editor
• Send a Slack update erstwhile the exertion checks an nonfiction arsenic edited

The much you publish, the much radical successful your organization, the much you’re going to request this benignant of automation.

First, Eric volition amusement you however to acceptable up Airtable truthful that whenever a caller blog station is published, it triggers an email to the writer, a connection connected Slack, and a presumption alteration successful Airtable.

Now, let’s accidental you’ve a large contented inventory and privation to assistance different teams entree it for usage successful imaginable calls oregon newsletters. You tin usage different of Caitlin’s workflows, which adds an AI-generated summary of each published articles to Airtable done a Zap.

If you’re similar Eric (and me), you get contented ideas successful various, often random, situations, and it’s not ever speedy oregon casual to propulsion up your contented dashboard to jot them down. Luckily, you tin acceptable up a Zap to grip that, too.

In this example, Eric explains however helium created a nifty workflow to nonstop contented ideas noted successful a Slack transmission consecutive to Airtable.

1. Eric notes down a keyword thought successful a Slack transmission with a predefined hashtag.
2. A Slack bot confirms adding the keyword to Airtable, appended with a nexus to the Airtable base.
3. Now that the keyword is successful the keyword list, Eric tin adhd SEO information erstwhile he’s ready.

If you’re creating briefs for different radical oregon outlines for yourself utilizing the aforesaid papers format, clip and again, I’m definite you’ll admit this workflow.

1. The trigger has 2 conditions: the taxable indispensable scope the “brief needed” presumption and a little indispensable not person already been created.
2. The action: a Google doc is created which acts arsenic the template for the contented brief. The papers already includes immoderate accusation from Airtable passed down done variables specified arsenic the keyword, topic, and format.

Tip

Help marque your contented much applicable successful Google’s eyes by including important subtopics. You tin find those by identifying the keywords the apical articles rank for.

Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, participate your people keyword, and scroll down to the SERP overview. Select a fewer top-ranking articles, and click Open successful Content gap.

You’ll spot a database of keywords that your selected articles fertile for. Keywords with much articles rankings successful the apical 3 volition apt beryllium the astir important subtopics.

If you’re optimizing an existing article, you tin adhd topics worthy expanding connected utilizing the AI Content Grader successful Ahrefs.

Here’s inspiration from Tommy Walker, sharing however you tin automate podcast accumulation by connecting a fewer antithetic tools to Airtable.

Here are the steps:

1. Tommy sends retired an invitation to publication a clip slot for an occurrence via Calendly.
2. When the impermanent books a time, this creates a caller grounds successful Airtable with presumption “Booked” and their details filled.
3. This besides triggers Google Drive to make a caller folder and 2 subfolders wrong successful (one of them is for the impermanent to upload their headshot).
4. Uploading a headshot into the folder notifies the designer.
5. Next, an Email goes retired to publication a precall with the guest.
6. Now, Tommy tin click the “Create page” fastener close wrong Airtable which creates a leafage and a blog station successful WordPress (how chill is that!).
7. Once the broadcast is implicit connected YouTube, it goes into the RSS provender successful Castmagic. This allows Tommy to usage the instrumentality to make a transcript and usage an AI chatbot on it.

The tick motion is the fastener to make a leafage successful WordPress.

You cognize however there’s nary notification erstwhile idiosyncratic uploads a caller record to Google Drive for you? You inactive request to manually notify that idiosyncratic astir the record which feels very manual; it feels similar doing the aforesaid thing twice.

Until Google fixes that, Eric volition amusement you however to marque a Zap to prevention you clip and bid of mind. Use this erstwhile moving with designers, writers, and your video team.

1. Trigger: a contributor drops a record successful a designated folder successful Google Drive.
2. Action: an email goes retired to the Eric with the sanction of the contributor and the nexus to the file.

I’ve answered a fistful of communal questions for those conscionable starting retired with contented automation.

What’s the quality betwixt contented automation and automated (AI) content?

It’s casual to confuse these 2 presumption due to the fact that they’re rather similar, and 1 is simply a subset of the other:

• Automated contented is generated chiefly by AI without human input.
• Content automation uses tools to streamline contented creation, management, and distribution.

Thus, you tin person contented automation without automated content. Moreover, it’s advisable not to afloat automate your contented if you privation to fertile good connected Google.

Is automating contented bully for SEO?

TLDR; if you privation to afloat automate content, arsenic successful not adjacent look astatine it earlier publishing, it volition astir apt beryllium atrocious for SEO, adjacent though Google is not against AI contented per se.

Various SEO experiments and lawsuit studies person proven 1 happening beyond doubt: gaming the strategy tin bring lone short-term gains. Google catches up to atrocious contented and spam sooner oregon later, whether that’s automated contented oregon not. And erstwhile this happens, your postulation charts volition look like this:

You could disclose making contented with AI, arsenic Google suggests. But paradoxically, trying to adhere to the guidelines tin compromise the idiosyncratic acquisition (especially for YMYL topics). Although consumers don’t look to beryllium against AI contented successful wide (study), they are apt to beryllium cautious astir it (study).

Finally, the contented automation experts I talked with don’t usage AI for contented generation. Given their experience, I wasn’t expecting a antithetic answer. They mightiness usage AI for different things similar generating outlines, uncovering contented gaps (check retired our AI Content Grader), oregon looking for applicable subtopics, but not for existent writing.

Is contented automation for each team sizes?

Our experts agree: big, oregon small, each squad tin payment from contented automation.

Additionally, Tommy Walker has a unsocial instrumentality on this:

If you privation to usage AI for SEO efficaciously yet safely, we’ve got fourteen tried and tested ideas for you.

What are the communal pitfalls of contented automation?

According to our experts, you should ticker retired for 2 things.

The archetypal pitfall is creating infinite loops. This is erstwhile a task runs implicit and implicit again until you max retired your automation tool’s plan. If you’re utilizing Zapier, here’s however to debar it.

Another pitfall is automating everything conscionable due to the fact that it’s possible.

Follow Eric’s advice: automate tasks you’ve handled manually a fewer times. Avoid automating caller processes immediately; first, bash them manually to spot if they’re worthy automating. Otherwise, you mightiness discarded clip connected ineffective workflows oregon overwhelm yourself with excessively galore automated tasks.

Final thoughts

I’d similar to wrapper this up with the fig 1 contented automation extremity for beginners from each of our experts. They each look to agree: smart small.

If you onslaught automation with a peculiar occupation that you privation to lick alternatively than trying to go a contented automation expert, past you’ll larn by proceedings and error, you’ll larn overmuch quicker, and you’ll lick problems for yourself alternatively than learning the abstract. So commencement small, and commencement with a manual process that you bash each the clip but would emotion to stop doing.

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