Content Automation: How to Simplify Your Content Process

Wish you could automate some of your most tedious content creation tasks? Want to streamline your content production? 

In this article, you'll learn how to simplify your content creation process with automation.

Understanding Content Automation

Creating content consistently can be time-consuming and challenging, especially when working with a team. Numerous steps are involved in bringing a piece of content to life, from planning to production and distribution. However, with the right content automation tools and strategies, you can streamline your content creation workflow and save valuable time. 

Content automation is the process of taking all the steps involved in creating any type of content and automating them to save time and reduce manual tasks. This can include a wide range of content formats, such as:

• YouTube videos
• TikTok videos
• Instagram Reels
• Podcasts
• Blog posts
• Newsletters
• Social media posts

The content creation process typically involves several stages, including:

• Planning: Brainstorming ideas, researching topics, and outlining content structures.
• Recording: Capturing video footage, recording audio, or writing initial drafts.
• Production: Editing video and audio, designing graphics, and refining written content.
• Collaboration: Working with team members, providing feedback, and making revisions.
• Distribution: Publishing content across various platforms and channels. 
• Analytics: Tracking content performance, gathering insights, and making data-driven decisions.

Each stage of the process involves numerous manual tasks, such as creating folders, linking files, notifying team members, and tracking progress. These tasks can quickly add up, leading to a “death by a thousand cuts” scenario where content creators spend more time on administrative work than on actual content creation. 

The Power of a Well-Structured Content Automation Process 

When implemented effectively, a content automation system can help you quickly create a large volume of high-quality content. By streamlining the entire content creation process, from ideation to distribution, you can free up your team to focus on the most critical tasks while maintaining a consistent output.

For example, Stephen G. Pope brainstormed a YouTube video idea on his phone. Within minutes of uploading the file to Google Drive, his automation system generated 30 pieces of content, including a YouTube script, video, shorts, tweets, and social media carousel slides.

While not every piece of content generated through automation may be publish-ready, having a solid foundation allows you to focus on fine-tuning and optimizing the content rather than starting from scratch.

The Benefits of Content Automation 

Implementing content automation in your workflow offers several benefits:

• Time-saving: Automating repetitive tasks and streamlining communication between team members can significantly reduce the time spent on content creation.
• Consistency: Establishing a structured process and leveraging AI tools can help you maintain a consistent brand voice and style across all your content. This is especially important when working with a team or scaling your content creation efforts.
• Scalability: Automation allows you to scale your content creation efforts without necessarily increasing your team size or workload. By automating key processes, you can create more content in less time, giving you a competitive edge in your industry.
• Creativity: By automating mundane tasks, you and your team can focus on the creative aspects of content creation, such as brainstorming ideas and fine-tuning the final product. This can lead to higher-quality content and a more engaged audience.
• Competitive edge: A well-structured content automation system can help you outperform your competition by enabling you to create a higher volume of high-quality content in less time. As Stephen notes, this can be especially valuable for businesses using content for business development. 

#1: Content Management Systems vs Project Management Tools 

Regarding content automation, it is essential to understand the difference between a content management system (CMS) and project management tools. While you can use both types of tools to organize and automate content creation, they serve distinct purposes.

Project management tools like Asana, ClickUp, or Trello help teams manage tasks, deadlines, and collaboration. They provide features such as task assignments, due dates, and communication channels, making it easier for team members to stay on track and work together effectively. 

On the other hand, a CMS is purpose-built for organizing, storing, and managing content. A CMS provides a centralized repository for all your content assets and metadata, such as descriptions, tags, and categories. This makes it easier to search, filter, and reuse content across different projects and platforms and move a centralized piece of content through the creation process. 

Stephen recommends using a CMS like Airtable, which he describes as a “spreadsheet on steroids.” Airtable is a cloud-based platform that combines a spreadsheet's functionality with a database's power. It allows you to create custom content schemas, where each row represents a piece of content, and each column represents a specific metadata field.

Some examples of metadata fields you might include are:

• Title
• Description
• Status (e.g., draft, in review, published)
• Assigned team members
• Due date
• Content type (e.g., video, blog post, social media post)
• Tags or categories
• Links to related content assets (e.g., video files, images, documents)

By organizing your content in Airtable, you can easily track the progress of each piece, collaborate with team members, and automate workflows based on specific triggers and actions. For example, you could set up an automation that notifies a team member when a new piece of content is assigned to them or updates the status of a content piece when a specific action is taken. 

Unlike project management tools, Airtable is designed to handle content-specific data and can be easily integrated with other tools through automation platforms. This allows you to create a more streamlined and efficient content creation workflow.

#2: Connect the Dots With Automation Tools 

While a CMS like Airtable provides a solid foundation for organizing and managing your content, it's only one piece of the puzzle. To truly streamline your content creation process, you need to connect all the tools and platforms you use into a cohesive workflow. This is where automation tools like Zapier and Make come in.

Zapier and Make are both automation platforms that allow you to connect different apps and services without the need for coding. These tools act as the glue that binds everything together, allowing you to create “zaps” or triggers and actions to automate workflows. 

For example, when you drop a new video or audio file into a designated Google Drive folder, Zapier or Make can detect this trigger and automatically update your Airtable database, create new folders for the project, notify team members, and more.

Let's say you have a content creation process that involves the following steps:

• A team member adds a new content idea to an Airtable base
• The content idea is assigned to a writer
• The writer creates a draft in Google Docs and uploads it to a specific Google Drive folder
• The draft is reviewed and edited by an editor
• The final version is published on your website and promoted on social media

With Zapier or Make, you could automate this process by creating a series of triggers and actions:

• When a new row is added to the Airtable base, notify the assigned writer.
• When a new file is uploaded to the Google Drive folder, update the status of the corresponding row in Airtable to “Draft.”
• When the status of a row in Airtable is changed to “Ready for Review,” send a notification to the editor.
• When the editor changes the status of a row to “Approved,” publish the content on your website using the WordPress API and schedule social media posts using the Buffer API.

This can also work for content marketing automation. When a client uploads files to a shared Google Drive folder, this action can trigger an automation that sets the project in motion. The automation can create the necessary folders, link them to the CMS, notify the appropriate team members, and track the project's progress.

#3: Leverage APIs for Advanced Automation 

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) play a crucial role in content automation by enabling direct communication between tools and services. With the help of Zapier or Make, you can connect to various APIs and automate more advanced tasks.

For example, let's say you want to transcribe the audio from your video podcast episodes automatically. Once you upload your video to a cloud storage service, like Google Drive or Dropbox, you can use APIs to transcribe the video using tools like OpenAI's Whisper or Descript. You can then copy the transcript into a Google Doc and link to your CMS for easy access.

Stephen explains that you can further automate this process by defining “packages” within your CMS. A package might include the main video, audio version, transcript, and a set number of social media clips. By setting up these packages in advance, you can ensure that all the necessary assets are created and linked together automatically.

#4: Integrate AI Tools for Content Creation 

Another aspect of content automation is integrating AI tools to help with writing, image creation, and video editing tasks. By leveraging APIs and AI platforms like OpenAI's ChatGPT-3 or Anthropic's Claude, you can generate high-quality content at scale while maintaining control and customization.

For example, let's say you want to generate a blog post based on a podcast episode. With a tool like GPT-3, you can provide the episode transcript as input, along with any additional context or instructions (e.g., target audience, tone of voice, desired length), and the AI will generate a draft blog post that follows your specifications. 

Of course, AI-generated content is not a complete replacement for human creativity and expertise. It's important to review and edit any AI-generated content to ensure that it meets your standards for quality and accuracy. However, by using AI tools as a starting point, you can streamline your content creation process and free up your team to focus on higher-level tasks like content strategy and optimization.

In addition to writing, you can use AI tools for tasks like image and video creation. For example, you could use a tool like DALL-E or Midjourney to generate custom images based on text descriptions or a tool like Fliki to create videos from blog posts or scripts. If you want to create shorts from your long-form videos, OpusClip is a good option. These tools can help you create engaging visual content at scale without needing expensive equipment or specialized skills.

#5: Balance Content Automation and Human Creativity 

While automation can significantly streamline your content creation process, finding the right balance between automation and human creativity is essential. After all, the goal of content creation is not just to produce a high volume of content but to create content that resonates with your audience and achieves your business objectives.

For tasks that require a human touch, such as designing YouTube thumbnails or fine-tuning AI-generated content, you can set up your system to notify the appropriate team members and provide them with the necessary context and guidelines.

Stephen emphasizes the importance of maintaining the quality and creativity of your content while implementing automation. For example, you could use an AI writing tool to generate a list of potential blog post topics based on your target keyword research and audience interests. A human writer could then review the list and select the most promising topics to develop into full blog posts.

Similarly, you could use AI tools like DALL-E to generate initial thumbnail ideas, which a human designer can then refine. This would allow you to leverage the power of automation while maintaining high quality and creativity.

Tips for Getting Started With Content Automation 

Building a system from scratch can seem daunting if you're new to content automation. However, by following a few key steps and best practices, you can get started quickly and start seeing results in your content creation process:

• Start with a content audit: Before automating your content creation process, it's important to take stock of your existing content and workflows. Conduct a content audit to identify your most popular and effective content types and any gaps or inefficiencies in your current process.
• Choose your tools: Based on your content audit and business needs, select the tools and platforms that will form the foundation of your content automation system. This may include a CMS like Airtable, automation tools like Zapier or Make, and AI writing and image generation tools.
• Define your workflow: Map out your ideal content creation workflow, from ideation to distribution. Identify the key stages and tasks involved and the team members responsible for each step. Use this workflow to guide your automation setup and ensure everyone is on the same page.
• Set up your automations: Using your chosen automation tools, set up the necessary triggers and actions to streamline your content creation process. This may include automating tasks like transcription, asset creation, and distribution and setting up notifications and reminders for team members.
• `Test and refine: As with any new system, it's important to test and refine your automated content setup over time. Monitor your results and gather feedback from your team and audience to identify areas for improvement. Be open to experimenting with new tools and workflows as your needs and goals evolve.

Other Notes From This Episode

• Connect with Michael Stelzner @Stelzner on Instagram and @Mike_Stelzner on X.
• Watch this interview and other exclusive content from Social Media Examiner on YouTube.

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