The content space is crowded. There’s no doubt about it. In fact, there are more than 500 million blogs live on the web today.

When there’s so much content available on the web, the audience is quick to move to other resources when they don’t find value in your content. The key lies in delivering high-quality content at a faster pace. But this is not an easy task either. From brainstorming content ideas to the actual content creation, there’s a lot that goes into the content creation workflow. According to a CoSchedule report, an average piece of content can take anywhere between 1 to 6 hours.

So the question is – How can we speed up content creation?

Well, worry not. We’re here to uncover some practical and useful strategies for speeding up content creation. For this purpose, we interviewed content marketing managers and leaders with experience managing complex content processes. We specifically asked them the following questions –

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

Here’s what they had to say –

TL;DR

• Research, content ideation, and editing are the most time-consuming aspects of content creation.
• Creating content outlines gives writers a headstart. The blog post outline use case on Narrato’s AI writing assistant can help with this.
• Editing content takes up additional time, especially if you are exhausted after writing a long piece. An AI content assistant helps by highlighting errors and suggesting improvements.
• Most marketers rely on multiple tools like content workflow tools, SEO tools, and project management tools. A platform like Narrato can combine all of these capabilities into one seamless experience for faster content creation.
• Having an editorial calendar or content schedule makes sure that all content is pushed out on time. Backlogs are one of the primary factors slowing down the process.
• Using content templates can also make things move much faster as you don’t have to start from scratch.
• Content repurposing is a great way to get the most out of a content piece, allowing you to churn out high-quality content pieces consistently.
• When faced with writer’s block, it’s better to focus on a different task and revisit the content piece later. Or you could use an AI writer to help you overcome this creative drought.

 

How to Speed Up Content Creation? – The Interviews

Here’s a quick video with the key takeaways from the interviews.

 

1. Bhuvi Kathpalia, Content Marketing Manager, Leena.ai

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. Holistically speaking, content creation is a fairly time-consuming task. Right from ideating, researching what to write, creating briefs, to the actual writing, optimization, multiple rounds of editing, designing, and publishing – all of it takes up 80% of a content team’s time, leaving us with very little time to innovate.

For an organization like Leena AI, which is growing rapidly, scaling content has been very important to meet the growing needs of the sales, demand generation, and sales team. However, owing to the time taking nature of the process, we have missed out on some opportunities.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. We’ve majorly tried to focus on repurposing content as much as possible, to be able to get the most out of one piece. We start with a detailed outline and thorough research so that the writers know exactly what to write. Having an overarching plan in place helps us speed up the process.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. We don’t use tools in the content creation process, but we use an SEO tool like Ahrefs, besides Grammarly, and Hemmingway, to optimize and edit the content.

2. Chris Wainwright, Director of Marketing, Humi

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. The most time-consuming part of my content creation process is the research. I have to do a lot of research to make sure that I’m writing about something that my audience will be interested. I make sure that it’s not something that has already been written about extensively.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. The best way to speed up content creation is to have a good idea of what you want to write about before you start writing it. If you know what kind of information you want to provide, then it’s much easier to write quickly because there won’t be any gaps in your knowledge for readers to notice and point out as being incomplete or inaccurate.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. In addition to Trello, which helps me keep track of my projects and deadlines, I also use Grammarly to check for grammar and spelling mistakes as I write.

3. David Farkas, CEO and Founder, The Upper Ranks

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. The initial research phase and video editing take up the most time in content creation. The first step in content creation is to do research as it will serve as the foundation for everything else. Given the amount of information and details it includes, it takes a bit of time. Just like video editing, it needs effort because it involves many different components to function. However, there are many options available thanks to technology that make it possible to complete the task quickly and successfully.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. Setting a timetable for tasks: Making a schedule for your tasks will help you be more efficient and productive. It gives you a clear view of the chores you need to complete today or when you need to clear any backlogs. The primary cause of content creation inefficiencies is backlogging.

Involving the use of technology: Technology is truly a blessing, especially when it comes to streamlining and expediting processes. It is far more worth it to spend money on the necessary software. Not only does it speed up the procedure, but it also improves its quality.

Take rest: Resting allows people to become more focused and productive. It is okay to take a break because if one is too exhausted to create material, the outcomes would be mediocre. Therefore, make sure to take a break while ensuring that all of your tasks are completed according to plan.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. Yes, as it improves the effectiveness and efficiency of tasks. To produce material more quickly and with higher quality, think about employing content workflow software and graphic tools. One of the most widely used tools for writing and designing is Grammarly and Canva.

4. Melissa Kwan, Cofounder and CEO, eWebinar

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. Writing LinkedIn posts to be posted daily.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. I use a content matrix with content types listed at the top row, and content themes on the left column. Then I match the type with the theme and come up with a short-form piece of content to be written on LinkedIn.

For example, the top has types like: educational, motivational, and thought-provoking. The column has things like bootstrapping, cofounders, and financing. This was a method taught by Justin Welsh (a senior SaaS sales leader with over 7 years of experience in the industry).

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. I subscribe to Justin’s content templates and get ideas from that to write new content to see what’s most engaging. I write all my weekly posts on Sunday and schedule them to go out once a day using Buffer.

5. Catherine Hansen, Digital PR Team Lead, seoplus+

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. For me, research. Content writing often means that I’m writing about unfamiliar topics. So, when I face something new, it takes time not only to gather information but also to understand everything in a way that allows me to synthesize words on paper.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. I speed up content creation by having a process.

• The first step is always creating a rough outline that includes relevant information with headers and bullet points.
• Once I have this outline, the writing process comes easily, mainly because all the information I need is already in there, and all I need to do is piece things together.
• If I’m experiencing writer’s block, I always pause, focus on a different task, and revisit it later. Re-focusing on other tasks ensures I make the best of my time (especially in a fast-paced agency environment).

 

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. Grammarly is my most-used tool for writing. While I don’t like to rely entirely on this software, it speeds up the editing process and helps me identify sentences that need work. After spending hours with a piece, the fatigue can kick in and make you overlook odd sentences or the most basic errors.

6. Jonas Østergaard Pedersen, International SEM Manager, EcoOnline

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. I think the most time-consuming part of the content creation process is actually coming up with ideas. It’s a lot more difficult than it looks and can be really challenging to come up with something that’s going to be engaging and valuable for your audience.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. I try to speed up this process by making sure I have all my facts straight before starting writing; this way, I don’t end up having to spend hours looking things up during the writing process. It also helps if I know what kind of tone I want for the content ahead of time. This way, when I’m writing, there aren’t any surprises and things go more quickly!

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. I use Google Drive for all my content creation work. It’s great because you can collaborate with other people on documents easily without having to send files back and forth over email.

7. Kate Wojewoda-Celinska, Content Manager, Spacelift

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. For me, the most time-consuming part of content creation is editing. I typically spend twice as long editing my content as I do writing it. This is because I want to make sure that all of my content is high-quality and provides value to my readers. I think editing is essential for making sure that your content is clear, concise, and relevant. It’s also important to eliminate any errors or inconsistencies that may exist in your article. By taking the time to edit your content, you can ensure that your audience will appreciate it.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. Sometimes to speed up the creation of content, I edit and revise it as I go. This means I can spend less time on the final editing process and ensure that your content is high quality.

Another way to speed up the process is to make sure that you have all of the necessary resources at your disposal. This includes everything from research materials to fonts and templates. Having everything ready beforehand will help minimize distractions and allow you to focus on writing.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. To make editing more manageable, I use a tool called Grammarly. It helps by identifying grammar and spelling mistakes and providing feedback on how to correct them. Additionally, it offers suggestions for improving word choice and sentence structure.

8. Cody Jensen, CEO & Founder, Search Bloom

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. Brainstorming and collecting ideas are by far the most time-consuming parts of the content creation process. To write content that excels in both quality and quantity, time is required to generate the best available content.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. The goal should be to write a detailed content creation strategy before actually jotting down the content. I tend to outline a cluster of ideas in advance so there is no confusion when it’s time for action.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. We use Canva as our main content creation tool. *How do they help?* Canva is the best tool for ready-made templates, offering a variety of high-quality designs to choose from and painting a delicate picture with words and aesthetics.

9. Megan Boyle, Head of Content & Digital PR, The Audit Lab

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. No two pieces of content are the same, so the time taken for certain processes can differ a lot between pieces. For example, a piece that discusses health conditions requires a lot of time spent researching and gathering reliable sources. So in this case, research and planning can be very time-consuming.

Other pieces of content might require less research, but a little extra humor and creative flair. In that case, more time would be spent coming up with pithy puns and quips to create the right tone of voice. This is also the case if the topic is something within my expertise, such as content marketing – for this kind of content I spend minimal time researching, and more time creating engaging content.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. At The Audit Lab, we find the best way to produce lots of high-quality content is to plan, plan, plan.

• We have editorial calendars for each client, as well as monthly calendars of all the content we have planned. This means less time is spent trying to come up with topics and ideas, and we can get stuck straight into the actual content creation.
• We also have all of our SEO keyword research planned out ahead of time, so we know just which keywords to include to ensure high-ranking content.

 

When it comes to actually writing content, I find the quickest way is to plan out headings and subsections first. Once all of the different headings are on the page, it makes it easier to write down the relevant info for each one. I usually have all of my research open on another screen, meaning I don’t have to keep switching tabs.

This way, everything I need is in front of me while I create my content, which speeds things up more than having to keep searching back for resources.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. When I’m creating blog posts, SEO and keyword research are at the heart of the process. So, tools like Ahrefs and AnswerThePublic are helpful for finding what people are searching for. These tools mean I can find the best keywords that’ll help content to rank higher, as well as find out which user questions my content can answer.

I also use the websites Pexels and Unsplash to find royalty-free images to make blog posts more visually appealing. When it comes to social media content or infographics, Canva is my go-to tool. Most of our Instagram posts are created on Canva, so we don’t have to outsource a graphic designer for stunning visual content.

10. Amanda McCrea, Content Coordinator, Online Optimism

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. The most time-consuming part of the content creation process is research, both keyword research for SEO, and substantive research to create useful, accurate content. These are also critical parts of creating content that ranks well and is helpful so that people will click through and read it.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. Content creation can be sped up by using a well-organized, deliberate process. Your efficiency and thus your speed will increase when you –

• Plan your content well in advance
• Use SEO best practices to power your keyword research
• Create a list of reliable sources in your content area or industry, so you can target your substantive research to materials you can trust.

 

This will save time that would otherwise be spent struggling to find keywords you can rank for and with fact-checking. Put your well-researched topics into your content plan in advance, and you won’t have to spend hours researching when it comes time to deliver the content.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. While content creation AI tools exist, they write content that requires extensive editing and often rewriting. They can be helpful in generating ideas that a writer can then use as a starting point for a content piece, but they are no substitute for human writers and editors.

11. Hannah von Rothkirch, Content Lead, Konstruct Digital

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. In my experience, the most time-consuming aspect of the content creation process is often the research stage, especially if you’re writing on a topic that is outside your area of expertise. At our agency, we are often writing very technical content for B2B clients in complex fields.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. One of the best ways we have been able to speed up the content creation process (and improve the quality of our content) is through a process that we call “content engineering”. This process involves working together with subject matter experts to gain the technical information we need to produce the content piece. Collaborating with SMEs saves us from trying to learn the topic from scratch by reading through many different highly technical sources.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. In order to prepare for SME interviews for SEO blog posts, we use tools like Surfer, Frase, and Clearscope. This gives us a high-level understanding of the subtopics that SERP competitors are using in their articles. These tools help us speed up the process of determining the subtopics we need to include in our own article in order to get the content to rank and provide good coverage of the primary topic.

12. Sudhir Khatwani, Founder, The Monkey Mongers

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. Researching content is one of the most time-consuming jobs of the content process. In digital marketing, your content needs to be better and more engaging to outperform competitors. Hence, the research can take a lot of time, like –

• What content the competitors are creating?
• Which content is more engaging?
• How I can come up with fresh and better content?
• What elements should the content talk about?

 

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. Since content research is one of the time-consuming jobs, I use a content outline creation tool called SurferSEO. What this tool does is that it looks on the internet, and using the available data, it creates a post outline to organize ideas. So the writer can cut down their time in researching the whole topic. Instead, it can research small topics and create epic content.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. Yes, I do use two tools mainly. The first one is SurferSEO. This helps me to create a post outline for my content. Also, it helps me to write SEO-optimized content in a user-friendly way. I also use Jasper AI, which is an AI writer tool. This also helps me to write content faster by generating paragraphs.

13. Yoav Marder, Search & PR Director, Sonary

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. The research part of content creation is the most time-consuming. Doing thorough research on the ideas is essential to grab the audience’s attention, reduce bounce rate, improve engagement, and increase traffic and conversions.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. Over 60% of content writers fail to deliver quality content on time, and therefore, lose the audience. To help speed up their content creation, we recommend content segmentation by identifying their audience personas. This will make the content creation process speedy and personalized for their target audience.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. We don’t use content creation tools because they generate a very generic type of content that lacks personalization. Several studies indicate that content that doesn’t resonate with your target audience will hurt your authority and credibility.

14. Simon Bacher, Co-Founder, Ling

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. Identifying the topic that we want to write about is the most time-consuming process. We have to find topics that are relevant to our audience. Otherwise, no one would read our content.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. We have made a detailed content strategy that makes it easier for us to create content faster. This strategy entails the message we want to convey, how our audience will resonate with it, and the ideal platform to deliver content.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. We use Google Trends. This content creation tool enables us to see what is trending on Google, helping us produce content that is helpful for our audience.

15. Thomas Simon, Marketing Manager, Monitask

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. The most time-consuming part of content creation for me is editing and converting my research into a digestible format for my readers. It’s essential to be able to effectively communicate the information in a way that is easy for readers to understand. This process often involves a lot of rewriting and reorganization, which can be time-consuming.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. I leverage multiple tools and services that help me streamline my content creation processes, such as keyword research tools, plagiarism checkers, grammar checkers, and writing apps. I also use templates for blog posts and other types of content when appropriate, so I don’t have to start from scratch every time. Additionally, I focus on creating content with an audience in mind – this helps me avoid spending too much time on topics that won’t be of interest to my readers.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. Yes, I use a variety of content creation tools to speed up the process and make sure my content is accurate, error-free, and engaging.

• I use keyword research tools to determine what topics are popular in my industry and create targeted content that resonates with my target audience.
• Grammar checkers also help me ensure that my writing is free from errors
• Plagiarism checkers help me avoid unintentional copyright infringement
• Writing apps allow me to quickly organize research notes into cohesive articles or blog posts.

 

All these tools save me time when creating new content.

16. Will Ward, Founder, Industry Arabic

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. As a remote company, the daily exporting, downloading, and uploading of files have become the most monotonous part of our processes. We work across time zones which can make deadlines irregular and stressful.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. Every employee that deals with content is well-versed in our workflow — we have a strict labeling and sorting process. Since we deal with custom translations for big clients, it is essential we keep everything in order. I created a review checklist before publishing to reduce any oversights. We always aim to get it right on the first try. Additionally, I ensure my team has suitable processing power on their computers and bandwidth for uploading and downloading.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. We utilize Adobe Create Cloud. I truly love having access to an entire ecosystem for my team. Because it is an industry standard, Adobe products can sync up with third-party plugins and integrations. We use plugins to get free stock photos and videos directly in Adobe apps, do real-time reviewing, or royalty-free music for backing tracks. I’m pretty sure you can create your own API to customize your workflow further.

17. Ajay Porwal, Head of Marketing and Co-Founder, DroidOwl

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. The most time-consuming part of content creation is deciding on the topics and doing research. To constantly produce content that’s useful to readers and consistent with your brand’s image, it’s important to take the time to choose well.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. As an entrepreneur, I have learned that the process of content creation is never-ending. You or your agency must constantly search for fresh content ideas and new and exciting ways to create and deliver them. The content strategy will never be finished. It will evolve as your business grows and expands.

Since there is no one size fits all approach, spending more money on the planning stage is advisable. This is the one area where a strategy will save you the most time and money in the long run.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. Writing is one of the most technical works. It requires a good command of the language, a vivid imagination, and an analytical mind. However, the creative process is not a linear one. Ideas come when you least expect them to. So, it is difficult to find the motivation and inspiration to write when you cannot predict when that spark of creativity will strike. That’s why every content marketing company needs to invest in content creation tools to help you out when you are in a writing rut.

18. Daniel Ndukwu, CoFounder and CMO, UsefulPDF

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. Time-consuming?

For us, it’s the research process. Since we don’t want to produce generic content that’s been rehashed 1,000 times, so we dive deeper into research which ends up taking up the bulk of the content preparation time.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. To prevent a whole bunch of revisions, we create detailed content briefs. These outlines have –

• Recommended resources
• A detailed outline of the content
• Tells you the target audience
• Tells you the goal of the post
• The main keyword, sub-keywords, and LSI keywords
• Expected length, etc.

 

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. At this time, we don’t use any dedicated content tools. At most, we use Grammarly and simple SEO optimization tools like RankMath to prevent any glaring issues. But, we’re still optimizing our content manually for the most part.

19. Brian Hong, CEO and Owner, Infintech Designs

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. For me, the most time-consuming part of content creation is coming up with ideas that are original and useful. Brainstorming can take a while, particularly when it has to be done multiple times.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. To speed up my content creation process, I like to use various online research tools such as Buzzsumo and Answer the Public. These help me find popular topics in order to create relevant content. I also make sure that I have an organized workflow in place so that all tasks related to content creation are quickly completed. Finally, using templates or having a set style for creating certain types of content helps me save a lot of time.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. Yes, I do use some content creation tools. One of my favorites is Grammarly, which helps me detect errors and typos in my writing quickly. This ensures that all of my content is high quality and free from mistakes. Additionally, I use Canva to create visuals for my blog posts. It makes designing images much easier and faster.

20. Ilija Sekulov, Digital Marketing Consultant, Mailbutler

Q. Which part of your content creation process is the most time-consuming?

A. Poorly trained or inexperienced content writers: Another cause of the loss of time in the completion of projects is not bringing together a team of writers sufficiently trained or experienced to execute each stage of a project.

Q. What do you do to speed up content creation?

A. Create a calendar: It is crucial to have a calendar so that the team can plan more adequately and distribute resources to ensure better follow-up and that everything goes on time and in the best way.

Q. Do you use any content creation tools? How do they help?

A. We use SurferSEO and SemRush. They are helping us to improve the SEO elements in our blog posts. We use them to take care of keywords, headings, etc.

Wrapping Up

It’s evident that brainstorming content ideas and carrying out research are the two most time-consuming aspects of content creation. But with the strategies and tactics provided by the experts in this article, you can certainly get the ball rolling at a faster pace. And of course, you can always rely on content creation tools to speed up your processes.

Every marketer who wants to see results from their content marketing strategy should always prioritize speed in content creation. We’re sure there might be many more techniques for speeding up content creation. So let us hear from you! What are some of the techniques you use to speed up content creation?

If you’re interested in reading more expert interviews, here is one on Driving Product-Led Growth Through Content.