In today’s episode, we look into the major benefits of content automation tools and how to use them to scale up your content production process. Listen in as co-hosts Shaheen Samavati and Kyler Canastra from VeraContent chat with James Scherer, VP of growth sales at Codeless.

James has extensive experience in large-scale content production, management and strategy. He currently oversees the marketing strategies of well-known brands like Monday.com and ActiveCampaign, where his team produces over 300 pieces of content a month. 

During their conversation, James explains how content automation tools can help save you time and money, and how best to use them in your production process—including examples of the tools they use at Codeless.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or on YouTube, listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify, and read a recap of the conversation below!

How much content should brands produce each month?

James recommends that all businesses create a large volume of content in the early stages of building their content strategy. However, the amount of content you can produce is influenced by your industry—some industries have a limited number of traffic-driving topics, while others are endless.

If you’re in an industry with a high volume of topics, James suggests publishing at least eight pieces of content each month for the first 12 months. Once you’ve identified key phrases and keywords, you can scale that down to four a month and focus on optimizing content for your primary keywords.

“Months nine to 18 are about optimization: continuing to create support content, identifying what you have, where it is ranking and what can be added to it. That’s the scale down period.” – James Scherer

When should you start automating your content production to get the most ROI?

“Right off the bat, automation offers time-saving.” – James Scherer

Automation tools can help cut down the content production timeline for content writers and managers alike. And saving time means saving money

As soon as you start implementing automation in your content production line, you’ll get a return on your investment.

“Automation will save you a lot of time, and it’s not that big of a financial investment. It’s worth looking at how you can incorporate some of these tools, even for those working with small-scale content production.” – Shaheen Samavati

What are examples of content automation tools?

Companies can use automation tools in various ways to accelerate their content production process. For example, they can use AI tools that create content from scratch or tools that assist with creating higher quality, optimized content.

Examples of automation tools used at Codeless:

  • ClickUp: Used to automatically assign content to the person responsible throughout each stage of the production process
  • Wordable: Takes content produced on a Google Doc and automatically uploads it onto WordPress, including loading all images, alt descriptions and meta titles
  • Writer: Allows you to import brand-specific style guidelines and checks your draft content against those guidelines
  • AutoCrit: Checks content for plagiarism
  • Frase: Compares content against current competition and ensures it’s as optimized as it can be

What is the best way to streamline content production?

Creating well-tested processes with the right tools is the best way to streamline your content production process. At Codeless, they’ve used workflow management tools like ClickUp, Pipefy, Notion, Monday.com, etc. These tools provide visibility for where a current piece of content is on the production line.

It’s also important to ensure that everyone involved has everything they need to create high-quality content. At Codeless, they give writers a checklist and guide so they always know exactly what is required:

“We provide writers with not just a client-specific writers guide, but also our complete internal guide for standards for images, internal and external linking, preferences and priorities.”

Their production process is also highly structured:

  • Project managers assign content to writers, providing all necessary documentation.
  • Writers create an outline—either themselves or using the provided automation tools. 
  • Internal editors and clients approve the outline.
  • Completed content goes through two rounds of edits.

Each step is automatically assigned to the relevant person with specific deadlines. This comprehensive process means that project managers aren’t wasting time manually managing the production process.

What are the unique challenges of using automation tools in multilingual content production?

Most AI content creation tools are still very much in their infancy and largely focus on English. Unfortunately, there aren’t many tools available for automated content creation in other languages yet. 

However, many great translation tools like Memsource, and transcription tools like Otter, can be extremely useful. That said, they’ll always need human involvement in the editing process.

Content management tools that help streamline the management process and improve visibility for everyone involved can be a serious gamechanger for managing the production of multilingual content.

How can hiring a content agency improve your content production processes?

When starting a content strategy, many businesses consider whether they should hire someone in-house or get external help. James, Kyler and Shaheen all pointed out that it definitely helps to have at least one in-house person dedicated to content who understands the process.

But managing a streamlined content process requires an entire team of professionals working for your brand, and that’s where hiring an agency works best:

“Agencies that focus on something specific—like SaaS brands, for example—do that one thing really well. You know that what you’re investing in is going to exclusively drive success. That agency should be responsible for both production and strategy.” – James Scherer

Agencies vs. in-house content marketers: Agencies are made up of professionals who are experts in a specific area and focus on creating high-quality content. Meanwhile, in-house content marketers often get pulled in multiple directions and struggle to focus purely on content.

Shaheen pointed out that to get the same results that a content agency would provide, “You basically have to build your own agency internally.”

See also: Hiring a global marketing manager vs. an agency: How to decide

Are AI writing tools actually useful?

Yes and no. While AI tools can help you quickly create and populate an article outline, it’s not enough to write a high-quality SEO article.

According to James, here’s why:

“Google rewards novelty, and they reward thought leadership and content that brings something new to the table. And, by definition, AI-created content can’t bring something new to the table.”

The highest-ranking content on Google is content that offers a novel, creative spin on a topic. And that comes from speaking with experts, providing real examples and incorporating your brand voice into the content—and, as it stands right now, AI can’t do that.

You can connect with James on LinkedIn and also check out Shaheen and Kyler’s speaker profiles if you’d like to have either of them speak at your next event or be a guest on your podcast.

Check out more posts on content automation tools:

To read the full transcript, click on page number 2 below.