We’re in a generation of working smarter, not harder. Which means that teams and businesses alike are looking for solutions that improve efficiency. In many cases, that means adding tools and softwares to increase output and support workflows. We all know that time is money. And being more efficient in the workplace reduces costs and increases profit for growing businesses. It’s no wonder that productivity tools are at an all time high. If you can streamline processes— like creating sales collateral and marketing content— you’re able to put out more work with fewer resources.
Sales and marketing content looks different for every company. It can include blog posts, downloadable white papers, presentations, social media posts, and everything in between. Content is important for generating brand awareness, building trust with prospective customers, and turning them into clients, but it can be time consuming. If teams aren’t fully staffed and equipped to produce quality content, it can easily fall through the cracks.
Content automation is an increasingly popular strategy that automates parts of content creation which may be redundant, costly, or time-intensive. In this blog we break down what content automation is, how it’s fueling the content creation process, and how it can help your business scale.
How does content automation work?
Content automation removes the need for human intervention. It identifies repetitive tasks and utilizes different softwares or tools to perform them based on an algorithm of triggers. Most automation software relies on artificial intelligence to inform the content. Not only can it help to create content, but it can also help to distribute it, improving the content experience on the consumer end.
Content automation software uses best practices from experts in the field to make decisions for the user so that they don’t have to. While most automated tools require a membership or subscription of some sort, it ends up being much more affordable than adding to the headcount of the team to perform those same tasks.
Examples of content automation
Most businesses are using content automation to some degree whether they realize it or not. Here are five ways automation is fueling the content creation process in 2022.
Generating content
Artificial intelligence advancements like natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation (NLG) can help businesses automate the content creation process for things like text, sound, and images. The technology can help companies create more advanced assets without having to pay to have an expert in-house to do them. It reduces overhead costs while still being able to generate top-level content.
Programs like Beautiful.ai use artificial intelligence to help even the most amateur designers create professional assets. The automation takes design principles from the professionals and instantly applies them to the design so users have a starting point and can’t make a mess of their presentations. Similar programs offer design help for emails, social media posts, and flyers or posters.
Personalization
We’d be willing to bet that everyone has been hit with a targeted advertisement in their web browser or email before. AI algorithms can unlock a more personalized experience for users by pulling data of their interests, search history, demographics, and even level of education. This targeted approach often takes little manual work and can help companies provide a more personable approach to advertising, outreach, and user interface design.
Proofreading content
You’ve probably heard of Grammarly, an artificial intelligence software that can scan a blog article, email, or other chunks of text for grammatical errors. Having a second set of eyes (whether they’re human or not) can save content marketers hours of time from the editing process. This automation can be used for on-site content, sales collateral, or newsletters to ensure the quality of client-facing materials.
Research & sourcing
Automation can also help content teams source relevant topics and campaign ideas, as well as optimize existing content with real-time SEO recommendations. Platforms can help businesses identify search queries relevant to their industry, improve existing content, and come up with adjacent content to reach more people.
Scheduling & delivering content
While automation is important for content creation, it can also help teams save time with delivery. Automation platforms can now schedule things like emails and social media posts, providing insights to optimal send times based on open and engagement rates. Similarly, bots can respond to consumer inquiries via comments, chats, and triggered email responses to help with customer support and retention.
Automation in presentations
There’s no doubt that automation has helped teams become more efficient and effective in their content creation processes. But perhaps one of the most useful automations is in presentations. Executives and upper management can create as many as one presentation a week which can be time-intensive if they don’t have the design skills to back it up. PowerPoint alternatives— like Beautiful.ai— have reinvented the presentation process by creating software that takes on the burden of design. With Smart Slide templates, artificial intelligence handles the heavy lifting of things like aligning text boxes and resizing images so that presenters can focus on what really matters— their story.
Pre-built presentation templates and themes is another way that automation is fueling content creation for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and sales teams. By starting with a branded template, presenters can plug and play with their data and information and watch the slides come to life. Templates give non-designers a jumping off point to help inform how they will structure their story in half the time.
On average, presenters that use Beautiful.ai to fuel their presentation process can save up to 50% on design time. That means that what used to take 3-4 hours can now take as little as one hour, giving teams time back for other projects.
