The world of content creation is undoubtedly at a crossroads right now. With AI throwing copywriters into a huge tailspin of concern, if you are looking to support your content creators, now is undoubtedly the best time. But what are the best ways to ensure your content creators and copywriters have the support they need to maintain a high level of productivity, creativity, and of course, overall job satisfaction? Here are a few strategies to consider.
Access to Resources
It’s easy to say that the right tools will ensure your copywriters and content creators work better, but the fact is you’ve got to remember that copywriters only have so many internal resources. Professional writers talk about the craft as being akin to having a baby.
It’s a very exhausting process to try and understand a subject, absorb it, and then create a new and interesting spin on it. Therefore, if you are demanding high levels of quality that comply with SEO, and you want your writers to be earning their crust in this way, you’ve got to offer a rich pool of resources relevant to their craft.
This could be design tools, subscriptions to industry publications, various types of writing software, but also prioritizing learning in-house. And an LMS (learning management system) can be an invaluable resource. If you don’t have many resources and tools, don’t be surprised when your writers and content creators run out of steam. They need constant inspiration.
Clear Communication Channels
Copywriters and content creators must be aware of the needs of the business. Content creation is, ultimately, a creative process, and this means that potentially, deadlines don’t exist in the mind of a writer or video makeup.
Clear communication channels are critical because they will keep everybody on the same page, but also foster a more collaborative environment. Some copywriters benefit from working by themselves, but others need people to bounce ideas off.
Regular team meetings, one-on-one check-ins, and, most importantly, a transparent flow of information will ensure there is that sense of vibrancy that continually inspires them, while also adhering to strategy.
Constructive Feedback and Recognition
Many copywriters can feel like they are stuck on the content mill, especially when there are multiple projects going on at the same time. It can be a momentous effort to research a topic and gain an understanding of it before writing it. There can be a lot of work to uncover one simple fact or statistic. Therefore, it’s important to recognize achievements big and small, as this will contribute to a positive working environment and boost morale.
Additionally, acknowledging the efforts and providing constructive feedback is critical to helping them grow. If working with clients who provide feedback, it can be easy, especially in marketing circles, for those clients to reel off feedback that is not constructive but can actually be very personal. It is your responsibility as a business to ensure that feedback is always constructive.
Creatives who have gone into copywriting and content creation can labor over so many different words, but they can also feel very hurt if their abilities to write are attacked in a passive-aggressive or even direct way. Writers should feel that they have the support of their employers first and foremost, even when working with external clients.
Flexibility and Work-Life Balance
Flexibility is something writers should feel they have. Remote work can be very useful for content creators in so many different ways, but it comes down to understanding the individual needs of your copywriters. Copywriting requires a lot of deep work, and when copywriters feel the pressure to complete huge word counts on a daily basis, this is when offering greater flexibility will help your content creators feel a greater sense of well-being. It’s something that should be encouraged across the board in any organization, especially when there’s the potential for many amendments.
Work-life balance can disappear in creative practices because the person doing the creating may very well want to get it right, and this can border on obsession. However, you may want to implement a system that allows people to not labor over the smaller details. Supporting them to create three drafts of one piece of content will potentially give them the focus to do their best first time right. But this may also mean incorporating a number of different tools that make the preparation, the creation, and the editing or post-production easier. For example, some writers can benefit from speech-to-text tools, especially when creating high word counts. There are, of course, other tools that can help thanks to AI capabilities. For example, you can use AI to make quick formatting changes to articles, for example, putting headers into title cases and so forth. It’s important for writers to work smart rather than hard, especially when there’s a huge volume of work to complete.
Provide Professional Development Opportunities
While this partly involves educating your employees, offering opportunities for growth will keep your team engaged and invested in their career progression. This is undoubtedly important right now, especially as many writers are worried they are going to be replaced by AI.
Time will tell if AI is going to completely remove copywriters, but in the meantime, we should look at upskilling or providing our copywriters and content creators with the opportunity to diversify their skill sets. Courses, workshops, and other opportunities are good business sense as it will allow room for development and keep your employees happy, which means that in the meantime, they will deliver a high standard of work.
Giving your content creators the support they need right now is pivotal. There is a high demand for content that stands apart from others, and this means not relying on tools like AI to create generic vanilla content but, in fact, using unique personalities, which is what content creators and copywriters bring. But for the needs of the business, you have to ensure morale is high. Content creation and marketing, in general, can be a very competitive and tough environment, but this is why it’s so important to be aware of the holistic approaches to giving your creators the things they need.
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