Branded Content Scaling: How to Win in 5 Easy Steps

As your business grows, your definition of “high quality content” changes. Every component of your content strategy must scale with your brand — that requires a proven plan for scaling content creation, research and development across multiple platforms and content marketing channels.

These scalable content solutions are accessible to you, regardless of your digital marketing budget!

All it takes is a trusted agency partner to help you establish and implement 5 key steps to create a consistent content format that grows with you and grows for you.

Here’s how CopyDash helps businesses win at branded content scaling in 5 easy steps:

1. Define a clear content marketing strategy. Establish top-level goals and objectives for your content production process — content output standards, a rigid content calendar, and the channels where you’ll publish and present your content.
2. Standardize every piece of your content creation process. Create branded best practices for each stage of content development — keyword research, outline creation, content structure, SEO content writing and editing, delivery and QA of existing content.
3. Outsource content production that isn’t in your core comptencies. Identify a trusted content marketing agency as your partner for successful content scaling. (I’ll help you identify the core traits that set a great agency apart from the pack.)
4. Engage in valuable content repurposing with evergreen topics. Scaling content production means finding multiple uses for each content piece. How can you reuse a blog post as a social media post, a how-to guide, landing page content, and so on?
5. Establish content performance metrics, and stick to them. Valuable content is defined by results — period. Define the content KPIs that matter to your brand, then judge your content marketing efforts by those metrics.

Get your questions answered now! Schedule a chat with our CEO & founder about your branded content goals.

What is Content Scaling? 

Content scaling is the process of expanding your content creation and distribution efforts to match the growth of your business. Scaling your content allows your brand to accomplish 4 objectives:

1. Reach a wider audience; 
2. Increase organic engagement on search engine results pages (SERPs) and webpages; 
3. Drive more leads and conversions; and 
4. Produce larger quantities of content without sacrificing quality or exceeding your budget.

The backbone of scalable content strategy is a clearly defined process. Learn to set attainable, measurable goals for your content team, and you’ll create a streamlined content management system that performs at any scale.

Scalable Content Is Attainable for Any Brand

“I just don’t have the budget or internal resources to scale my content process,” a recent CopyDash client told me. “We’re a startup venture with a short runway.”

This is the greatest myth about content scaling — and sadly, too many startup founders and growing brand owners believe it.

Quality content is achievable at scale for any brand, regardless of size or budget! Yes, growing your content marketing strategy without prior experience gets messy and expensive.

That’s why hiring a content manager with a great plan is essential. 

I could tell you that CopyDash’s scalable content strategy saves you time, money and effort. But I’d rather show you with concrete, measurable statistics.

5 Statistical Benefits of Quality Content Scaling

At CopyDash, we believe great content is defined by the numbers it produces. With that in mind, here are 5 enlightening statistics about the effectiveness of a streamlined, scalable content strategy:

• Content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs an average of 62% less per campaign (Content Marketing Institute).
• Organic search is the #1 driver of website traffic — over half of all your site visitors are driven by organic search (BrightEdge).
• Quality content found on Google is responsible for 92% of organic search traffic driven to brands (BrightEdge).
• A larger volume of high-quality content can improve your website’s overall Google score (Ahrefs).
• Companies with a documented, defined content strategy succeed at scale — 80% of content marketers with a documented strategy reported “very successful” results (Semrush).

Now that you understand the power — and accessibility — of a scalable content strategy, let’s explore the 5 steps you must take to scale content creation effectively.

Step 1: Nail Down Your Content Strategy.

The first step towards scaling branded content is to define your overall content marketing strategy. Use your brand’s overall identity, tone and style to answer the following 4 questions:

• What questions do your target audience truly need answered?
• Where do your clients and customers look for these answers? Are they social media consumers, blog readers, video marketing lovers, and/or expert white paper readers?
• What content format(s) are best suited to address these core needs and pain points?
• Who on your current team is qualified to handle these content development processes? If no one exists, consider outsourcing to a content agency so your team can focus on its core competencies.

Do you have a brand tone & style guide? It’s a vital first step to unifying your brand identity. Read more about the first steps every business should take when creating a new content marketing campaign.

Work with a trusted agency partner to develop a highly scalable content strategy. An experienced agency like CopyDash understands the best formats and placements for your new content, and offers insights on how to repurpose existing content in new marketing channels.

3 Best Content Channels for Your Content Scaling Effort

Some content formats and platforms scale more effectively than others! Here are 3 content format and placement options that help your digital content grow with your brand:

1. Branded blog articles. A blog increases your odds of ranking in search results by over 400% (Optinmonster).
2. Social media content. Focus your efforts on the social media platforms your core demographics use every day. Millennials love Instagram reels, Gen Z flocks to TikTok for video content, and older consumers still frequent Facebook.
3. Video content. 80% of consumers integrate video into their search engine process for purchases (Google).

Center your strategy around these 3 platforms, and you’ll create high quality content that drives short-term impact and fosters long-term value.

Step 2: Standardize Every Content Creation Process.

Standardizing and streamlining every content creation process is crucial to scaling your brand. Efficiency is the name of the game — there’s no such thing as too much structure. 

The foundation of scalable content is broken down into 4 components:

1. Focused keyword selection process. Find a keyword research tool and selection process that works for your business, and use it every time. If your keyword process stays consistent, so will the metrics you use to analyze content performance.
2. Fully-realized outline structure. Define title and header conventions for blog posts, articles and webpage copy. You’ll save hours of time in the content production pipeline by standardizing expectations for how deliverables should be constructed.
3. Core brand tone and style guide. Develop a set of brand standards for tone, style, ideal keyword offerings and core terminology. This guide should be learned and adopted by all members of your content team.
4. Quality SEO tools for content production. Hire a content strategist with a defined set of SEO content tools. At CopyDash, we build all our content using the same content software to create unmistakable optimization standards.

Once you’ve designed and implemented core best practices for these 4 things, it’s time to apply them to specific pieces of your branded content marketing process.

Streamline These 5 Content Creation Processes

Your brand will have a much easier time scaling content production if every aspect of the pipeline is streamlined and organized. 

Structure is the one simple secret to scalable content strategy. Dive deeper into the science of content creation in CopyDash’s expert guide and learn the formula to scalable structure.

Clarify your expectations and processes for these 5 content creation elements with your content team:

1. Keyword research. Ensure your content creator(s) are using your brand’s keyword strategy, including preferred keyword research tools and short tail vs. long-tail keyword selection.
2. Outline structure. Present your copywriters and editors with a content brief that includes pre-formatted outlines and content hierarchy templates. Expect them to write content within these outlines. This creates cohesive brand identity across multiple writers and platforms.
3. Expectations for AI generated content. At CopyDash, we’ve created a 4-step code of ethical use for generative AI in content development. Read our full AI policy for guidance.
4. SEO tool use. Every member of your content development team should be using the same SEO tools to guide strategy and measure results. This allows your brand to implement cohesive analytics across multiple teams (internal and external).
5. Digital workspace. Select one cloud-based workspace for your content teams. This “home base” should offer solutions for workflow delegation, project management, collaborative notes sharing, and a centralized content calendar.

Step 3: Outsource Content Production (ASAP!).

Outsource your content production to an agency like CopyDash with a proven content development process that creates visible, compelling copy that scales with your growing brand.

The decision to outsource content production to an agency partner offers 6 key benefits to your brand:

1. Expertise and Specialization. Content agencies like CopyDash have experienced writing and editing teams with a diverse array of skill sets. These include specific industry knowledge and technical SEO writing. 
2. Scalability and Flexibility. CopyDash adjusts content output to meet your evolving demands. Our proprietary, proven content development system ensures fast delivery and expert writers. And if we don’t have writers on staff that create content for your specific industry — we’ll hire ones that do.
3. Cost-Efficiency: Save on benefits, salary, onboarding and training.  It costs $60k per year to hire a competent in-house content marketer. CopyDash is prepared to deliver 100 articles in 60 business days for half that cost.
4. Focused In-House Teams: Free up your internal resources and allow your team members to focus on their strengths and core competencies. Improve internal efficiency and productivity by letting external experts handle your content.
5. New Perspectives: External agencies bring fresh perspectives and creative approaches to content creation. We’re also able to provide objective, unbiased opinions on your existing content strategy and approach.
6. Time Savings: Offloading content creation frees up your team’s time for other tasks. You can trust efficiency-based agencies like CopyDash to deliver content bundles in a fraction of the time you’d create them in-house.

Learn more about the CopyDash content creation process that best suits your brand’s strategy at scale:

How to Identify a High-Quality Content Marketing Agency

Now that you know the “what” behind a great content agency, let’s talk about the “who” — specifically, how do you decide who to hire as your trusted SEO content partner?

Expect 5 core service offerings from a quality content marketing agency:

1. Keyword research and analysis. Keywords are the phrases you type into search engines to get results. Optimizing each blog post, article or web page around a target keyword is the best way to ensure quality content creation.
2. 100% net new SEO copywriting. AI copywriting platforms are helpful for research purposes, but all their responses are pulled from a data set. You cannot publish copy/pasted AI responses and hope to rank well on Google in the long run — websites are punished daily for unethical use of AI generated content. Find a copywriting service with a strict code of ethics for AI use. You can read ours here.
3. High-level SEO copyediting. CopyDash assigns one SEO copyeditor to each copywriting project to ensure optimized deliverables with consistent messaging and a branded tone of voice. 
4. Technical SEO. Quality structure with a focus on proper content hierarchy helps search engines interpret your articles and webpages. Better markup and structure = a better chance to rank.
5. Overall content strategy and planning. The best copywriting agencies offer top-level management and analysis of your overall content marketing strategy. Partner with an agency who doesn’t just craft copy, but helps you measure its effectiveness.

Ready to hire an SEO copywriting agency? Read our expert guide on how to hire the best SEO content agency for your brand — complete with essential core service offerings, and red flags to avoid.

Step 4: Repurpose Content With Evergreen Topics.

The best way to grow your content alongside your brand is to identify topics and themes that can be utilized on multiple channels.

And the simplest way to create versatile content options is to identify evergreen topics that reflect your brand’s core values and services.

Evergreen articles and blog posts are the most inherently scalable content pieces. They rely on universal truths, fact-based information, and service offerings your business offers long-term.

The more evergreen your topic, the more use cases it creates. If that blog article resonates with your audience over time, develop a related video marketing piece. Share that video on social media, include it in a newsletter — your evergreen content continues to work for you like a Swiss army knife.

Semrush research suggests that evergreen content pieces drive increased backlinks, increased sharing, and reliable organic traffic.

How to Identify Evergreen Content Ideas

Use these 4 criteria to select long-lasting evergreen content:

1. Length of relevancy. Why publish an article you’ll have to delete in 3 months? Save your tent pole blog posts and long-form articles for content that will remain accurate and relevant for years. Short-term news items, sales and fleeting trends can go in email marketing pieces and social media posts.
2. Fundamental truth. What’s the likelihood the information you’re providing will be accurate, true and interesting to readers for at least a few years? 
3. Recognizable processes. Is the subject matter based on a long-held process or industry best practices? “How to” guides make great evergreen articles that gain popularity at scale.
4. Universal pain points. If “we all go through it”, we’re all going to read about it at some point. A quality content strategist looks for unifying experiences to develop new SEO content.

Step 5: Establish Clear Content Performance Metrics.

Content scaling is about quantitative performance — establishing structure where your content can grow and achieve. So, you need clear content performance metrics to properly assess your progress.

Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter deeply to your brand. Find ways to apply these KPIs to your content strategy, and use them as the measurables that define the success of your content scaling efforts.

Expect your content marketing teams to understand these KPIs and use them to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of their own work. If your content creator doesn’t believe in your metrics, you’re working with the wrong person.

3 Content Marketing KPIs That Work

Every brand has its own unique definition of success. (We’ll never confuse the goals of a freelance blogger with those of a retail enterprise.) Still, there are 3 KPIs we think work well as baseline indicators of success for most brands.

1. Keyword SERP rankings. Clear-cut and simple metrics: you identified a primary keyword for your piece of content. How well is that content ranking on SERPs for the keyword?
2. Click-thru rate (CTR). How often do organic searchers on Google and other search engines click through to your content?
3. Time on page. Once a reader reaches your content, how long do they stay and read it? Do they follow internal passing links to other pieces of content or webpages?

FYI: The average “good” time on page for most searches is 52 seconds. The most recent 300 CopyDash articles have an average on-page time of nearly 4 minutes.

Conclusion

Content scaling isn’t reserved for big budgets and entrenched brands. High quality content strategy begins with a series of clearly defined processes and the help of a trusted, flexible agency partner.

Remember — great strategy scales with your brand and for your brand. Trust CopyDash to define your processes, implement your structure, respect your budget and adopt your KPIs.

We’re here to drive long-lasting, scalable content success. All you need to do is reach out — it takes less than 90 seconds to start the process!