11 Feb How to Build Your Brands’ Content Library
As content developers we love to create and there’s nothing more exciting than the possibilities of creating engaging content and taking on a new client. But facing the content to curate and what to create can almost be as daunting as it is exciting. So, how do you keep track of it all? Build a content library! Here’s some easy tips that we use for our clients to get you started:
1. Hunt & Gather
When onboarding with a new client and going through discovery sessions, gather everything and anything that could possibly help you create content in the future. Look for brand guidelines, already-existing image and video libraries, sign up for email blasts, scour the website, watch all the videos on their YouTube channels, and collect all the pieces that you can make work for you and your content.
2. Organize
We use Box as a file sharing tool, but no matter what tool you use, get your content all in one place and create a system of organization. Whether it’s by season, topic, file type, whatever, get some folders in place and sort out the content so it’s not overwhelming. And develop a consistent naming structure while you’re at it—it will make finding assets so much easier in the long run.
3. Document
This could really be a sub point of number two, but keep track of when and where the content is used. This is especially helpful in collaborative content libraries that are a source for multiple brands. In Box, there’s a handy little “Activity” section–that shows up when you preview an image or video–that can be used to document when and where the content was previously posted.
4. Build up Your Assets
You have a content library, it’s organized and assets are accounted for, but don’t stop there! When creating content from scratch think of all the assets you started with and how they were curated, manipulated, cropped, and spliced to fit your needs. Try shooting things from a few different angles, change up the lighting, swap in simple props, snap some behind the scenes shots … take one idea and turn it into several different assets and you’ll build out a robust content library in no time!
Share your favorite tactics with us in the comments below!
