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February 4, 2022Content Kaizen: Implementing Six-Sigma Improvements into Your Content Development
Are you looking for ways to improve your content writing and content development process?
If so, Kaizen might be right for you.
Kaizen is a Six Sigma approach to improving your workflow that can help you streamline your process and produce better content faster and more efficiently.
This article will explore what content Kaizen is and how you can apply it to your content strategy.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
What Is Content Kaizen?
Kaizen (改善) is a Japanese term that means “revamp” and “improvement,” used to depict “change for the better.”
Content Kaizen is a content strategy that focuses on improving existing content to increase conversions, engagement, revenue, and ROI. You can use it to improve your landing pages, blog posts, and website in general. The goal is always the same: increase conversions.
What Is The Six Sigma Approach?
Six Sigma is a quality management approach that many organizations use to reduce defects in their manufacturing process.
The six sigma approach assumes the only defects in your process are outside of 6 standard deviations from the mean. It’s a massive goal, but if you don’t aim high, you’ll never reach close to the perfection implied.
And it is used to guide the production of higher quality products without additional costs.
Before we go over the steps of the Six Sigma approach, it’s essential to understand what a defect in this case is. This includes the difference between errors vs. defects.
An error is when something goes wrong, but it doesn’t impact the quality of the product.
Conversely, a defect is when something is wrong, and it does affect the quality of the product.
Defects come in five different types:
- Failure (the service or product doesn’t meet the customer’s specification)
- Scrap (the product is defective but still usable)
- Repair (faulty goods are sent back for modification)
- Overproduction (more items are made than what’s required)
- Underproduction (not enough products are manufactured)
For example, if the customer requires an item in blue and green but only gets it in blue, that would be a failure. If you made 5,000 items when the requirement was 5,500, you are under-producing.
Six Sigma has five phases:
- Define (define the problem, gather data)
- Measure (gather data to determine the current process performance)
- Analyze (analyze data to determine root cause)
- Improve (implement countermeasures to remove the root cause)
- Control (standardize and monitor process performance)
The Six Sigma approach is not just for manufacturing companies. It can be used to improve the quality and efficiency of any process.
The Benefits Of Implementing Kaizen Into Your Content Development Process
Content Marketing Institute (CMI) research found that 67% of B2C businesses (business-to-consumer marketers) and 61% of B2Bs (business-to-business marketers) lack a documented and well-formulated content marketing plan. This even further necessitates for companies to have a solid content development plan.
The internet is changing continuously, and so are the rules of search engine optimization. It’s no longer enough to write a few blog posts and let your site sit back and collect visitors. They need to be high-quality, engaging, well-researched blog posts that offer something new and unique to readers.
The problem? Content creation takes time.
As a business owner, you are strapped for time as it is, so accepting that your blog needs to be filled with new content can seem like an impossible task. After all, someone has to write and edit this stuff, right?
Well, the good news is that there’s another option.
Content Kaizen is a process that turns content development into an ongoing project instead of one big push at the beginning of the quarter or year. As a result, it allows your business to produce high-quality content regularly rather than in large spurts. Once implemented correctly, this saves you time, giving you several other benefits.
Here are just some things you can expect when producing content through content Kaizen.
A Better User Experience
The whole point of using SEO to drive organic traffic is so that your site can provide a better experience for users than competitors. Content Kaizen offers the opportunity to implement new practices into each post to improve user experience.
For example, suppose one of your posts is about skincare. In that case, you might make it easy for users to find skin-related products on your site by adding links within the blog post (this is known as internal linking).
You also might make it easier for them to read through your blog posts with subheadings or bullet points. Search engines determine the relevance of keywords through user behavior, so if you make it easy for users to find what they need, your site can get more search traffic.
An Improved Company Culture
Let’s be honest: it does not feel good when no one reads your blog posts. However, because content Kaizen is essentially an ongoing process, you can ensure that your readership will continue to grow. The more people who read your posts, the better feedback you’ll get for future posts (both positive and negative).
When people engage with your content enough to leave comments or share it on social media, you know that you’re hitting the mark with what they want to read. This is an invaluable insight for your business because you can use these interactions to guide future content development.
For example, if someone leaves a comment on one of your posts about the best coffee shops in town, perhaps they might like seeing that info in another blog post or even an infographic. Likewise, if people share your posts on Twitter, you know what topics resonate with them.
More Opportunities to Build Your Reputation
If you’re blogging for only a few minutes every day, then there’s no way that you can cover all kinds of different topics in-depth.
Content Kaizen allows you to write more often, which means you have more opportunities to build (or improve) your reputation for being an expert in your field.
Because there are so many different topics within your industry, building up this knowledge doesn’t take nearly as long as some might think.
Once you start producing content through content Kaizen, people will begin to view you as a reputable source of information. This leads to several benefits, including more organic traffic from search engines and the opportunity to attract people with similar interests through social media channels.
The most successful businesses in any industry provide their customers with valuable information about their products and services. Content Kaizen is an easy way for your company to create content that will provide value to people interested in what you offer.
Each of the benefits listed above is important, but they all tie back to one primary goal: improving user experience. When users have a positive experience on your website, they’re more likely to come back again and again. That’s why content Kaizen is an excellent way for startup businesses to ensure their future SEO success.
The Six Sigma Principles To Improve The Quality Of Your Content
Six Sigma can be interesting for bloggers, business owners, and marketers because it has different applications.
Some are more obvious than others, but all are worth exploring.
The Six Sigma process improvement approach is industry and service agnostic.
Let’s see how Six Sigma principles can be applied to improve the quality of blog content and, in turn, blog content performance. We’ll explore how you can use Six Sigma to:
- Write better headlines and titles
- Improve audience engagement
- Create more interesting content
- Incorporate data and statistics into your writing
- Increase the overall value of your blog
Write Better Headlines and Titles
This is one of the most common applications for Six Sigma, but it’s also one of the most important. The statistics are pretty clear on this front—post titles are one of the leading determinants in whether or not your post is shared on social media. And, with over 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, it’s clear that titles are also one of the keys to getting your content found in search.
Why this principle? Because it improves audience engagement and increases the overall value of your blog.
Creating unique headlines and title ideas is an art form unto itself. And, over the years, many formulas have been shown to work that are worth replicating here. Some of these include:
Headlines based on numbers
- “7 Ways That Doing Blank Will Improve Your Blog.”
- “5 Ways to Apply Six Sigma Principles When Promoting Your Blog Posts.”
- “3 Ways That Six Sigma Principles Will Improve Your Content Strategy.”
Headlines with a question
- “Are You Breaking the 6 Big Blogging Rules?”
- “Is Your Blog Missing These 5 Opportunities for Revenue Streams?”
Headlines that convey a benefit
- “How to Use Six Sigma Principles to Improve Your Blog Content Performance”
- “8 Ways Six Sigma Principles Can Boost Your Blog Engagement.”
- “How Six Sigma Will Increase Revenue and Conversions for Your Business”
The idea is to make your audience want to know more. So, how will these Six Sigma principles improve my blog performance? Or, what are the benefits of using Six Sigma when promoting blog posts?
Improve Audience Engagement
Six Sigma principles are built around the idea of reducing defects or imperfections. When applied to audience engagement, this can be taken in several different ways—all centered around the same goal: to leave your audience wanting more.
These Six principles can be used to encourage this behavior:
- More often than not, less is more
- The power of three
- Minimize the negatives (and maximize the positives)
- Responding to comments makes a difference
- Let your audience speak for themselves
- Provide different options
Create Interesting Content
One of the best ways to improve blog content performance is by actually making your blog content enjoyable. And, when it comes down to it, this is all about brand storytelling.
Tuning into your natural storytelling abilities can lead to a considerable improvement in blog content quality—and, over time, the Six Sigma principles that are associated with storytelling.
- Start with a strong hook
- Draw your reader in
- Incorporate details that paint the picture
- Use dialogue to convey an emotion
- Keep your audience engaged throughout the entire piece of writing
Incorporate Data and Statistics into Your Writing
As interest in data-driven content continues to grow, you must learn how to incorporate facts and figures into your writing.
Source: Slideshare
Six Sigma principles make this process easier—helping you streamline the entire process of finding and using relevant data points.
- Use what you know
- Don’t reinvent the wheel
- Adjust for weather and other seasonal trends
- Plan ahead for significant events
- Look to existing sources of data
Improve Data-Driven Writing Quality
Titles, headlines, and blog post summaries are some of the most critical parts of your blog content. If you want to improve the quality of writing, then Six Sigma principles can bring about positive change in the following ways:
- Engage your audience with an eye-catching title
- Create a headline that will entice readers into clicking through to see what’s inside the article
- Use a blog post summary that tells your audience what they’re going to get from the read
- Break up large chunks of text into easily digestible sections
- Make your content evergreen so it will last forever
The ‘Six Sigma’ Principle You Can Apply to Improve Blogging Methodology
To make the most out of Six Sigma principles, you need to understand the methodology behind them thoroughly.
There are five key considerations to keep in mind as you work on applying these principles to your blogging efforts:
- Know what you’re looking for
- Get a complete picture
- Keep it simple
- Look at all angles of an issue before deciding which is best
- Root out biases and assumptions
Improve your Blogging Mentality
If you want to become a successful blogger, you must get the Six Sigma principles of thinking right. These include:
- Data leads to the truth
- There’s always room for improvement
- Be objective when possible (and avoid bias)
- Look at all sides of an issue before deciding (seek first to understand, then to be understood)
- Don’t create problems where none exist (when possible)
Applying Content Kaizen To Your Organization
Continuous improvement is a process where companies are committed to making incremental changes daily, weekly, or monthly. All changes help remove waste and increase efficiency.
Kaizen is a process where companies are committed to making incremental changes daily, weekly, or monthly to remove waste and increase efficiency.
1. Identify the problem that you want to solve
Before you start, you need to know what problem you are solving. For example, suppose your goal is to increase production. In that case, you must identify what is slowing down production or what obstacle(s) are in the way of getting your product out faster.
2. Brainstorm possible solutions to the problem
Once you know what you’re working with, come up with as many solutions as possible to fix the original problem. For instance, if you are trying to increase production, think of ways to get your product out faster.
3. Create an action plan for how you will solve the problem
After you have thought of all possible solutions, create an action plan detailing what steps need to be taken to execute it. Be sure to include all people involved in the implementation, when each step is completed and how often you need to follow up on your solution.
4. Execute your action plan
Now it’s time to execute the plan you created in step 3. If you are having problems implementing the program, go back to step 3 and identify what obstacles could be preventing your action plan from being implemented.
5. Evaluate if your solution was successful
Once you have executed your plan, it is time to evaluate whether or not the solution worked. First, check back with the original problem to see if it has been solved. If not, go back to step 3 and create new solutions that you think would be more effective.
Tips For Making The Most Of Your Content Development Process
Do you know how to make the most of your content development process? Are you maximizing time and resources while not sacrificing quality? There are many important factors to consider when developing your content. Still, you can save yourself much trouble by following these simple tips for making the most of your content development process:
- Consider how you can use your content to grow your audience
- Develop a comprehensive editorial plan that complements your content
- Consider how you can use your content to grow your audience
- Make sure your content is designed to fit your audience’s needs
- Keep your content short and sweet to avoid overwhelming or confusing your readers
- Create a strategy that includes a mix of content types
- Make sure your content can be easily found and shared
- Consider the best way to publish your content to reach more people
- Create more than one version of each piece of content: a long and short version, a visual and text-only version, etc.
- Offer your content to other sites and blog owners first: guest blogging is a great way to expand your audience
Wrapping Up
As you can see, the six-sigma process is not only about improving your product or service quality. It’s also a way to optimize all of the processes that go into bringing it to market successfully.
In other words, six sigma can help you in creating a team for creating quality content at scale.
How much do you know about this Six Sigma improvement methodology?
If you are interested in implementing six sigma content Kaizen within your marketing strategy, be sure to reach out for help today!
Over the years he's written for publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Marketing Land, Search Engine Journal, ReadWrite and other highly respected online publications. Connect with Tim on Linkedin & Twitter.
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