In the digital workplace, content creation has accelerated to a rapid pace. With the onslaught of new digital tools, it can be difficult to separate what is a helpful new tool and what is just one more notch on your marketing team’s toolbelt.
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketing tool belt is over-expanding as teams refine their processes, prune their tech stacks, and seek new ways to collaborate in the digital environment. This is especially true as the digital workplace now employs an ever-expanding remote work force.
The truth is, writing isn’t a linear process. You write, you add stuff from other sources, you think about it more, go away, come back to it, edit, review it. You get extra eyeballs on it for the ideas, polish it and put a nice bow on it for a final once over or review before you publish it.
For pure-SaaS teams, this process could take place in a number of digital tools – Slack, Google Docs, Evernote and Trello to name a few. But from a content writer’s perspective, those are a lot of different places to keep track of content, and also, really difficult to have insight into where a piece is at in terms of the production process. All of the named tools are great, but they don’t really fit the purpose for teams of writers. It’s a different way of working.
When it comes to teams, every team operates differently when it comes to producing content. Some companies find that a linear, structured process is the only way that they can “get content to the market faster” but the exact opposite can also be true. A process can slow down creative output, but, at the same time, it’s also a necessary evil in terms of brand consistency, accuracy, and approval.
Airstory is SaaS for writers in a way that no other tool has been before. Here are ten reasons why Airstory is the new favourite tool for content writers and their teams:
1. Content Snippets, in the forms of cards, help you fill the page faster
Cards are little snippets of information that can be reused over and over again. Think of your favourite marketing statistic that gets reused again and again. Instead of hunting down the article it’s in every time, you’re able to use a card to import this “snippet” of content into what you’re working on now. The thing that’s really cool about content snippets is that they are reusable snippets that can be part of many things – emails, blog posts, landing pages, and more.
Sharing these snippets with your team can also help overall brand consistency because you’re using the same set of information to help inform multiple pieces of content.
2. Find the information you’re looking for faster
Hashtags rule the world. Tags on your cards can help you find the snippets of content you care most about quicker than ever. You no longer have to search through document by document, but can isolate the exact subject you are looking for in your library of cards in the same way that people find stuff on Instagram or Twitter with hashtags.
3. Airstory has integrations with all the tools you already use
Notable integrations include WordPress, Zapier, Hubspot, Gmail, Typeform, Twitter, Slack, OneNote, Evernote, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and more. If there’s one thing that’s true in the digital age, it’s that new digital SaaS tools MUST be overflowing with integrations.
Think about Slack–one of the hottest SaaS tools out there right now. You can connect it to other tools you already use with the click of a button. Teams drop everything they are doing to migrate to Slack and it’s almost like a celebration, “Finally, someone let us get Slack so we can get work done!”
With that in mind, if a new marketing tool doesn’t feel like a breath of fresh air and a mini celebration in terms of how much easier it’s going to make your life, then it’s not worth it.
4. Export directly to your favourite tool
I can’t express how much of my time is spent copying content from one writing tool to the next. There’s no easy way to export your writing from Google Docs, so if you work with a tool like, say, Hubspot, you’ve got to copy it and then paste it into Hubspot.
In addition, you’ve also got to make sure you don’t copy any special characters or formatting so nothing weird comes through when you try to publish. With Airstory you can publish your content directly to the tools you are already using to publish. Some notable publishing options include WordPress, Word, Google Docs, with new ones coming shortly such as Medium and MailChimp.
5. Built in help guide inside the tool
When is the last time you tried to find contact information for a company when you encountered a problem or issue? It’s the most frustrating thing in the world when you can’t find how to even begin to ask for help. It’s like the company doesn’t WANT to help if they don’t make help easily available. That’s why you can ask for help directly and immediately from inside of Airstory. And this is a trend you see with a lot of really successful new SaaS tools such as Slack.
6. Collaboration is key in the digital age – invite your team to help
A lot of writing and content creation may take place with quiet alone time, but not all of it. Some writing requires extra eyeballs — someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to approve the writing, someone to check the copy, brand consistency, and more.
That’s why you can’t go it alone. Invite your team to help with live edits, permissions, and even things like tracking what changes have been made.
7. Start ahead of the game with templates
How many times have you started writing from a blank page, only to get that feeling of Déjà vu that you have somehow been here before? It’s because you probably have. Many of us have a particular type of writing style that we repeat again and again. Besides blog posts, repeating these styles of writing in email templates and more can add a consistency to the voice of your content across multiple channels and teams.
8. Use it on your mobile device
As a society, some check their phones over 150 times a day.* That’s insane! So, write and collaborate when the mood strikes, no matter where you are. (Because we know you have your phone with you at all times.)
9. Lockdown content when edit rounds are over
Besides templates, cards, live editing, there’s another really exciting feature coming down the pipe. How many times have you finalized a draft, are getting ready to publish, only to realize that a collaborator has started to make further edits and suggestions? Before you hit publish, now you’ve got to go in and address those suggestions and the lack of process.
If only there was a way to lock it down from edits on a specific date. This is an exciting new feature in the works right now for Airstory. Once approved, documents are locked down to everyone except the content owner.
10. Add content while you browse the internet
Use the Chrome extension to research while you write. This is a really neat feature, that you might be thinking, oh, well other tools already have this. It’s true Google Docs does have an explore tab for researching topics while you are in your document, however, you can’t save any of this content to use later. There’s no way to save it into a “card” for later use. As far as capturing sources during the writing process, this has to be one of the most intuitive features.
This integration lets you save content snippets from the web quickly and easily through your browser and add that information to cards. Never forget the source for something ever again.
So there you have it. These were 10 reasons why Airstory is the new favourite tool for content writers and their teams. From blank page to filled page, there are tons of tools out there that help you to collaborate digitally, but none, except Airstory, to help you actually start writing.
