Templates, tools, and how-to Guides

Here's a wrap-up of templates, how-to guides, frameworks, and tools that you might find useful.

Onboarding Doc Template

Your onboarding doc should include information like: your team org chart; the top people they’ll be working with; an overview of the company, its customers, how it makes money, and how the team fits into all this; the team’s upcoming goals and plans; the person’s role and responsibilities; and additional resources they may need.

How to Build a Portfolio 101

Building a portfolio is essential if you’re a writer, designer, or marketer. Start picking your favorite pieces and write down things like: a basic background of the piece, the results of the piece, your favorite sound bite, your role on the project (if applicable), a link to the piece, a PDF of the piece, and any graphics or images if available.

How to Build a Content/Creative Strategy and Pitch It

Here are the steps for building a content or creative strategy for your company or client, along with some frameworks to pitch your plan.

ASANA

This is a project management tool, which shows each task with the relevant links and notes attached. The task can be assigned to individuals and given deadlines. Some companies move cards into different columns to indicate next steps / assignee, while some companies put all steps and assignees into the cards themselves.

Read more: https://asana.com/guide

Google Analytics

Google Analytics remains the standard to view content performance. This includes things like time on page, number of sessions, and bounce rate.

SEMRush

SEMRush is a tool to find keywords, which are phrases people use to look something up in Google. Phrases, questions, and word choices with high search value means that there's a large audience looking for that topic. You'll want content that contains high search keywords to better ensure that your company's website shows up at the top of the search results.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is another keyword finding tool, which can help you find keywords with high search volume. You can also compare keywords with other websites and see how your pages are doing in the search results (SERPs).

Canva

Canva is a free tool that's very similar to photoshop. You can make infographics, logos, decision trees, and other visual elements in an easy-to-use program. It's especially useful for social media posts. The tool comes with an abundance of templates that are already sized for social posts, flyers, and banners.

HARO

HARO is a tool where reporters (or editorial specialists) submit questions that they'd like answered by experts, with a deadline attached. A pool of experts receives the requests and can provide a quote. In exchange, it's good practice to link to the expert's business or profile.

Read more: https://www.helpareporter.com/

Miro

Miro is a virtual whiteboard. The main benefit is the visual nature of seeing workflows and examples spread out in a large virtual area. It's especially useful if your project involves the design team.