While Notion is a popular tool for note-taking, it’s not the only kind of writing that you can use it for. You can use Notion to write blogs, novels, books, short stories, newsletters, etc. With the host of features it comes with, Notion proves to be a stellar tool for all writing tasks.
In fact, Notion can be a great alternative to Google Docs which is probably the most popular writing tool today.
That’s because Notion supports the entire ecosystem around writing content of any type. Writers don’t just need a screen with a blinking cursor — writing is more than just putting words down. It’s also about planning what to write, how to write, meeting deadlines, organizing content meaningfully, collaborating with other writers and teams, and so much more!
Notion supports all these essential activities that you need to write great content.
Are you planning to use Notion to start writing content? Or are you an old-school Notioner who’s looking for new ways to be more efficient? We’ve got you covered.
Here are 9 tips to make writing in Notion more efficient:
1. Create an editorial calendar
An editorial calendar helps you organize and plan your content creation process. By scheduling your writing tasks, setting deadlines, and maintaining a consistent publishing schedule, you can ensure a regular flow of content and stay on track with your writing goals.
Once you and the other stakeholders know what is scheduled for publishing in the next quarter, you can set the expectations with the other teams. For example, you can connect with the design team and set ETAs for design submissions for each content piece.
2. Speed up writing workflows with templates
Notion templates can help you streamline your creative process and make it more straightforward. These templates act like ready-to-go formats, allowing you to create a standard layout once and use it across all your Notion pages.
Imagine you're a writer who contributes articles to different publications. Crafting unique pitches for each publication can be time-consuming. Instead of starting from scratch every time, you can use a successful pitch format you've used before as a starting point. Turning this into a Notion template button lets you quickly apply it to new drafts, making tweaks for each publication.
No more worrying about where to begin or remembering what worked in the past—everything is neatly stored in the template. The best part is the flexibility of these templates. You can easily update and refine the template to match the requirements of each publication.
You can use inbuilt Notion templates to write blog posts, take notes, create an editorial calendar, etc.
3. Write the first draft with Notion AI
No writer is immune from the writer’s block — the dreaded phase when they keep staring at the blinking cursor on the screen but can’t come up with anything worthwhile to write.
You will inevitably run into it.
The best way to break through writer’s block is to get out the subpar content in the first draft, which you can then build upon in the next draft.
Notion AI is a great tool that writes decent content that is good enough to be used after editing. You can give Notion AI the command to write a draft based on an outline. The tool will come up with the first copy within a minute and then you can play with words, tone, and style to make it yours.
4. Collaborate with other teams
Every content piece is a tiny project in itself especially if it includes multiple stakeholders. For example, the blog you are currently writing might require input from the design team, feedback from the SEO and product marketing teams, etc. This means that even if written content is ready, your page can’t be published till every stakeholder has contributed.
A successful content plan requires constant communication and clear deadlines among all contributing teams. Notion comes with many team collaboration features that make it ideal for content projects. You can add comments, mention someone by tagging them, assign tasks through a project database, etc.
This not only keeps everyone on top of their deadlines but also records what causes delays so that you can take corrective action.
5. Make the best use of Notion markdown
Most readers never read all the content that you write. They simply skim through the content. They might keep scrolling down your Notion page while only reading the header text.
This makes it super-important to structure your content well by splitting it into relevant H2 and H3 tags.
This way, you will be able to retain their attention for a longer duration. You can also employ other markdown features such as the toggle, quote, and code blocks along with emojis and icons to make your content more aesthetic.
We will discuss later about optimizing your content for conversions in detail but it's worth noting here that Notion markdown can help you engage readers better and make them spend more time on your pages, this boasting conversion rates.
6. Turn your content into a website
Unless you are using Notion to take notes, maintain a journal, or pursue other personal endeavors, you would want to turn readers into customers. The best way to do that is by turning your content in Notion into a website with Super.
This is applicable even if you want to create a portfolio site. You can write content inside Notion and quickly publish the pages to a website with Super.
By creating a website, you can establish a brand presence and measure the performance of your content by connecting Notion to tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar, etc.
7. Optimize your content for SEO
Most websites get about 60-80% of their traffic from search engines. This means that if your content is not optimized for search, you are leaving money on the table.
Fortunately, Super provides stellar SEO features which not only include on-page optimization but also super-fast page load speed.
8. Make sure your copy converts well
While SEO and other marketing channels can generate traffic to your website, you need a different feature-set to convert those visitors into leads and clients.
You need to add CTA buttons that take visitors from your informational pages to the money pages like the signup or pricing page.
If you use Super, you can even add a navigation bar and footer to guide people and search engine crawlers to important pages. The navigation bar can also contain a button to take people to the signup page.
9. Measure the performance of your content with Super analytics
Finally, now that your website is ready and the content has started to convert, you need to measure how it’s performing. Knowing what’s working will help you optimize your content funnel that converts better.
After publishing the content you wrote in Notion through Super, you can leverage Super analytics to gain key insights regarding your visitors. This will help you make more informed decisions.
