Airtable - A Marketing Must Have For Any Business

Introducing: The foolproof way to manage your marketing activities

I’m not exaggerating when I say that Airtable has completely revolutionised mine and my client's content management!

So I wanted to break it down for you all because it’s a marketing must-have in my opinion!

What is Airtable?

Well, I’d personally describe it as an Excel Spreadsheet but on steroids…

(But that doesn’t mean it's overly complicated to use and that’s the best part! It’s really impressed me with its functionality, customizability and ease of use) 

But technically speaking, it’s a database where you can store and organise different information. It’s like a Click-Up/Asana/Excel Hybrid.

You could use it to store all of your client’s contact details, track leads or even manage projects. 

I personally use mine for content management (both my own and my clients).  

Within Airtable, I’m able to organise my whole marketing strategy, which is pretty handy given that I’m a marketer!

How I use Airtable to organise my client's content

So what does content management actually look like in Airtable?

I’ve found the best way to manage my client's content in Airtable is to have one base per client, and within one tab in their base I set up a content calendar for each of them.

I create this using different titles and features to help keep content organised. 

Each one has a very specific purpose so let’s break them down!

• Title- This (as you could probably guess) is for the title of the post so my clients and I instantly know what it’s about.

• Type of post- Here we detail what platform the post will be going out on and whether it’s static, carousel or video. 

• Social copy- this is where we write the copy for each post so it’s accessible and easy to edit, and also easy for my clients to review.

• Creative column- This is where I attach any images we’re going to use in the post. Unfortunately, you can’t upload videos yet so instead, I’ll link to a Canva Doc in this column. This allows clients to see the exact creative that will match the proposed copy. 

• Status- As I use these content calendars in collaboration with my clients and my team. This status column is really handy so everyone can see what stage the post is at and what needs to happen next. We can indicate the process all the way from the planning stage (where I’m working on the content), to ready for approval (so the client knows to review), to approved, or needs amends so I know when I’m good to publish it or if I need to make some edits! Then I move it to the scheduled status.

• Date- Self-explanatory but it’s such a handy column to have for two reasons.  Firstly, my client can see when content will be published to their socials and secondly, it means we can group the content by month so if we need to look back at any point, and see what we posted and when it’s super easy to do!  

• Hashtags- I also add a column where I can store all of the hashtags that I’m going to use on each post so I can simply copy and paste them into my scheduling app when the time comes!

• Notes- This column is just an extra one I like to add in case I need to add any notes about the post. For example, if I’m tagging another account and need the details of who I need to tag!

Using Airtable in this way has provided me and my clients with a foolproof way to know what content is coming, when it’s being published, what stage it's at, where it needs to be published if there's anyone important we need to credit or tag. 

As I said, it’s completely revolutionised how I manage content for my clients!

My favourite Airtable features 

One of the reasons I like creating my content calendars on Airtbale is how easy it is to customise everything and adjust the views.

Here are my top 3 favourite features:

1. You can group things very easily
Airtable allows you to group by field and a variety of other filters too. I use this feature to look at what posts haven’t been used yet and filter down the type of posts (like static posts, reels, stories ect) we have scheduled. The best part of this is all you have to do to be able to group things in this way, is add a customisable column into your table and then you have complete functionality and can separate and access data and the things you need, instantly!

2. You can play around with different views
This is another amazing (and very handy and easy) feature of Airtable. You can view everything at once or in grid format (like in an Excel Sheet) or a calendar (so you can see when things are going out and identify if there are any gaps), or as a gallery (where you have the image at top and copy at bottom), or you can filter it into a grid view to see a specific months content. 

Probably my favourite view though is the Kanban view. Again, you can customise this so you could group by status and see where in the process each post is at, or another favourite, group by content pillar so I can easily find a post on a particular topic.  

3. The free version is enough 

Sure, you can upgrade to the paid version but I’ve always used the free version and have never had a problem! It’s honestly incredible what you can do for free! (When you sign up, it will probably put you on a premium 1 week trial, but no credit card is required so you just downgrade to the free version when the premium trial ends). 

If you want to sign up to Airtable to give it a go (and completely change your marketing game) then I’ll leave the link here for you to try it out!* 

And if you’re ready to up your content game in 2023 and make creating all of your content a lot easier,  then you can download my completely free 2023 key content marketing dates guide here!

*I am an affiliate for Airtable so if you decide to purchase the software, I will receive Airtable credits from them.*