The Actionable Guide to Building an Effective Content Team (And How to Nurture It)
Content is the fuel that drives the Internet. There are well
over 300 million registered domains and over 3 million blog posts published
daily. Yet only 30%
of business-to-business (B2B) marketers are satisfied with their
content marketing efforts.
Many
companies respond to this lack of quality content by building a team dedicated
to content marketing alone. That's great. Totally.
Because
smart businesses agree that no marketing strategy is complete without quality
content, and multiple surveys prove it:
·
81%
of online shoppers in the US search online for product information to help them
decide whether to buy.
·
Marketers who blog consistently enjoy up to 13 times more return on
investment (ROI) than those who don't.
·
70%
of consumers prefer to learn about you from articles rather
than advertisements.
There
are many more examples, but let's stick with these for now. The point is that
it's easier—a lot easier—to reach your target audience with content as your
weapon.
However, 60%
of marketers report that hiring marketing-content talent is a challenge. In his article on Medium, Jay
Acunzo says companies are no longer seeking writers; they're looking for
talented content creators. "Companies aren't finding enough creative, producer-type
talent," he says.
Doing the Groundwork
Before
you start looking for talent, you must understand your needs. As with any
project, building your content creation team needs measurable goals. Start with
two essential ones.
1. What do you want from your team?
To hire
the right people, you must have a robust strategy. Without a plan, you'll
plaster the Internet with second-rate content nobody wants to read.
Clearly,
spelling out what you want will help you get more done, more easily and faster,
and you will be saving a lot of time and resources in the process.
For
example, if your goal is to outrank your competitors for organic searches on
specific keywords, you'll need writers with SEO skills. If you're after
converting prospects into customers, you need people with copywriting
experience. And so on.
2. Who are your customers?
A
cardinal rule of content marketing is "know your customers."
Here is an example of a content marketing business that works mainly with B2B tech
companies. Here's what the target customer persona looked like:
- Location: Most of the targets are living in the US, the UK or Canada.
- Target needs: Increase lead and boost traffic.
- Title: head of marketing, chief content officer, and so on.
- Marketing budget: Let's say hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- Language: They sprinkle jargon, such as "boost traffic," "increase leads," and "sales funnel" both in their content and pitch emails.
- Contact method: Blogs, industry forums, and social media pages and groups.
Hiring Your Team
An
effective content team needs a mix of skills. You'll need pros in a variety of
areas, depending on the requirements you laid down in your groundwork. Most
companies need at least these four roles.
1. Content creators
Content
creators are responsible for—surprise, surprise—creating your content. They are
responsible for coming up with ideas and turning them into tangible content;
that might include researching subjects, finding images, transcribing audio to
text (if you do podcasts or interviews), aspects of SEO, and a variety of other
tasks.
Content
creators work with almost everybody on the team and come in a variety of
flavors. Some are specialists, such as copywriters who create landing pages.
Some are generalists, who create blog posts and corporate information.
Whatever
your needs, try to hire writers with experience and an interest in the
industry. Doing so will make your job easier and their job more fun.
2. Editors
Stephen King once said your editors are almost
always right, and you should listen when they speak.
Writers
should never edit their own work, no matter how good they are. Editors do more
than spot typos and grammatical mistakes; they give life to your work. They
maintain tone and style to consistently communicate your brand.
Editors
may also assign topics to content creators based on their strengths, and they
help create and maintain your editorial calendar.
3. Social media promoters
With so
much going on, you will have little time to handle content promotion yourself.
Remember,
your groundwork should include locating where your target audience spends time.
Your social media promoter has the responsibility of appearing in those places
and ensuring your content gets seen by the right people.
Try to
find a promoter with experience in your current and future platforms. For
example, hiring a Twitter expert to manage your feed may be great in the short
term, but that person may lack required skills if you plan to grow into a
YouTube channel, podcasting, or LinkedIn promotion.
4. Content strategists
If churning out endless content is all it took to boost ROI,
everyone would be doing just that. Content marketing is more complex. It
requires strategy.
Your
content strategist tracks and analyzes the progress of your efforts and looks
for what works best, so you can repeat it. You can't grow without a great
strategist.
You need someone who loves data and turning metrics into something useful. Your content
strategist also keeps you abreast of industry trends, watches the competition,
and guides your content team in the most profitable direction. Do not overlook
this role.
Nurturing Your Team
Marketing
is not a cost: it's an investment. Be prepared to invest in your team members.
It doesn't matter if they're the best in your industry: No one knows
everything, the media landscape changes constantly, and every business is
unique, so there is always something new to learn.
Training
your content team shows you are invested in their future and makes your job a
lot easier. For example, you might consider training on...
·
Ideation/topic generation: Train
them to research topic ideas. It's shocking how many content creators still
write on a whim, without much thought for what is trending or useful for the
audience. Your content will not achieve your desired goals if that's how your
team works.
·
Headlines: David
Ogilvy knew what he was saying when he said, "five times as many people
read the headline as read the body copy." According to surveys, that
hasn't changed. If you're getting 80% of your impact from the headline, your
team needs to understand how to create headlines.
·
Tone and style: Your
tone and style must resonate with your customer persona. You will achieve
results faster if you connect with your audience. Train new hires on your
company's public "voice." Ideally, get your content team to produce a
style guide that includes a section on voice.
·
Tools:
Content marketing has its own, growing set of tools for efficiency, monitoring,
analysis, and productivity. Every team has its own suite: Asana, Basecamp,
Quick Sprout, and other fantastic tools are widely used. You may need different
options, but the point is to stay ahead of the game by optimizing your team's
time and effort. Invest wisely.
·
Self-auditing: your
team members should be encouraged to carry out a self-audit occasionally–let's
say every week or two: They should set content goals for themselves and the
team, and describe what and how they intend to achieve those goals. Doing so
will make them accountable to both the team and themselves.
Other
skills, such as good leadership, are so also vital and, of course, should be
instilled in your team. You do so by listening to their concerns and ideas,
leading by example, and showing respect and trust. The more you involve them in
your business, the more likely they are to produce great content that achieves
your desired goals.
Wrapping Up
The
need for quality content cannot be overemphasized, and that means you need a
team that knows how to implement your content strategy. Identify your target
customers, state your aims, and hire the right people to improve brand
awareness and engage your client base.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you need help with your email, web site, video, or other presentation to promote your company, product, or service, please give me a call at 440-519-1500 or e-mail me at john@x2media.us.
X2 Media can help you target your content and get your message to the audience in a way that it is not only seen and heard, but remembered.
Until next month….remember, “you don’t get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression”. Always make it a good one!
From X2Media I would like to thank you for your time.
John E. Hornyak
X2Media, LLC
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