Marketing

4 Keys to Building an Agile Content Marketing Team

January 20, 2014

Developing an in-house content marketing function doesn’t have to break the bank. You might be surprised at how much you can accomplish with the right structure and processes in place.

If you’re approaching content marketing as a nifty side project for your existing marketing team to take on, chances are you’re not getting anywhere close to the amount of traction and scalable results you need. If you really want to move the needle you’re going to have to build a team whose sole focus is getting your content machine up and running at full speed.
For many cash-strapped tech companies focusing on growing their business as quickly and efficiently as possible, the thought of adding more personnel (who aren’t salespeople or engineers) might be a hard sell. The good news is it is absolutely possible to build a dynamic and productive content marketing team on a tight budget. The secret is getting incredibly focused and organized by applying some of the key principles of agile.
Here are four steps you can take to help you build an agile content marketing team geared towards efficiency and high impact.

1) Hire Someone to Own Content Marketing

{link:http://www.slideshare.net/CMI/b2b-content-marketing-2014-benchmarks-budgets-trends-north-america-by-content-marketing-institute-and-marketingprofs}Stats from CMI and Marketing Profs{/link}
The best, most efficient results come from teams focused around a single primary goal, who can operate more or less independently with as few outside dependencies as possible. That is why the most effective way to launch a content marketing function is to appoint or bring someone on board to own it, and make that his or her primary focus.
Tip: Don’t try to just offload content marketing onto your existing marketing team.
The tendency for many organizations is to simply add content marketing to the existing marketing team’s list of responsibilities. That often leads to poor results — when you try to do everything at once you don’t do any one thing particularly well.
The truth is your existing marketing team already has their own primary objectives. You want them focused 100% on those so they can deliver the best results possible. Anything else you ask them to do is a distraction and will be treated as such. There will obviously be a need for strong alignment to make sure your content strategy fits into your greater marketing and overall business strategy. But having content marketing established as its own function with one individual clearly owning it will help boost efficiency, productivity, accountability, and ultimately, your results.

2) Focus on Filling 3 Critical Roles

Content_Marketing_Roles
Content marketing teams can come in all shapes and sizes, and over time (and through iteration) you will have to determine what structure works best for you. That said, in order to have a productive and self-sufficient content marketing team, there are three primary functions you need to address — either by assigning them to internal hires or leveraging external resources (more on that below).

  • Director / Managing Editor: As stressed above, if you can only make one content marketing hire, it should be someone brought on to own the initiative. He or she will be responsible not only for developing your content strategy, but for managing all the resources necessary to execute it effectively not to mention optimizing the content creation and delivery processes.
  • Content Creator(s): In addition to the director role, your most obvious need is to have someone around who can create all your content! A writer is typically the first person on the list, but depending on your content needs you may also be looking for a designer, a videographer, or better yet, someone skilled at creating content across a variety of forms. While content creation can certainly be outsourced, keep in mind there are many benefits to the alignment and continuity that comes with having a dedicated resource in-house (or at least part-time).
  • Content Distributor(s): You know what they say — what good is creating content if no one sees it? As important as the two roles are above, it is equally important that you have someone sharply focused on delivering your content across a variety of channels (social media, direct marketing, paid channels, etc.). Content distribution may partially fall under the responsibilities of an existing team member (a social media or community manager, for example), but the key is to remember this is a key function and no content marketing cycle is complete without it.

3) Leverage Internal and External Resources

There’s no doubt about it — content marketing is an investment. But the good news is you can accomplish a great deal with a small team or even one individual — as long as you augment their efforts with support from freelancers, industry influencers, and co-workers throughout your company.

  • Leveraging Freelancers: Not only do freelancers cut down on your operating costs, working with them also allows you to tap into a broader range of skill sets and expertise. When starting out, it is typically a good idea to build your internal content marketing team around generalists who can accomplish a wide variety of tasks and, if need be, even fill all three of the roles above. That said, hiring freelancers can allow you to take advantage of working with specialists to produce a rich array of high-quality content. See this post for tips on how to hire and manage freelancers effectively.
  • Leveraging Influencers: Another external resource crucial to scaling your content marketing efforts are industry influencers. Not only can they help you produce great content (often for free), they can also be key in extending your content’s reach into large audiences you otherwise might not be able to reach on your own. For more on how to establish and leverage productive relationships with influencers, see our eBook, The Value of Influence: The Ultimate Guide to Influence Marketing.
  • Leveraging Co-workers: Sometimes the help we need is right there in front of us. As you are establishing your content marketing function, don’t forget to look around and take full advantage of the thought leaders, bloggers, and active social media enthusiasts you already have under your roof. The key to leveraging your colleagues successfully is to identify their strengths, weakness, and interests, provide them with the proper incentives, and make contributing to your content marketing efforts as easy as possible.

4) Keep Your Team Tightly Aligned

Keys_to_Alignment
As is the key with any team effort, the secret to getting the most out of your hard work is to make sure everyone is laser-focused on achieving the same goal and working as efficiently as possible to move the needle.

  • Establish Clear Goals: The best way to do this is by starting with your company’s business objectives and working backwards to determine which specific goals you need to hit to achieve those objectives. If one of your goals is producing a particular amount of qualified leads, for example, you can start with that number, look at your stats, and work backwards to figure out roughly how many content conversions (downloads, subscriptions, etc.) you need, how many pageviews you need to reach that number, and how many pieces of content you need to reach that.
  • Get Organized: With so many potential moving parts, it is crucial to get organized around your content creation and distribution processes. Three key tools that can help you streamline your processes and also gain better insight into what’s working and what needs to be improved are a content matrix, an editorial calendar, and a content creation calendar (for more info and examples of each, download our free eBook below).
  • Hold Regular Daily and Weekly Retrospectives: A trademark of any Agile development project is that it is an iterative process. If you really want your content marketing program to move the needle in a big way you’re going to have to huddle up regularly to get an honest assessment of your progress and really dive into the impact of your content and the efficiency of your processes. Keep in mind that retrospectives are more than status update meetings — you need to take the time to review not just your numbers, but also your larger goals and your progress against them.

 

Take the Next Step: Download the Free eBook

By building a content factory, even small marketing teams can create and distribute the content they need to support their company’s go-to-market strategy by generating leads, nurturing them at key points throughout the buying process, and ultimately driving sales.


Image by JD Hancock

 

Senior Content Manager

<strong>Jonathan Crowe</strong> is Senior Content Manager at <a href="https://www.barkly.com/">Barkly</a>. He was previously the Managing Editor of OpenView Labs.