How to Make Everyone Part of Your Content Marketing Team

April 29, 2013

Psst… want to know a secret?content marketing team

You don’t need to hire dozens of writers and editors to be successful at content marketing! In fact, here at OpenView, our content marketing team consists of just three people — not a heck of a lot considering the considerable volume of blog posts, eBooks, articles, and more that our in-house content factory produces.
If you’ve read my blog before, you know that in the past I’ve described the different roles that you could need on a content marketing team, and hopefully you’re duly aware of the importance of hiring a managing editor. You may also remember the value of augmenting your team with cost-effective freelance resources. This week, forget about all of that. Instead, let’s focus on an equally critical aspect of successful content marketing: co-opting all of your co-workers into your content strategy.
The simple truth is that if you’re just relying on your content marketing team for content marketing, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to tap into the inherent talents and expertise of your fellow employees. Peter in sales, for example, may be a great writer who you could get to draft an occasional blog post. Paul, your VP of product, hopefully has a lot of valuable technical expertise and may even be a thought leader. And let’s not forget about Mary in accounting, who just loves social media and has a huge following on Twitter. Why not take advantage of what these folks are capable of?
The point is that successful content marketing teams are ones that find allies across their companies who they can leverage. By taking the time to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your co-workers, where their natural affinities lie, and how to best leverage their time, you can improve the quality and quantity of the content that you produce and distribute.
But how do you get people outside of marketing on board?

Here are four ways to help get everyone in your office to become an unofficial member of your content marketing team:

1) Sell them on the value of content marketing

Content marketing is an effective means of generating leads and gently nudging those leads down the path to purchase by providing them with the right content at the right time. The bottom line is that it’s one of the most effective ways of driving sales, which is fundamental to the success of any company.

2) Help them build their personal brand in the process

The great thing about content marketing is that it not only gives you the opportunity to build your company’s brand, but also the personal brands of individuals within your company. By creating blog posts, white papers, videos, podcasts, and more, individuals can establish themselves (and their companies) as thought leaders, which benefits them just as much as it does their company. It’s a win-win.

3) Make it as painless as possible

This point just comes down to common sense. If you’re not a member of the content marketing team, content marketing isn’t your job. So figure out how to best leverage the time of people who have little to spare. For example, maybe Paul, your VP of product, just doesn’t have time to write your next piece of content. However, could you set him up with a freelance writer who interviews him for 30 minutes and ghost writes the content on his behalf?

4) Motivate them anyway you cancontent marketing team

Most people have some sort of competitive side to them. Appeal to that competitive nature anyway that you can. At OpenView, for example, we’ve done so by hosting a weekly competition to see who can drive the most traffic through their blog. At the end of each week, the winner is awarded the highly coveted title of the “blog hog,” complete with statue (see image) and bragging rights for the week. It’s a silly (and free) tactic, but it’s been incredibly effective.
The key to a successful content marketing team isn’t having dozens of people on the payroll. It’s leveraging the people within your organization and putting their skills and talents to use.

Content Marketing Director

<strong>Kevin Cain</strong> is the Content Marketing Director for <a href="http://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/">BlueChip Communication</a>, Australia's leading financial services communication firm. Before joining BlueChip, Kevin was the Director of Content Strategy for OpenView.