Creating quality content at scale is crucial for any modern business. But it takes more than just one or two skilled writers to build an effective content marketing machine. You need an entire team with diverse talents collaborating seamlessly to achieve your goals.
So how exactly do you build and manage a content marketing team that consistently delivers results? This comprehensive guide will walk you through the key steps.
Align Content Marketing Team and Business Goals
The first step is ensuring your content team understands the broader company goals and how their role ladders up. Content for content’s sake does not cut it.
- Reiterate company goals frequently in team meetings and project briefs. Connect the dots between their work and business objectives.
- Put goals in visible places like brief templates, Trello boards, and whiteboards in your workspace. This keeps them top of mind.
- Encourage two-way communication. Content teams should feel comfortable clarifying if they need more context. Managers must be open to answering questions.
When your team knows how their work impacts and aligns with the company’s overall mission, it gives their day-to-day content more purpose and direction.
Provide Collaboration Tools
Smooth collaboration and communication sets great content marketing teams apart from average ones. Make sure your content team has the right tools in place.
- Project management platforms like Asana, Trello or Basecamp enable you to plan content projects, assign tasks, and monitor progress in one place.
- Content creation suites like Google Docs allow for real-time co-editing and feedback right within the documents.
- Communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams give you options for quick chats as well as threaded discussions.
Having these systems creates clarity around who is doing what and when. It also facilitates open lines of communication so team members can align quickly.
Map Buyer’s Journeys
Put yourself in the shoes of your target audiences. Map out what their journeys look like from initial awareness to becoming loyal customers.
- Identify the key stages they move through on their path to purchase. For B2B sales, this is often:
- Awareness stage
- Interest stage
- Consideration stage
- Develop buyer personas that capture your audience’s pain points and motivations at each stage.
These insights allow you to create tailored content that speaks to what your audience cares about during their buyer’s journey.
Clarify Content Marketing Team Roles
For a content team to hum, each member needs to understand their core responsibilities. Avoid vague or overlapping roles.
- Content Manager – Develops strategy, oversees team, reviews performance
- Content Creator – Writes blogs, articles, social posts
- Graphic Designer – Creates visual assets from scratch
- Editor – Proofreads and refines content
- SEO Specialist – Optimizes content for search engines
You may need to double up on a few roles at smaller companies. But strive for clarity. Doing so empowers people to own their domain.
Hire Diverse Skills and Talents
Balance your team by bringing together people with complementary skills suited for content marketing.
- Outsource specialized skills like graphic design, video production or data analysis if needed.
- Align team members’ natural strengths to the right roles. Your best storyteller may thrive as a content creator.
- Value different perspectives. Diversity fosters innovation.
Covering all the content marketing bases allows you to produce well-rounded campaigns that engage audiences.
Encourage Creativity in Your Content Marketing Team
Give your team license to flex their creative muscles. They will produce higher quality content.
- Test innovative formats like interactive modules, quizzes or comics.
- Build dedicated microsites with unique designs for specific audiences and campaigns.
- Highlight excellent work publicly to motivate the team.
Creativity sometimes requires straying from standard procedures. Have their back when they propose bold new ideas.
Create a Style Guide
Maintaining a consistent voice and style builds your brand. But chasing perfection can inhibit creativity.
- Document guidelines on tone, branding, content style while allowing for flexibility.
- Treat it as an evolving document open to revisions.
- Use a collaborative editing tool like Google Docs so everyone can access and contribute to the style guide.
Work together to find the right balance between consistency and creative freedom.
Regularly Review Analytics
Analytics should guide your team, not dictate to them. Set up processes for regular performance reviews.
- Evaluate top and low performers. Figure out what content resonates and what falls flat.
- Optimize campaigns based on results. Double down on what converts.
- Share key reports and insights with the team. But don’t let data overrule creativity.
Analytics offer an objective compass, but the team still chooses the ultimate destination.
Checklist for Building a High-Performing Content Marketing Team
- Clearly align team goals with overall business objectives
- Provide collaboration tools like Asana, Google Docs, and Slack
- Map out target buyer’s journeys and develop personas
- Define distinct roles and responsibilities for each team member
- Hire people with diverse content skills and talents
- Encourage creativity by testing innovative formats
- Create an evolving content style guide
- Set up processes to regularly review performance analytics
- Balance structure with creative freedom and flexibility
- Foster open communication and transparency on the team
- Highlight excellent work to motivate and inspire the team
- Optimize campaigns based on performance data insights
- Treat the style guide as a living document open to changes
Following this checklist will help you take the right steps to build, manage, and retain a stellar content marketing team. Adjust and customize the checklist as needed for your specific business needs.
Key Takeaways
Building an A-player content team takes work. Align their goals, promote collaboration, play to their strengths, and let their creativity flourish.
Success requires striking the right balance between structure and creative freedom. But get the formula right and your content will reach new heights.
Now get out there and start building! The first step is aligning your team around a shared mission.
