It’s well understood at this point that producing good content is a fundamental part of marketing your business, but how many marketers truly understand the scope of the marketing efforts they should be tackling?
“As you work to put out strong marketing content, get your entire team involved.”
Perhaps in the beginning of your content marketing plans, you handled content development and promotion yourself. Maybe like me you spent lunch breaks writing blog posts off the side of your desk, promoted them with quick-hitting content on Twitter and shared them with a growing audience on Facebook and other social networks. But no doubt, as your audience and plans grew, you realized you needed to add additional resources to help you consistently create high-value content. You brought in writers, graphic designers, social media people, strategists and so on.
But don’t stop there. If you do you’ll overlook the greatest content resource you have – your employees.
Here’s an idea to consider…. As you strive to publish even more quality marketing content, get your entire team involved. Don’t relegate content creation to a select few in the marketing department. Make content development a part of your company’s culture irregardless if employees work in sales, IT, customer service or elsewhere.
We’re entering an era not just of content creation, but of content collaboration and employee advocacy, and everyone in your organization should have the opportunity to be a part of it.
Let’s discuss.
Getting everyone involved
Maybe in the early days, you handled content marketing yourself, or with just a few others in the marketing department. But that’s not enough anymore – if all your content comes from one perspective, all with one voice, your audience is almost guaranteed to become bored, lose interest and eventually move on.
According to Inc. Magazine, that’s why the paradigm is changing. Jay Baer, president of Convince and Convert, suggested that 2015 will be a year of cooperative content as companies bring their entire organization into the effort of creating content together.
“[The year 2015] will bring decentralized content creation programs with participants across the company (not just marketing), as well as content initiatives that rely on user-generated content in expanded and highly strategic ways,” Baer said. “The best source of content in most companies may be right under your nose: your employees and customers.” And I couldn’t agree more.
Collaboration helps you highlight different points of view and present your audience with new information they’ve never seen before. Why not explore that possibility?
Highlighting business successes
If you really want to show off the advantages of working with your business, you need to look beyond the marketing department. The beauty of collaborating with other team members is that you get a chance to show them off.
For example, interview members of your sales team and get their input on what it’s like to make business deals with your company. By getting original quotes and insights from them, you can show off their personalities, help them build their personal brand, and give potential customers a look at what makes them unique.
Your business probably has several different niche subject matter experts all working under one roof. Why not take a moment to shine the spotlight on them?
You can also highlight the people who make your products. For example, if you’re running a software company, go behind the scenes and talk to the programmers. Get their take on what projects they’re tackling, what their daily routine is like and what it’s like to write code and troubleshoot programs. This stuff can be interesting & engaging, and it might attract an entirely new audience for your content.
Reaching out to customers
If you can use your content as a way to highlight employees and their work, why not take it even one step further? Why not highlight your customers and clients as well?
People like to read content about real consumers who are like themselves – it’s more personable and less “sales-y.” So why not try to reach out to your sales reps, have them connect with loyal customers of your business, and interview them for some “customer testimonial” pieces?
This can make your business look more relatable in the eyes of consumers and go a long way in humanizing your brand.
Content as a recruiting tool
Here’s one last point: Your content doesn’t just have to be a tool for reaching potential customers. You can also use it to recruit new employees.
“Content can be a valuable tool for building an employer brand.”
According to the Content Marketing Institute, content can be a valuable tool for building an employer brand. Tracy Gold, an instructor for the organization’s online training courses, says that your HR office can use a content marketing-based approach that will make people want to work for you.
“Build audience personas for prospective employees,” Gold recommends. “Work with human resources to identify the types of people your company needs the most and how best to reach them.”
Ultimately, that’s what content marketing is all about – building a brand and making valuable H2H connections in the real world. The more people you involve in this effort, the more success you’ll find.