If you’ve ever struggled to create a high volume of quality content marketing, you’re in the majority. In fact, 64% of marketing professionals cite producing enough content as their biggest challenge. However, the solution to your dilemma could be sitting right across your work station. As Kipp Bodnar points out, “much of the knowledge needed for the blog sits in the head of subject matter experts outside of the marketing department.” Leveraging your colleagues’ expertise and voices on your company blog can allow you to present a greater diversity of perspectives, and a better breadth of information. However, converting your sales, customer service and management-minded colleagues into content marketers is much easier said than done. It’s up to you to be a change agent, and initiate a cultural shift towards content creation across all departments:
1. Incorporate It into Position Descriptions
While a top-down approach may not be a silver bullet for everyone, incorporating blogging into the position description of every employee, particularly your sales team, could yield remarkable results. By requiring their sales team to blog, 360 Signage experienced a 700% increase in traffic and 200% increase in leads.
2. Introduce Gamification
Game techniques can be a powerful tool for creating incentive to change behavior. Sponsor an internal blogging contest which tracks the success of content contributions, and reward individuals who positively contribute to your blogging metrics.
3. Make It as Easy as Possible
It may be an inescapable truth that certain subject matter experts at your organization just don’t have time to blog. Maximize their knowledge by conducting video interviews, or asking for a bare bones document or outline which can be expanded into an article by a marketing team member.
4. Showcase Benefits
Blogging doesn’t just lead to increases in traffic and leads; it’s a key to establishing thought leadership. Ensure your team members are aware of the increasing importance of digital authority, as well as secondary benefits that can come from securing a position as a subject matter expert, including recognition and speaking opportunities.
5. Collaboratively Generate Ideas
The power of many minds is much greater than one, particularly when it comes to idea generation. Schedule time to collaborate with coworkers to generate ideas for topics and titles.
6. Provide Ample Training
As Steven Shattuck shares, “content marketing may be a new concept to the non-marketers,” so it’s critical to make the process as simple as possible. Provide significant training on structure, standards and governance, and take the time to give first-time contributors feedback on ways to improve.
7. Let People Share Their Expertise
Simply inserting your coworkers’ names into an existing editorial calendar will be a less positive experience than mapping keywords and topics to each employees’ professional interests. Give people topics they’re passionate about, and creative freedom to truly shine.
8. Set Reasonable Expectations
Can you expect a colleague who loathes writing to turn around the perfect blog in two hours after its assigned? Probably not. Being reasonable about timelines, deadlines, and the possibility of editing will alleviate stress and make the experience better for everyone involved.
9. Be Transparent
Your sales and customer service team may not have the time or desire to dig through Google analytics to determine how their content performed. Compiling, simplifying, and sharing metrics internally can showcase contributors, and incentivize future contributions by mapping blogging to results.
10. Create a Content Culture
It’s been stated that culture eats strategy for lunch; and enabling a revolution in the way your company approaches outreach will be the most effective way to receive a steady stream of blogging from your colleagues. Corey Eridon recommends sharing quality and standards openly, and enabling everyone at your company to contribute to the blog, in order to enact the most change possible.
Have you convinced your colleagues to create content? Which tactics did you find most effective in creating a cultural change?
