Have you ever had one of those days where you wish you could start your content marketing team over? One of those days when you want to fire everybody, figure out what you really need, and then hire (or rehire) as needed?
That moment of frustration likely ended quickly because you knew firing your content team wasn’t an option and probably wasn’t the best solution.
But don’t ignore the thought and just push past the pain. Take that negative thought as a signal you need to reflect on why you’re feeling that way – to identify what isn’t working and what practical solutions may be possible. Here are a few questions and tips to help guide you through that process.
If it’s the foundation …
Before you look at the team or the individuals, assess whether your content marketing program is set up for success. Your team needs to work from a strong foundation to have any chance of achievement.
1. Do you have a documented content marketing strategy?
Your strategy is essential to ensuring that your team is operating from the same page. Your strategy should communicate all the relevant elements your team needs to know – purpose, goals, audience, style guide, metrics, etc.
2. Do you have buy-in from company leadership, including executives in interconnected departments?
Operating the content marketing team in a silo is a recipe for frustration. If your organization as a whole as well as individual departments (especially sales) haven’t bought in or worse, don’t even know about the content marketing strategy, you must bring them into the conversation.
3. Have all team members been informed of the strategy?
If you have the foundational document, you must deliberately distribute it to the content marketing team. This is not a one-time activity. You should regularly refer to it and be explicit about how the team’s work relates to it.
TIP: Create a one-page version of your strategy for team members to post at their desk as a visual reminder.
If it’s the team ….
If you have a good foundation that all team members know and use, then the problem may relate to the role(s) on the team. It’s time to re-evaluate what your team does and how it operates.
1. What is the purpose of your content marketing team?
If the team’s sole purpose is to implement the content marketing strategy, then this is an easy question to answer. If, however, your team has responsibilities outside of content marketing, assess how resources are divided among those responsibilities. If the other stuff consumes too much of your team’s time, evaluate alternatives (reassign duties that don’t relate to content marketing or reassess your content marketing strategy goals to better fit available resources).
2. What do the team members do?
Briefly detail what each role entails. Don’t copy and paste the job descriptions. Too often, they’re not a reliable measure of what the person in the role does. Think about what each team member actually does each day. (If you don’t oversee them day-to-day, ask their supervisors for input.)
3. How do the roles align with the goals?
Review the content marketing team’s purpose, goals, and success measures against the descriptions of what team members do. Are they aligned? If not, what can you adjust? Should you revise the day-to-day activities or do you need to update your content marketing strategy?
TIP: Manage the expectations for each role by connecting its success to the overall strategy success measurements. For example, a writer should know how well the calls to…
