Sure, we hear it all the time… some variation of ‘communication is everything.’
But when it comes to getting everyone on the same page for content marketing, it’s the difference between winning or losing.
Collaborating with teams across your organization is critical. Without that communication, your marketing department begins to exist as its own sub-company, an outsider to the culture, focus, expectations, and concerns of the rest of the organization.
Your content efforts need to do more than build brand awareness and drive demand. They must support the goals and expectations of the sales and support sides of your company. And every part of your company needs to be on the same page about those goals and expectations or it’s going to lead to serious frustration for your clients.
Teaming Up with Your Teams
Other teams in your organization can provide a wealth of ideas for your content marketing strategy.
Starting with sales and customer service, and then branching out to every team and employee, you should probably ask:
- What questions are they encountering from customers?
- Where are they finding customers gathering and engaging? (Those could be great distribution channels for your content.)
- What current events and issues are customers concerned with?
- What new services or features are your product teams working on? (This will inform what goals you need to establish or revise in your content marketing strategy.)
- Outside the marketing team, who in your organization is a subject matter expert? Could they be empowered through providing content or by being featured as a spokesperson for your brand?
Going to battle? The more, the merrier
Connect your content marketing strategy with other teams within your company.
Include them in your process. Invite them to your planning workshops. Send surveys to them. Bring them into focus groups. Interview staff in the process of refining your content marketing strategy. Include them as writers and spokespeople in your content creation. If you’re guiding them to distribute the content on their own personal networks in ways that help them with their own goals, that can lend support to their personal careers in addition to your organization’s goals.
A business with a fully engaged staff helping plan, create, and distribute content is a force unto itself. If you want to grow your brand exponentially, in a short amount of team, put in the hard work to connect everyone in your efforts.
If you think about your company as an army lined up for battle, then consider some military strategy. You won’t help anyone by trying to do all the heavy lifting yourself. Rather, you should figure out how to get the cavalry, infantry, artillery—everyone with their different skills, roles, and insights—fighting for the same goal.
Getting the remarkable people in your organization on the same page means gathering energy, building momentum, and drawing insight from sources that may be lost in the day to day hustle.
Strong, clear communication amongst your whole team is your best bet for showing the world how remarkable you are.
