Struggling to find time to create new content with so many other marketing tasks on? Modern digital marketers have an incredible amount of activities on their to-do lists, and the demand from management to generate leads and build the brand has never been higher.
Top on the priority list for all modern digital marketers is to create engaging content across multiple mediums, which is then boosted via the top influencers in your space. But finding the time to create a consistent flow of thought provoking content can be challenging.
Today we’ll take a look at the wide range of demands placed on the marketing team and how to leverage your team for maximum results and begin to implement better content writing systems, including blog posts, press releases, email campaigns, landing pages and more.
Let’s take a quick look at what a modern digital marketer has to either think about and or execute on a daily basis. You have my permission to use this list when looking to negotiate a higher salary.
- Create new engaging content for the blog
- Promote and distribute the most recent blog content
- Build the sales and marketing pipeline so users have a fantastic user experience
- Run segmentation reports within your marketing automation platform
- Compile reports for management on recent campaigns
- Create new ad campaigns for Google Adwords
- Engage with the hot topics on Twitter
- Create a new landing page for the next campaign
- Create copy for the upcoming eDM to launch
- Work with the content team to pull together the next eBook or PDF download
- Supply the hottest leads to the sales team using segmentation
- Plan the strategy around next month’s content marketing agenda
- Tweet out the latest news
- Update Facebook
- Push content out to LinkedIn
- Run keyword research for new content
- Run the monthly report to see CPC, CPL and ROI
- Run up to date competitor research to keep ahead
- Create new ads for Google Adwords, Facebook campaigns and LinkedIn
- Plan the next big event at the upcoming trade show
- Target the next speaker and topic for the upcoming Meetup
- Graphic design including new ad campaigns for Facebook
- Mock up the layout for the next eDM
- Nurture new leads coming in through the sales & marketing pipeline
- Meet with various agencies to work out how to offload some of the work
- Write up the new press release to highlight the new product launch
- Monitor the re-targeting campaign
- Search Engine Optimisation across all new content which means meta tags on all new content developed internally
- Attend networking events in the evening to stay current and promote the brand
- Create new video content and produce it in a timely fashion
- Edit the videos to ensure the brand is strong and the message fits the market
- Manage the website so all leads follow a smooth sequence
- Internal meetings to plan the next big launch
Incredibly, the list above is not exhaustive and so you can appreciate how difficult the day in the life of a modern digital marketer can be.
Identifying your teams strengths for maximum efficiency
Inevitably, each person on the marketing team has some incredible strengths and areas requiring some work.
Your first step is to identify the key strengths and weaknesses of each of your team members. Being honest with each other is critical in this step.
Focusing on each team member’s strength will allow the work to get done much faster and identify those areas where it would pay to find outside assistance. By getting a team member to run a task they struggle with, will ensure the task takes 3 times longer than expected and lead to overall frustration for all involved.
For example, one of your team members may be able to edit videos with their eyes shut and produce the final product at a very high standard, but their ability to create new, engaging content to complement the production may be lacking.
Teaming this person up with a content writer will ensure their top quality video production will be communicated and boosted across the right platforms to the top influencer’s. At the heart of all viral content creation is the ability to communicate your message to the key people in your field. Producing the actual content is a small part of the overall success.
Creating systems to streamline your content creation and distribution efforts
Michael Gerber was one of the key thought leaders back in the mid 90’s when he introduced the franchise prototype in his classic best seller, The E-Myth Revisited
. One of the standout principles he spoke about was to create systems across every area of your business and yes this includes marketing.
When it comes to creating content, most people would think more of creativity and less about systems, but the fact is, the best writers follow a proven system for creating their content.
In order to generate a consistent flow of quality content, we highly recommend building and then implementing a number of key systems.
Here are a few systems the top content writing teams (finance and otherwise) employ on a regular basis
- Monthly content calendar to plan ahead
- Idea creation – Always keep a list of 50-100 content ideas handy
- Formats for each content type. Blog post format, daily market update format, Infographic format, video review format, eDMs, press releases, newsletters and landing pages to name a few
- Social media blueprints for news and other stories
- Create The Ugly First Draft (TUFD) as Ann Handley
likes to call it – just get your thoughts down on paper (iPad, PC, Notepad, voice recorder) fast
- Generating headlines
- Call to actions for the end of each piece
- How to do research and compile notes
- Review and compliance (if needed) checks
- Distribution and outreach
Creating writing systems seems counter intuitive in the beginning as it takes considerable time to document the system. Initially you will be thinking, ‘why am I spending all this extra time to create the system, I’d rather just finish my content’, but you have to fight it and document the system. You will save so much time in the long run and will be thankful for those initial efforts.
What content systems do you have in place right now? Have you found systemising the process has helped your team be more consistent with delivering content?
Creating content can feel like a real chore for many organisations so if this is truly not a great strength of your team, then perhaps finding outside help will keep your organisation at the front of your prospects’ minds.