It takes a team to run an effective content marketing campaign. It’s a fact that most people don’t realize. A single blog post may seem like simple work done in just a couple of hours, but the reality couldn’t be further from that.

When published as part of a big campaign, a blog post is likely to be the product of several days’ work. At least two people — the content writer and the editor — would have taken part in its creation. They sometimes style and upload the blog posts themselves; sometimes it’s another specialist who takes charge. Then, even when the content's published, the work still doesn’t end. The campaign’s project manager would still have to measure its performance and gather information that the team will use in the next cycle of content creation. What we have above is a simplified narrative of how content marketing works. Given the example above, we can establish that:

• It takes a team to carry out an effective content marketing campaign (People).
• There’s a process for creating content that resonates with audiences and search engines (Process).
• Customized tools would be helpful in simplifying the content marketing processes (Technology).

People, process, and technology — these are the components that make content marketing campaigns scalable, says the Content Marketing Institute. Scalable, by industry definition, means the capacity to scale the quantity of content created and marketed up or down for whatever purpose.

Each component refers to significant segments of the content lifecycle. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

It Takes a Team to Do Content Marketing

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It’s easy to assume that a one-man-show can carry out an effective content marketing campaign. Theoretically, it could be possible — if the person takes 20-hour work days all week.

This isn’t an exaggeration. See, content marketing may be customizable according to a client’s needs, but its goals are generally the same across the board:

• To increase visibility.
• To establish a brand and authority.
• To help generate traffic.
• To produce qualified leads.
• To rank a website.

These goals include elements of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Internet marketing, data analysis, and even social media management. These are different roles that people specialize in. For one person to shoulder all these responsibilities would be a tremendous undertaking.

The ideal content marketing team consists of the following:

1. Content Strategist – All campaigns start with a plan, and it is the Content Strategist’s responsibility to lay out the direction of the content marketing campaign. They are also responsible for drafting an editorial calendar and determining which topics to write about.

2. Content Writer – Content creation depends significantly on the skill of the Content Writer. The writer carries a lot of responsibility as his or her output directly impacts the success of a content marketing campaign. The writer must meet a high standard of quality, meet the campaign’s demands for quantity, and have enough knowledge of SEO to tie everything together. An SEO-savvy Content Writer will not just hit the right tone and verbiage that resonates with the target audience; he or she will also incorporate LSI (latent semantic indexing) and on-page SEO best practices in the article.

3. Content Editor – The work of the writer needs to undergo a quality check; this is where the Content Editor comes in. Teams should never expect first drafts to be perfect, and it’s the editor’s job to make them so. Furthermore, Content Editors monitor the editorial calendar. They coordinate with the rest of the team to ensure that the content produced has the right tone and meets all SEO-related requirements.

4. Marketing Manager – For content to do its job, the team has to deploy the articles to the right distribution channels and domains. It’s important to properly vet and QA each website or blog where the content will go; otherwise, the team will have wasted their efforts on an inefficient content marketing campaign. It’s the Marketing Manager’s responsibility to ensure that doesn’t happen by scouting distribution channels and domains with high viewership and authority.

5. Project Manager – The rest of the team has specific responsibilities; to take on a leadership role might derail them and make them lose their momentum. It’s best to have a Project Manager who’ll oversee and take responsibility for the entire campaign. The Project Manager communicates directly with the client, sets expectations, and educates them about the content lifecycle and the campaign if necessary.

Content Creation Needs to be Systematic

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The presence of a team implies the need for a content marketing process. As mentioned previously, a defined and systematic process in content creation, deployment, and performance measurement is crucial for achieving scalability.

Having a defined workflow offers enormous benefits. It's convenient and helps make content marketing easier on so many levels. A team needs more than just a workflow, though. It needs a full-fledged content management (CM) lifecycle.

Jeffrey Veen, a former User Experience Manager at Google and the previous VP for Products at Adobe, says this about CM in an interview with User Interface Engineering (UIE):

“Content management isn’t a software problem at all. It’s a process problem.”

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He pointed out that many people incorrectly assume that content management is mainly about software use. While software, or any tech-based tool, does help maintain content lifecycles, it’s not the solution to content management problems. In fact, Veen says that by ironing out processes and creating workflows, a team could manage without software.

But what are the stages that make up a content marketing process? We touched on this earlier in the article, and below is a sample of a standard content marketing workflow.

Step 1: Content Ideation and Request

Step 2: Content Writing

Step 3. Content Editing

Step 4: Content Styling

Step 5: Upload Draft to CMS (ex: WordPress)

Step 6: Draft Review

Step 7: User Testing and Final Review

Step 8: Publishing

Step 9: Records Organization and Storage

Step 10: Performance Measurement and Analysis

It’s possible for one or more members of the team to be involved in each step of the workflow. For instance, in Step 1, the Content Strategist, Writer, Editor, and Project Manager may work together to brainstorm topics and come up with a feasible editorial calendar together. In Step 4, meanwhile, the team could outsource a graphic artist and double-check SEO compliance with an SEO specialist. Finally, on all stages of the workflow, the Project Manager can be expected to keep in touch and offer insight.

Use Tools to Simplify and Expedite the Content Lifecycle

It’s possible to carry out content marketing campaigns using basic tools:

• For workflow tracking and collaboration: Google Docs for Business, Hangouts, Skype, Trello, and Dropbox
• For content ideation: Buzzsumo and Ask The Public
• For copyediting: Hemingway, Grammarly, and Pro Writing Aid
• For social media management: Buffer, Hootsuite, and TweetDeck

These tools are free and offer a wide range of functionalities that suffice for a small-scale content marketing campaign.

For large-scale or international campaigns, however, it’s best to have a customized platform where the team can perform the majority, if not all, of the critical workflow processes. It would be convenient for the entire team if everyone can view their progress rates and campaign status, and access documents and other materials about the campaign.

Tools and software that aid in content marketing management can help the team work harmoniously. They help get the job done faster, with campaigns getting deployed on time. An ideal content management tool should also provide data that the team can use to measure ROIs. In the absence of tech developers, content marketing teams can use a combination of tools. What’s important is they can collaborate; share and store content, and secure confidential information.   

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Final Thoughts

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There is nothing trivial about content marketing. Whether you’re a company seeking a content marketing strategy or a service provider helping businesses grow through content marketing, you need to have capable and reliable people for the job, who follow a refined process and have access to technology that ensures timely delivery of their work.

Aspire Digital Marketing leverages it Content Creation services to strengthen SEO campaigns for clients. As an established service provider in digital marketing, you can rest assured we have the people, process, and technology to run an effective content marketing campaign.

Get in touch to learn more about our services.