Y’all know that captivating and delectable air that lingers right outside a bakery? It’s enough to stop us in our tracks and make us explore whatever baked goods are to blame. There’s nothing like freshly baked bread, cookies, muffins, you name it.
There’s a bit of truth to this regarding content as well. Sure, you can hit it out of the park with a piece of content that’ll serve you for years to come, but people want to see what’s hot out of the oven. What’s new often equates to what’s relevant to people. You undoubtedly recognize the importance of a good, consistent content strategy, so Content Marketing Institute is showing us how to build a sustainable content practice with this 5-point blueprint.
- Make the business case to build and scale your content practice: You need a content champion. Whether it’s you or another member of your team, make sure someone is communicating the importance of content to leadership.
- Build strong relationships with cross-functional teams and departmental partners: Collaboration can make for better content. Furthermore, you need to know how your work affects others, so make sure you consider what the content you’re working on will require of designers and developers among others.
- Create a foundation of content frameworks, processes, and tools: Determine what tools and programs you’ll use to make sure your team is always on the same page at the same time. Also, do an audit of your existing content to find out what’s working and what’s not. Anything that clearly isn’t working might be worth revamping or even eliminating.
- Right-size your team: Everybody has to start somewhere, and this often means a one-person team. However, as the value of a good content strategy is recognized, leadership will often want to increase or expand content which means you’ll have more on your plate; this means it’s time to grow your team.
- Define success measures: These are success measures specific to your team. The purpose is for you to discover whether or not your current strategy is working for all parties involved.
Now you have the blueprint, so go out and get the buy-in you need to make your content happen.
