Far too often this falls on a single individual who has to plan, produce and promote all of the content within a strategy. This is very often one of the main reasons they fail. One person cannot have all of the information or skills to be successful, they were doomed to defeat from the outset.

So, who should be contributing to your content?

In short, everybody. As many people as possible from around the business should be involved in the content marketing strategy for two main reasons:

• Spread the load of content marketing which is rarely any individual’s core job role
• Pull on the range of expertise within the business to talk about their expert areas

The first point is easy enough to implement. Having a calendar or rota for content creators means that no single person has to be constantly coming up with ideas for content, and spending their time producing it. It also allows the forewarning they are going to be called upon for an idea or some content at a point in the future, so there is no excuse when the request comes in.

The second point is more dependant on the business type or industry. What are the areas of skill which make up your product or service that are interesting to talk about? And, who is best to be the spokesperson for them? If your business is small or medium sized, you may already know these people; if the business is larger it might take some investigation to find these people and bring them on board with the idea. But once you have the people lined up and aligned with their area of expertise, all that’s left is to manage the process of content production.

The second point is more dependant on the business type or industry. What are the areas of skill which make up your product or service that are interesting to talk about? And who is best to be the spokesperson for them? If your business is small or medium-sized, you may know them already, if it’s larger it make take some investigation to find these individuals and bring them on board with the idea but, once you have the them lined up and aligned with their area of expertise, all that’s left is to manage the process of content production.

Should we expect them to produce the finished article?

As a general rule no, taking this approach won’t get you very far. Much better to get one of you marketing team to spend time with spokespeople to understand the topics they are keen to talk about. They can then take notes and identify the key points before going away and writing up. The expert can then verify the resulting piece is accurate and makes sense before it’s published.

Sounds like a lot of work…

It can be, but there are ways of reducing the work effort on the copywriter. Here’s how:

• Bullet lists and top tips are easy for experts to come up with and can be turned into a blog post in a short space of time.
• Videos can be a great way of getting content together without having to make notes and then produce. Although you may need a little editing time.
• Image tips and infographics take a small number of words and turn them into an interesting piece for you to promote.

Content marketing is one of the most accessible forms of marketing for businesses of all sizes. With the right plan and a bit of effort, it can be an extremely effective method for generating interest, engagement and sales.