A big part of the content marketing battle is taking non-marketers with you, so that the content they create is purposeful and effective.
How do you build team trust with the content strategy and get buy-in, particularly when there are no quick wins?
Here are some common problems marketing teams might face and ideas for how to navigate them.
Doing your own marketing? Some of these ideas will help you with content creation, too.
The content problem: Too busy
“I’ve not got time, I’ve got work to do.”
Solution: Think of ways of making content creation easier or more manageable.
Can you help come up with content pillars, 2-4 content themes to help with idea generation, or pre-approved topics to post about?
If writing is challenging and time-consuming, can you come up with a framework for structuring a simple post or article?
For those who prefer talking rather than writing, they could try dictating their thoughts and ideas into a notes app on their phone or directly into Word.
Transcript apps like Otter.ai are also available.
This gets people past the blank page and makes it an editing job rather than writing from scratch.
For longer thought leadership pieces, ghostwriting might be the best option.
The content problem: Playing it safe
Staff stay in their comfort zone, such as simply sharing a company post without adding their own thoughts or don’t create a post from scratch.
Solution: Evidence, such as data, can show the impact of personal posts vs company posts.
But equally, is there someone in the team who is off and flying with LinkedIn content that you can point to as inspiration?
Maybe get them to talk through how they approach posting or share their top tips.
Content pillars and a framework can help here, too. Think of small steps they can take to help them get going and build confidence.
On LinkedIn, this could be adding meaningful comments to posts to get comfortable putting thoughts and ideas ‘out there’. This can build up to posting.
Commenting is a good strategy regardless of whether you are posting or not.
The content problem: Writing for the wrong people
Content isn’t written with the intended target audience in mind (eg, a particular client group) but instead is written for the author or to impress peers.
Solution: Help people understand who they’re writing for (and why), perhaps by identifying key audience members.
Can you make the people they are writing for real? For example, pick 2 or 3 people in the target audience that they know and then get them to think about what would be interesting to them.
The questions they typically ask or the challenges they typically have can be a good starting point.
The content problem: Copy is too salesy
People treat content as a barely disguised sales pitch.
Solution: Reframe the purpose of the content.
Rather than directly selling, the job of content is to make readers smarter or help them in some way. Ask the question: If a competitor wrote this, would you want to read it or engage with it?
The ‘sell’ of content is being a business that is helpful and knowledgeable: building know, like and trust with potential clients.
It’s about being visible and building a relationship, so when they want to buy, they know who they want for the job.
The content problem: Sporadic posting
Lack of consistency in content creation, particularly when results aren’t immediate.
Solution: What systems can you put in place to make it easier to post and add some gentle accountability?
Think of pre-written prompts, shared calendars or regular content planning chats.
Encourage posting on LinkedIn by sharing small wins such as a comment on a post, a new follower, a connection request and profile views.
The stats for individual posts will give most of this information.
What other small successes can you highlight? For example, has regular posting led to a conversation in DMs or offline, or have they been recognised at an event because of their content?
The content problem: Don’t appreciate the skill and strategy
Everyone is an expert editor and content marketer.
Solution: Create a simple style guide or checklist that people can easily follow when creating and reviewing content.
Reframe the marketing team as editors working to protect contributors’ credibility, not just rewrite their content.
What common problems have I missed? Let me know in the comments.
🖥️ Ready for more hands-on help with content creation? I offer content audits, ghostwriting services, writing and LinkedIn training. Get in contact to find out more.
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