Here’s how you build a winning content team

Remember that beautiful infographic you wanted to add to the end of your pillar page but didn’t have a designer to delegate it to? As marketing managers, we have all been there: you come up with this amazing idea in your head but can’t work out the details of how to get it done on your own. That’s when having a good marketing team at your disposal comes in handy! But where is that team?

Content managers will often shy away from great ideas that would actually enrich their content strategy tremendously precisely because they don’t have anyone they can count on. The result? You have probably seen this: a zombie, deadland website, which has to be rescued with paid advertising. Eventually, with no consistent content, ads will eat up the entire marketing budget, once the website can’t count on organic traffic coming from a good content strategy. Not good.

That could easily be you if you don’t have an all-in-one Content Marketing Platform that also helps you gather on-demand content teams at hand. Being able to count on something like this would actually be the sitting shotgun of your content strategy!

Well, Contentools might be exactly what you have been missing. After all, it can put together your ideal content team for you – one that will help you to cross this dreadful gap between your ideas and their execution! And there is more…

To shine some light into the dynamics between Contentools and their partners worldwide, we put together this article describing the Content Marketing team composition process all the way from top to bottom!

Why is it important to build a Content Marketing team anyway?

Every company that decides to invest in Content Marketing expects a great ROI. Such return comes in many shapes and sizes depending on the strategy and the investments made. But one thing is certain: it all comes down to how good your Content Marketing team is.

To not run the risk of writing subpar content for your audience your team must be comprised of content professionals who are, in fact, professionals! People who know the ropes, that’s what I mean. Your revenue will always be as thriving as your Content Marketing team. But it’s completely understandable that not every company can have a full time designer, full time translator, full time writer, full time editor, etc. So how do you make those ends meet?

What should I look for in my ideal Content Marketing team?

Okay, let’s move on to the experience with Content Marketing teams here at Contentools. Throughout these years following up success stories of over 1,000 Content Marketing teams worldwide, we have come to realize that, at the end of the day success has to do with more than just clustering people with experience in the services you need together in one place.

Don’t get me wrong, these things are important but it is much more than that. You should be looking for personal dynamics of your team members as well. More than a couple of copywriters and an editor, you need people who actually:

• Understand what Content Marketing is;
• Are clear on their content strategy;
• Have good command of the specific contents of their area;
• Are good readers – always up to date with what’s happening in the market;
• Respect your deadlines;
• Are straight-forward and communicate clearly;
• Are team players who fight all the way through to achieve the team’s goals!

The list is not as short as we would like. After all, one can never overstate the importance of nuances when it comes to people. Now you understand all of these are must-haves, you’re probably wondering:

Is it even possible to build an ideal Content Marketing team?

Well, it’s a lot of hard work, I can tell you that much. And you probably know that already. I mean, put all of those attributes on top of technical skills and knowledge about your segment and you’ll be looking for a diamond in the rough.

But we did it for you! We looked at the struggles that marketing managers were going through trying to select good professionals, and decided to provide a Community of Content Professionals – and we’re not talking about a random group of professionals either; we ensure that these guys are high standards!

Contentools’ clients and partners can tap into this pool of qualified, hand-picked professionals, for free! No more e-mailing your entire list looking for referrals or going through hours of LinkedIn research to them or interviewing professionals one by one until getting to one that feels ‘OK, I guess’. We took care of that. Here, you can pick your entire team from the platform, and that is basically it. The process to find professionals has been made fast and simple. It was designed to be easy, very easy as a matter of fact. And, this can never be overstated; we made sure that you’ll be presented with fine professionals who know their craft very well.

Ok, so how would I build my ideal Content Marketing Team?

Very well, now we know that putting together a team with Contentools is not only possible – it’s a piece of cake. Let’s say you become a client or partner of Contentools, how would you go about gathering your ideal Content Marketing team? Here are the main steps:

Step 1: Define what kind of professional you need in your ideal team

Before looking for professionals the Contentools Community, you need to know (roughly) what you are looking for. And of course, you don’t have to do it alone! Your personal Sales and your Implementation Consultants courtesy of Contentools will be around to help you. It is likely that some suggestions of ideal teams will pop up in your first meeting with your Implementation Consultant! These suggestions are just the starting point; from here they will have a better grasp of your needs, and can work with you to make sure this team will really be the ideal one for everyone!

Ok, definition stage, done! But wait, do you still need to add members to your team? Or, do you have to put together a new team for a special project that just came in? No problem either! You can count on our expertise to guide you through this process too. Know that, as long as you are a client or a partner of Contentools you will always have your Success Consultant, whose only goal is to take you to where you want to go with your content strategy, there for you. Your success is our success, so we’ll never let you go alone or feel unsupported.

Ok, let’s keep this example going. Say that you and your Implementation Consultant has noticed that you are going to need a Copywriter and an Editor. Let’s also assume that you will be the Content Manager; creating ideas and monitoring the content creation process. You know that only a Copywriter who is an expert in your company’s area of focus will do. What is Step 2?

Step 2: Find the ideal Content Marketing superstars inside the Contentools Community

As a client or partner of Contentools, you have full access to Contentools’ community through the platform. Once you’re there, you will see hundreds of profiles with content professionals who were personally selected by our team and who have gone through a rigorous screening process to get right there where you see them. Each professional has a profile with information about their educational and professional backgrounds, and even examples of content that they produced.

Actually, the challenge here is not to get lost. There are a lot of professionals who could match your needs. So, how are you going to stay focused to get the professional that matches your needs? Just use the filters! Remember your ideal profile and browse among the options you’ll see, click on the ones who look more interesting, so you can take a better look at them.

Say you are looking for a copywriter specialized in your area of focus. Simply apply the ‘Copywriter’ filter (so that only Copywriters are shown to you), and add an ‘area of focus’ filter too. Hey Presto; you have a list of professionals who are a direct match to what you are looking for.

Step 3: Align with your candidates

After filtering through the profiles and winding up with the ones who interest you, it’s time to find the crème de la crème, and to reach out to them. Through the platform you will have a direct relationship with your Content Marketing team which will allow you to discuss important things to be aligned. At this point, you might want to be thinking about things like:

A) Giving them a taste of the content topics you’d like to address

You should give a good description of the topics and the depth of discussion you want on each topic. Everyone should be crystal clear here, so the professional can meet your expectations. How in-depth is the content you expect your team to create? How much of an expert does such professional have to be? Those are some crucial questions you should be asking.

B) Exposing your demands

Before closing a deal with a professional you want to tell them how many pieces of content you would need him/her to create or edit on a monthly basis (or weekly basis). They will be able to confirm whether they can keep up with such demand or not, considering the extension of each content.

C) Prices and deadlines

Yes, the moment of negotiation! To make it smoother, Contentools provides a table with reference prices – and all content professionals we use are 100% OK with it. The table guarantees the professional’s value and gives you more convenience when pre-approving your content budget with your finances department. Bear in mind that you are negotiating with a real person on the other side of the screen and that they are offering the help you need to create content, and to get your company where you want to.

At this moment, you will also need to set up your deadlines for each kind of content. Deadlines in the plural, because there may be different deadlines for different people; your copywriter may need more time than your editor, and your content manager less than your editor, for example. Content with 1,000 words may take 5 days to be written whereas a 3,000 word eBook could take 10.

Remember, you never have to do this alone: not only the professionals themselves may suggest deadlines for you, but you can call your consultant to help you with this step who will answer any questions you may have or give you advice based on your company and sector..

Step 4: Invite your ideal Content Marketing team to your project!

After deciding all the important stuff, it is finally time to invite your ideal Content Marketing team to participate in your project! To do this, enter the professionals’ e-mails and their respective positions in the team on the system. If they accept the invitation, they can start creating content for you straight away! Brace yourself for the traffic that will come to your website and to the leads that will come from this traffic!

Remember that from this moment on, with the Contentools platform, you have clear oversight of the materials that your dream team is creating, how they are getting on, what step of the process the content is in, whether they have questions or comments and you are also able to communicate about specific comments or concerns through the platform and much more! If you want to know all the different functions that will be available to you, schedule a free live demo.

Now it is your turn!

Yes, you can have an ideal team, but without a partner to help you out, it is going to be much harder, more time consuming and potentially a lot more costly! It doesn’t have to be like that; our Contentools community will help you to save time and spare you some terrible headaches during this process.

Talk to a Contentools consultant today. This is where your dream Content Marketing team starts.