Everything You Need to Know About Content Operations

Creating intriguing, relevant, and optimized content requires a lot of work – especially if you are producing it on a large scale. Just the task of sourcing content ideas can be time-consuming and tedious. Yet, it is completely necessary if you want to publish content that your readers will become invested in.

Then there are all the other aspects of running a successful content marketing operation – writing headlines, uploading content to the web, cross-promoting your content on social media platforms, creating editorial calendars, and balancing budgets, just to name a few.

If you’re responsible for overseeing the content strategy in your workplace and want to improve how you implement it, then this article is for you.

We’ll be discussing small, actionable steps that you can take to simplify your content marketing operations, and methodically meet more of your overall marketing goals.

Let’s get started.

Here are 5 ways to improve your content operation game plan:

Select top-notch talent

This is probably one of the most rookie content marketing operations mistakes in the book. Too often, content managers opt for entry-level writers they can secure at a budget-friendly price point. But in the long run, hiring writers who have strong foundational knowledge and proven experience producing high-quality content is the smarter decision, more often than not.

Why?

Because experienced content creators are already familiar with the pressures of deadlines, and are more likely to know what it takes to function productively in their role.

In fact, a study by Harvard Business Review found that it typically takes 8 months for a new employee to reach full productivity.

By hiring someone who has already proven their ability to handle the responsibilities you are hiring for you can reduce this timeline, resulting in more accelerated productivity.

Untangle your workload with the right tools

It’s inevitable— there are going to be days when assignments are overlooked, or become more complicated than originally planned. But the key to minimizing the impact of these hurdles it to be equipped with the right solutions.

This is where having the right tools can be a lifesaver.

For instance, let’s say one of your content creators is struggling to find the perfect, captivating photo to accompany one of their posts.

By being aware of these free photo editing tools, they can troubleshoot this issue quickly. Perhaps instead of finding a stock image, they could design one of their own to better meet their needs.

Or, maybe one of your writers wants to do something a little more creative on social media, like sharing bite-sized videos or running an online contest. With these industry-leading social media tools in their back pocket, they’d have a selection of methods to choose from.

Remember, it’s not a coincidence that marketing technology spend is now higher than advertising spend for companies. Industry leaders know they need to use the right programs and tools if they are going to meet demand and retain the attention of their target audiences.

Cultivate content collaboration

If your content marketing efforts are going to yield the results you’re looking for, your entire team has to function as one cohesive unit. The more seamlessly you can support one another, the more manageable your workload will become, and the better the quality of your content will be.

One way to dramatically enhance collaboration in your workplace is to use the right content collaboration tools for your business. Leaders in this space include Asana, a comprehensive project management software, or Slack, a more casual communication platform that also functions as a project management tool.

These forms of software are a godsend for keeping tasks organized, ensuring all team members are on the same page, and providing employees with an effortless way to brainstorm and execute strategies together.

Refuse to compromise on quality

Did you know that in today’s world, over half of the customer buying journey is completed online?

Thus, it’s never been more important to ensure your brand is sharing engaging, timely, and value-adding content on a regular basis.

With more than million businesses using Facebook to market their business, 70 million businesses using email marketing, and 53 percent of all businesses using content marketing, the internet has never been more competitive than it is today.

And on the flip side of the same coin, content marketing has never been more essential for success.

Thus, you’re going to have to do amazing work in order to differentiate your brand from the thousands of others your target audience has access to.

How do you do that?

By ensuring your content meets the following criteria:

1. It is informative, useful, and value-adding for the reader
2. It is well-researched, authentic, and credible
3. It uses strong visual elements to captivate the attention of your audience
4. It is optimized to perform well in search engine results
5. It is well-composed, free of spelling and grammatical errors, and is formatted to increase readability

Promote continuing learning

Before embarking on a complete revamp of your content operations, it’s important to remember that there is no such thing as a perfect content marketing department or strategy.

Your content marketing operations must be adaptable, and your team must be willing to adopt new methods and ways of doing things over time.

By providing your employees with learning opportunities and content marketing resources that they can review and implement, you ensure that your operations never become stagnant. And let’s face it, in today’s world, falling just one step behind in your digital marketing efforts can have a dramatic impact on your overall goals.

Websites like Udemy and Lynda offer budget-friendly courses on a wide range of marketing-related topics and are an excellent way to ensure your team’s knowledge is fresh and sharp.

Explore your options and find the one that best meets your needs!

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Ellan Dineen is the Marketing Associate at Design Wizard. When she’s not hard at work in the Marketing Department, Ellan can be found en route to foreign lands with a book in her hand and a podcast in her ear. With a Master’s in English and Diploma in Social Media Marketing, she knows the importance of staying up-to-date with the industry’s latest trends and insights and is keen to pass these tips on to her readers.

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