Posted by Content is everywhere on the Internet. We’ve grown used to its abundance and availability. People easily navigate through articles, videos, charts, pictures, quizzes… But have you ever thought that most of it is, in fact, marketing content provided by brands?
Let’s think of some examples of what we usually see on the Internet:
- A model shares her workout routine in her Instagram account;
- A lawyer discusses an interesting case in a LinkedIn post;
- A construction company offers a quiz on a Facebook page for you to find out what your perfect home will look like;
- A restaurant posts a tasty cake recipe in the blog section of its website.
What does it all have in common, except providing valuable information for the users? All these are also examples of content marketing.
This marketing instrument is extremely powerful and can do a lot for any brand if used properly. But many of them – especially personal brands and small businesses – don’t quite realize how important proper content production and management really is. Small companies often try to do all the work by themselves.
It almost never leads to success – at least, on an advanced level. This happens because such marketing is a complex activity, and it takes a whole team to do it the right way.
In the following paragraphs, we’ll take a closer look at the reasons why any brand needs a talented content management team. But first, let’s define some terms to avoid confusion.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
What Is Content?
One thing that’s key to understanding all things connected with content is figuring out what it is, after all. Intuitively, we all know it more or less, but it’s better to deal with precise definitions. In his book named Web Content Management, Dean Barker gives such a definition. It goes as follows:
“Content is information produced through editorial process and ultimately intended for human consumption via publication.”
So, basically, everything that’s been created by people for people and put on public display may be considered content. That means it can exist offline as well as online, but in this article, we will discuss only the type that is published online.
What Are the Main Types of Online Content?
Getting into details, we can name over a hundred online content types. But if we get to basics, there are only as many as these ones:
- Text;
Any texts fall into this category: blog posts, longreads, listicles, how-to’s, tweets – anything that is written and read.
- Audio;
There are many types of audio information that can be published online – most notably, podcasts, but also songs, jingles, and other commercial audio.
- Video;
This is one of the most popular types of content. YouTube is huge today, but there are many more platforms for video sharing.
- Images;
Images still do work well – think of Pinterest or Instagram, for which quality pictures are essential.
- Infographics;
This one is a hybrid that consists of icons, charts, and texts. It’s a big thing in 2020, as statistics show that 65% of all people are visual learners.
- Charts;
Charts are seldom used on their own – most often they are a part of an infographic.
It may not seem like too much, but, in fact, it is.
What Is Content Management?
So, there are quite a lot of content types, and all of them are important. This means that every bit of content should be used for marketing purposes. In order to not get confused, all this mass of information must be managed properly.
From a technical point of view, it is structured and managed by a content management system of a website. But this is just a piece of software; most of the work is still done by people. They are called content managers, and they very seldom work alone.
Another thing is, there’s much more than just a single website to deal with. There are many social media channels, and they all need proper management, too.
So, we finally come to what we started from, in the first place. To produce and manage all its marketing materials properly, any brand needs an effective team. Here are our 5 reasons why it really does.
1. Content Marketing Is Essential In 2020
Online content was not such a big thing several years ago when many brands relied on straightforward ads. But in the past few years, the share of content marketing increased drastically, statistics show. According to a survey by Smart Insights, in 2020, 69% of B2B marketers have a documented content strategy. This is a significant rise compared to 2019.
This is happening because Internet users have developed “ad blindness”. In 2018, according to data from GlobalWebIndex, 47% of Internet users aged 16-64 used ad blockers for various reasons. So, businesses have to adapt – and here is where content marketing steps in.
2. Content Marketing Is a Complex Activity
Bill Gates wrote his famous essay “Content Is King” in 1996, but his ultimate statement is more relevant today than ever before. Content is king in any brand’s marketing strategy, and here are just some of the reasons why.
Great marketing content:
- Builds brand awareness subtly (unlike straightforward ads);
- Increases brand loyalty (through constantly providing useful info to customers);
- Helps nurture leads and turn them into customers;
- Generates shares and backlinks – which, again, build brand awareness even more;
- Increases organic search performance, and more.
But to be able to achieve all these goals, any brand needs a talented content management team. Why a whole team? Because there are so many things to do.
Content management is a complex activity which consists of:
- Strategy development (plan creation for different platforms);
- Creation;
- Editing and supervision;
- Publishing;
- Administration.
Even if you have a small business, there’s almost no way you’ll be able to manage all the information on your own, or even with the help of just one employee.
So, what are the options? You can:
- Hire one full-time manager and outsource some tasks when needed;
- Hire several employees (full-time or part-time) to cover all the relevant tasks;
- Handle all work to a competent agency.
Whatever you choose, remember, that there must be one chief brand manager responsible for building a strategy.
3. There’s Quite a Lot of Content to Manage
Leaving alone the IT department roles, which may be irrelevant in some cases, there are some essential duties that your management team will have to fulfil:
- Strategy and plan development;
- Writing texts;
- Creating visuals (pictures, infographics, videos, etc.);
- Editing and adapting materials to suit every concrete platform specifications;
- Publishing all the pieces on multiple platforms in due time according to plans.
If we consider social media, add materials, spreading efforts, and community management to the list. Thankfully, a lot of procedures can be automated by content management software for social media, but still, there’s a lot of human work to do.
4. Content Marketing Uses Many Channels
We already mentioned it in the previous paragraph – there are far more ways than one for content marketing to be used. Your brand’s materials can be published:
- On your official website;
- On your products’ landing pages;
- On social media channels;
- On other platforms – as guest materials.
Every platform has its special features, and there’s hardly anyone who can work with them all at once. That’s why your site’s manager should better not be the same person as your social media manager.
Anyway, remember, that ideas and strategy come first. For example, a simple website with questions and answers helped a consulting company, Capgemini, to attract nearly one million new visitors to the brand’s website in just one year. The idea was simple, but someone had to come up with it!
5. An Effective Content Management Team Lets You Focus On Other Things
Last, but not least: division of labour really is a winning strategy. In most cases, it’s much more effective to hire a team of professionals to cover specific tasks. This way, you can concentrate on what you’re best at rather than spending your time trying to be Jack of all trades.
If you can spare some money for a talented content production and management team, there’s no reason not to do it.
Conclusion
Any brand, big or small, needs good marketing to perform well and find its way to the clients. And quality content is key to good marketing these days.
Useful and entertaining materials help users ease their pains, find solutions to their problems or just have some fun, while subtly promoting the brand and building loyalty.
The amount of information needed to effectively reach these goals is huge. And all of it has to be properly produced, published, spread, and supervised. This can’t be done without a professional content manager, or, in most cases, a whole management team. It may not be easy to find and support such a team, but it will eventually pay you back.
About the author: Leroy Fowler is a professional journalist with more than 10 years of experience. Leroy has worked as a writer and editor for magazines and radio stations in New York. Leroy is currently writing for various media as a contributing journalist, working as a social media manager with an event agency, and as a freelance author with EssayWritingService.com.