How to Create a Winning Content Marketing Playbook. The job of a content marketer is not to create content. Content marketing playbooks that focus less on the “what” of producing content and more on the “how” surrounding ideation, operationalization, distribution, and iteration won’t just give managers greater insight into their content’s performance—they’ll help them explore their passion and creativity for what they make as well. Operationalization, a Long Word for a Very Important Process One of the biggest challenges in B2B is the invisibility of the content creation process. At the start of every month, we have a good idea of what our content will focus on. Improved operationalization is the key to keeping everything on track. Operations establishes the lifecycle of your content, so that when one person is done doing their job (say, writing the copy), five more know it’s time to do theirs. Remember, your job is to win business, so how can you amplify your message as a subject matter expert? Great content creation is only the first piece in succeeding. A good content marketing playbook will have all the aspects necessary to delivering pieces that look good and provide outstanding value.
The job of a content marketer is not to create content. If that sounds crazy, remember that everything can be content, so strictly producing it is almost a given at this point. With the insane amount of posts, articles, and videos that are being launched into the collective airspace of consumers on a second-by-second basis, a marketer’s real task becomes getting eyeballs on content that will convert to revenue.
Content marketing playbooks that focus less on the “what” of producing content and more on the “how” surrounding ideation, operationalization, distribution, and iteration won’t just give managers greater insight into their content’s performance—they’ll help them explore their passion and creativity for what they make as well.
Here’s how to start drawing up a successful content marketing playbook.
Improve Your Ideation Through Education
Education is the most important component to creating and producing quality posts. Without proper research, content ideas can only sprout from one mind and feature limited perspectives. This is not to say that content managers and writers don’t have great ideas most of the time—it’s just that the most meaningful ideas are influenced by where outside conversations are going.
Content marketers have to act as reporters to get all the information about a subject before they move to create their own content. How many people are already writing about a subject? Who’s searching for it? If it’s been tackled several times, do you have a unique angle? Most marketers skip the vital step of putting their ears to the ground before entering the conversation. It’s a bad look to only participate when you have something to share without ever engaging and giving feedback when others create.
For example, at LeadMD, we noticed a flurry of discussion around account-based marketing several years ago and decided to make writing about it “our thing.” It helps that we have a passion for ABM that drives us to want to know everything about it, and how others are either succeeding or struggling with its concepts. As a result, we’ve made ourselves experts in the space to the point that another company suddenly jumping on that bandwagon to write their own ABM guide would feel inappropriate.
Operationalization, a Long Word for a Very Important Process
One of the biggest challenges in B2B is the invisibility of the content creation process. Think about how you manage your articles and posts at the back-end—probably in spreadsheets and shared docs, right? If it’s not part of a visible platform, you have…
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