How a Newsroom Approach Helps Teams Produce Quality Content on a Deadline. But in a modern marketing department, though it’s a highly creative environment, nothing gets done without collaboration. Why effective content collaboration matters When asked to rate their organization’s content marketing approach compared with one year ago, 63% of B2C marketers say they are “much more successful” or “somewhat more successful.” The most common reason for their success? By contrast, among the marketers who saw no improvement in their content marketing efforts year over year, 37% believe that content creation challenges contribute to their stagnation. For many content managers, this means hiring journalists. Monster’s audience wants to learn more about this data, so Margaret has purposely hired a team that can turn that information around quickly. This arrangement, she says, has “been crucial to keep the creative people focused on creating.” Also consider any bottlenecks in your current collaboration efforts, and look for new hires that can improve your content flow. Find people who can bring a wider variety of content creation efforts into your brand newsroom environment to create your team. Monster, Cleveland Clinic, and other organizations are hitting this balance by: Turning to newsroom-style approaches that focus on rapid content creation without sacrificing quality Including managers who are responsible for production and project management, freeing content creators to be creative Exploring new methods of work management that break free from the risks of linear content flow What other steps has your organization taken to make creative collaboration work? Want tips and guidance to help your content marketing team grow more successfully?
Let’s start with a small thought experiment: Imagine someone
fully immersed in a creative activity.
Maybe the person is writing, or painting, or designing
clothes.
In your picture, what kind of environment is the person in?
Chances are that you imagined someone alone at a desk or in a
studio, working hard with no one else around. But in a modern
marketing department, though it’s a highly creative environment,
nothing gets done without collaboration.
As high quality, truly creative content becomes a market
advantage more and more, content teams increasingly struggle to
streamline the process of creative collaboration.
To meet the twin demands of outstanding content and business
goals, you have to give your creative team members the time and
space they need to work, while ensuring
the right work gets done at the right time.
And, with 73% of B2C marketers reporting plans to produce more
content in 2017 in the latest CMI
research, this concern is only growing.
During a roundtable chat at Content Marketing World, we
discovered three things that many best-in-class content teams who
have solved this problem have in common. They:
- Take a journalistic approach that puts the quality-vs.-quantity
content debate to rest - Structure the team to allow creative marketers to devote their
time to actually creating content - Follow non-linear creation flows to increase their output while
reducing
bottlenecks
Led by Deborah Holstein, vice president of marketing for
Hightail, the B2C roundtable featured Andrew Davis, author of
Brandscaping; Margaret Magnarelli, senior director of marketing and
managing editor for content, Monster; Thao Le, vice president of
marketing at Hyland’s; Amanda Todorovich, director of content
marketing, Cleveland Clinic; and Michael Weiss, vice president of
marketing, Creative Circle.
Why effective content collaboration matters
When asked to rate their organization’s content marketing
approach compared with one year ago, 63% of B2C marketers say they
are “much more successful” or “somewhat more successful.”
The most common reason for their success?
Content creation.
Content marketing teams who are seeing better results have
figured out how to create higher-quality content in a more
efficient manner.
By contrast, among the marketers who saw no improvement in their
content marketing efforts year over year, 37% believe that content
creation challenges contribute to their stagnation.
Regardless of past success (or lack thereof), nearly
three-quarters of B2C content marketers are ramping up their
content output in the coming year. This all lends a particularly
strong sense of urgency to the discussion about how to improve
creative collaboration on our teams.
Modeling content teams like newsrooms
On smaller content teams, you need creators who can laugh in the
face of the
quantity-vs.-quality debate. You need people accustomed to
consistently producing at scale and on a deadline.
For many content managers, this means
hiring journalists. For others,…
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