From my perspective there are three key, non-tech tools that should be content marketing toolbox staples. The “Real-Life” Staples to Gain First-Hand Insight, Inspiration, & Amplification #1 – Your in-house team members from across departments. “Leveling up content marketing means going beyond creating consistent customer-focused content. It means engaging your internal experts to share their expertise,” Michael Brenner, Founder of Marketing Insider Group, shared earlier this year. - @jayacunzo #ContentMarketing Click To Tweet Not only can you leverage your audience as a tool to make content marketing “easier,” but you can also create content that is more impactful and targeted. Your internal marketing team as well as your key contacts across departments are flush with insight and expertise. Whether you’re looking for execution help or need a larger force to handle strategy, creation, and optimization, an agency partner can be an incredible tool in your toolbox. Bolster Your Content Marketing Toolbox with Real-Life Tools Your martech stack is just one piece of the content marketing toolbox pie. And finally, add to your tool stack with external partners to fill gaps and add third-party insight and expertise. We’ll cover some martech tools you should consider for your content marketing toolbox next time.
In the modern content marketing age, leveraging a diverse set of tools is par for a successful marketing course. Tools help unlock insight. Tools help capture attention and reach. Tools help drive efficiency. Tools help you measure, analyze, and optimize for better success.
The simple truth is: Every content marketer needs a robust toolkit that’s tailored to their unique business and marketing needs—but that toolkit doesn’t begin or end with your martech stack. Uh-oh-oh.
There’s no denying the importance that marketing technology plays in today’s ever-changing and sometimes tumultuous digital landscape. But your toolbox needs more than software. It also needs more tangible, real-life tools to help you uncover the context and insights that can help you be more effective (and help you use martech tools more effectively).
From my perspective there are three key, non-tech tools that should be content marketing toolbox staples. And with the help of a few fantastic insights and tidbits of wisdom from marketing industry leaders, I dive into them below.
The “Real-Life” Staples to Gain First-Hand Insight, Inspiration, & Amplification
#1 – Your in-house team members from across departments.
For eons it seems, sales and marketing team alignment has been a top struggle yet a key best practice for gaining marketing (and business) traction. Today, that still holds true—but now it’s increasingly crucial for marketers to widen their collaboration scope to include other key departments.
Why? Creating an incredible customer experience is the new challenge and opportunity for marketers. In addition, better alignment across major business functions ensures your efforts are truly contributing to the growth of the company—whether that be sales, talent retention and recruiting, product development, or customer service.
“Marketers need to work collaboratively across the various areas of marketing as well as partnering with other parts if their company such as sales,” Justin Levy, public speaker and the new Director of Paid Social Media Operations at ServiceNow, told us not long ago. “Marketers need to be integrated and focused, working off of the same strategy instead of working in silos on their own projects.”
Beyond creating synergy, your internal team members are insight tools. Sales and customer service reps are talking with customers every day. Your product development team is creating products or services that aim to alleviate customer and prospect pain points and solve problems. Your human resources department is actively recruiting and looking for ways to engage current employees.
Your organization’s employees are insight engines who can help you craft more helpful, interesting, and inspiring content—and they’re also engagement and amplification powerhouses, ripe for a little employee advocacy and/or thought leadership.
“Leveling up content marketing means going beyond creating consistent customer-focused content. It means engaging your internal experts to share their expertise,” Michael Brenner, Founder of Marketing Insider Group, shared earlier this year. “And it means activating the entire organization to share your passions, your stories, and your expertise.”
Think of your collaboration with other key departments like the bond a hammer and nails share. Without…
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