Chain of Command: Who Handles Your Content Marketing?

There’s an old expression—you have to win by not losing. It’s used everywhere from financial planning to poker, and it also has some resonance for content marketing. One of the best ways to develop a winning, long-term content marketing strategy is to avoid failing or getting burned out in the early stages. In other words, you’ve got to lay the foundation for success even before you start developing and distributing your content.

This includes broaching a number of practical questions: Where will you publish your content? With what frequency? When will content actually be written and reviewed, and when will comments and retweets be responded to?

And don’t forget this important question: Who is actually going to do your content marketing?

The Importance of a Content Marketing Chain of Command

It is critically important that you formally assess who’s doing what in terms of your company’s content marketing campaign—that you assign responsibilities and make it clear that those responsibilities are meant to be maintained. This might mean making one person your dedicated content marketing person, and having him or her devote a few hours each week to writing blogs and updating the social media pages. It might mean, as the small business owner, that you do it all yourself. In some cases, it might even mean that your team members take turns writing weekly blogs—though this approach requires discipline and organization!

This is an important step to take because, frankly, content marketing is easy to put off. It’s critical to your company’s success, and yet it often feels like it’s less than urgent. If you don’t assign it to someone and allow them time to do it, chances are it just won’t get done.

The Question of Who

This doesn’t address the important question of who should do your company’s content marketing. There is not necessarily a one-size-fits-all answer here; it depends a bit on the makeup of your organization, and the specific gifts and talents represented.

Many small business owners feel like it’s up to them to handle the content marketing. There is some merit to this: Even if you’re not particularly experienced in online marketing, you do understand your company’s voice and vision better than anybody else—and that’s not for nothing.

The problem, of course, is that small business owners often lack the time they need to handle content marketing, which is why delegation is often the only answer. A team sales professional might make sense, though again, it depends on availability and other responsibilities. Some companies might even give content marketing duties to a part-time employee or an intern, which might work—but it’s vital to ensure that this individual has a grasp on the company’s vision and goals, which is often not the case.

Of course, outsourcing your content marketing is another option, and in many ways the one that makes the most sense. You will still need someone on your team to manage these outsourced efforts, but the time commitment here is exponentially less than it would be if you did all the work in-house.

The Grammar Chic, Inc. team stands ready to consult with your business about outsourcing its content marketing. To learn more, call us today at 803-831-7444 or visit http://www.grammarchic.net.