Content Marketing is a Team Effort

Over the past 14 years we’ve run a very lean marketing department at TopRank Online Marketing.

An example of this is out of the 3,674 blog posts we’ve published, 2,793 were written by one person. TopRank’s blog received around 1.5 million visitors last year and tens of thousands of social shares, mentions in publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur and Adage as well as numerous business inquiries.

Less is not always more. One could easily argue we have one of the most efficient content marketing and blogging efforts of any digital marketing agency. But the reality is that content marketing is a team effort. It has to be.

We is better than me. Thought leadership and utility for buyers, prospective employees and the media have been the drivers for our blogging for many years. But in order to scale and grow in a meaningful way, content for our company has to come from the company – not just one or two people.

Content leadership and co-creation. That’s why I’ve hired a Director of Content (James Anderson) and am initiating more proactive efforts to work with our team at TopRank Marketing to co-create content together (like our SMBMSP posts) as well as provide more training on blogging and writing for the web.

Content and company culture. I think creating a culture of writing ala Ann Handley or a culture of content ala Rebecca Lieb is essential not only for our business, but for yours too. A handful of people in a content department couldn’t possibly sustain the increasing demands for a quantity of quality content that the market demands.

If you want your content to be great, ask your community to participate! This is why I’m a firm believer in the notion of participation marketing where a brand partners with its constituent audiences internally and amongst the community to create mutually beneficial content.

Walk the talk and walk with us. In the case of TopRank Marketing, we have a constantly evolving editorial calendar that determines what we write about and the content we create. But I’d also like to hear from you what you’re most interested in.  Thought leadership? Strategies? Tactics? Interviews? Reviews? Liveblogging? What about original research, more video, audio and interactive features?

Go forth and co-create. As we evolve our own content co-creation efforts to agency team members, clients and partners, we’ll also be more proactive about engaging with our community to create content together.

Your turn! A good start would be leaving a comment below on topics and types of content you’d like to see us cover or that you feel qualified to contribute to.

I know, I know, it’s a big ask these days to leave a comment, so feel free to write it as a tweet and kill two birds with one stone.

Together, I think we can create something amazing that benefits everyone involved!