In second part of our interview with content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi, Joe shares his insights on the impact of technology on marketing work environments. Click here to read part one.
1. What role does technology play in overcoming these obstacles, particularly cloud technology?
The challenge with most content marketing programs is that they run outside any campaigns. That means editorial calendars marketing automation systems are critical. Every day new technologies are being developed to managing the content marketing process, including content production, approvals, writer inclusion, social media integration and more. These types of technologies make it that much easier for us to work through the content process. Unfortunately, if the organization doesn’t tackle the above content marketing challenges, technology isn’t going to help. That said, organizations that get it can then leverage all the benefits that these new technologies offer.
2. In the accelerated marketing environments so typical of today’s world, what workflow management techniques have you found most effective? Do you see anything new and radically different that works, or do more “tried-and-true” methods prevail?
Sadly, most organizations don’t leverage editorial calendars. Content marketing without editorial calendars is almost pointless. Also, most brands still manage the approval process with email attachments. Today’s best content marketers are leveraging online approval tools, including when to leverage the legal department, to get closer to real-time content marketing.
More brands are understanding that they have to work outside the campaign process with their blogs, enewsletters, ebook programs and more. Just getting that philosophy integrated into the marketing process is key.
3. How is a company’s content marketing impacted by the quality and efficiency of its production/review/approval processes? Does it impact their ability to focus more on the content?
In coming from a publishing background, the production process is critical to any program. Content is a promise to customers. If we even miss our enewsletter by one day, we have not made good on our promise. That means that even one miss in the approval process means that we will not deliver our content. To combat this, we are seeing editors and in-house journalists who understand the content production process being hired by brands en mass.
In other words, the production process today must be seamless in order for the content experience to have an affect on customers and prospects. It’s critical, but should never be seen or felt by the customer.
4. What are some things you’ve seen successful marketing teams do to instantly improve their efficiency?
- Someone needs to take ownership over the program.
- Leverage both internal and external resources (writers/content creators) to meet rising content demands
- Tap into employees that can show the expertise of the company.
- Get stories however you can – email, audio, video, etc. Focus on getting the raw content and then hire great editors to make it “story worthy”.
- Build relationships with outside influencers so that your story can travel further.
5. What are important capabilities to have in DAM tools to meet needs of today’s marketers?
The biggest issue today is that brands have an idea of where their content assets are and how they can access them. With brands creating more and more content, this is one of the most critical issues in the marketing organizations. All I would say is this – brands need to start thinking about how they can determine the assets they have now, when they will be updated, and how the brands can leverage each one as an ongoing asset.
