Advice to new content managers
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Content
Director of Training Services, IMPACT
I'm writing an article that will provide actionable steps for new Content Managers to take within their first 90 days in order to set themselves up for success (and wow their boss!).
What advice would you give to someone stepping into the Content Manager role at a new company?
Let me know, thanks!!
Please note: I will use answers within my article and cite your name, title and company
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My first Post. Would appreciate any feedback. What is...Post
Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I have tried to implement them as I understood them. I have attached a link to the revised version. Any additional feedback or critiques would be greatly appreciated. What is my Interest Rate.edited.docx
Jeff Farnham
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Content Manager - Remote vs. LocalPost
That is so amazing! Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to hear about it!!
Steven Ladd
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How did you get a lead time on content?Post
Hey Evelyn Gascoyne! I will make some assumptions here - tell me if I'm off base with any of them. When you say content lead time, you're referring to how long it takes an article to be written (from ideation to hitting the publish button).2. When you say backlog, you're referring to a bank of publish-ready articles that are scheduled to be published in the future (from here on out I'll refer to this as a 'publishable article backlog')With those assumptions ^ in mind, here are some thoughts.First, make sure your article content calendar is planned out for at least 90 days in the future. That visibility into what you're working on is critical to building a backlog and helping you plan for articles. I'd recommend having a 2-3 week, or 6-9 articles, publishable article backlog. This shouldn't be viewed as a saving account to dip into when content gets low. Instead, follow the FIFO method so the first article to go into the backlog will get scheduled to be published first. As a second article goes into the backlog, it will have the place of the next scheduled article.Every week you should have time allocated to 3 tasks (for 3 articles). Follow the rule of 3-3-3 every week Publish 3 articles from the backlog Edit and finish 3 articles and add them to your backlog Start researching and drafting 3 new articles In general, you should follow this process to create an article. As a writer, you'll be playing an active role in the research and planning phase, the SME interview phase, the first draft phase, the revisions phase, and the publishing phase. Others in your organization will play an active role in the review and final approval stages. Following this process means it'll take around 8-10 business days to go from ideation to publishing an article. That doesn't mean it'll wholly consume 8 hours per day for 8-10 business days, but the big picture that's how many days you can expect the process to take. Below is an idea of how long each part of the content creation process should take by the number of hours. Researching & Planning - 2 hours SME Interviews - 2 hours Initial Draft - 2-4 hours Internal Review - 1 hour IMPACT Review (if working with IMPACT) - 1 hour Revisions - 1 hour Final Approval - 1 hour Publishing - 1 hour Now, if you're trying to implement this and you can't break through you have a couple of options to build a backlog.Pause for 2-3 weeks on publishing to build your backlog.2. Scale back on publishing. Take 1-2 (of your 3 published articles per week) to put in your backlog.3. Use others in your organization to write content while you're focused on 3 articles per week and use the surplus to build a backlog.
Evelyn Gascoyne
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Price Estimator & Next Steps RecommendationPost
They do, thank you! The Berry Insurance site is also very helpful!
Caitlin Hunter
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Website Price EstimatorPost
Sounds like a plan Dave Wieser ! Looking forward to hearing back :) Also, want to tag in Renee Hernandez who helped build some pretty awesome stuff with our quiz functionality in IMPACT+.
Dave Wieser
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Content process fail? Ideas appreciatedPost
One thing that helped us get on track was Trello. We can see what stage every idea is in, who still needs to give impute, approve, what needs work, and so on.
Danielle Navas-Brandt
As soon as you identify common struggles in your writing, they can be adapted into additional editing parameters.
In practice, it often means producing content while the foundations of great content marketing are still being built at a company. Don't have great lead magnets to include in your blogs and build an email list? No problem, use videos. No videos yet? No problem, use images. No photography budget? No problem, just focus on creating clear visual and conceptual hierarchy in your writing and supplement your work with free-use images if possible.
Fully integrated content calendars that incorporate different media types and multiple subject-matter experts are the same way. It's a great goal, but you won't be there on Day 1.
All of those things need to be built out in order for a content marketing machine to truly hum. But they're not required to start seeing great results.
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Hope those help, and shoutout to Kevin for suggesting I chime in!
1. Never forget that you don't write for you or for your company. You write for your customers. Focus on what they want to learn, what they're asking, what they're searching for, and provide it. It's very easy to get caught up in what you want a prospect to know, but that will never produce quality content. Whenever I plan an article I start with the questions that are now neatly provided in
2. Organization is critical. Keep a detailed spreadsheet of all the articles you write, and essential info about each. For me, that's the title, summary, hyperlink, date published, date updated, and if it contains pricing. We recently revised our pricing and this last piece of info saved me a significant amount of time and energy. This sheet also doubles as a resource for my sales team- they can do keyword searches for a topic and find the content they need to send to their customers.
3. Have a kick-ass coach like
I'd say be curious for the customer's sake, and don't be afraid to lean on the experts in your company. The best articles I've written have come from discussions involving multiple coworkers, often all out in the open on a big email thread. Discussions like this reinforce the idea that content creation is a team effort. So stay consistent in asking questions and involving the experts as often as possible!
But it's not a bad thing or a thing that should ever make you feel like your work sucks. I think that some people who are good writers (in their pre-Impact lives) might have gotten used to always getting full approval, a gold star, and a cookie every time they write an article. I haven't gotten any cookies yet so I don't know what's up with that . . .
I usually like to take a look at the suggestions, watch the feedback video if there is one, and then take a break from the information I have just been given. Frankly, sometimes I get a little bent out of shape when people critique my work *I blame my parents for this but that's another story LOL*.
When I take a breather, I can always see the value in the feedback I am given. It's always coming from a place of practicality and promoting a positive user experience for the reader.
The feedback is never arbitrary or "because I said so or want it that way" in nature. I really appreciate that aspect of these Impact+ Services.
I could definitely see a new person getting down on themselves if they don't keep the perspective of "this doesn't mean I am no good, it just means I can make it better for the reader."
My advice is to only handle one edit suggestion at a time, slowly and deliberately. Don't allow yourself to get overwhelmed with the plethora of comments raining down on you. Hold on to your *positive reframing* umbrella and you will be just fine.
Suuuuch a good point, thank you!
P.S. Are you a chocolate chip fan? 🧐
Answer questions rather than attempt to sell products. Make sure your intros do not give away the main answer to the question so that the reader is compelled to read the whole article.
Your outros must guide the reader to another blog post on the same topic. You will want to find out what the average number of blog posts read is prior to a prospect becoming a client and attempt to get your readers to read that number of posts.
Make sure your title and H2s have the proper keywords targeted within (use SEMRush to find this information).
Hire a third-party consulting firm such as IMPACT to analyze your articles to ensure that the posts are properly written and optimized for SEO and technical correctness.
Build a team of internal SMEs and interview them. Take that content and write your post based upon their feedback.
Get comfortable with critiques from the SMEs and the consultants you use. Don't take negative feedback on your work from the SMEs or Consultants personally. It will take time to produce content that hits the mark and achieves your sales and marketing goals.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. Expect success to take anywhere from 2-5 years and do not get down on yourself if it takes time to produce the quality of content you are trying to provide.