Finding good processes for content work when running a marketing department is critical for long-term success. Here are four effective content marketing tips for in-house marketers.

Content marketing tip #1: Find good processes for idea work

When working in-house, it is easy to lose sight of the big picture. When I was new to a job, I was always able to come in with fresh eyes and see the potential for changes, but soon I was spinning myself into product conversations at a detailed level and throwing myself with advanced concepts that I had no idea my mouth could pronounce. So, it’s nice to have good processes for developing ideas that are based on the recipient’s point of view. Using tools like keyword planners, Answer the public, and the website’s internal search tools – or interviewing customer service and salespeople about common customer questions – are some good places to start with the idea work.

Content marketing tip #2: Engage key people and report smart

In my previous role as chief marketing officer, I found it difficult to engage everyone in the opportunities that digital marketing can provide and to fully show the power of content marketing. My second piece of content marketing advice for you is to concentrate on “the story of your data.” It is not enough to simply show the results; you must also be able to persuade them of why it is important and how it relates to the overall goals of the company. Then there’s internal storytelling as well! I believe this is an excellent tip that everyone should implement right away. This also applies to the use of unusual abbreviations and terms.

Even if you and your department keep a close eye on all industry concepts, there is hardly any common knowledge outside your team. Does it need googling? Simply yes!

Another good tip for increasing engagement is to not report all statistics as one. Spend ten minutes internally with all key people to agree on what goals they want to achieve with your content investment. You can then supplement with the goals you know will help your content work and adjust your reporting accordingly. It will be a little more work, but your reporting will be more relevant and will almost certainly generate more engagement than when you show a standard report for everyone involved.

Content Marketing Tip #3: Identify your buyer personas

To get better control of your content, create personas. Even if you have already done an analysis to identify clear segments and target groups that you are focusing on, you should take the time to develop this.

You can also test your ideas against different persona types to find the right angle. If, for example, I am going to tell you about how content can boost the company’s business, I choose my angle based on the personas I want to read my content. I hardly need to tell a marketing manager why content is relevant, for example! Then I rather choose to talk about tips on how to create content marketing strategies that work for inbound or how to write a readable blog post. If, on the other hand, I turn the angle towards the CEOs, I probably want to tell them how content marketing can increase sales and streamline sales work, or how they can set the requirements for the marketing department in the best possible way.

It will also be easier to measure how well the content works when you have your buyer personas!

My experience is that the sales and customer service department also does not always have such a clear picture of who the customer actually is, especially in B2B. So make sure that everyone who has customer contact has the same buyer personas in front of them, so you can be even sharper in your customer focus. Then it often feels more motivational to spend time developing personas as well!

Content marketing tip #4: Create content for the buyer’s journey

My fourth content marketing tip is to consider where the buyer is in the buyer’s journey. Different types of content are required to guide the reader to the solution depending on whether they are in the awareness, consideration, or purchase phase. This is also an excellent way to increase the relevance of your content on Google. To make it even better, learn how to create content based on search intent. The first step in creating content that resonates with your buyer and building out your marketing funnel so that you can meet them at each stage of their journey is to develop the buyer’s journey for your business.

As you create content that performs these functions, you should consider the stage they’re at in their journey and also choose the best channels to put the content in front of them.

The Internet has made it easier for marketers (and salespeople) to engage customers at the various stages of their journey using content marketing. It is one of the main reasons that 60% of marketers consider content as ‘very important’ or ‘extremely important’ to their overall strategy. However, it can be challenging to create the right content, for the right people, at the right time.