ULTIMATE CONTENT STRATEGIST PLAYBOOK

The Ultimate Content Strategist

Playbook No. 3:
Staffing and Launching Your Content Marketing Program

Copyright 2015 Contently. All rights reserved. contently.com

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By Joe Lazauskas

ULTIMATE CONTENT STRATEGIST PLAYBOOK

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Crafting a Brand Voice & Mission Statement

III. Identifying Story Types & Topics

15

IV. Building an Editorial Calendar

20

V. Staffing Your Content Team

24

VI. Creating an Approval Workflow

30

VII. Conclusion

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On the evening of March 2, our content/marketing team

What had the biggest impact was that we spent the

found itself celebrating at a Soho dive bar called Mila-

previous 18 months publishing three or four stories per

nos for a few reasons: three birthdays; two new

day. In February, stories published last year like The

additions to the team; and, most importantly, a suc-

Pros, Cons, and Costs of the Top 10 Content Distribution

cessful month of February in which we saw over

Platforms, 7 Keys to SEO for Content Marketers, and

200,000 readers. We toasted, but in truth, a lot of that

Whats the Difference Between B2B and B2C Market-

success was attributed to work we did months ago.

ing? all generated over 1,000 readers and 3,000 atten-

Though it felt like new pieces were attracting all our

tion minutes, just like they do every month.

readers, only 40 percent of our readers and 48 percent

of our total attention time for the month came from

In December 2013, Jay Acunzo, then senior content

posts published in February.

manager at HubSpot, had a similar revelation. That

month, he crunched the numbers and found that 70

TOTAL TRAFFIC
IN FEB.
60%
40%

TOTAL ATTENTION TIME

IN FEB.
48%

52%

percent of the roughly 2 million hits on HubSpots

blog came from posts that were more than a month
old. That entire team could stop blogging for a whole
month and still see 70% of the expected resultszero
work needed, he wrote in a blog post. Now thats ROI!
Show me a PPC campaign capable of doing that.

FEBRUARY POSTS

PREV. POSTS

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Jay was shocked. So was I. And thats naturalwhen

That may not sound like a lot of pageviews, but when

you do content marketing well, it can feel like highway

youre publishing new stories every day, theres a

robbery. As venture capitalist and content market-

compounding effect. Each day, there are more total

ing expert Tomasz Tunguz recently wrote on his blog,

stories generating traffic, which results in compounding

Content is one of the few forms of marketing that has

growth. In a hypothetical model, those compounding

a compounding return.

returns would result in readership growth that looks

something like this:

The idea of compounding returns in content marketing

may sound complex, but its actually quite simple. Most
brand publishers arent in the business of publishing
timely news; rather, they focus on telling stories that
entertain, solve a problem, or provide important advice
and information. These evergreen stories remain
relevant for a long period of time and continue to bring
in new readers via search and social. Tunguz, for
instance, found that the average post on his blog
generates about 150 views on the first day, and about
20 for each subsequent day. After one year, the average
post still generates about 18 views per day.

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Like a bank account that starts out small and earns

While the potential compounding returns of content

incremental gains, but over time becomes quite large,

marketing are enough to make any brand marketers

Tunguz writes, content marketing efforts require

mouth water, the challenge of doing it successfully is

consistent investment but ultimately can yield enor-

still a massive undertaking. You need to create a steady

mous results.

cadence of content so your returns grow quickly, but

that content also has to be so good that it will stand

Of course, this is an ideal model, and simply publishing

out in the sea of crappy posts that pollute the web. And

every day does not guarantee success. As we covered in

since the competition is getting fiercer every day, you

Playbook No. 2, you need to have a content roadmap

need to continuously improve and evolve if you want to

a clearly defined audience and a sense of all the gaps

stand out.

in the content market so you can capitalize on every

opportunity to capture your audiences attention. You

Weve reached a crucial stage in our Ultimate Content

also need to produce stories that are good enough to

Playbook seriesthe point where the difficult work

be shared. Otherwise, there wont be a compounding

begins and brands start to fail. Over the past few years,

return on social. The same goes for search.

many brands have successfully evangelized a content

program and drawn up a strong strategy; few, however,

Theres not a whole lot of value in writing a decent

have successfully executed and seized that opportunity.

blog post anymore, explained Moz founder and SEO

luminary Rand Fishkin. [Theres not a lot of value]
unless you can be pretty extraordinary.

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But if you take the appropriate steps, the likelihood of

success increasesand the potential rewards are well

1. Crafting a brand voice and content marketing mission

statement to guide your efforts.

worth the investment of time and money.

2. Identifying your story types and requirements so you
For the rest of our third content marketing playbook,

know what to create.

well take you through the five necessary steps required

to execute a content marketing program, developed
from the best practices we learned from our own

3. Building an editorial calendar to hold yourself accountable to a consistent publishing schedule.

experiences as publishers and the work weve done

launching the content marketing efforts of hundreds of
companies around the globe:

4. Staffing your content team so you can begin creating

content.
5. Creating an approval workflow so you can operate
like a real newsroom.

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2. Crafting a Brand Voice &

Mission Statement
Creating a mission statement is one of the most difficult
yet enjoyable stages of the content marketing journey.
A great mission statement speaks not only to your content plan and goals, but also captures who you are as a
brand and as a publisher. Its the rallying cry that makes
you excited to come to work every day, pushing you to
do moreand do betterthan your competitors.

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Like the word irony, brand voice is something people love to talk about
but dont really understand. Its far more than a set of adjectives (clever, smart, millennial) and cant be captured in a mock tweet. It goes far
deeper than that, which makes sense: Your brand voice is at the heart of
every piece of content you create.
To craft a brand voice, Im a big fan of an exercise that content strategist
Melissa Lafsky Wall recently advocated in a piece on The Content Strategist. Her advice is so brilliant that instead of summarizing her ideas and
butchering it in the process, Ill just share her recommendation in full:

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ULTIMATE CONTENT STRATEGIST PLAYBOOK

Say youre going to a dinner party full of people you

The logical question now is, So what personality traits

dont know. Whether you admit it or not, youll want

does my brand embody? The answer can only come from

each of the other people at the party to leave with a

one source: your brand itself. No one else can identify

certain viewpoint or opinion about you at the end of the

your brands values and point of view other than the

night. So you act a certain way, choose certain words

individuals who comprise it. The most successful brands

and conversation topics over others, make certain jokes,

stand for an idea (Apple, GE, IBM), and that idea is a

and generally work to be the most charming, or funny,

good place to start when it comes to distilling your brand

or book-smart, or emotionally sensitive, etc. version of

values into a key concept or identity.

yourself, depending on which of these traits are the most

important for you to convey.

You may be thinking that what Im describing resembles

a common branding exercise, in which teams boil their

With brands, its really not all that different. The funda-

brand down to four or five words or colors or images, etc.

mentals of voice comes down to a personalitypriori-

But identifying the voice involves a bit more anthropo-

tizing a set of traits that comprise an identity, and then

morphization than that (and yes, thats a wordI looked

communicating in a way that expresses and prioritizes

it up).

those traits. Which means that, in order to create a successful voice, a brand is required to take on some of the
personality of, well, an actual person (the Supreme Court
would be so pleased).

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Another way to think of it is this: If your brand was the person at the dinner
party, who would it be? The gadget freak who snagged an iPhone 6 a week
before they went on sale? The honest and kind friend youd consult while
getting dressed for a date? The mad scientist determined to find a way to
make fuel out of pencil shavings?
These examples may sound hyperbolic, but they get at values that lead
people to prioritize certain skills and behaviors over others. Brands are no
different.

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A clear sense of identity is what categorizes the best

TOMAS KELLNER, MANAGING EDITOR, GE REPORTS:

brand publishers. GE is the smart, inquisitive, clev-

Here we are. Were 130 years old. We were founded by

er science nerd who blows your mind. Red Bull is the

Thomas Edison, and guess what? We are still working

death-defying rock star you want to hang out with.

on really hard problems that the entire planet has to

HubSpot is the inbound marketing genius who wants

be dealing with, whether its the future of energy or

to help you get that promotion. Moz is the wizard of

whether its the future of electricity or whether its new

SEO with secrets that will fundamentally change your

propulsion for planes that will get you from New York

business. In different ways, theyre all a kind of person

to Tokyo in four hours.

who will accumulate a posse of interested admirers at

that dinner party.

JOE CHERNOV, VP OF MARKETING, HUBSPOT:

HubSpot is not only a company, but its also the cataOf course, this exercise of anthropomorphization is just

lyst of a movement. And as a community has coalesced

thatan exercise. Brands cant have a voice or a mis-

around that movement, its our job to nurture and

sion; the people who communicate on their behalf do.

foster it.

When I spoke with the men behind the content powerhouses at HubSpot, Moz, and GE, that much was clear.

RAND FISHKIN, FOUNDER, MOZ:

You can hear the mission in the brand voice.

[Content is] part of our DNA. We believe in sharing and

being transparent in putting out there the things that
weve learned. ... We want to try and help marketers
first. Thats our underlying goal. We really dont think
about content marketing as being part of our funnel. Its
part of our mission.

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While the business goals of your content marketing efforts are importantbe it generating leads, sales, brand awareness, industry education,
or, more likely, some combination of initiativeswe find it extremely
helpful to keep your goals focused on the audience you want to serve.
For example, this is our mission statement for The
Content Strategist:

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If the marketing blogosphere were a college, there would

take advantage means thinking beyond the tropes of the

currently be about 10,000 professors angling for ten-

past.

ureand all of them would be teaching some version of

inbound 101 or remedial content. Picture a dusty hall full

We also aim to have fun because this is fun! The late,

of creaky desks, a syllabus full of old listicles and ques-

great David Carr put it best when he said, Creating

tionable stats, and the teacher droning on and on while

media content is a diverting activity that rarely resembles

the students pass notes in the form of Pitbull GIFs.

actual work. And if youre reading The Content Strategist,

it likely means your job involves telling stories in some

Then picture the Kool-Aid man bursting through the wall

way or another.

screaming, OHHH YEAHHHHHHHHH!

Theres no reason that marketing content has to be dry or
Thats us. Were the Kool-Aid man of marketing pubs.

boringafter all, a good story is a good story, no matter

what its about. Just because were writing about content

Whats that mean? Well, first and foremost we want to

marketing doesnt mean we cant use NBA metaphors

give you information you cant find anywhere else on the

or make fun of our own buzzwords. Theres no reason a

Internet, and we want to do it every single day. Forget

story about ROI or legal approvals cant have a few jokes

telling you that certain things workwe want to tell you

in it. Marketers are humans too.

why they work, how they work, and whats going to work
next. Were going to continuously talk to the smartest
people in our industry, and were going to tell you what
we find out. Media is changing marketing (and vice
versa), and understanding what it all means and how to

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At Contently, we talk a lot about building a better media world, which

sounds like something out of Silicon Valley, but its true. We believe in
helping people tell amazing stories instead of polluting the web with mediocrity, and in the power of ditching intrusive advertising in favor of great
media experiences. The Internet is what we make it, and we want to make
it awesome.

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Notice how focused we are on our readers; thats not a

If we fell victim to the temptation to strip-mine that

front. We do have clear business goals for The Content

audience with overt promotions, wed destroy the asset

Strategistbuilding brand awareness, fortifying our

many people have worked so hard to build.

reputation as a content marketing thought leader, educating clients and potential clients, and driving email

As you identify your brand voice and craft your mis-

subscribers, leads, sales and opportunitiesbut our pri-

sion statement, keep all of that in mind. You have to

mary focus and editorial mission remains helping our

put your readers first and give them what theyre not

readers become better, smarter content marketers. And

getting elsewhere. Your mission statement will be your

weve found putting our readers first is the best way to

guiding light, the document that keeps you in check,

drive all of those results.

inspires you, and protects your content from marketings shadow. Its crucial. I dont know where wed be

Our mission statement reflects our commitment to

without it.

editorial purity, and if you talk to successful brand

publishers, theyll tell you that commitment is key. In
the words of Joe Chernov: [O]wning your audience
comes with huge responsibilitiesnamely the need
to protect that audience from marketings shadow. ...

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3. Identifying Story Types & Topics

Once you have a mission statement that makes you
beam with pride, its time to figure out what types of content you should createblog posts, reported features,
photography, illustrations, infographics, comics, videos,
white papers and e-books, etc. This is a critical step. You
cant start to map out your editorial calendar, staff your
content team, or design your approval workflow until you
know what kind of content youre going to make.

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This is another step that should be informed by the

CRE

content strategy analysis you already conducted (as

AT E

outlined in our last playbook). If your particular niche

is saturated with basic blog posts but lacking longform

EN

TI

ics, that could represent a great opportunity for you to

GA

OP

ter. If no ones poking fun at your industry with com-

GE

features and videos, you may want to invest in the lat-

stand out. But keep a few rules of thumb in mind:

1. Try a little bit of everything out. Content marketing
involves a cycle of constant learning and optimiza-

2. Prioritize quality over quantity. Its hard to stand out,

tion. At Contently, we boil this process down to the

so you shouldnt think of your infographics as some-

executive-friendly abbreviation of CEOcreate, en-

thing you can get done cheaply on Fiverr, or your

gage, optimizeand visualize it with the flywheel be-

original photography as something Steve the Lead

low. Your initial content strategy should be a refined

Gen Guy can take care of with his Samsung Galaxy.

educated guess about what will work, but you need

Keep that in mind when evaluating different formats.

to be constantly testing new things and optimizing

based off the results.

3. Describe your story types for content novices. If

youre reading this, theres a good chance youre more
sophisticated than your colleagues when it comes
to content. Over-explain what each content format
entails.

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To see what this looks like, here are our different story types:

QUICK HITTER

VIDEO

250500 words to introduce breaking news, research, or

A story up to five minutes long about storytelling,

a cool visual component like an infographic or video.

including interviews with thought leaders and/or brief

news updates.

WEB-SOURCED IN-DEPTH

5001,200 words based on web sources; includes a

COMIC

complex level of analysis.

Single or multiple panel illustrations lampooning the

content marketing industry.

BASIC REPORTED STORY

400800 words with between one and three sources.

E-BOOK

3,00010,000-word guides and industry reports, usually

LONGFORM FEATURE STORY

downloadable in exchange for an email address.

1,000+ words with a compelling narrative focus and

multiple primary sources.
INFOGRAPHIC

Graphic visual representation of information, data, or

knowledge that communicates key industry topics.

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Next, its important to detail the different topics youd like to cover. Our topics align with the five main
sections of The Content Strategist: Brands, Media, Social, ROI, and Voices.

BRANDS

SOCIAL

News, trends, and analysis of the branded content

Strategies, tools, and tips for spreading content through

movement.

the social web.

MEDIA

VOICES

Journalism, native advertising, and the future of the

Thought leadership, opinions, and perspectives on the

media business.

future of content.

ROI

Best practices for tying content to business results.

Once you have these tables compiled, keep referring back to them as you create your editorial calendar
to make sure youre trying out each topic with all possible story types.

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4. Building an Editorial Calendar

Now its time for the fun partbuilding your editorial calendar. Since you still have a lot to figure out before you
can get up and running, youll likely want to give yourself
a cushion of six to eight weeks before you start publishing. Building an editorial calendar will give you a clear
picture of what types of stories youll publish on a daily
basis and who you need to hire to get up and running.

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While the ultimate goal is to become a daily publisher,

If you have absolutely no budget for a calendar but

you dont want to overwhelm yourself when youre just

are running your site on WordPress, your best bet is to

starting out. Dont sacrifice quality for quantity. Gener-

use the WordPress calendar. Its basic but gets the job

ally, we recommend starting out with two stories per

done. If you dont have WordPress, see if your content

week and increasing from therethough you might be

management system (CMS) offers something similar. If

able to handle less or more depending on your inter-

not, HubSpots editorial calendar template is a decent

nal capabilities. Its important to be ambitious, but not

stopgap measure you can edit easily to fit your needs.

unrealistic.

DivvyHQ can also get the job done if you have a small
budget and team since its editorial calendar software is

To be honest, were spoiled when it comes to editorial

priced on a per-seat basis.

calendars. The Contently platform has a gorgeous dragand-drop calendar with easy filters, a text editor, and
built-in approval workflows. However, not everyone
can afford this type of software.

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But whatever system you use, you want to be sure you can track and filter a few important details:

AUTHOR:

FORMAT / TYPE:

The storyteller or storytellers responsible for producing

As outlined above.

the story (the writer, designer, illustrator, videographer,

etc.).

TOPIC:

As outlined above.
DUE DATE:

When the story or story assets are due from the author.

URL:

The URL of the story once it is published.

PUBLISH DATE:

The date you intend to publish the piece. Be sure to

TARGET KEYWORDS (OPTIONAL):

schedule extra time for revisions, adding in more time

It can also be useful to include target keywords for the

(at least four days) for more complex topics or less time

writer to keep in mindalthough you never want to

(one or two days) for simpler posts.

encourage keyword stuffing, which will damage the

quality of your story. Its a fine line, so make sure you

INTENDED AUDIENCE:

walk it.

The primary or secondary audience the story is intended to reach, as we outlined in our last playbook.

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As you start to fill out your calendar, establish a steady publishing

cadence. Posting at a regular pace will make it much easier to get into
a rhythm when it comes time to engage your audience, measure your
success, and optimize for the next round of publishing.
For example, heres a current snapshot of our calendar for The Content
Strategist. Notice how theres a steady flow of two to four posts each
weekday. This ensures that we deliver consistent value to our readers
on each of our primary distribution channels (email, Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, and Google+).

Now that you can see what type of content you need to create, it's time
to staff up.

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5. Staffing Your Content Team

The idea of staffing a content team and building a
brand newsroom is enough to give some marketers a
panic attack. But its less complex than you think.

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First, evaluate what internal resources you already have.

Coca-Cola, for instance, has a small core team of edi-

Thats going to be the biggest factor that determines the

tors and designers, complementing that with a staff of

mix of in-house people and freelancers you need to

freelance storytellers through Contently to scale their

deliver based on the strategy youve outlined.

content operation. They now publish 1215 pieces per

week on Coca-Cola Journey. Weve really tried to carve

Most successful brand publishers take a hybrid ap-

out a beat system with our Contently writers, said Jay

proach to their newsroom. A core in-house team serves

Moye, Coca-Cola Journeys managing editor. Its nice to

as the protector of the brand voice, distributes and

know who we can go to for certain stories.

measures content, and optimizes editorial strategy;

freelancers add subject matter expertise and storytelling

Those writers can also supply fresh story ideas, voices,

firepower to the mix.

and perspectives that spice up your storytelling. One of

Coca-Cola Journeys most popular posts, for example,

I think that brands are using freelancers a lot more

was a story about Coke-themed weddingsa phenom-

simply because its a lot easier for them to scale based

enon unearthed by a freelancer named Laura Randall.

on what their content needs and requirements are,

The feature story told the tale of a few happy couples

Michele Linn, the Content Marketing Institutes director

and their Coke-red nuptials.

of content, recently told The Content Strategist.

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That was not an idea that we can take credit for. That

To visualize this hybrid model, lets look at how we

was Lauras idea, Moye said. And there are many more

structured our own editorial team at Contentlyand

where that came from.

how its evolved as weve proven the business value of

our content efforts and grown our team.

But while freelance resources can be a great help, its

important to have at least one in-house employee
devoted to guiding your content marketing operation
ideally someone with a wealth of editorial experience.
At GE Reports, that person is Tomas Kellner, a veteran
reporter from Forbes who writes most of the magazines
feature stories, directs editorial strategy, and teaches
storytelling workshops to GE employees around the
world. Kellner also relies on a small squad of internal
writers and freelancers from content marketing agency
Group SJR.

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Heres what our editorial org chart looked like in December 2013, when we hired our first full-time editor (me!) and started investing serious resources in our own content marketing:

VP OF CONTENT

POOL OF FREELANCERS

(journalists, designers,

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DESIGNER

illustrators, videographers)

EDITORIAL INTERN

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And heres how we structure things today:

VP OF CONTENT

sam slaughter

POOL OF FREELANCERS

(journalists, designers,

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DESIGN TEAM

illustrators, videographers)

SOCIAL MEDIA
EDITOR

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ASSOCIATE
EDITOR

PHOTO EDITOR

AST. EDITOR

part time

part time

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As our content efforts have grown more ambitious (telling better stories,
launching a second magazine, etc.) our team has gotten bigger. Simultaneously, the pool of freelancers we use through our own network has
allowed us to easily scale our efforts.
Ultimately, growing your team gradually is the safest and smartest way
to go. As much as I would have loved to have todays team 15 months
ago, we had to figure out what worked with a small operation before
taking that leap.
Another note: If you dont have the power to hire people to full-time
editorial positions, you can still build a core staff with freelancers. When
youre starting small, hiring a freelance managing editor for 10 hours a
week, a photo editor/designer for another five, and a half-dozen freelance writers can be sufficient to get the job doneas long as everyone is good enough. At Contently, we supply our clients with freelance
managing editors, and its proven to be a highly successful model. All
those editors are rigorously vetted and usually have at least 10 years of
experience.

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6. Creating an Approval Workflow

In sports, theres a common clich about everyone knowing their role and sticking to it. The same can be said for
publishing.

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Whose job is it to generate story ideas? Who turns those story ideas into
assignments so you dont blow your entire budget on 50 cat listicles?
Who edits those stories? Who presses Publish?
Below is the approval workflow or editorial team uses at Contently for
The Content Strategist for a day-to-day text article. As youll see, anyone
can come up with a story idea, but as the captain of our content strategy, Im the one who assigns every story on the calendar. And though
members of our team are responsible for edits, photo treatments, and
copy edits, each story comes back to me for approval before it goes live.
That way, if there are any mistakesor anything that doesnt fit our style
or standard of qualityI catch it before it goes live (or, if not, I take the
blame).

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CONTENT IDEATION / PITCHES

CREATE ASSIGNMENT

FIRST DRAFT

writers / contently staff

editor-in-chief

writer

PHOTO TREATMENT

EDIT 1

photo editor

associate editor

LEGAL QUESTIONS?

EDIT 2

editor-in-chief

COPY EDIT

copy editor

PUBLISH

editor-in-chief

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This process changes slightly for multimedia posts, or if

out of the approval process as much as possible by

Im the author of the article, but the system works the

setting and documenting clear guidelines that ensure

same: I assign, approve, and deal with the consequenc-

your content is compliant with legal and brand style

es, both good and bad.

standards. To streamline your publishing infrastructure,

you need to make sure everyone is aware of those stan-

Our system happens to be relatively simple because we

dards. How do you do that? Conveniently enough, its

work at a small company without a lot of bureaucracy

the same way you ensure editorial qualityby placing

and dont cover a highly regulated industry like finance

one key stakeholder in charge of final decisions.

or pharmaceuticals. And if you do work at a fairly large

company or in one of those industries, you might be

GE Reports publishes at a quick, steady cadence, even

shaking your head because you know theres one big

though a lot of their stories report on the companys

challenge youll have to overcome: brand and legal ap-

emerging technologies in highly regulated areas like

provals. Youve heard the horror stories about organiza-

healthcare, where non-compliant content can have se-

tions that take months to approve simple social media

rious legal consequences. But because of the standards

updates. Its something that can completely derail a

the company has in place, the editorial team has the

content operation and needs to be avoided at all costs.

power and flexibility to publish at the speed of news

without fear of penalty.

The keyas Contently Studios Director John Hazard

wrote last fall in an excellent guide to content approvalsis to get lawyers and superfluous brand managers

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Managing Editor Tomas Kellner ensures that every story

through efficiently. It often got stuck. Its like build-

is fact-checked with internal sources, a practice he per-

ing a house. You have to put in the plumbing. Once

fected during his journalism career. And when a story

you know who these people are, you dont have to go

actually does need to go through legal approval, he

through the various gatekeepersyou can go directly to

knows when to send it up the chain of command based

them and check on your story and see how its mov-

on his editorial instincts. With health care, for exam-

ing.

ple, you could not publish a story without legal approval, he said. Often, when you talk about a device, it

And since Kellner serves as the keeper of GE Reports

actually has to go through two sets of lawyers. It has to

editorial voice and content standards, the company has

go through the regular legal department, but then it also

a system of checks and balances that allows it to stand

has to go through the regulatory lawyers that make sure

out as a stellar publisher without getting sued.

that what youre saying actually describes fairly what

the machine is doing.

When it comes to a company publication and your

stories get noticed by the top-level publications, you are

However, the process doesnt bog down GE Reports

under a special degree of scrutiny, Kellner said.

publishing schedule because of the clear understanding

and close relationship that Kellner has built with his

If a 130-year-old behemoth like GE can get its content

legal department over time. In the beginning, it was a

approvals in order, so can you.

difficult practice for me to learn, he explained. I didnt

know who these people were and how to get the copy

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Conclusion
Nearly every week, I interview successful brand pub-

This isnt a unique sentiment; its something youll hear

lishers, and one of the first questions is almost always

from coaches, entrepreneurs, sales heads, or, heck, even

about how they structure their newsrooms. Whos on

the manager at your favorite dive bar. For tens of thou-

your team, I ask. How does the sausage get made?

sands of years, people have been coming together to

make something greatits just that only recently has

Universally, theres an upswing in their voice; pride

that thing been great branded content.

shines through. And thats because they know a universal thing; staffing, launching, and coordinating a con-

Now, you have the tools to staff and launch the content

tent marketing machine is hard work, and its a process

marketing machine of your dreams and start consis-

that takes time to perfect. But once your team is in a

tently creating high-quality content that youre proud

groove, its a beautiful thing to behold; you make each

of. In our next (and fourth) content marketing playbook,

other better, and its a foregone conclusion that your

well talk about how to distribute that content and build

success will keep building over time.

a loyal audience. Stay tuned.

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ULTIMATE CONTENT STRATEGIST PLAYBOOK

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