Many companies rely solely on their marketing teams to create content, however the most successful content marketing campaigns require a team effort. From managers and quality analysts to technical support and sales teams, getting the entire organization to contribute to content has many benefits.
Your team is full of individuals, all capable of sharing unique and exciting perspectives. It can be challenging, of course, to rally everyone around content creation - especially those outside of the marketing department - but in doing so, you can add an entirely new, relevant angle to what you produce.
What other benefits can an expanded approach bring? Here are five reasons why you should look to involve all your departments into the content process.
1. It helps to humanize your business
Who better to tell a company’s story than its employees? Team members are far more capable than any external marketing agency. When team members generate content, they themselves become the face of the company, and consumers often find it easier to relate to a real person than a company entity.
A study by the Edelman Trust Barometer found that 67% of consumers trust “company technical experts,” while only 43% trust CEOs. Employee generated content is often more authentic than company-produced content. Therefore, consumers are more likely to trust what individuals have to say over any corporate communication.
Matching content with a face helps brands gain consumer trust.
2. It highlights company culture
Team members live and breathe their company culture every day, so having them generate content gives audiences a firsthand look. Individuals can create behind-the-scenes content, such as day-in-the-life posts, which show potential customers what it’s really like to be a product researcher, sales manager, or technical analyst at their company. They’ll gain more insight about the company, and its employees overall.
Instead of asking team members to come up with new topics, the marketing team can interview colleagues, and create posts spotlighting them. Interview-style posts are an excellent way to highlight employee achievements, and foster a sense of community within the team, boosting company culture.
Behind-the-scenes content can also be an excellent recruiting tool, as it can show potential employees what it’s really like to work for the company, and what makes the business unique.
3. It can increase marketing efficiency
Marketing teams can get potentially overwhelmed when they're the only team members producing content. They could also lose focus in other areas as they become consumed by deadlines. 50% of B2B content marketers that say they struggle to create content consistently.
Distributing content creation among the entire company can help reduce the risk of marketing burnout, and fill gaps in your editorial calendar.
The more quality content a team produces, the better the results. When employees contribute consistently, content marketing generates more website traffic, leads, and sales. Marketing teams that convince other team members to participate in content are also likely to increase their efficiency and ROI.
4. It showcases alternate perspectives
When companies rely on a few select people to produce content, their voice and point of view can become limited. Getting various employees involved with the content creation effort can lead to greater diversity in the company’s brand voice.
Each employee will bring a different set of experiences and knowledge to the table. Audiences will likely appreciate the different points of view, and will be more likely to trust content coming from multiple employees, rather than a single person.
A team brimming with content creators can better establish itself as a leader in the sector, in varying business aspects.
5. It incentivizes the whole team to share content
Team members who assist in creating content are also more likely to become brand advocates, as they'll have more incentive to share content that they've created or contributed to via their own social media channels.
Research has shown that content that individuals share on their own profiles can generate 8x more engagement than content shared on brand channels. Companies can not only use team members to generate quality content, but they can also leverage their networks to extend their reach.
When team members see their name next to an article or blog post, they take ownership and pride, knowing they had a role in the content’s creation. Creating an environment which encourages individuals to share their thoughts and ideas will also likely increase morale, as it will make them feel like their views are important. Employees will also see what’s happening in other areas of the organization, boosting community among team members.
Employee-generated content provides many benefits for marketing teams. When everyone knows why it’s essential for the entire organization to contribute to content, it can be easier to get individual team members on board, and marketing teams that focus on getting the whole company to participate are likely to improve the success of their content marketing strategy.