Online sales have quickly overtaken choosing goods and services at the store level. Today, even shoes can be safely ordered online with little effort and great satisfaction. Returning products has become easier and with this added benefit, it has encouraged the buy-at-home consumer. Today’s thought leaders and savvy business owners know that content marketing is the way of the future. Whether you consider in-source marketing or out-sourcing the content to professionals, it cannot be overlooked. Embracing this new method will insure success in 2015. We’ll discuss both methods in this post article.
Using an in-house employee to keep content current .. is this a smart decision?
Yes, using those that best understand your company product and vision should be the first choice for content marketing and this method is referred to as “in-sourcing.” This allows the company to leverage the existing company talent. Once this employee is identified, ask if they would be open to acting as the content manager, and partner with the team to blog for the company. If this individual has previous journalism background, this is another added advantage.
The person chosen, will take the content provided by the team and organize it into the correct format to be published online regularly. They will also offer their own unique and creative perspective to attract online buyers. Since the blogger could reasonably spend 20 to 35 hours per month developing, researching and producing the blog content, the company must consider compensation for this new task.
Hiring within the company (in-sourcing) is the best method to connect with the world. This additional expense should be considered for the yearly budget and it will pay off for online success. Organic visitors should increase exponentially using this method.
Steps mentioned above include:
- Forward thinking leaders partner with all employees to provide valuable content to keep the site content current.
- Leaders will choose one specific person to blog and to act as the staff writer and content manager (someone with journalism experience).
- A budget is developed to pay this specific individual to perform this task. This effort will require additional hours on behalf of the team.
- Content should include white papers (from other employees) webinars and other company content provided by the team.
Downside to “in-sourcing.”
The company individual chosen for blogging must learn the software associated with the company website. This is necessary to add current post articles to the blog area. If the site is WordPress, the learning curve is very small and can easily be learned quickly. However, if the platform is Joomla, Drupal or another technology, you may be better served to hire an outside person (IT professional) familiar with the software.
Is “out-sourcing” an option when company staff is not available?
Of course, if no one is suitable within the company, then hiring an outside blogger is the only choice and great care should be taken in locating the perfect professional to represent the company. If you want to be great with content marketing you can’t expect to fall short in this area. It is worth every penny that you spend inside or outside the company to have a person responsible for the content marketing. Content managers are crucial for success in 2015.
Working with a professional will still offer an opportunity for others in the business to contribute. Each employee can provide valuable content based upon each person’s expertise within the organization. This information and specific topic content should be given to the blogger of choice. He or she will then organize and develop the content for publishing on the web. This community effort will lead to the success of the website.
Downside to “out-sourcing content management.”
Professional bloggers generally (in most cases) will be familiar with WordPress software and other web software and can easily begin the blogging process. However, they are not as familiar with your company product or service as a company individual. In this case, we recommend partnering with the blogger to provide company articles and information which will add to the content relevancy.
How important is content marketing to my ROI (Return On Investment)?
To answer this question, content marketing will make or break the company’s online effort this year. It is the top method to elevate your brand in the new year. It is a powerful medium and those companies who fail to realize this importance and spend no time in developing an authority website will not be considered thought leaders in the online community and will not be able to compete in the current marketplace.
Happy new year to all of our followers and online friends. Contact us this year for design savings or simply to discuss your goals for the new year and your online marketing ideas.
Jean HollandRose
Chief Creative Officer and SEO Professional
