
I recently wrote about how some brands are stuck in the past and can’t seem to shake old habits, like creating “ads” and “spots” that interrupt consumers and offer no value.
It’s hard to transform a brand that’s stuck in its ways, with senior executives that don’t understand the changing media landscape, who still think consumers want to hear about features and benefits vs engaging with content that informs, entertains, and solves problems.
Remember when Blockbuster passed up the opportunity to buy Netflix for 50 million and their CEO said ““I’ve been frankly confused by this fascination that everybody has with Netflix …Netflix doesn’t really have or do anything that we can’t or don’t already do ourselves.”
A lot of traditional marketers sound similar, not understanding how content marketing, brand storytelling, and influencer marketing can create content that people want, how it can win the hearts, minds, and wallets of consumers, and how it can transform marketing from a cost center to a revenue center.
Brands that refuse to innovate are the same brands that become irrelevant to consumers.
I’m not saying that content marketing should be your only strategy. It shouldn’t, but it should be a big part of your overall marketing mix. If you’re going to interrupt consumers with “ads” or even content for that matter, you’d better provide value and interrupt them at the right time, right place, and on the right device.
Before you start producing content though, you need to design an effective content marketing organization and hire the right people.
I’ve built three content studios for global media companies and brands and it’s completely different from any other type of organization. Hopefully, you’re starting from scratch. One global brand I am working with today on content marketing org design already has 14 different departments creating content, using different strategies, different technology, and they don’t talk to each other. It’s not pretty.
I’ll be sharing my tips on how to design content marketing orgs later, but here are my top tips on who to hire and what industries to hire from.
I always advocate that a content marketing org should be centralized. There should be one team (call it what you want) that leads your brands strategy – locally to globally.
Assuming that, here are the four types of people to hire and where to find them:
Good luck and congrats on getting the budget to launch a content marketing org. If you need help in designing your org, evaluating the current org, or finding people to hire, please let me know. Our team has workshops that can help bring it too life.