Your company has been asked to answer an RFP (request for proposal) and the deadline is this Friday. You wouldn’t consider for a minute dragging your feet and submitting your response early next week. A prospect has asked you to provide them an onsite demo of your product tomorrow. Gonna skip the meeting and go play golf? I didn’t think so. Then why is it that the content creation project you’ve asked to contribute to keeps getting pushed to the back burner?
The fact is, for a content marketing strategy to be successful, your output needs to be consistent. And if your output is to be consistent, your coworkers must see their content contribution deadlines as every bit as important as their other business commitments. I’ll agree, the connection between putting out a great piece of content and winning new business is less obvious than that between doing a product demo and winning new business, but the connection is there nevertheless.
So how do you keep an overworked group of business professionals on task? Here are a few time-tested tips:
- Go Public — Thanking a coworker in a meeting, in a group email, or some other “public” forum for their willingness to help create a piece of content is a great way to show your appreciation. It’s also a great way to apply some subtle pressure toward completing the task. Mentioning the due date in this show of thanks isn’t a bad idea either.
- Post a Content Calendar — Record your content creation activities on a calendar—include proposed, scheduled, and completed items. The company intranet or SharePoint site is a great option (and of course, HubSpot has a great content calendar). But even a simple wall calendar hanging in your office will start to give your efforts more visibility and emphasize the importance of meeting deadlines.
- Provide Frequent Friendly Reminders — The fact that someone has agreed to accept a content-related task and has even noted it on their calendar doesn’t guarantee it will be done. While it may feel patronizing to send reminder emails, and you might get the occasional curt reply, your persistence underscores the importance of the piece and the ultimate goal—attracting more prospects and generating more business.
- Offer Assistance — Sometimes all a content contributor needs in order to get moving is a little help. A template they can use for their blog post, some advice on how to create an outline for that case study, or a link to some supporting research, etc. No, you don’t want to (and in many cases can’t) do their work for them, but a little forward momentum can go a long way.
You’ve worked hard to attract an audience for your content offerings, and now they look forward to hearing more from you. Don’t disappoint them. Providing compelling content on a consistent basis should be a shared task that everyone in your organization sees as a high priority.