Over the past decade, Google has been hard at work, tweaking algorithms at every possible juncture to provide better search results for us.
Through all the thick and thin that the digital marketers had to endure, content has been the one constant at all times.
Many enterprises looking at effective marketing either realized it late and got their act together or are still struggling.
Few have managed to master content marketing. These enterprises are the ones who know how to handle and align their content across multiple channels. They have the best content operations.
Today, we shall take a deep-dive into the world of content operations and see what it is.
Content operations is the process of developing content as planned in the marketing strategy by an organization.
Any enterprise looking for an effective marketing strategy will include content in its approach.
Once the strategy is in place, they will want to convert it into results. But, there is no magic happening.
We can draw a parallel between coding and content creation. Coders are hard at work, toiling away to develop the best application. Similarly, content operations involve acting on the strategy to bring in results.
Content operations sit right between content strategy and content marketing. All the content that you plan to market, someone has to develop it. It doesn’t always have to be text content. It can range from blogs, articles, images, infographics, videos, and so on.
Developing all this content for your marketing activities involves substantial efforts. You will need a team of content writers, editors, graphic designers, videographers, and so on.
All of these are a part of your content operations.
Many organizations struggle with developing appropriate content. They have all the plans and strategies in place, and they know how to market the content.
But, they are unable to produce the effective content they need. This issue has been hampering enterprises globally.
Here is where the need for content operations arises and gains importance.
If an enterprise has effective content operations, they will have all the required resources. They can create the content necessary per planned strategy.
Their content operations unit will keep working on developing the requisite data. Parallelly, the marketing team can use this to leverage their enterprise and gain wins.
It is a continuous process.
Content operations cannot function in bursts. The development of content will continue as the enterprise progresses. Eventually, the content pipeline will be robust.
This will enable enterprises to effectively leverage the content and gain an edge over the digital space competition. This will improve engagement and provide results.
If you are an enterprise looking to inculcate content operations within your marketing process, there are some things to look out for.
There are no said rules for this, but some guidelines can ensure that you have effective content operations.
A significant mistake an enterprise can make is not aligning their content goals to the company revenue goals.
This can cause a mismatch between the content being generated to the results.
Eventually, the marketing campaigns will yield a lower result or a different result than expected. All the effort put in must not be in vain.
Also Read: Five Benefits of User-Generated Content
A good content operations unit means the right mix of all types of content creators. You should have the content strategy well defined to know the kind of content expected to be created.
According to the plan, hire the right creators for your organization. A resource mismatch might tilt the balance and result in an inconsistent content manufacturing tempo.
All your content creators must be independent in executing their part of the tasks.
A tracking tool can be handy here, such as a content operations platform. It will ensure proper transparency in the tasks being performed.
You can know how much a resource is used, and hence the workforce can be managed accordingly to get the best and efficient results.
There will be some quick results expected and some long-term projects running as a content operations unit. Have a proper balance of both to ensure there is always a steady supply of content at all times.
There are no gaps in creating content, and the resources are never idle or overworked at any given time.
The balance of work is vital for the delivery of the best and most creative content.
Since your unit will be one of the most creative within the organization, other teams will also want some part of the pie to enhance their offerings.
Always ensure that your resources have a fixed time allotment to provide to other units.
This is to ensure your planned activities are not hampered due to external, ad-hoc requests coming from other departments.
Sometimes it might be crunch time, or some new content ideas might seem exciting but do not necessarily match the goals.
It is imperative to say no to them at the right time, instead of wasting the extra time and resources for no result in the end.
Having a clear ‘No’ policy is also an essential practice to follow for effective content operations.
Your in-house team can be under pressure during some calendar year phases due to unforeseen situations or sudden changes in plans.
Having a full-time resource can be time-consuming and expensive for the company during such a period.
Freelancers are an effective way to manage heavy workloads. It is always a good idea to have a couple of freelancers with varied skills handy.
They can help relieve your full-time resources during crunch time and are cost-friendly for the company.
For an enterprise looking to establish an effective content operations unit or merely to breathe some fresh air into the current one, a content operations platform can be a powerful tool.
There are many content operations platforms available in the marketplace.
It all drills down to what suits the needs of the organization the best. Following are some of the most popular content operation platforms:
GatherContent is an all-in-one content operation platform. It provides enterprises the tools to create quality content quickly. It can help enterprises ease their workflows and maintain a steady supply of content based on their strategies.
Kapost provides enterprises with a host of features to work with. Marketing teams can create custom calendars based on the strategies in place and content plans.
With Kapost, contributor access can be controlled. Customization of workflows and campaign creatives is also possible.
Percolate is one of the leading content marketing and operations platforms. It provides a lot of interesting features.
Enterprises can leverage their platform to create content and coordinate between teams. This will enable the timely delivery of quality content.
Conclusion
Content operations might be a new term being used around the marketing industry. But the central concept is around since the beginning of content production. It is just that no one addressed it explicitly until now.
As an enterprise looking to have an effective marketing function, ensure that your content operations unit is working in tandem with your other functions. This will enable you to gain an edge over your competition.
