How to Build a Content Writing Team

Inbound marketing is one of the most important customer acquisition strategies. It’s a business methodology that utilizes blogs, ebooks, social media, and other digital channels to attract the attention of your audience. More traffic ultimately translates to more leads and sales for your business.

Publishing content online enables you to reach prospects searching for solutions that your business offers. But creating content on your own for different marketing channels requires massive effort. It leaves little time for anything else. The answer is to put together a team of writers who can help you streamline your content creation efforts. 

Here are tips on how to build a content writing team for your business.

1. Nail Down Your Content Strategy

Before you start hiring writers, you need to have a content strategy in place. A content strategy defines your target audience and identifies the problems they struggle with. It also details your unique value proposition and what distinguishes your products or services from the competition. 

A content marketing strategy essentially serves as a blueprint for your business. Not having one would be akin to going on a road trip without a map. It’s certainly possible, but you’re only making things harder for yourself. Be specific with your plan by including the types of content you’ll create (e.g., blog posts, videos, etc.) and channels you’ll use to publish and promote them in your content strategy.

2. Structure Your Content Writing Team

Bringing on people with clearly defined job roles is key to having a well-structured content writing team. Your team will likely consist of a content strategist, content writers and creators, and an editor. The content strategist is the person responsible for managing and executing your content strategy. Then the content writers and creators step in and produce content for your blog or social media pages. And the content editor ensures all the content is error-free and reflects the company’s tone before it’s published.

You should also think about bringing on designers to your team who can produce visuals for your content. You can use free editing tools to create graphics, but they shouldn’t be a replacement for a skilled designer. Strong visuals can increase engagement and even help your pages generate more shares on social media.

3. Research and Hire Content Writers

With a content strategy and structure in place, it’s time to put your team together. Use social networks like LinkedIn to help with your search. Freelancing platforms like Upwork or Toptal are another option to find qualified writers. Create an enticing job listing and outline exactly what you’re looking for to attract quality talent.

Next, you’ll start the vetting process. Have applicants fill out a simple form to provide more information about themselves, including their work experience. You can even have applicants submit a content sample to help you determine if they’re a good fit. Be sure to run any samples you receive through a plagiarism checker to check that their content is unique.

4. Look For Diverse Talents

Not all writers are the same. Some may have no problem turning out technical blog posts, while others may struggle with copywriting. The key to building a strong content team is to hire people with a diverse set of skills. That allows each member to handle a wider spectrum of content marketing needs for your business.

For example, after a blog post is published, a content writer with a marketing background can utilize their skills to conduct outreach and build backlinks to those pieces. This in turn can improve your overall search rankings.

5. Establish a Content Workflow 

With a team of writers, you’re going to manage a lot of content. It’s important to have a proper system in place to keep track of your efforts. Start with a content workflow — a set of steps for taking a piece of content from ideation to publication. 

A typical content workflow includes the following steps:

• Idea generation
• Assign content
• Write
• Editorial review
• Request edits (if necessary)
• Approve
• Publish

Set reasonable deadlines for each to ensure your team has enough time to produce and edit new content. Continue to experiment and tweak your content workflow until you find a system that works for your team.

6. Create a Content Style Guide

Customer journeys are increasingly complex. Some people may find your business through an organic search, while others may find you on social media. Having a consistent message across each marketing channel is crucial to your branding efforts. It helps prospects remember who you are and the values you convey.

The purpose of a content style guide is to define your company’s branding. It references your brand’s tone of voice, grammar usage, vocabulary lists, point of view, and visuals. Most importantly, a style guide allows your content writers to maintain a consistent message across your digital assets.

7. Use Tools to Scale

Tools help streamline your content creation efforts and facilitate communication. Google Docs makes it easy to create and collaborate on content. It also has a version history, so you can quickly view all changes made by each collaborator. Once a piece of content meets your style guidelines, use Wordable to export Google Docs into WordPress to save time with formatting.

Here’s how the Wordable dashboard looks:

Simply click the “Export” button and your content will be exported to your WordPress as a draft. You can even change the default settings to publish immediately. If you’re using other tools like project management software to manage your workflow, bring on new team members and share passwords with them using password managers like LastPass.

8. Communicate Frequently

The importance of communication cannot be stressed enough. Every member on your content team needs to be on the same page to effectively execute your content strategy. Make it a point to regularly check in with your team members. This is easy to do if your writers are in-house. If your team is remote, you can simply send an email or use collaboration tools like Slack.

Equally important is to take the time to listen to what your team members are saying. Encourage them to ask questions if anything is unclear or if they have suggestions on improving the content workflow. The most successful teams are those that facilitate communication.

Conclusion

Content creation is at the center of an effective inbound marketing strategy. Without quality content, you’ll struggle to reach and engage your audience. But doing everything yourself just isn’t practical when you have a business to run.

Building a content team can help you develop and manage a cohesive content strategy that aligns with your business goals. Whether you’re a startup or a growing business, an effective team is an integral part of your marketing success. A content team can help you scale content in a way that just isn’t possible on your own. Follow the tips outlined here to build a content writing team.