The 6 Executives Necessary for an Effective Content Marketing Team

As you must have read in a lot of blog posts, content is king and quality content is key to excellent content marketing. This is true. However, it is only one half of the equation. The second half is a content marketing team. Thinking how so? Well…successful content marketing isn’t just about creating great content, it also involves managing the content; from ideas to development, distribution and eventually, improvement. For that process, you need an effective content marketing team.

If your content marketing game isn’t as strong you expected it to be, it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem with your content. Most times, the solution lies in the quality of your content marketing team. When I say “quality” I don’t mean certifications or experience although they play a major role when choosing your marketing team. By “quality”, I mean the “effectiveness” of your team.

For your marketing team to be effective, the following 6 roles have to be occupied and functioning.

1. The CEO

This guy is in charge of overseeing all projects and personnel. This role make sure that all arms of the marketing team is working properly. This role is also in charge of setting goals and creating strategies that would move the team forward and improve the quality of service. Without this role, there would be little or no organization in the team. If you own a business, this person is most likely you.

2. The Lead Content Manager

This guy is in charge of all things marketing. This role ensures that every necessary procedure happens in time, on budget and effectively. This role also monitors the success of the campaigns and keeps everyone updated. This role is in charge of strategy and tactics. Without this role, it would be difficult to drive and measure success.

Understand that this role exist because most times (talking from experience), the CEO doesn’t really know much about content marketing or is too busy monitoring other sections of the business. This guy takes charge and reports only to the CEO. If for some reason, you as the CEO can handle this role too…oh well, i guess that reduces your payroll.

3. Editor in Chief

This guy maintains content volume and consistency by managing internal and external content creators, as well as the editorial calendar. This role is basically in charge of content creation, blogs, videos, pictures, infographics etc.

4. Analytics Officer

This guy is in charge of monitoring all marketing success/results on the web, social media inclusive. This guy’s job is basically to spot strategies that are effective or ineffective and provide insight for the team.

5. Communications/Social Media Manager

Okay, this guy here is in charge of distributing content across all channels and making sure contents are visible to the public. He is also some sort of PR guy. He interacts with the public on-behalf of the represented brand. This guy basically maximizes ROI by increasing content visibility and driving engagement.

6. Customer Advocate

Now this guy isn’t an executive…he is not even necessarily part of the “marketing team” but he brings insight as to how your audience/customer see your content and how to better serve your audience. If your are thinking “am I gonna pay this guy?”…well not necessarily. This guy is usually the audience that first sees your content and tells if it resonates with the general audience or not. An outsider’s perspective prevents you from publishing content that may not resonate with your audience.

Remember, content marketing success happens differently for different companies irrespective of size. Match job roles needed with the skill sets you have and outsource what you need.