<\/p>\n
This approach often produces content with little depth and even less impact, which feeds an attitude that blogging just isn’t that important and creates a vicious cycle that sends content creation to the bottom of everyone’s list. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In this article, I will show you that eliciting content from your whole team is valuable – and, what’s more, it can be done<\/b>!<\/span><\/p>\n Oceans of digital ink<\/span><\/a> have been spilled to<\/span> defend the practice of business blogging<\/span><\/a>, so we will attempt to keep this section brief. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the simplest terms possible, every business who relies on online channels to drive sales or leads should make an effort to create new, high-value content on a regular basis. Doing so will help you:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In short, a blog is the type of resource that <\/span>Mike Kappel of Patriot Software<\/span><\/a> calls a ‘salt lick:’<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n “A salt lick is exactly what the name implies. It\u2019s a salt deposit that animals keep coming back to\u2014and licking — in order to ingest nutrients they need. Now, whether or not you want your readers to lick their computer screens is up to you, but you definitely want them to look at your blog as a source of \u201cnutrients\u201d they need to return to and consume.” <\/span><\/p>\n Mike Kappel, Entrepreneur <\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, you’ve decided that your business should have a blog – or you’ve been running one on idle for a few months or years, putting out a few lackluster posts and scrambling just to get the content written in a semi-regular pattern. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Maybe you are in charge of marketing, so the job has landed in your lap. Maybe you have a few people in your marketing team cranking out posts as well, but everything just seems cookie-cuttered and low-impact.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s the thing: Even if you are some kind of<\/span> content machine like Neil Patel<\/span><\/a>, running a really effective blog by yourself is going to stretch you thin. Even Neil took a while to ramp up to his exhausting writing schedule, and I’m betting you have at least a few additional responsibilities taking your attention from time to time. With a small marketing team writing, content and topics can get stale pretty fast.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRule of Thumb is this: More writers from a wider range of backgrounds makes for a deeper, more diverse, and more meaningful blog.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just ask this question<\/b>: Who do you want educating your potential customers on the advantages of your product? While the <\/span>message<\/span><\/i> will need to pass through your marketing team to ensure it is on-brand, the <\/span>content<\/span><\/i> should be coming from the person in your organization most qualified to answer the relevant question. No exceptions!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s one thing to decide that you want busy stakeholders at your company to blog, and quite another thing to keep them producing posts on any sort of regular schedule. Below I have assembled 9 tips for keeping to your editorial calendar and producing content, but first I’d like to address the simple question of incentives. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n You have to give your team a reason to write<\/strong> (other than the fact that you’ve added blogging to their job description.) Here at Iterate, we provide a weekly lunch as a ‘reward’ to get the team together every Friday and keep blogging at top of mind. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Whether you give food, prizes to top bloggers, bonuses or other incentives, <\/span>you need to signal that blogging is valued by the company, and should be important to your writers.<\/b> Remind your team that blogging isn’t just about raising the company’s brand – it’s about personal branding. Even the most reluctant writer will find it hard to reject top-notch content attached to their name.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The foundation for a successful blog is a solid strategy. Before you start bothering your coworkers for blog posts, take the time to sit down and write out answers to the following questions:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Clear expectations and goals are the backbone of this effort, and your number one goal should be spotless organization. If you are going to own this process, get out there and OWN it<\/strong>. You should be keeping track of every one of the following steps in a central location where everyone can see – from upcoming topics to the status of assigned posts, from the reminder emails you’ve sent to the results of your post-publishing promotional strategies. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This organization can take place in a spreadsheet like<\/span> this one from Hubspot<\/span><\/a>, or perhaps you want a <\/span>WordPress plugin like this <\/span><\/a>– the form of your organization doesn’t really matter, as long as you keep it up to date and visible to your team!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Blog success is 90% topic and 10% execution (also, 110% promotion). Even the best-written blog will flounder if the topic just isn’t relevant or interesting, and even a quick, cursory overview of a topic can go viral if it’s launched at the right moment to the right audience. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Collecting and assigning topics should be two-step process<\/strong>. Don’t fall into the trap of going to a writer, asking “Hey, what should we write about?”, then nodding as they reply and saying “Sure, go with that.” <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Take the time to collect ideas from a wide variety of sources, including:<\/span><\/p>\n![\"9-Ways-To-Keep-Your-Blogging-cycle\"](\"http:\/\/52.203.240.20\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/9-Ways-To-Keep-Your-Blogging-cycle.png\")
<\/p>\nWhy is Blogging Important?<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
Why Collaborate?<\/span><\/h3>\n
How To Motivate An Effective, Productive Blogging Team<\/span><\/h3>\n
Tip 1: Get Strategic<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n
Tip 2: Get Organized<\/b><\/h3>\n
Tip 3: Get Ideas<\/b><\/h3>\n