As content marketing becomes the main focal point of the marketing budgets of many organizations, companies are beginning to develop their content marketing strategies so that they involve a hybrid of in-house and outsourced resources. In order to produce the best results, it is in the interest of the organization to work on building closer relationships with the companies and individuals that produce the content needed for executing the content strategy. Here are a few ways in which organizations can foster better relationships with their content providers.

Why Content Provider Relationship Building Is Important

A successful content marketing campaign begins with ensuring that everyone involved in the process has a full understanding of what his or her role is in executing the content strategy. In addition, relationship building will also help the company to understand what the content provider needs in order to be successful in terms of deadlines and project requirements.

Explain Your Content Strategy

The key people that are responsible for executing your content marketing strategy should all have a thorough understanding of the goals of your content marketing strategy. Leaving the content provider in the dark on this simply because they did not ask you directly or are not a part of the in-house team can lead to miscommunication and a poor understanding of what they are being asked to do.

Give Feedback

Feedback is important for helping your content marketing team to understand what is working and what isn’t working. While all of the team members involved in executing the strategy may not need specific details, such as analytics data, a general overview of how well things are working can be a valuable tool for the team to get better results from the content marketing strategy.

That said, nitpicking is not recommended. While you may want every content item that is produced to be of Pulitzer prize-winning quality, the important thing is that it is published on time and that it reaches the target audience you intended it to. Optimization techniques can be utilized later to get the content to produce even better results.

Keep Writers Working Consistently

A major timewaster for organizations that outsource content production is the fact that they often have little to no control over when the planned content will actually be ready for publication. A major reason for this is that content providers often have to attend to other projects in order to fill revenue gaps. By delivering consistent project opportunities to content providers, you can be assured that your projects will always receive top priority.

A content calendar can help you to create a forecast of your content development needs. This will enable your content providers to plan in advance for your content. In addition, you will no longer have to worry about delays that might throw off the execution of the content strategy because the content provider is unable to finish your project right away.

Urgent Projects Can Be Avoided With Planning

One of the main benefits to working with a content strategy that incorporates a content calendar is that you will be able to decide when content projects should be completed. The best way to make sure that your content provider will be able to produce the content that you need is by planning ahead so that the team has enough time to develop the content.

No one likes to work under tight deadlines and you should use your content marketing calendar to ensure that this doesn’t happen. With a team that is under less stress to meet last minute deadlines, you can guarantee that better quality work will be produced.

The main takeaway from these recommendations is that clear communication and planning are essential for the execution of a content marketing strategy. Instead of throwing another piece of software into the mix, first communicate directly with each member of the content marketing team in order to determine what is needed for planning and executing your content strategy.

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