Is it Time to Expand Your Content Team? Here are 6 Signs.

Content marketing is a strategy that is proven to produce measurable results. As you start to reap the fruits of your labor, you’ll no doubt be eager to crank up your output. However, creating high quality material for your inbound marketing program takes significant time and effort. And while asking your team to pick up the pace on content creation can help you keep up with growing demand temporarily, at some point you’ll want to (and need to) expand your team.

Below are six signs that it’s time to increase your bandwidth:

1. Much of your time is consumed with editing. As you start cranking out more content, there is, of course, more content to review. Until you can grow your team, be sure that everyone is familiar with your brand guide so you don’t find yourself correcting simple style and formatting issues. And encourage team members to do a thorough proofing of their work before submitting it.  
2. You’re struggling to meet deadlines. Until you can hire, be sure that your projects are always properly prioritized and listed on a content calendar. You should also consider adding some repurposed content to the calendar to give your team a breather.
3. You notice a decrease in content quality. If your content is falling below your quality standards, you’ve got a problem. As a stopgap measure, you might take a fresh look at the skillsets of your team members and the projects they’re being assigned. If one person has a knack for a certain type of content that another does not, be sure you are letting people work to their strengths.
4. You feel torn between researching and writing. Dealing with this issue until the cavalry arrives is a challenge, as you never want to skimp on research and writing can only be done so quickly. You may want to consider adding a few lighter topics (i.e. topics that require less research) into the content mix.
5. You aren’t achieving your engagement goals. Staying connected with your audience, like producing content, is time consuming. Until you can expand your team, try setting aside even 10 minutes twice a day for sending replies, etc.
6. Your content promotion is slipping. Creating content is, of course, only one part of the equation. You’ve got to work hard at promoting it as well. Tools like HubSpot can automate much of the promotion process. If you’re not using a marketing automation system, perhaps it’s time.

Your Experienced Content Collaborators

While expanding your team is one way to get more content produced, collaborating with an agency like 30dps is another. We have the skills and experience in in all aspects of content design, creation, and promotion that many companies capitalize on to grow capacity without growing head count. Need some assistance with your content marketing process? Give us a shout.