Senior management has given the organization’s content marketing initiative the thumbs up.
The content strategy for your company’s new blog aligns beautifully with the organization’s business objectives.
The marketing team has created a 3-month content calendar detailing the topic of each week’s blog post.
The company’s internal experts have been given their respective writing assignments and have agreed to produce 700-1000 words.
Two weeks later…
… the first blog post still hasn’t been produced.
There’s a problem.
There’s a bottleneck.
The internal experts who so enthusiastically agreed to be blog post contributors haven’t come through.
The reasons for their tardiness vary.
Some are too swamped meeting deadlines for their ‘actual’ job.
Some are overwhelmed by the thought of having to write 700-1,000 words.
Some have writer’s block.
Some are just procrastinators by nature.
SOLVE THE BOTTLENECK BY INTERVIEWING THE INTERNAL EXPERTS
A company’s personnel possess a wealth of knowledge, insight and proven experience.
It’s these attributes that make them experts in their field and why any content marketer worth their salt recognizes the value of leveraging these experts to generate rich blog content.
But none of this matters if these internal experts aren’t coming through and producing the content.
So switch it up.
Instead of relying on your company’s internal experts to produce the content, assign someone from marketing (or hire a consultant) to interview them and write each blog post instead.
WHY INTERVIEWING IS THE SMART DECISION
By having someone interview your internal experts and then write each blog post, you take the burden off the internal experts.
They won’t feel pressure knowing they need to find 2-4 hours in their busy schedule to write and edit the blog post assigned to them.
All that’s required of them is to set aside an hour or so of their time so they can be interviewed and another half an hour at a later date to review the first draft of the blog post and provide their feedback.
HOW TO INTERVIEW YOUR INTERNAL EXPERTS
1.Whether someone from your marketing or communications department conducts the interviews of your internal experts or you hire an outside consultant, here are some helpful tips to keep in mind.
2. Reach out to the internal expert with three interview date & time options for them to choose from. Once they have confirmed which date and time works best for them, send them a meeting invite so it gets added to their calendar.
3. Prepare the interview questions ahead of time and email them to the internal expert a few days before the scheduled interview date so they can review them if they like.
4. On interview day, before you begin, remind the internal expert of the direction of the blog post, who the target audience is and approximately how long the interview will take.
5. Record the interview. This will allow you to focus on the responses of the internal expert rather than having your mind divided by listening and writing down their answers. By being an attentive listener, follow up questions will come to mind which will result in richer answers and additional material for the blog post.
6. At the end of the interview remind the internal expert of when the first draft of the blog post will be sent to them for review.
7. After the interview has concluded, transcribe the interview questions and answers. This transcription process will get you even more familiar with the internal expert’s responses and provide you with a hard copy of the interview which you can refer back to during the drafting of the blog post.
KEEP YOUR CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY ON TRACK WITH INTERVIEWING
A content marketing strategy can only be executed and achieve success if it is followed with consistency. Don’t let the internal experts in your organization become the bottlenecks that prevent you from executing your content marketing strategy as planned. Keep things on track. Relieve your internal experts of the burden of being content producers by assigning someone to interview them and write their blog posts.
Internal resources tied up? Tap-In Marketing has assisted many B2B companies with the interviewing of their internal resources and writing of their blog posts. Contact Mike Friskney to find out more.
Photo Credit: Westcountry Driving
