Jen Holub on Building a Strong Engine for Content Marketing
A strong engine is essential for content marketing success. It helps ensure that your content is seen by as many people as possible and that it is distributed effectively. A good engine will also help track your content marketing progress and ensure that you are making the most of your opportunities. But, how does one go about building such an engine?
In conversation with Prasad Shetty, Sr. Account Executive - North America at Pepper Content, Jen Holub, Vice President of Content Marketing at Scorpion sheds light on the hacks to build a strong people, process, and tool setup that delivers great targetted content in a variety of media -- essentially, a content marketing engine.
Here are some excerpts.
1. Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your journey?
I've been working in content marketing for 11 years, and it's evolved quite a bit since I started. When I first started working in content, we would publish blogs for Google, rather than for people. Since then, it has changed 180 degrees into writing content to deliver to clients and people who are interested.
2. What is the most exciting and tiring part of your job as a content marketer?
The most exciting part about this job is helping clients, seeing them succeed, and having them bring in money and make business. I enjoy running content and social marketing and getting my clients leads.
On the other hand, I hate that there are a lot of different opinions about content marketing. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that some are a little archaic. Things change every day, and we have to evolve and change. Some individuals get stuck in their ways, and it's difficult working with someone and changing their opinion.
3. What should be the key KRAs and goals of a content marketer?
For a content marketer, branding and making sure that the clients have their voices heard and emerge as thought leaders in the space is essential. The more people who know your name, the more they're going to search for you, and you'll rank on Google.
4. What's your perspective on the content quality versus quantity debate?
If you asked me five years ago, I would've probably said that quantity is more important. But currently, I'd prefer quality. Even Google has come out straight about the fact that it matters what the content is.
Content won't matter if no one's going to see it.
5. How do you go about the process of content production? Is it more in terms of in-house teams or is there some level of dependency on freelancers or agencies?
We handle all of our content in-house, and we work very closely with our clients to put together strategies for them. There are some cases where clients need a lot of content, but we make sure that their expectations and strategy are set properly so we can handle the amount of content they're looking for.
6. What do you predict for working in the content marketing space?
I think remote is going to be huge, as long as you do it right and make sure that you're networking, talking to individuals in the space, and being in touch with them.
I also like being able to be at home, getting things knocked out at my desk, and working on them at my own pace.
7. What's the secret sauce behind the content marketing success that you have seen?
Sometimes it's easy to go do something and that's important. You need to try things, but also take time to research, test, and look into performance. Take a step back and look at things strategically and make changes accordingly.
8. What's your take on freelancers or the creative economy out there?
In my current role, we manage everything in-house, but I've used freelancers in the past, and they're invaluable. I have worked with a client who did pest control, and we needed thousands of pages written about different bugs. We got an entomologist, who was a writer, and we couldn't have done that project without him. I've had people who specialized in home cleaning write for me and they were a group of freelancers.
