Content is king. You must have heard of this phrase a thousand times. But have you ever wondered why this is true? Let me answer the question for you. Content that adds value to the life of its readers has the ability to influence consumer perception and behavior. Such content addresses the lifestyle interests and needs of consumers and offers an educational benefit to them.

Content marketing has the power to establish your organization and its products as trusted resources, thus helping you grab the top-of-the mind position among customers when they make critical purchase decisions.

Value added content also helps you educate your customers on the step-by-step process to be followed to complete the buying process.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance that you assemble a determined content marketing team before you launch your new content marketing program. You could choose to hire new content marketers or may even wish to re-assess your existing key players.

Either way, make sure you design the hiring process such that it leaves you with the best content marketing team by the end of it.

Let me walk you through some of the most critical steps towards building a high quality content marketing team.

• Define a target market and understand what type of content when delivered appropriately will attract your target audience in the most effective way
• Know what purpose you wish to serve through your content marketing campaign
• Find people who can own and share the same vision as yours and not treat this as work, but a calling
• Make sure that you select people that have the potential to represent your company’s culture through their writing
• Hire people who have the passion to challenge the status quo and deliver despite challenges

If you’re still confused about how to build a world-class team, given below are five steps that would help you a great deal.

1. Look for passive job candidates

Passive recruitment can help you get the most talented pool of people onboard. Go out and find people who are great at what they do and always have fresh ideas to contribute. Get in touch with them. Network. Speak to them about prospects of working with you, even if they do not wish to exit the organization they are currently associated with.

Approach these people even before you define roles for your content marketing team, so that you can quickly get them onboard once you finalize things.

2. Let your candidates do the talking

Try and let your interviewees do most of the talking. You could begin by asking them if they have any questions for you, instead of you throwing questions at them. This way, you will get a better chance at understanding their thought process and also how inquisitive they are.

Their ability to frame the right kind of questions will also throw light on their emotional-intelligence quotient. Also, try to observe if the interviewee is grasping your response to his questions and whether or not he is adding value to the information being shared by you.

Once this is done, you may shoot questions at the candidate. The primary goal of the interview must be to analyze how well prepared the interviewee is for the role in discussion and how his current thought process could make him capable of delivering what’s expected out of him.

3. Do not conceal the hard part

Explain the role in great detail. The good, bad and ugly, talk about all of it. Make sure that you take people who are truly passionate about the work and not merely looking to switch for a heftier paycheck on board. Show them both: the crest and trough of the job.

4. Hire those who are delightful

Look for a candidate with a delight factor. Whether it is their sharpness, or sense of humor or brilliance or creativity, there has to be something that makes them stand out from the rest. Remember that you need people with unmatched zeal and enthusiasm to carry out the responsibility that you are looking to entrust them with.

5. Keep a detailed plan ready

The main work starts after the team has been hired. Set well defined goals complete with milestones and timelines for the first 60 days. Document what has to be done and how. Your content marketing team members may not remember what they did during their first week, therefore, keep a document handy for them to refer to later.

Strategy to keep it going

Once you have your core team in action, devise a management strategy to keep driving them towards the ultimate goal. The most important strategy here would be communication. Notice the work of your content marketing team members.

Appreciate the efforts of those utilizing their energies to drive their tasks constructively. Use Google sheets to document details of projects with deadlines. Keep track of every minute detail for the first couple of months, until your team goes on auto-pilot.

Monitor their performance closely and share constructive feedback on a time to time basis. Keep a check on engagement and viewership.

Try seeking new insights from the fresh recruits. Organize review meet-ups regularly to understand what’s working for the team and what support they need.

Try to work out a symbiotic relationship with them where both learn from one another. This will be instrumental in helping you attain the kind of success you are eyeing.

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