Content marketing can be made more effective by incorporating it into your company culture and positioning your employees as key content creators and amplifiers.

But how can you encourage your teams to “get on board”—to understand your content strategy and drive it forward?

Begin by communicating and clearly explaining your vision and content culture to your employees. Follow up by sharing your goals—the reason any company develops a marketing strategy in the first place. Don’t forget to describe your ideal audience so everyone is on the same page.

Internal communication channels should be in place to keep everyone updated on the company’s posts and original content and to ensure a proper feedback loop (which we’ll explain how to use further down).

A strong, employee-supported content strategy isn’t a “top-down” operation. Employees will amplify your content, of course, but they will also contribute to your existing tactics in a meaningful way.

Here are 8 ways to leverage employee engagement and get the most out of your content strategy.

Struggling to get performance out of your content? If your content team is living through content chaos on a daily basis, schedule a quick call with us to discuss Content strategy and content operations. We can help you get all your ducks in a row.

1. Encourage employees to share your posts

Staff engagement in your content strategy starts here. Ensuring that employees see your original branded content and encouraging them to share it generates a return on investment in two ways.

First, by extending the reach of posts and original content shared to your employees’ own networks, which tend to be closely tied to your industry.

Employees will also stay informed on topics and themes relevant to the brand, which is a great way to keep your staff attuned to the company’s broader market and industry landscape.

Better marketing reach also means healthier business revenues—and who doesn’t want that for their company’s brand? Your content’s increased exposure on employee networks can have the added benefit of boosting an employee’s own reach and personal brand.

2. Get feedback on original content

Employees can often provide a different—but valuable—perspective on your brand’s market presence. Why not ask for their ideas for new content or request feedback on something that hasn’t been posted yet? You can expect to receive some great suggestions for additions and changes.

3. Have them read and update old posts

According to current search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, website content should be updated and enhanced on a regular basis. This is a great opportunity to ask for staff input on articles, videos and infographics. When it comes to your market and target audience, your employees have their ears to the ground and are aware of their concerns better than anyone. Leverage this insight to your advantage.

Want to get your content team up to speed on this? Organize a team workshop or one-on-one coaching with an expert of our team. You can also book Alexandre to come and speak at your event!

4. Let employees post to your blog under their own names

Quite a few of your employees are probably excellent writers who know how to structure their thoughts. Find out if they would be interested in posting to your blog, and show that your company values their contribution by having them use their own names whenever possible.

5. Streamline the contribution process

Time spent on content strategy will usually add extra hours to an employee’s workload, so the process should be as efficient as possible. Designate one employee to act as a delegate; this person will inspire the troops and answer questions (but be sure to lighten the delegate’s weekly workload to avoid burn out). Implement comment, suggestion and feedback procedures.

Some ideas include making a Slack channel on the topic or ensuring regular internal email exchanges.

6. Play to their strengths

Not every employee will participate in your content strategy in the same way. While some staff members will position themselves as master content sharers, others will prefer to create content—still others simply won’t be interested in participating.

Take these differences into consideration when assigning tasks; think carefully about what each person can (and wants to) do.

7. Celebrate content-related victories

One of your videos just went viral? A big client showered you with praise? A partner shared your article with everyone? Tell your employees—they should know about each little victory that supports the goals, values and vision behind your content strategy.

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8. Implement a reward program

While employee participation in content strategy tends to be quite active in the beginning, it usually wanes over time. Why not incentivize engagement by rewarding employees who make valuable contributions? Offering a gift card or small cash reward to whomever collects the most “points” on a monthly basis can be enough keep people motivated.

In conclusion

It is often said that a company’s employees are its greatest asset—they want what’s best for the brand and are willing to help it grow. By encouraging staff engagement in content marketing, your company is seizing a unique opportunity to include employees in the expansion and influence of your brand. What are you waiting for?