High-powered content marketing teams are composed of several key team members. Discover what a successful digital content marketing team looks like.

Digital content is crucial to boosting your brand’s growth and reaching your business goals.

In fact, 81% of marketers believe conceptualizing and publishing engaging content is essential to business success. That’s why you need a high-powered content marketing team in place.

It’s important to note that a content marketing team is not simply a branch of traditional marketing groups. Rather, it’s a separate entity, and the team members all have different roles and responsibilities. It’s also important to remember that not all content marketing teams are the same.

A content marketing team is more than just writers and editors. Each member of a content marketing team plays a crucial role in helping you create a strategy plan, and produce and manage the content.

In this post, you will learn what a successful digital content marketing team looks like and how they can help elevate your business and get you the results you want.

Operations

Members of the operations department handle the day-to-day workflows and processes of a business. They are responsible for ensuring all operations run smoothly and all team members across departments have what they need to be successful.

In addition, team members working in operations are responsible for overseeing the overall customer journey. They discuss deliverables, coordinate timelines, and organize responsibilities for other team members to take on. As such, they need to be highly organized, communicative, passionate, dedicated, and well-versed with internal processes.

Expert Insights: It’s easy to get lost without a steady hand at the tiller. At WriteForMe, our operations manager carefully organizes and coordinates workflow for our content strategists and managers, researchers, writers, and editors—making sure that content keeps cranking out on time and at full volume. We pride ourselves in having a robust production workflow!

The operations department is typically responsible for tasks related to both employee and client experience, such as improving productivity, managing internal processes, and balancing workloads.

Let’s explore some common roles within an operations team.

Workflow & Processes

On a content marketing team, workflow refers to how the team arranges and manages tasks and maps deadlines for specific projects. This will differ depending on the team’s size, work setup, and internal culture. Workflows must be maximized for efficiency to drive successful outcomes.

The most successful workflows are logical, visible, and adaptable.

Operations Managers typically develop workflows. They break down deliverables into step-by-step tasks from beginning to end. This serves as the backbone of a project and helps guide the entire team in seeing projects through to completion.

For example, a content marketing workflow for developing blog content might include the following:

• Conduct keyword research aligned with company goals and priorities
• Develop a strategic roadmap complete with up to a quarter-year of headlines and content briefs mapped to specific publishing dates
• Create a content/editorial calendar for specific campaigns and publishing cadence
• Create content briefs for content requests
• Conduct research to create an outline of subtopics
• Write the article
• Edit the article
• Publish the article
• Monitor KPIs and metrics to measure performance

Systems: Tools & Platforms

Content marketing can be daunting because of the endless strategies and tools available. Additionally, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, so every project requires a unique set of needs and requirements. It’s crucial to find the right tools and platforms for every project or campaign.

Without the right systems in place, creating an effective workflow will be exponentially challenging. For example, tasks such as content planning requires software to conduct proper keyword research and information gathering.

Team members responsible for managing systems must be tech-savvy and have deep knowledge of different technologies and tools that can optimize workloads.

Some of the most popular content planning tools include:

• Ahrefs
• Semrush
• BuzzSumo
• Answer the Public

Talent Acquisition and Team Management

Recruitment

Another crucial part of any content marketing team is its recruitment department. This group is responsible for bringing in fresh talent to work with the team.

At its core, content marketing is a creative process and a team must work like a well-oiled machine to be successful.

From account managers, project managers, content strategists, writers, editors, designers, and more—the recruitment team will vet individuals and bring them into work with the current team members.

Employee Onboarding

A smooth onboarding process is vital to help new team members feel welcome to the content marketing team. The onboarding team is typically responsible for introducing team members and setting clear expectations of their role and responsibilities on the content marketing team

The team manager needs to be in regular communication with new hires. And they must provide new hires with all the information they need to succeed in maintaining high-quality work.

Training & Employee Development

On-the-job training lessens the learning curve, making workflows more efficient and productive in a shorter timeframe.

All staff members need ongoing training to stay at the top of their game. New hires already come into the content marketing team with the skills and experience needed to do their job well. However, they still need on-the-job training to become familiar with the internal tools, processes, and communication channels used within the company.

In addition, training can facilitate bonding among team members. For instance, new hires need time to connect with their teammates so they can observe how the team functions as a whole.

Trainers may help new hires through the transition process by giving them a company manual to help them become more familiar with departmental and team member roles. They can also provide new hires with refresher courses to help them brush up on their technical skills.

Tool & Platforms

New hires may also need to be briefed about using certain tools and platforms the team utilizes. Because they may be unfamiliar with the best practices for using these technologies, taking time to train them on how the tools and platforms work will optimize their workflow.

Expert Insights: At WriteForMe, we recognize that the best training comes from people who do the job every day. Rather than handing onboarding and training off to a generic program, our Senior Managers train new hires directly in-house.

Trainers need to be passionate, organized, and highly cooperative to be effective at their job. As such, trainers for a digital content marketing team may also take on the following tasks:

• Develop a training plan unique to each type of team member
• Continuously study best practices for the team’s different disciplines to teach them more effectively
• Do deep research on techniques for writing, content creation, design, or productivity
• Explore and examine new tools for the team to use

Employee Growth

It’s important to remember that every team is made up of individuals with different backgrounds, skills, strengths, and challenges. Employees need time and training to produce high-quality work, and they must be well-versed with internal and external processes to do their work efficiently.

Monitoring their progress and tracking successes is also an important part of the overall employee journey and development.

Client Acquisition & Account Management

Sales

The sales team ensures a content marketing agency has a steady stream of clients. They manage leads, acquire new clients, and ensure there’s a consistent stream of good vetted leads to nurture with the end goal of client acquisition.

The sales department is also where details are ironed out and contracts are prepared. The sales team facilitates contract processes with the client and helps them transition a hand-off to an account manager for new client onboarding.

Client Onboarding

Client onboarding is an important task for any new content marketing effort because it helps new clients familiarize themselves with the team and understand what to expect. This ensures all new clients get a smooth onboarding process and clearly understand the terms of their agreement. In addition, this is where the team and client agree upon specific deliverables and workflows.

As such, client onboarding involves managing expectations on both the content marketing team side and the client side, acting as a liaison for each side’s best interest.

In addition, account managers and project managers ensure the agency effectively welcomes the client, identifies their needs, and sets them up for success to meet their goals.

Onboarding responsibilities and tasks may include the following:

• Sending a welcoming email
• Conducting an onboarding call to introduce clients to the company operations and processes

Account Management & Retention

Another branch of operations is the account management and retention department, which is where account managers fall. This department caters to the needs and concerns of individual clients and acts as a bridge between clients and content marketing teams.

Account Managers are responsible for building solid relationships with clients. In addition, they work closely with project managers to ensure each project is on the right track and the team is meeting its goals.

An account manager must have excellent organization, time management, and communication skills to keep clients happy and the content team moving forward.

Here are some tasks Account Managers typically accomplish:

• Requesting resources from the client
• Coordinating with the rest of the content marketing team for campaign ideas
• Setting regular follow-up calls with clients to check in on them
• Sending newsletters to keep clients in the loop
• Briefing the rest of the team about any special projects
• Create feedback forms to distribute to clients
• Keep constant communication with clients and project managers to stay updated with the project’s status
• Track metrics on digital platforms to measure the company’s marketing performance

If clients are satisfied and their concerns are addressed in a timely manner, the content marketing team’s retention rate is more likely to increase. Additionally, clients will be more likely to recommend the content marketing agency to peers.

Project Management

The project management department deploys client deliverables and ensures all aspects of each project are planned out and in place. Project management consists of project managers who implement marketing campaigns and content plans for clients.

Project Managers have the responsibility of turning the client’s goals and content aspirations into reality. They play a crucial role in completing projects, staying on top of the project from conception, execution, and completion—closing loops all along the way.

In fact, project managers are such an important part of any content marketing team that the role is expected to grow by 6% globally over the next few years.

Project Managers lead the rest of the team by assigning tasks and projects and seeing them through to completion. They delegate tasks to other departments, build project calendars, and submit all deliverables in a timely manner.

Here are some other tasks project managers typically take on:

• Creates project timelines
• Estimates project budgets
• Coordinates task management with team members
• Collaborates with teams cross-departmentally

Expert Insights: It takes a village to deliver a successful content marketing campaign. At WriteForMe, we provide expert level marketing team support. We approach the content production process by breaking it into each phase. First, we work together with you to establish a well-planned out content brief and outline. After the outline is transformed into blog content, our editorial staff passes their professional eagle-eyes over it, adjusting and polishing to make it shine. And overseeing the entire process are our expert content strategists.

Partner With WriteForMe for Your Content Marketing Needs

All content marketing teams are unique, and roles and designations are arranged according to how each team operates. Some teams may have multiple writers, designers, and editors, while some only have one of each. It all depends on the size, culture, and resources of the content marketing team in question.

When building a content marketing team, you must ensure you have the right team members in place to help you achieve your goals. For instance, smaller companies tend to have one team member juggling multiple roles, while larger companies have designated team members for each position. The team members you work with must be in line with your overall goals for your content marketing team, and they must have the necessary skills in place to help you succeed.

Building an effective content marketing team doesn’t have to be overwhelming. The experts at WriteForMe help you navigate the fast-paced world of content marketing.

Contact us today to empower your content marketing team with highly skilled individuals that will help you achieve your content goals. Request a free content marketing playbook to learn how to elevate your content marketing efforts.