Erika Heald is the host of the weekly #ContentChat LinkedIn Live video podcast for content marketers, held Mondays at noon Pacific. As a B2B marketing consultant, she helps organizations define and execute content marketing strategies that drive business and professional growth. As a creator, and gluten-free blogger helping people discover gut-friendly farm-to-table food. She frequently speaks at B2B marketing industry events on employee brand advocacy, content strategy, customer experience, AI readiness, and social media topics. You can find her on her blogs erikaheald.com and erikasglutenfreekitchen.com.
The #ContentChat Bulletin: We Asked 100+ Marketers About Their Content Foundations—The Gaps Were Clear
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Contrary to all the ads clogging our social feeds, most content teams don't struggle with creating content. They struggle with scaling their content operations. To get a clearer picture of why, I asked a simple question in two recent Meetup conversations and then shared the results of my content scalability assessment. The question: Which foundational content elements do you actually have in place today? What Most Teams Are DoingThe good news is, as with the respondents to the assessment last year, most teams already have at least the beginnings of:
These are important foundational elements to help teams plan, create, and maintain consistency across their content. What Most Teams Are NOT DoingNow here's where things get interesting. The least common foundational elements were:
And this seemed to be the case for the Meetup attendees, too. So why is that concerning? Because these are the core elements that make your content strategy come to life, creating repeatable, scalable systems to keep the work moving along without a sole gatekeeper's manual intervention into every piece of content you produce. The Pattern Behind the GapsIt's a pattern I see over and over again. Content teams are using numerous creation tools, but aren't developing repeatable content systems. Nasically, they've defined what to publish, at what cadence, and how to structure it. But they haven't fully defined how their content is:
Why This Gap MattersWithout those missing foundations:
And scaling feels harder than it should, not to mention those random acts of content that slip their way into the mix! The Biggest Red Flag: TaxonomyOnly ~18% of respondents have a defined taxonomy. Unfortunately, in too many organizations, taxonomy is just something that happens behind the scenes. Or that is owned by IT. Or it was put in place by web designers who didn't actually understand your audience or your content strategy. Whoever owns your content strategy absolutely needs to own creating and maintaining your taxonomy, too. Because taxonomy is what makes your content:
Without it, you don't have a content system. You have a collection of assets. Assess Your Content FoundationsThe good news is, you don't need to fix everything at once. Start by understanding where you are today. Which of these foundational elements do you already have in place? Which ones are missing or incomplete? I created a quick assessment to help you do exactly that. In just a couple of minutes, you'll be able to see:
Take the Content Foundations Assessment. If you take the assessment, hit reply, and let me know your biggest gap and how you plan to fill it. I'm happy to share resources that can help! Coming Up on #ContentChatContent Chat is my weekly LinkedIn Live video chat focused on sharing expertise and ideas amongst the content marketing community. Join the conversation on Mondays at noon Pacific / 3 p.m. Eastern. RSVP for our upcoming conversations by clicking the chat date below to get a reminder and to access the chat.
Until next time, stay safe and be well! Cheers, Erika |
The #ContentChat Bulletin
Erika Heald is the host of the weekly #ContentChat LinkedIn Live video podcast for content marketers, held Mondays at noon Pacific. As a B2B marketing consultant, she helps organizations define and execute content marketing strategies that drive business and professional growth. As a creator, and gluten-free blogger helping people discover gut-friendly farm-to-table food. She frequently speaks at B2B marketing industry events on employee brand advocacy, content strategy, customer experience, AI readiness, and social media topics. You can find her on her blogs erikaheald.com and erikasglutenfreekitchen.com.
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