Trekking Toward Tighter Enterprise Content Collaboration

An analogy is always a good place to start with complex, big-picture ideas. Enterprise content is one such topic — a challenge for many reasons for organizations. With a high volume of content production comes the need for collaboration among your team and many other groups. So, how can you do it better? We can learn some things from Star Trek.

For anyone that’s a fan, you’ll agree the USS Enterprise is iconic. Whether captained by the original James T. Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard, these space vessels have captured the imagination of viewers for decades. We’ve watched the Enterprise explore new frontiers and boldly go where no one has gone before.

The name Enterprise is fitting for the ship and business context. It has hundreds of crew members who must collaborate to achieve universal goals. Coordinating personnel under high stress was a big task for the captains, and I can’t help but connect that to the day-to-day of many content marketing managers.

In both cases, similar challenges arise. There are siloes between groups, communication gaps, complicated workflows, changing expectations, lack of visibility, and much more.

So, what’s the secret to getting enterprise content collaboration working effectively?

Aligning Your Stars: How to Tighten Enterprise Content Collaboration

One of the biggest pressing problems with content collaboration is the sheer volume you produce. Content consumption by B2B buyers increased in 2021, with the most popular type being ebooks.

That’s an interesting data point to consider. B2B buyers are hungry for more content to view on their buying journey and favor ebooks. Ebooks are highly collaborative, usually involving writers, editors, designers, and SMEs (subject matter experts).

If you want to keep pace, you have to align those stars, which means getting your team together on one page. You also have to invite others into the process of content collaboration and define their roles. It could be as an SME or more approval-focused, such as compliance and legal.

It sounds like something you could quickly put into practice. Yet, you can’t deny that roadblocks and barriers inherent to large content teams aren’t holding you back. However, there are solutions ahead.

Enterprise Content Collaboration: Get Your Crew Working Together

Next, we’ll discuss specific things you can implement to boost enterprise content collaboration.

Zap Away Your Silos

Silos are a sign that teams lack a collaborative framework. These silos cause lots of problems, from message inconsistency to redundant work. You’ll want to clear out these silos by:

  • Providing top-down support
  • Making accountability part of the process
  • Creating a place for ideas to flourish
  • Using technology that supports collaboration rather than inhibiting it
  • Formalizing your content workflows and sharing with all parties

In addition to these steps, communication and transparency are critical. Without this, silos will still stand tall on your ship. Ensure all parties have communication channels, such as chat channels, content marketing platforms, and live meetings (in-person or remote). Find ways to encourage communication and reinforce its importance.

Build a Bridge with Sales and Other Groups

Silos don’t just occur within your team. They are likely all over the organization, which can impact your content marketing efforts. Without touchpoints with other groups, content can fall flat. That’s especially true for sales. According to data, sales doesn’t use 90 percent of content. That’s a sobering stat since much of what you create is to enable your sellers.

So, you must get on the bridge with them and hold out your hand. When aligned, sales and marketing complement one another, like Kirk and Spock. Sales is your direct route to customer concerns and challenges. You want their feedback, so make it easy to collaborate with them. Invite them to meetings to talk about content and give them visibility into content projects with views in your content calendar.

Sales isn’t the only group to strengthen relationships. SMEs in your product are necessary to get granular. They are experts, so collaborating with them is essential.

You also need to make collaboration more seamless with reviewers. You may need approval from legal, compliance, or executives for some projects. They are busy people, so working out expectations from the start can make things move faster so that your work doesn’t get stuck in review purgatory.

Refine and Clarify Your Content Strategy

Enterprises often have a complex content strategy due to multiple products, audiences, locations, or other differentiators. These nuances matter, but they can become barriers to collaboration. Distilling strategy to the fundamentals and clarifying what content means to your organization can help.

To do this at scale, you should label content projects by the campaign, initiative, or product in your content calendar. These tags also make it easier for outsiders to understand the piece’s goals.

Streamline Your QA Process

As we’ve touched on, editing and approvals can be the biggest roadblocks to success. They are necessary, but they don’t have to be so problematic. The key is developing and sticking to workflows and agreed-upon turnaround times.

It’s like a training exercise on the Enterprise. People know their roles, there’s universal understanding, and you work together to do something great.

Make Everything Easily Accessible

If the biggest collaboration problem you have revolves around document management, you can resolve this by creating a central spot for all content plans, calendars, and assets. A content marketing software solution is the ideal solution for problems with access.

Fragmented content marketing operations aren’t good for the enterprise. Your creators and collaborators will waste time because they can’t find what they need. It causes delays and can foster distrust and frustration. With the right technology, there are no questions about where things live. This repository should be filterable and searchable to be effective.

Light Speed Ahead with Enterprise Content Collaboration

With these steps, you can be on your way to successful enterprise content collaboration. Drop the silos, clarify strategy, improve processes, and ensure accessibility to support this goal.

You can experience all these benefits and features with DivvyHQ. See how it can work for your enterprise by starting a free trial today!