How to Resource Your Content Team: Part 2 — Tools

This is part two of my series on resourcing a content team. If you missed part one or need a refresher on team building, you can read it here.

Let me preface this newsletter with a warning.

DO NOT fall prey to the technology trap!

This means you are endlessly researching, comparing and trialing different tools trying to find the best ones.

Instead, find your quickest time-to-ROI and get started!

You can always switch things up later if need be.

Remember: there is no perfect approach!

With that being said, this will not be a comprehensive breakdown of martech tools, but a quick rundown of what you need to get started with a few suggestions sprinkled in.

The Basics

All you need to get started is a place to publish content and collect emails to build an owned audience — don’t overcomplicate it!

Not only is conventional thinking on blogging changing in a philosophical sense (creating a media platform for your niche compared to a self-serving content destination), but also in a structural and tactical sense.

Traditionally, the strategy would be to select a service like WordPress or Wix and launch a blog.

However, the simpler and more effective approach is to select a service such as Substack or Beehiiv that doubles as a newsletter and a content destination (by automatically indexing all your newsletters online).

Not only are you able to seamlessly publish for two different media (articles and newsletters), but these tools make it easy to get your content hub launched and make it easy to capture and build an email database.

Again, that’s all you need to get started on the most basic level, but let’s consider a few other elements.

Suppose you or anyone on your team doesn’t have graphic design skills, but you want to add visual elements such as hero images and graphics. In that case, Canva is an easy-to-use and affordable design alternative.

If you want royalty-free images, have a look at Unsplash or Pixabay.

Need help with editing? Grammarly is a useful and inexpensive tool.

As for analytics, the other tools you use should natively have enough features initially. If not, the tried and true Google Analytics can help you.

Chances are your organization already has a project tracking tool such as ClickUp, Monday.Com or Jira. I recommend sticking with what’s already being used to keep everyone aligned.

However, if you need something, there’s nothing quicker to set up or easier to use than Trello.

Advanced

Once you’ve got things up and running there are a few more things to consider.

First and foremost, you’ll want to ensure everything is connected and working in unison (or at least working together as well as possible).

This will be where your tech-savvy Digital Marketing or Marketing Ops talent will be vital (as outlined in the previous newsletter).

“Connector” tools such as Zapier or Make (formerly Integromat), are helpful with this.

For example, you’ll want to ensure your CRM and marketing tools are connected (if you’re not already using an integrated solution like Hubspot or Marketo).

These tools are also useful in setting up automation and sharing information across communication channels to improve efficiency.

If you’re looking for additional analytics, specifically on how users behave on your platforms, I can recommend Hotjar.

If you want deeper analytics into your SEO performance and insights on how to improve your content marketing, the market leader is SEMrush.

As your company and content initiatives evolve, so will your needs — adjust your tooling accordingly.  

I didn’t lay out the perfect martech stack because it depends on several variables unique to each organization such as team construction, budget and KPIs. Build the tech stack that works best for you.