Not every marketing team has a mammoth budget. I regularly work with SaaS companies at $100m ARR, and they’ll have anywhere between $10m-$75m to spend every year. But size doesn’t mean anything when it comes to building an effective content engine. In fact, it’s common to see a 3-person marketing team outpacing those with 25+ members.

It all comes down to strategy. So, here’s their secret.

1) They Commit

They’re committed to executing the right activities for an extended period of time. Most companies fail at this because they do two podcasts and then give up when they don’t get any *leads*. To avoid this discouragement, committed companies use editorial calendars. 

An editorial calendar allows them to organize their content production process in an efficient chronological way. It is essential to guarantee deliveries and respect for publication deadlines, especially when managing projects involving many professionals. 

The calendar allows them to keep a strategic vision of their actions and, thus, to stay focused and committed to the process. The key here is to plan the production for several months or a year. It allows the consistent development of content production. 

2) They Identify Subjects That Matter 

Marketers are obsessed with figuring out what their buyers want. Then, they focus all their energy on providing forward-thinking, relevant, and new insights. Most companies fail at this because the person creating the content doesn’t deeply understand the buyer. They’re just guessing.

Creating content with a random approach is not beneficial. When a company engages with its audience, the goal should be to bring them some value. It could be through education, guidance, or providing answers. 

Another great way to identify the right subject for an audience is to check what they liked in the past. Using this technique, it is possible to recycle content. Marketers usually identify their posts with the highest potential and then reuse them to increase audience reach and strengthen their main posts. Recycling posts can also be turning one type into another format, such as text, image, video, or interactive material. 

3) They Use Content Creation Frameworks

The marketers put pillars in the ground that help them create content on a recurring basis. Every week, they’ll make one podcast episode + one webinar + a series of customer calls. These *pillars* create raw content every week—the best fuel for building a content machine.

To achieve this result, it’s important to have been able at first to break down the entire creative process. It helps create different objectives and phases to precisely orchestrate the content creation activity. By doing so, marketers can easily understand how their processes work, have better control over them, and facilitate the delegation of responsibilities. 

Content creation frameworks also help marketers to develop a style guide. It ensures that high-quality content is produced even when working in a rush. That guide typically functions like a detailed manual whose main purpose is to guide the content creators to standardize the language, tone of voice, and structure of pieces created. 

4) They Use Post-Production Frameworks

They have a solid framework to quickly edit (raw) long-form content and optimize it for each distribution channel. They’re not waiting around for weeks and months to polish it. It’s out the door within 24 hours. Raw and ready.

Marketers know the importance of investing in good tools that can help them develop their tasks and get them done quickly and efficiently. It can be proofreading tools, editing software, project management tools, or any other technology designed to increase productivity and obtain specific results. 

5) They Embrace Multi-Channel Distribution

They know the content will have ZERO impact if their buyers don’t *consume* it. So, they focus ample time on studying the details of each channel. They spend that time listening and engaging with minimal assumptions.

Using multiple-channel distribution ensures that marketers are always in touch with their target audience. It helps reach more target segments in the sense that marketers can always reach their ideal audience wherever they are. 

Another form of multi-channel distribution is multilingual content. It allows marketers to reach a global target audience. When doing so, they also consider the cultural and slang idioms. This way, they are sure to create a sense of connection with their right audience. 

6) They Outsource

Taking on all the work with a small team can sometimes be overwhelming. Assembling a quality team could be the solution here, but it requires time. The key is to outsource the process by ensuring that the company or professionals use the style guide we discussed earlier. 

Marketers who succeed in their content engine strategy understand that outsourcing their projects doesn’t mean giving up on them. They continue to plan the actions, approve their execution, and analyze the results to ensure that the work is done perfectly. 

At MKC, not only do we help you scale a content engine with a small staff, but also we help you scale your revenue with content that converts. Discover our process that includes discovering your unique business, assessing your current situation and establishing benchmarks for success, designing your customized solution, as well as implementing your solution, and managing change.