How can you maintain agility as a content marketing leader?

The cornerstone of your content strategy should be your tried-and-true (data-backed) content, plus a percentage dedicated to testing and learning. Sustained growth requires continuous experimentation, particularly because there are always new insights, platform or algorithm changes, and audience behaviors you’ll want to understand related to your goals.

To help foster a culture around innovation, consider developing a learning agenda to map out what you want to learn so that you can align your test and learns to your brand objectives. When designed thoughtfully, you can build a plan that provides a rich longitudinal data set to help drive new content.

Staying customer-centric fosters brand loyalty and trust. When you consistently deliver content that addresses your audience's needs and preferences, it shows that you understand and value them. Over time, this builds a sense of trust and loyalty, leading to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth referrals. Incorporating behavioral psychology into your content marketing strategy can have proven benefits. It's all about understanding the science behind how people think, feel, and act and then tailoring your content accordingly. First and foremost, emotions are your allies. People make decisions driven by how they feel, so craft your content to evoke emotions that resonate with your audience and brand.

Le client a besoin d'innovation et surtout à besoin qu'on l'écoute et que nous sachions répondre vraiment à ses besoins. Et l'agilité devient ici un élément important dans la conception des solutions à adopter.

Talking to people outside of your content team is so helpful — even more so if you are a small or one-person content team. It's easy to get stuck in an echo chamber where you are just trying the same things over and over. Consider organizing monthly or quarterly brainstorm sessions with people outside of content so you can keep a pulse on what others in your organization are working on and identify ways to collaborate and support each other.

Customer centricity is a hallmark of agile ways of working. But, as a content marketer, your customer might not always be the end user. When you are creating content for a channel that is owned by somebody on another team (e.g. sales enablement), think of that stakeholder as your internal customer. What do they need from this content? What value do they stand to get? And how would they, in their own words, define a successful collaboration?

Many marketing teams brainstorm topics in advance and create a content calendar that spans 2-3+ months out. While it's necessary to have a strategy, creating a rigid and pre-approved content calendar can leave little room to piggyback off of industry news, new innovations and real-time customer feedback that meets your audiences where they are. Content leaders can stay agile by leaving space to swap out topics or comment on the news of the day. An efficient approval process is also key to ensure content is reviewed and ready to post while the topic is still relevant.

I always leave room for experimentation. Planning out a content calendar and big campaigns is important, but you should always leave space (and employee bandwidth!) for trying new things. I think people forget that it takes a lot of time and effort to launch new campaigns, so it's better to always have a few staggered throughout each quarter so you have your tried-and-true efforts alongside experimental projects you can learn from.

To stay agile in content marketing, foster a culture of curiosity—test new strategies, learn from outcomes, and iterate. Keep the customer at the core, adapting content to their evolving needs. Collaborate with your team for fresh perspectives, and never stop learning from industry trends. Resilience in facing challenges and flexibility in approach will help navigate the changing marketing landscape, ensuring your strategies stay relevant and impactful.

Flexibility is key. Your goal is to remain relevant while creating opportunities for lasting impacts on the industry. By continually staying abreast of the innovative ways the needs of your industry are evolving, you can be sure to stay on top of current trends. Your goal within business -- always -- is to identify gaps and then provide compelling solutions.

Leading by example in our content marketing is more than just meeting targets; it's about building a team culture that really lives out what our brand stands for. I created a communal document/space where everyone can post their professional or personal achievements that align with our brand values. This not only encourages our team to 'lead by example' (sharing successes inspires others to do the same) but also increases confidence, trust, respect and admiration amongst peers. Colleagues determine whether this can be celebrated/shared on any of our public channels and have sign-off on the content. This collaborative, transparent, fun approach encourages ownership and builds relationships in-house whilst also humanising the brand.

It doesn't mean doing their jobs for them, micromanaging or moving the goalposts. A good marketing leader knows how to provide great briefs, set realistic deadlines and give constructive feedback.

True agility in content marketing transcends the marketing department, tapping into the collective intelligence of the entire company to steer the content ship. The sales team offers real-time customer feedback, vital for sharpening messages. HR reveals the company ethos, enriching the brand narrative. Customer Experience insights ensure content meets actual needs. For digital products, the Product and engineering teams give marketing foresight on user needs and upcoming features. Finance adds economic context, giving depth to the strategy. By establishing these connections, we ensure our content is not just a marketing monologue but a company-wide client-centric conversation.

The #1 suggestion I have is to stay up-to-date with your target audience(s) psychographics just as much as you stay abreast with trends. You can do this in so many different ways, some of which have already been mentioned in this article.