Better connections, better content: Jess Cook’s masterclass to get your team involved

Not-so-news flash: Internal input can make or break your content. In fact, our Closing the Content Gap report found that 95% of non-content marketers think their involvement in content would improve its relevance and effectiveness. But only half have had a good experience being involved in content creation. 

That’s a pretty big gap. Since uncovering this data last spring, we’ve been talking to the experts about how they approach it within their own roles and content efforts—experts like Jess Cook.

From the story of her pivot into B2B content marketing to her accessible content frameworks and über-actionable posts, you could get a mini-masterclass in content just from being in Jess’s orbit. 

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While Jess is one of our favorite content SMEs, she’s also a pro at how to work with your internal SMEs and colleagues to make the right content for your audience:

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How do you recruit your colleagues to help with content and make it a great experience for them? We turned to Jess to hear how she’s done it throughout her career and to offer practical tips to build best-case-scenario relationships for content across your org.

Ask good questions: The key to build relationships from day one

Jess recently started as Head of Marketing at Vector, and she’s hit the ground running. In just the first two weeks, she tackled customer onboarding sessions, pain point documentation, content motion creation, product-led content planning, and more.

From day one, Jess also went all-in on building relationships with her colleagues. “A lot of it is about putting time on people’s calendars to check in,” Jess explains. She prioritized sitting down (virtually) with her sales and customer success leaders, developers, and CEO—but she didn’t jump straight to content plans and calendars and KPIs. She started by asking good questions. 

As she explains, “You need to come prepared with thoughtful questions to uncover insights that can help you do your job really well as a marketer.” Jess asked sales about prospects’ most common objections and asked CS to describe a dream customer. She identified the SMEs she’ll ask to vet ideas and approve technical product content. She asked everyone she talked to about their motivations and current priorities. 

In each conversation, Jess’s goal was to uncover what would get them excited about contributing to a piece of content and how content would help them in their role. She wanted to answer the all-important question: “What’s in it for them?”

💡Find the right problems to rally colleagues behind content

Non-content marketers might not always know which specific content deliverable they need, “but usually they know what problems they have to solve,” Jess says.

• Does customer success need something to help them renew clients by showing them new use cases for your product?
• Is sales enablement looking for more customer stories to equip sellers to start and close conversations? 
• Does demand gen need pain-point-driven assets to fuel their next paid campaign?

From her experience, initial early conversations usually surface similar themes from multiple departments. As Jess notices the common threads, her gears start to turn on a piece of content or story that might solve everyone’s needs. She starts to socialize and stress-test these ideas by putting concepts in front of colleagues that know the audience intimately. This helps her make sure she’s on the right track and shows the team she’s there to help them meet their goals. 

When internal SMEs see that you’re there to help them solve their problems—and their customers’ problems—with content, they’ll be more likely to help youcreate it.

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Don’t be afraid to reinforce the content basics in early conversations with your new coworkers—you shouldn’t assume that a dev or engineer knows how content gets out into the world by default. “They’re not marketers, so they don’t always understand the point of the blog,” Jess says, noting that SMEs sometimes ask her where to find it. 

Share with potential content contributors the where, how, and, most importantly, the why of content. Make sure they know its goal is to give customers answers to their questions and to help internal teams do their job better. Those goals set the tone for collaboration that works for everyone.

Digging deeper: Show your colleagues their impact

Where do content marketers fall short when trying to involve non-content folks? For Jess, the answer is clear: “The biggest way we go wrong is in not doing a good enough job of showing them the value of their content contributions.” Everyone wants to know that their time and effort are meaningful—not just as a personal favor to their friendly neighborhood content leader but as a support to the business.

If they don’t see the tangible impact of content, offering input or helping to approve a new blog post feels like just another burden on their time and to-do list. 

Start by getting specific when sharing the impact your content contributors made. When possible, report back to your SMEs how many demos they made possible or how many dollars of pipeline their insights supported. Don’t just ask someone to contribute then wait until the next time you need something to connect again—share their impact ASAP. When your colleagues see how their insights made a difference, they’ll share ideas more proactively and say yes to requests because they understand what happens when they contribute and the content performs.

On top of sharing metrics and impact with your SMEs, Jess says, “Treat them like rock stars.” Each time a new piece of expert-driven content goes live, shout about their support from the rooftops. 

Recognize their insights and contributions for everyone, especially leadership, to see. Give them the byline on the piece to point to their expertise. Tag them in the brand account’s social post. Feature them in the nurture email promoting the content. 

These strategies are a win for everyone—you add a real person and personality to the content and promotion, and you make your SMEs feel important. The next time you ask for their content support, they’ll be more likely to say yes.

Although your roles, day-to-day tasks, and even your KPIs look different, you and your non-content coworkers are all working toward the same goal: the company’s success. “Sometimes, people who aren’t in marketing just need a better understanding of why content is important and what actually happens when something does well,” Jess says. It’s yourjob to show them. 

The long view: Building a repeatable, relational cadence

Cross-functional content isn’t a one-and-done project. It’s a long-term partnership with the teams around you—which means you need to make each interaction as effective, efficient, and repeatable as you can.

We don’t always hit the mark, though: 14% of non-content respondents to the Closing the Content Gap report say their input would improve content effectiveness, but that contributing isn’t worth their time. How do you convince these colleagues to take part in content efforts and make it worth their while—not just once but over and over again?

“You have to be the one to carry the load for them. Make it as easy as possible for them to say yes or get you an approval,” Jess advises. Define what you need as clearly as possible:

• Asking them to meet with you for an SME interview? Tell them exactly what questions you have, how the content will be used, and what goals you hope to accomplish. 
• Requesting that they boost or share something already published? Provide a sample post they can make their own for LinkedIn. 
• Looking for feedback on an idea from a hesitant coworker? Ask specific questions or tell them what kind of input would be most helpful.

If you’ve gotten a tentative yes, your job is now to project-manage their involvement—think like an executive assistant, Jess says. Send reminders to help them stay on track, and give your colleague as much time as you possibly can to fulfill your request. If you know they typically take a week (or longer) to get back to you, build that into your project timeline. 

This is especially important when you’re working with senior-level execs. These busy leaders spend their time talking to investors and keeping the business moving. Plan for their packed schedules in your content timeline, send them lots of reminders, and simplify the ask as much as you can upfront.

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As you continue to build these relationships, build the right cadence to stay in touch with your content contributors. Jess recommends connecting with SMEs in a dedicated Slack or Teams channel for ideas, getting their feedback, and boosting published pieces. Meanwhile, meet with other marketing functions at least quarterly to talk about what went well and what to focus on next.

Stay in partnership with your colleagues: 2 pitfalls to avoid

Content is always better with input from your non-content colleagues. But how do you keep those relationships balanced? If you’ve been leading content (and asking your colleagues for support) for a long time, you’ve probably seen content collaborations devolve in one of two ways:

1. You turn into a content order-taker. 
2. Too many cooks show up in the content kitchen.

Here’s how to avoid both. 

Pitfall #1: Becoming an order-taker

Give-and-take between content and other teams can be healthy: You ask SMEs to share insights, and they ask you to create the content they need. But when the relationship turns into last-minute content requests or well-intentioned but misaligned suggestions for new direction, things get messy. You could honor these requests every time—and likely become a burnt out “yes person” in the process. Jess knows there’s a better way.

Your best defense against order-taker status is a clearly documented strategy for the current quarter or half of the year. When you can articulate exactly which audience(s) you’re focusing on for the next 3-6 months (and the content you’ll create to reach them), you have a roadmap for your time and energy. 

Let’s say a colleague comes to you and suggests targeting a new audience they keep hearing about. As Jess explains, “With a solid, documented strategy, you can say, ‘Because of what we’re focusing on now, I don’t think we’re able to put any time or attention to that yet. But it’s good to know that this is emerging—let’s keep an eye on it.’” In Jess’s experience, most coworkers understand and are willing to put their idea on the backburner. When it’s time to plan again, you can revisit their suggestion to see if it’s still the right call.

What about when the “orderer” is your CEO? You may not be able to say an outright no based on your current strategy alone—start with some research to confirm where they’re coming from and get more signal from the market. You could also come up with a minimum viable piece of content to help you understand if the approach the CEO is suggesting will truly move the needle. 

The better you can show your strategic rationale to your colleagues and the C-suite, the more they’ll want to partner with you instead of ordering you around. 

Pitfall #2: Having too many cooks in the kitchen

Most of us have experienced the approval spiral. It happens like this: You ask one SME to review. They think of someone else to get involved. The second person wants three additional engineers to take a look. Before you know it, way more people have given input than you planned for. Now, the project timeline is off course, and you end up with watered-down content soup because everyone pulled the project in a different direction. 

How do you get approvals from other teams without having too many cooks in the kitchen? Document your approval process beforeyou start asking for input. 

Especially for major projects with lots of moving parts, you need to begin with clarity about:

• Who’s getting approval at what time. These are the bare minimum, ride-or-die approvers. In an ideal scenario, just these people will review, but that won’t always happen. 
• What you need their approval on. Request specific support from specific people—have one person review for the overall story, someone else for product accuracy, and a third for company POV.

Jess also suggests leaning on your relationship with the highest people in an approval group. This is especially valuable when you’re on a rigid timeline that’s tied to release milestones and external accountability to PR agencies or partners. Ask the senior leader to help you keep everyone on track. “Approvers are a lot more likely to listen to that C-level person who happens to be the executive sponsor. If someone prioritizes something for you at the top of the food chain, they’re going to listen,” she says. 

Despite your best efforts, approvals still spiral out of control sometimes. In those disappointing moments, Jess relies on post mortem-reviews. Look back at what didn’t go well, including the involvement of too many people, and make a better plan for next time.

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Keep the content collaboration going

Across all of these efforts, your goal isn’t just to produce great outputs but to build a culture of content. The more you implement Jess’s best practices—asking good questions, celebrating contributors’ impact, and making it easy for them to say yes—the more your colleagues will proactively bring you what you need for great content. 

Keepreinforcing what you’re looking for (a good story) and what your SMEs bring to the table (the problems and experiences of customers). Water their skills of identifying the right stories so they see how your goal as a content lead supports their goals of solving customers’ problems. 

You’re all working toward the growth and success of the company. Help others see content as a way to help them get there, and everyone will want to be a part of it.