Internal content marketing teams often deliver quality writing but fail to meet goals in terms of ROI and engagement. Here are some common signs that your internal program needs a boost.

Relying on an internal team for content marketing allows you to retain control over this process while leveraging the unique experience and expertise of team members. However, businesses that opt for internal content creation often see subpar results.

If you’re not getting the return on investment or return on time you were hoping for, you should look for these common warning signs that your internal marketing program is in trouble.

Turnaround takes too long

How long does it take for a piece of content to be ready for publication? Turnaround can become a major content marketing problem if your team:

• Is busy juggling different roles.
• Doesn’t have access to the right resources to edit and approve content in a timely manner.

A long turnaround can result in stale content since your team can’t address trends and recent events on time.

Your team doesn’t produce enough content

The ideal publication frequency depends on your goals and target audience. However, the overall trend is for brands to look for ways to scale up their program and post more frequently. During the pandemic, 72% of people said their social media content consumption increased. Plus, there is generally a higher demand for content.

A program that can’t keep up with this increase in demand can’t help your business grow. To work towards a solution, look for:

• Problems with the content approval process for publication.
• A lack of time for writing.
• Bottlenecks in the content distribution phase.

You haven’t optimized content creation

Like with any other process, it’s essential to set measurable goals, gather data and use your findings to improve your program.

Your content marketing team should study the way your audience responds to different pieces. You can then learn more about customer preferences and expectations.

Specifically, be sure to measure things like clicks, conversion rates and engagement.
A lack of optimization efforts can indicate there is a more serious issue with the long-term goals for the program.

Issues appear in content promotion and distribution

It’s one thing to create quality content, but it’s another to get it in front of the right people. Too many businesses don’t have a clear strategy for content promotion and distribution.

Your team should evaluate distribution options, create a distribution model and set objectives for each channel.

Common mistakes include:

• Failing to approach content distribution in a strategic manner.
• Choosing the wrong channels for your audience.
• Failing to assess whether you have enough resources to develop a consistent presence on the channels you decide to use.

SEO and social media marketing are overlooked

Content marketing serves more than one purpose. A piece of content can inform and convert, but when you properly optimize it, the content can also bring organic traffic to your site and play a part in engaging your audience on social media.

Your team might overlook SEO and social media due to a lack of knowledge or because the content creation workflow isn’t clearly defined and doesn’t include these steps.

However, your ROI and ROT will drop if content is published without any regard for SEO and social media marketing. Your team should consider on-page and off-page SEO when preparing content for publication, and you should have a strategy for posting on social media.

Other departments incur hidden costs

Another sign that your content marketing program is in trouble is the presence of hidden costs that carry over to other programs and departments.

A team member who writes two blog posts a week might have to spend as much as 10 hours on this project, which limits their availability for other tasks. The editing, formatting and distribution process can involve four or five different team members who also have to take time off their usual duties.

Final thoughts and solutions on content marketing

In-house content creation programs are often costly and deliver a low ROI with little room for growth. Even though content meets high-quality standards, scaling up the program is difficult, and areas like SEO, social media marketing, distribution and audience engagement are often overlooked. Investing more money and resources isn’t the answer.

There are two options to explore:

• A content management platform like Tempesta Media’s software can increase productivity by 30% and help your team produce and publish more content. This solution acts as a centralized content creation management tool that facilities communication and ensures a piece of content moves smoothly through the different steps of your content creation process.
• Tempesta Media’s managed content creation solution delivers quality content at scale. Outsourcing content marketing is the right choice if your internal team is overworked and can’t keep up with other duties. The cost can be up to 80% less than what an internal team costs, and you can easily scale up your program.

Contact us today to learn more about these two solutions, or download our 100 mistakes e-book for a more comprehensive list of common problems businesses often face with in-house content creation.