The key to making any decent blog work is to have a decent content strategy. Maintaining decent blogging standards for yourself is quite tricky, and the difficulties you face when trying to generate content yourself are multiplied if you have regular contributors or a team of content writers. Especially if your authors are decentralized, or if content creation is not part of their main job.

However, you can make everyone's life easier by creating guidelines. So here are four simple steps to make sure your WordPress blog will be a great success thanks to the Content marketing.

 1. Start with a content strategy:

Your content strategy is a blueprint of what you expect from your content.

  • What do you want your audience to do on your blog?
  • What does he expect from you?

Think about what kind of content you need and what purpose it serves. The key is to create valuable content that meets the needs and wants of your audience.

For a content strategy to be successful, first of all your authors / contributors must share the same vision as you. After all, they are the ones creating your content so tell them what your goals are.

« So many people jump right into producing content with little to no understanding of the impact they have or the opportunities they can present. "

 2. Be aware of the difficulties encountered by your contributors

Then it's about knowing what you and your contributors (Authors) meet as difficulties. Examine your current processes for creating, collecting, and publishing content. Do not limit your analysis to WordPress - think of your entire content generation chain as well as the collection process eg email, Google Docs etc ...

Knowing how your team generates content, from creation to publication, is just as essential. After all, these are the early adopters. The purpose of this step is to find out what your contributors find difficult about the whole process.

Then comes the hardest part: assigning roles and responsibilities.

 3. Clearly define roles

If we think about it practically, if your people don't have a good understanding of the process, what will happen to your content? If you want great content, make it easy for them. It's not an easy task, but it is essential for your content strategy.

Be explicit so that everyone knows what they are supposed to do and is held accountable.

Gigi Griffis argues that you should, all the same, have an editor:

« When your Organisation is on a big content creation project, this role can be the difference between a polished, professional online presence and a strong bounce rate, especially if you have multiple writers and subject matter experts contributing to the content production. »

There are WordPress plugins which can facilitate the work of an editor, such as collabpress, or Editorial calendar.

 4. Test your workflow

This is the part where you understand how your contributors, writers, and approvers deal with the actual scenarios. See how writers perform real-world tasks and how they fare. Watch how publishers / approvers deal with workflows and decide if it works for them. This is a way to ensure that your processes are sustainable over the long term.

Remember, it's not up to WordPress to establish your content collection issues. Ultimately, it's just a CMS. It's up to you, the owner of a WordPress blog, to ensure that your content strategy and content creation practices are smooth and effective. After all, the main priority of your audience is your content and it is your job to give it a precise and concise.

You own a WordPress blog ? We will be very happy to read your experiences in the comments section.