Simplifying the process is a major concern of content marketers. As organizations become larger and more complex, they move from one person handling social relations and public relations to hiring entire teams to handle different aspects of the content marketing process. These can include research teams, SEO teams, and PR teams.

The problem arises when these teams have tunnel vision, focusing on their metrics without understanding them and contributing to the overall vision of the marketing department. Silos expand, creating a domino effect of increasing complexity. In my role at Adobe, one of my key initiatives is to break down these silos.

How to break down silos to simplify content marketing?

The key to start breaking down the silos within your business is to get your whole team on the same page with a clear definition of the company’s overall marketing goal. This way, you can determine what the priorities Argentina Mobile Number List should be within the company and put other initiatives on the back burner if necessary. To understand this, we can turn to mathematics.

Get your marketers to think like a team

My son worked hard to learn how to add fractions. The other night he asked me to help him with a problem and I had an epiphany. Granted, it’s been a while since I learned this trick in my elementary school math class. When I first looked into the  problem, it seemed impossible to me (as it did years ago). The three numbers were so different from each other. How could they end up being a single number?

Of course, I had to Google and reminisce about vague memories of school math lessons. And I discovered a concept that, while helpful in helping my son, was much more helpful in solving the silo issues that affect many cross-functional relationships.

Contrary to my stated beliefs when I first learned this trick, I finally figured out how fractions could be used in the real world. The key to breaking down silos lies in the concept of a common denominator. With a common denominator, these three numbers could work together more easily to create a number. Here is the problem my son had to solve:

Stay with me as I walk through the search for the common denominator. To Cryp Email List figure this out, I had to find a common denominator that all the denominators could split into. In this case, the numbers 2, 3, and 7 all divide into 42. So by changing the denominator to 42 and adjusting the numerators proportionally, we created three numbers that could all work together to create one number:

Here all the numbers now work together because they all represent part of a denominator. Now I know what you’re thinking: “What does this have to do with content marketing?”

What do fractions have to do with content marketing?

Well, I’ve come to realize that as part of Adobe’s marketing functions, we talk to each other about important metrics for our sub-teams, but we don’t understand the common ground, which makes it difficult for us to work together. the marketing team.

Let me tell you what I mean. I work with Adobe’s PR, social, and research teams. For public relations, a main goal is to place articles in high profile journals. For the social, it is commitment. For search, it’s increased traffic through high Google rankings. Our “problem” might look like this:

 

Looking at this problem, I realized that we couldn’t just add the three numbers with no common denominator. In other words, we needed to create a common metric to get us all working and thinking together. Only then can we break down the silos between the teams.

I went on a quest to determine our common denominator and how our parts contribute to it. With such different goals, how can these teams work together as one? Instead of individual team goals, we need to align with a much deeper vision or metric. Only then, with a common vision, can your business break down the silos that hinder content marketing success. It’s about finding common ground to work on.

The common denominator makes things easier

Much like converting to a new denominator so all the numbers can add up, aligning your team’s individual metrics with your overall marketing goal often means creating a new metric that all teams can align to. At Adobe, one of our unifying metrics is “Quality Content.” Even though the social team’s goal is increased engagement, PR gets newspaper mentions, and SEO earns high rankings on Google, when we come together and strategize, it’s for the purpose of increase the production of quality content for our audience.