It’s time for another Golden Rule! We recently shared our first two Golden Rules:
This week our focus is on how to maintain a clear content governance structure. Check out our tips below, and then let us know — have you documented and maintained your own content governance policy?
Golden Rule #3: Maintain clear content governance.
Content can quickly become outdated as a result of evolving product and portfolio updates, customer needs, industry or macroeconomic shifts, and competitive trends. To guarantee that your sales content remains fresh and effective, it's essential to proactively manage its lifecycle. This involves regularly evaluating and refreshing content to maintain relevance, accuracy, and accessibility. By ensuring your content is always up-to-date and impactful, you allow your sellers to deliver targeted and engaging messages that resonate with their buyers and drive successful outcomes.
How to shape your platform with purpose:
- Define what good looks like with a clear, consistent governance policy. A thorough and detailed governance plan outlines the roles and responsibilities of content creators and enablement administrators to maintain consistency and quality. This policy should include prescriptive guidelines for content creation and removal, review cycles, and approval processes. For example, your guideline may be that every piece of content must be tagged with relevant metadata, such as content type, target audience, and sales stage.
- Conduct regular audits to keep your content relevant. Schedule and perform comprehensive content audits quarterly. These audits should assess content for relevance, accuracy, engagement, and alignment with the buying journey and sales process. Neglecting to perform these audits can result in outdated or irrelevant content cluttering your platform, which can confuse sellers, dilute your message, and ultimately lead to missed sales opportunities. Use the insights gained to retire outdated content and identify gaps to fill.
- Activate a complete content lifecycle management process. Hitting ‘publish’ on content in your enablement solution is not the end of the process — it’s really only the beginning. That’s where the lifecycle management really starts. The most effective process covers more than just content creation, reviews, publication — it also includes utilization tracking, updating, and retirement. Define specific criteria and timelines for each stage of the content lifecycle, such as requiring content to be reviewed for accuracy every quarter or setting a utilization threshold below which content is flagged for retirement.
- Train and empower content creators. Arm your creators with the training, authority, and the tools they need to to craft high-quality and compliant content. Regularly track and analyze key performance metrics to ensure the content is hitting the mark, such as engagement rates and conversion impact. Share these insights with your creators to improve your content strategy and make sure it remains responsive to the evolving industry landscape and your sellers’ needs.