How Content Creators Can Deal with a Boss Who Doesn’t Get It
Not everybody understands the gripping effect of good content. Many marketing directors see content marketing as a means to an end—they want page views, hot leads, and social media shares.
As a content creator, that’s frustrating. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to convince people that content marketing is a substantial investment, one that requires a lot of creativity and takes a lot of time.
Many content creators come across managers who don’t seem to get how much effort it takes to create content, which presents all sorts of challenges. Sometimes the manager has unrealistic expectations on how long it will take you to research and write a compelling piece, or sometimes they’re disappointed when something you worked on doesn’t perform well immediately.
In-house marketers, agency creatives, and freelancers can all master the art of communicating with their manager. How can you, as a writer, ensure that your stories are successful and that you exceed your manager’s expectations?
Work Together
The relationship between you and the person who manages you will never work if you’re not in alignment. They might expect your content to get views quickly and easily, while you understand it will take time to build an audience. Before embarking on a new project together, you need to talk about expectations and what goals are most important.
If your manager only cares about sales and high rankings in search engine results, that’s fine, but you have to get them to understand what it will take to get there. Help them understand that you need to work together to develop a sales funnel, and that high rankings only come from top-ranked content, which takes substantial effort to research and create. For example, it might take you a few weeks to do keyword research, create and revise the content, and then promote the piece.
Speak Their Language
At heart, I’m a creative—I studied poetry before I became a content creator. But that doesn’t mean my clients will be entranced by wordplay and artistic expressions. Instead, I have to speak in a language that a manager or client understands. If they talk more about analytics than content’s emotional effects, I need to give them the numbers, explaining success in terms of pageviews and number of social media shares.
“In content marketing, we think about writing for audiences of people who might not necessarily be interested in business speak,” says Kaleigh Moore, founder of Lumen. “But the person who is signing the checks, your client or manager, is often somebody who needs to hear numbers, and how your efforts will impact their bottom line.”
When I worked for a tech company, my boss was obsessed with analytics. He wanted a high-level view of how things were performing and didn’t want to get into the emotional aspects of creating content. Whenever I met with him, I made sure to talk about content in a way he could understand. If I told him how many visits our pages were getting, he was impressed.
Convince Them There’s No Quick Fix
“What many managers, small business owners, and key marketing decision-makers don’t understand about content marketing is that while it can be a cost-effective solution, it can take a significant amount of time to begin generating noticeable results,” says Jacob Warwick, founder of ThinkWarwick, a professional copywriting agency. “Many marketers are too focused on the silver bullet; that one marketing or advertising tactic that doubles or triples revenue overnight.”
To convince your manager that content marketing isn’t a quick fix, Warwick recommends making sure that you properly manage their expectations, do your research, create an actionable content strategy, and pay close attention to how you measure your efforts with analytics. In addition, I recommend sitting down with your manager to have a talk about expectations. Talk with them about what goals you think you can reach, and how long it will take to reach them. It’s also good to share insights from an outside source—find an article from an expert that can convince your boss of your points and send it his way.
Share Results
Most managers are results-oriented, so it’s in your best interest to find ways to share results. Instead of giving them results when they ask, be proactive and share results as they happen. Send your manager an email, and let them know how many social shares your most recent post got and that you think this is a great start.
Go beyond emails and create reports using Google Analytics or other analytics platforms. Sharing results often will result in an analytical relationship, one that will please your manager and ultimately help you. Your ability to create reports will impress anyone who thinks that content creators can only focus on writing.
Meet Often and Be Honest
Like any relationship, the one you have with your manager depends on good communication. That means you need to talk often to discuss your goals and assess how you’re doing. It also means you need to be honest when you think the current strategy isn’t working.
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By Emma Siemsko
Emma Siemasko is a writer, storyteller, and content marketer. Emma runs Stories by Emma, her own content marketing consultancy, and does freelance writing and content strategy for many clients. She's had experience working in-house as a content marketer, as well as at a large content marketing agency. She has written for KISSmetrics, Entrepreneur Magazine, Shopify, Crazy Egg, Yahoo! Small Business, and m
