What Superheroes Can Teach You About Building a Content Marketing Team

If the movies are any indicator, we are living in the Age of Superheroes. Every year we’re treated/tortured to a blockbuster of epic proportions, from every type of hero imaginable. For better or worse, it’s only getting bigger. From 2016 to 2020, there will be over 25 confirmed superhero films released (according to this awesome infographic from Comics Alliance).

We’re also living in the Age of Content, and every brand wants in on content marketing. A reported 88% of B2B marketers in North America use content marketing and approximately 76% are planning to increase their investments in content marketing (which could mean content production, team size, budget, etc.). And 57% of organizations now have two or more people dedicated to content marketing.

Surprisingly, companies can learn a lot from the superheroes on the big screen, especially when it comes to assembling a team. Here’s how brands can assemble their all-star superhero content marketing teams.

The Type of ‘Heroes’ Your Team Needs

Brands can let out a sigh of relief — there’s no “right” way to build your team. Depending on variables such industry, company size and budget, your team can (and should) look very different from other teams.

Just like how the best superhero teams aren’t stacked with heroes who have the same skills, your content marketing team needs different kinds of talent. Smaller teams will absorb these duties into one role; larger teams will have dozens of offshoots for each bullet point. At best you need these roles or duties filled:

• Leadership
• Management
• Strategy
• Creation
• Analysis
• Technology

Let’s take a look at how large, mid-size and small teams work in the comics and content marketing.

Large Content Marketing Teams

Comics fans know that S.H.I.E.L.D. from Marvel Comics or A.R.G.U.S. from DC Comics are technically offshoots of counterintelligence agencies, but they are the most fitting example considering their sheer scope. These giant organizations — which boast a few thousand employees across all different departments — work toward a singular (albeit different) goal.

Though large companies probably don’t have trained killers in their midsts, they can take a note at how to structure their content marketing teams. Usually, large companies choose to build a content marketing team in-house to work with their extensive network of divisions, departments and employees. Given the size of the company, they may have larger marketing needs and thus the budget for larger teams.

In accordance with our list of duties and roles required above, large teams usually consist of at least:

• Chief Content Officer (CCO)
• Managing Editor/Department Head
• Strategists and Researchers
• Content Producers
• Content Creators
• Software Engineers, Technologists, IT
• Community and Social Managers
• Freelancers and Contractors

With larger teams, there is a hierarchy of power and responsibility that stems from the top and trickles its way downward. The CCO, Managing Editor and other high-ranking strategists will have to coordinate with the other marketing departments to make a plan.

Mid-Sized Content Marketing Teams

(Choosing between The Avengers and the Justice League was a real Sophie’s Choice, FYI. But I’m more familiar with JL.)

Before I jump into the superhero analogy, I have to explain that mid-size companies structure their content marketing teams in one of two ways:

1. Build a small in-house editorial staff like that from magazine publishing.
2. Refer to a content marketing agency with greater expertise.

The first option is ideal for brands who already have the groundwork of an editorial publication, but without all of the resources of a magazine. The staff consists of a managing editor, a handful of staff writers and multimedia producers as well as a network of freelancers, guest contributors and special correspondents. Many larger brands like to use this model to create and distribute branded publications like Airbnb’s Pineapple and Frank and Oak’s Oak Street (note: smaller brands who create branded publications may also refer to option number two below).

The second option is perhaps more analogous to our superhero theme. Speaking of, let’s talk about superhero teams who are similar in size (and structure) to content marketing agencies — Marvel’s the Avengers and D.C.’s Justice League.

Perhaps the most famous superhero teams in both universes, they consist of all-star talent who may lack the resources of larger networks but are known for their reliability and expertise. It’s not a perfect analogy (seriously—where do you put The Flash and Aquaman?) but here’s what comparing the Justice League to a content marketing service looks like:

Now, it may be arrogant to compare outside agencies with the coolest superhero teams (IMHO), but stay with me. When a crisis happens on Earth in either universe, chances are the Avengers and Justice League are called in to lend their expertise and handle the situation. For brands without the time or skills on hand to execute content marketing, it’s not uncommon to solicit help from a specialized agency to work at the task at hand while coordinating with other departments.

Of course, the hierarchal structure of a content marketing service varies from place to place, but the smaller the team, the more they tend to work in tangent for a specialized skill. Sure, there are clear leaders of management and technology roles (Chiefs of Content and Technology/Superman and Batman), but many of the positions can bleed into one another since they work so closely with one another.

There are advantages and disadvantages to hiring a team to handle your content marketing.

Pros of hiring an agency:

• Save time and resources for your team
• Receive high-quality expertise (if you pick the right team)
• Team is already in place at the agency and there’s no need to coordinate or manage freelancers or projects

Cons of hiring an agency:

• Content marketing services are not cheap, with many companies offering packages between $4,000–10,000 a month
• A lack of coordination between marketing departments

Make sure you look for agencies that scale their services for your needs.

Small Content Marketing Teams

Small businesses or startups — which generate less than $50 million — may pull double duty in their roles and hire small in-house teams. Think Fantastic Four or Suicide Squad. Their resources may be smaller than a large corporation, but they can rely on great talent working closely together to get smaller jobs done just as well.

A lot of these roles can be swallowed into three basic roles:

• Content Manager, who is often the Managing Editor, Community Manager and in charge of strategy
• Content Creator, who fulfills the content creation roles for written, visual, audio and video content
• Techie, the one who crunches numbers, assures IT is working and analyzes the data

Despite their size differences, teams can make a real difference in achieving their goals without scaling or minimizing their goals. The goals of a smaller team may are bound to be different than a large one and a small group can work closely with one another to manage the entire marketing department. The downside of a small business/small team is that you only have so many resources. Make sure you devote a sizable chunk of time and energy to this growing field.

How Your Superhero Team Needs to Work with Others

Cool! So you have your team assembled. Now you have to make sure your news superhero content marketing team plays well with others. Most importantly, your new content marketing team must be able to coordinate seamlessly with your other marketing efforts. But in many cases, your one team is working with a series of others.

Not only are they most likely working with other marketing departments, but other brand ambassadors, brand sponsors and other contributors. After all, there’s more than one mission at hand.

That’s why you need to plan ahead to organize workflow. You’ll need to:

• Propose what a cross-functional marketing team looks like in terms of staff, roles and responsibilities
• Set benchmarks with respect to budgeting and planning across departments
• Establish how editorial teams should interface with different creative, brand and marketing functions to determine who needs to be involved, why and in what capacity
• Facilitate workflows between cross-functional teams and create protocols for technology, publishing, distribution, etc.
• Work toward achieving goals, redefining metrics and understanding your audience

At Quietly, our superhero content marketing team sets a plan for setting up a data-driven, cross-functional editorial team that can streamline the workflow between internal groups and partners. Your superhero content marketing team needs to do the same.

Images: Marvel Comics & DC Comics