Coming up with fresh content marketing ideas can feel like pulling teeth. Sometimes you’re burnt out. Sometimes you’re blocked. Sometimes you’re just tired of coming up with ideas all by yourself. This is a common feeling, as the majority of B2B content marketers have less than 5 people on their team (according to the Content Marketing Institute). But when it comes to finding those A+ ideas, you can lean on more people than you think. In fact, you have a whole company of people you can turn into content marketing creators. You just need to know how to tap into their creative energy. Luckily, we’re here to help you do just that. 

How to Turn Your Coworkers Into Content Marketing Creators

When it comes to content brainstorming, we often have blinders on. We get used to doing the same things, or we get tunnel vision and can’t see any fresh ways to try something new. Bringing others into the fold can help expand and re-energize your entire content operation, whether they’re in the marketing department or not. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of the easiest ways your coworkers can generate ideas—or create the content for you. 

1) Tap your experts.

Whether it’s your accounts team or your head of engineering, the people on the frontlines—those who interface with customers directly or those who shape your products or services—are a wealth of ideas and inspiration. 

• Schedule a Q&A to talk to your sales team about the customer issues they’ve been encountering lately. Customer pain points or sales’ unique insight can help you come up with a variety of content (e.g., handy checklists, tutorials, or articles). 
• Film a video, or host an Instagram/FB live chat with a company thought leader (e.g., Director of Product Development). You can ask them about the issues facing the industry, or ask them about their failures/lessons learned. You can also pair them with a copywriter who can turn their ideas into a cohesive article.
• Have a one-on-one with your data analysts to look for ways to uncover unique stories in your data.

You’d be surprised what gems you can come up with after these types of conversations. 

Example: We’ve had employees share their biggest creative lessons learned, the biggest mistakes made in video production, as well as helpful resources like our own company’s creative brief.

2) Employee-Generated Content

It’s great when your fellow employees give you their ideas, but it’s awesome when they become content marketing creators themselves. Some companies encourage people to contribute articles or article ideas (even incentivizing people with gift cards or other perks). That may not be in your budget, but there are all sorts of ways you can mobilize people to create content to share. This can include things like….

• Have a company-wide contest, and share the submissions.
• Ask an employee to document a day-in-the-life story for social media. You could also have members of a whole department do it.
• Create employee spotlights for social media. You might have them answer a few questions, share a favorite tip, etc. This type of content is especially great because it’s easy to templatize. 
• Find out if anyone is interested in contributing guest columns/posts.

Tip: Get more ideas to showcase your employees and brand culture on social media. 

Example: To blow off steam and let loose creatively, our design department hosts occasional design challenges. They’ve redesigned flags and given their own creative twist to the letters of the alphabet. Showcasing these pieces lets us show off our team’s skill and celebrate their creativity. 

3) Trainings, Presentations, and Education

A good organization is always growing, learning, and investing in its people. When your team gains valuable knowledge, sharing it with others through content is a great way to extend that value. Whether your sales team picked up some new tips from a recent training or your company adopted a new practice that’s increased productivity, turning these tidbits into content is an easy way to give people a behind-the-scenes look at how you work and fill your content calendar. In practice that might look like…

• A presentation deck turned into a slideshare
• A series of articles on a particular topic
• A tweet thread of top tips
• A handy guide or checklist

Tip: Things like hacks, tweets, or data stats can be especially good microcontent for social. Find out more about how to make microcontent work for you. 

Example: We’ve summed up the lessons we learned at marketing conferences, written about the way that AgencyAgile trainings transformed our agency, shared our best brainstorming tips, etc. All of these ideas came from the knowledge we’ve gained and shared with each other. 

 4) Slack Channels

Yep, that’s right. Some great content ideas might be hiding in your Slack channels. We have channels for everything from pets, to parenting, to marketing strategy, and combing through these channels has given us a ton of content inspiration over the years. When you’re hunting for inspiration, look for…

• Unique conversations/perspectives/debates your team is having about industry-related subjects
• Resources, articles, projects that you might share on social or combine for a roundup (e.g., “Our Top 9 Fave Books on Branding”)
• Discussions of upcoming trends
• Exciting work or company-related news that may be relevant/interesting to your audience

Tip: Another easy way to make more content is to repurpose content you already have. For example, you might turn highlights from an ebook into an infographic. You can also use a divisible content strategy to get the max amount of content from one single cornerstone piece (e.g., a lead-generating ebook). 

Example: We’ve shared our best tips for working parents from our #parenting channel. We’ve turned great design examples in our #inspiration channel into roundups of B2B content marketing examples, infographics, explainer videos, etc. We also share the best of our #inspiration channel in our newsletter each week.

5) Your Company Culture 

Your culture is one of the best sources for inspiration, and it is becoming more and more important to spotlight, as both your customers and potential employees want to know who you really are. Luckily, this content is often more lighthearted and enjoyable to brainstorm, and you can find inspiration all around you. Think of how you might give people a behind-the-scenes look at the people and fun stuff that makes your brand unique, including things like…

• Traditions
• Celebrations
• Hack days
• Employee talents
• Playlists

Tip: Showcasing your company values can be especially powerful. See how these brands put their values front and center, and see our culture marketing 101 guide for more ways to spotlight your company.

How to Mobilize Your Content Marketing Creators

If you want your team to be more active in your marketing, look for ways to bring them into the fold. 

• Host regular brainstorms. You may not want to invite everyone, but curating smaller groups of people from different departments can be helpful. 
• Set up an easy way to submit ideas. If you make it known you’re looking for ideas, you may be surprised at the response you’ll get. If people don’t have time for brainstorms, give them a method to submit their ideas (e.g., a specific email address or dedicated Slack channel).

But if you’re still struggling to come up with the ideas you need—or execute the ideas you have—you may want to bring in some extra support. Find out how to find a B2B agency with the right expertise, find out what it’s like to work with us on a content strategy, or hit us up directly. We’re happy to help you keep your calendar filled with great ideas.