Plenty of our clients have in-house content teams or even whole units dedicated to thought leadership, featuring some of the smartest people around. So why do they need us?
In our world – often that means thought leadership for large B2B tech companies – our clients invest in content in a big way.
What’s “a big way”? I mean that they use agencies like us but they also have in-house content teams, often the product of years and millions in investment, and often with a direct line to the CMO or even CEO.
And there’s a difference between content programme management, which is where I usually work with our clients, and working with in-house teams made up of former analysts, consultants and journalists.
Take one segment that we work with a lot: global systems integrators, or GSIs. Last year, analyst Canalys said that the top 20 GSIs accounted for 53.3 per cent of SI revenue in 2022.
Over Collective Content’s decade or so in business, we’ve proudly worked with half of those GSIs.
Here are three lessons that come from the team here (not just me):
Outside ideas. These in-house teams are made up of smart people who value good ideas. On a good day, we aren’t just ‘doers’ but peers with ideas that are easier to come up with as outsiders. We love this type of collaboration and it’s the perfect combination of internal and external forces at play.
No ego. Working with a mix of in-house content teams, other senior stakeholders, and often other agencies, can be tricky: egos can come into play. But we have to remember we’re all on the same side and perhaps the best thing an agency like us can do is tease out the best ideas and make our clients look good.
Scale. Sometimes we are brought in to help programmes or campaigns scale. Someone smart has already done the thinking and planning, maybe pulling together subject matter experts and research. We are told to create the content. Sometimes a lot of content. And that’s all totally fine, too.
This post goes out to all the amazing people we’ve worked with in these roles at our clients. I can’t name them here but they know who they are, and I’m here for conversations about how this kind of relationship works best.
Connect with me on LinkedIn and DM me if you want to talk.