Make no mistake about it, building a content factory is an investment, and that investment starts with hiring a dedicated, full- time team for the job. The good news is that you can keep that team relatively small, provided that you augment it with the support of freelancers and industry influencers, and get other people throughout your company engaged in the effort. To lead that team, you must fill the one role that is absolutely essential for running an effective content factory: a managing editor. Hiring a Managing Editor If you can only hire one person to build your content factory, it needs to be a factory foreman who is capable of not only developing a content strategy, but also marshaling and managing all of the resources necessary to execute it and measure its success. At expansion-stage technology companies, that role is often best filled by a managing editor (other job titles that fill similar roles include director of content marketing and VP of content). Reporting to the CMO, an experienced managing editor will typically possess a combination of deep editorial and project management expertise as well as a firm grasp of online marketing. He or she should be responsible for overseeing and optimizing your company’s content creation and distribution processes, as well as ensuring the quality and timely publication of all of your content. While impeccable writing and editing skills are essential, it’s important to note that the managing editor’s time should not be spent creating content. Instead, he or she will be managing a team, setting your editorial agenda, removing any impediments that are preventing your content factory from running smoothly, measuring its performance, and continually striving to improve it. Some of the managing editor’s other responsibilities may include: » Creating and managing the company’s editorial calendar » Overseeing the creation of all content and ensuring that it is error free, optimized, and of the highest quality » Managing other content team members » Building and managing a stable of freelancers » Ensuring that all content is of the highest quality and delivered on time » Managing an error free, SEO-optimized corporate blog site and regularly For a sample contributing posts to it job description for » Tracking and analyzing key metrics to help inform the strategy a managing editor, see page 67 in the Hiring the right managing editor is essential to the success of your content factory, Appendix. so make sure that you are finding the best person possible for the role. It Takes a Content Factory! | 20