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July 15, 2019 Content Chat Recap: Founding and Managing an Effective Editorial Board

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A 360° view of your company is essential to best identify and prioritize your company’s content needs, especially since each piece of content you create should be written with your audiences in mind and ladder back to your company goals. While your content planning and evaluation process can take place solely in the hands of your content team, that may not be the most efficient use of your resources.

Creating an editorial board is an effective way to join diverse perspectives and best map your content roadmap, but editorial boards come with a few considerations for those just starting or finding that their boards spiral over time.

In this #ContentChat, we explore what an editorial board is, who the members should be, and tips on how to enable your board to thrive.

Q1: What is a content marketing editorial board, and do you have one?

A content marketing editorial board is composed of people across functions that create or use content. The board meets regularly to evaluate the success of past content, identify content needs and create a workflow for content creation.

Editorial boards are more common for larger companies, but any business could benefit from having one (pending the resources are available). Boards can accelerate content ideation and creation, and also ensures cross-functional alignment on content needs and goals.

Q2: Who should be part of a content marketing editorial board?

Representatives of any content- or customer-facing department should be on your board. This includes member(s) from company leadership, content, social media, PR, comms, sales, customer success, new business, design, product and other teams. The purpose is to bring diverse perspectives in to best understand the various internal content needs and the pain points faced by your target audiences.

Q3: What are the various roles and responsibilities for content marketing editorial board members?

Just like with any other type of team, clearly defined roles and responsibilities are crucial for the success of an editorial board. This starts with choosing a leader who will take point in setting agendas, managing the team and owning the editorial calendar.

A note taker should be chosen for each meeting (this does not need to be the same person each time), with a focus on capturing content ideas and action items.

From there, utilize the unique strengths of each of your board members. The board exists to identify the needs of your audience and identify gaps in your current content strategy. Elect representatives to speak on behalf of specific business units or functions like PR or social media to ensure no perspective goes without consideration. Finally, foster an environment where board members can freely exchange ideas and create actionable next steps without becoming blocked by group drama or red tape.

Q4: How often should your content marketing editorial board meet?

Everyone’s favorite answer—it depends. Strategy meetings will typically happen quarterly or bi-annually, and project management meetings should happen more frequently to ensure deadlines are being met. The goal is to hold meetings frequently enough where your team can adjust course as needed based on past content performance or new audience needs, but not too frequently that the team meets more than it can create content.

Q5: What are some potential challenges you’ve seen with managing content marketing editorial boards?

Drama or process delays can happen if your board does not have a documented charter, and if each team member does not understand their role.

Your meeting structure can address part of the above issue, or create more hurdles if you’re not careful. Always have an agenda, otherwise more outspoken individuals may hijack the conversation and silence other opinions. And for every meeting, you must circulate notes/actions so that board members stay productive between meetings. The board leader should also follow up with board members to check in on their progress and ensure deadlines are being met.

Other potential problems include: a lack of communication, having too many or too few board members, losing focus on the needs of the customer (versus the egos of the board members),

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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