How to Build & Scale Your Content Engine

The year is 2010. Social platforms like YouTube and Facebook are driving a rapid democratization of the media ecosystem. As a result and in addition to whatever you do, you are now a media company. While you probably don’t have a lot of experience, resources, or even interest in content marketing, you’ll need to spin up a steady stream of owned media just to stay competitive. That’s put you in a storytelling arms race with nearly every other organization on earth to better tell the audience not just what you sell, but who you are.

Almost fifteen years later, it’s amazing how many organizations understand what is to be gained with content marketing and how few have made it a core aspect of their marketing strategy. At large, this doesn’t represent a lack of understanding about the impact of the medium. Rather, an inability to marshal ‌resources, build the workflow, and publish content on a regular basis. In this post, we’re going to explore the most challenging aspect of the discipline: How to build and scale your content engine.

What is a Content Engine, Anyway?

Content (in this context) is any creative work that tells a story about your organization. That’s usually about the products, people, and history that define your brand. Great content is never about the thing that it’s about, though; it’s a vehicle for conveying your values.Where executives might see a silly online trend that could make consumers take them less seriously, consumers see a business that is connected, modern, and human. That’s because the goal of content isn’t to sell a thing but to align your brand with the target audience so when they need a thing, they will be more likely to pick yours.

“The goal of content marketing isn’t to sell a thing but to align your brand with the target audience so when they need a thing, they will be more likely to choose yours.”

Leveraging storytelling in this way, to convey your values, has always been important to business success. It’s what creates a relationship between the organization and the audience. The way we do it has shifted quite a lot over the last fifty years, though, evolving from a handshake or house call to a digital story. Content allows you not just to convey what you sell, but why people should buy it from you, in particular. The ability to do this well is why people fall in love and advocate for brands like Apple, Disney, Cracker Barrel, etc. They all use content to elicit to build adjacency.

Why Do I Need a Content Engine?

Executing a content marketing strategy is hard; there’s no two ways about it. Some enjoy the process, but many end up just feeling overwhelmed and give up before they’ve ever really had a chance to flourish. That phenomenon is, almost universally, due to a lack of understanding about the complexity of the task they’re taking on. While content shouldn’t be thought of as overtly difficult on its own, if you don’t have a well-thought-out process in place, it can very easily turn from a piece of your strategy into a full-time job.

When we talk about “content engines”, we are referring to a workflow that enables your brand to deliver a consistent stream of stories about the organization on an ongoing basis. Building one requires a documented process and knowledgeable stakeholders working in concert across a wide range of expertise, from ideation to analytics. Be aware, though, that building a stream of meaningful and productive content is not only resource-intensive; it takes a long-term commitment. A well-built content engine helps mitigate those risks and gives your program the best chance at success.

Building Your Content Engine

The following rules can be scaled up or down as needed to fit your organization’s content strategy, resources, and desired goals.

Define Your Goals

Before you set out, it’s important to pause for a moment and decide what you want out of all of this. It may sound trite, but if the goal of your content marketing program is to sell more stuff, you’re doing it wrong. Your content will feel empty and self-serving; more like a sales pitch than a bid for adjacency. Sales will come in time, but your content should be magnanimous and audience-driven with the intent of delivering value to your audience in some way. Finding goals that reflect this growth can be more useful as you get your program off the ground.

Find Your Format

You aren’t limited to a single format, but you may find it a helpful starting point. Long-form editorial content, like blogs, can be great for building community around a specific topic. Generative AI is diluting some of the search value, though. Alternatively, both short- and long-form videos are more popular than ever. Even gallery-based image content can be powerful with the right audience. The important thing is simply to select a starting point and be consistent. ‌Even brands who run multiple channels typically have a format that their content performs best on.

Document Your Workflow

With so many different types of content out there, it’s difficult to make a hard-and-fast rule about what steps your workflow should contain. You may find it helpful to start with a generic six-part process that includes ideation, research, development, feedback, publishing, and analytics. If you run multiple content streams, this workflow will likely need to be moderated for each. ‌The process may sound like overkill, but documenting each step, their unique stakeholders, and progress is vital to managing the integrated marketing team it will take to push content through.

Build your Team

Even if you’re starting small, you’ll likely need multiple skill sets to get a single piece of content all the way through your workflow. If you are a multi-tasking unicorn, then you’ve got this covered. For the rest of us, you’ll likely need to find additional resources. They may include copywriters, graphic designers, video editors, et al. If you’re larger, you may have some of these in-house already. If not, getting specialists from places like UpWork or Fiverr can sometimes fill the gap, or even an integrated marketing agency like Catalyst. Keep in mind that no one knows your product like you, and you, or someone on your team, will still be the creative muscle.

Start Slow

One of the most common reasons content marketing programs fail is trying to do too much too quickly. Define your ambitions as part of a yearly strategy, but start light with a single piece of content a month. Once each stakeholder on your team is familiar with the kind of content you’re trying to build, your objectives, and your workflow, it will be easier to ramp up. Going slow does more than make your workflow manageable, though. It allows you to gain feedback, and make iterative changes to your strategy before you begin to scale up.

Mirror Content

In the initial phases of growth, publishing the same or similar content to each of your distribution platforms can be an important stepping stone. In this phase, you will usually post the same root content, with small platform-specific changes to make it suitable for each‌ channel. As you grow, you can slowly spin up new content variations tailored to each platform’s audience without generating much extra work.

Begin to Scale

Scaling your content engine may sound intimidating, but it’s all about process. Break each part of your workflow down to the smallest tasks, assign stakeholders, and track due dates. Your main goal at this stage is to bring on additional resources. Remember that creative always scales the slowest. A small, well-balanced group can usually kick out much more content than a single resource can provide. So, start by finding additional creators who can help expand your process up with more content or out to different channels, and everything else will follow.

Growing Your Content Engine

While you don’t need to create a new piece of content every day (or on any prescribed schedule), you should be using your content engine to post on a regular schedule. That’s because creating a successful content marketing program is more like building a relationship than gaining an impression. It takes a steady stream of touches that generate positive sentiment and trust over the long term. Organizations that don’t have a built-in content marketing team (or the resources/bandwidth to build one) can still be successful, though. They just need to start small and be consistent.