As the marketer in charge of your organization’s blog, you seem to run into the problem of getting your leaders to contribute content again and again. Whether you are at the coffee machine brewing your 2 p.m. cup or waiting for the elevator, you are frequently engaged in engrossing conversations with the subject matter experts (SMEs) at your company. Every time one of these discussions occurs, you think to yourself: “This would be an incredible topic for a blog post!” But, inevitably, when you ask one of these SMEs to contribute, he or she simply doesn’t have the time.
Every organization could benefit from sharing industry thought leadership on its blog. So, this makes it particularly frustrating for marketers to be denied the content SMEs can provide. But a solution to this problem does exist—and it’s called ghostwriting.
Rather than asking SMEs to pull several hours from their schedules to work on blog posts—slaving away to get every word exactly right—consider hiring a ghostwriter to do the grunt work. This approach allows your SMEs to contribute to your blog without having to put pen to paper, so to speak. A ghostwriter simply conducts an interview with the expert and then writes the story under the SME’s byline. That way, you still get the gravity of a thought leader’s insights in a post without requiring your internal team member to spend more than 30 minutes producing the content.
So where do you find this magical ghostwriter? In some cases, you or another member of your internal marketing team may be able to handle these ghostwriting duties. After all, you know who the true superstars are in your company and who to go to when you need insight on a particular topic.
On the flip side, time may be just as much an issue for you and your team members as it is for the SMEs. If that is the case, enlisting the services of a content strategy vendor can be a beneficial fix. A best-in-class organization devoted solely to content creation will be able to supply experienced ghostwriters that understand how to garner the maximum amount of engaging material out of your company’s SMEs in the least amount of time. All you have to do is make the initial introduction between your expert and the ghostwriter and watch the magic happen!
In a short period of time, the ghostwriter will become acquainted with the SME’s personality and will be able to capture the individual’s voice and verbiage in his or her blog posts. The final product that goes up on your website will be, in many cases, even more valuable than it would have been if the SME had penned the post alone, because:
- The SME is not a writer by trade; combining his or her knowledge with the ghostwriter’s wordsmithing skills produces a more polished post.
- The SME will not have rushed to complete the blog, worrying about his or her other job-related tasks that have been put on hold.
So if you’re tired of letting amazing thought leadership opportunities slip through your fingertips due to time constraints, employing a ghostwriter’s services may be just the thing to reinvigorate your blog.
So what are you waiting for?
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
