Imagine running a marathon, which is 26.2 miles. You wouldn’t plan on stopping at 25.2 miles unless you had no other choice. Who would want to give up the rush and reward of the final mile?
Ironically, many companies do exactly that with their content. It’s not intentional, of course. They get busy and just end up never publishing or leveraging the content they’ve created. The result is that they don't get the wins they want to achieve.
We noticed this “final mile” phenomenon several years ago, which is why we started offering on-site content management services as an add-on solution for our clients. Our “final mile” services aren’t for every organization or thought leader, of course. But they’re extremely helpful for those who are too busy to carry their content through the full act of publication and maximization.
Here’s how our “final mile” content management services work: When a client approves a piece of on-site content, such as a blog post, we make sure it’s uploaded to the client’s content management system. We do all the backend work, including selecting and tagging stock photos and even creating and distributing social media posts. When times get hectic, clients who have signed on for “final mile” services can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they aren’t slowing down or stopping their content from performing at its best.
Why 'Final Mile' Content Management Services Make Sense
Many clients have experienced the benefits of partnering with us for their “final mile” content management services. Perhaps the biggest benefit involves time. Just like when you run a race, you want to keep going at a consistent pace. Having our team upload content and schedule social media posts ensures editorial calendar publishing expectations are met. For strapped marketing teams, it’s one less task to worry about and more hours saved to focus on other duties.
Another advantage of our “final mile” services is that clients are able to stay digitally competitive. When you’re pushing out SEO-rich content regularly, you’re more apt to improve your site’s domain authority, build a trustworthy brand image, and showcase your expertise. Google loves fresh, relevant content — and it’s ready to hand out awards for it in the form of better positioning on search engine results pages. Humans love content, too, and they’ll be just as eager to become fans when you consistently educate them on topics they truly care about.
A Road Map for the Final Mile
Now that you've got an understanding of the benefits of “final mile” services, let's take a look at the specifics. Our “final mile” content management services involve the following steps:
- Once your piece of content is created and edited, we upload the completed piece of content into your content management system.
- We select a stock image that reflects the subject matter.
- We add calls to action and search-optimized metadata.
- We choose the blog category.
- We schedule the content to publish at a future date according to your editorial calendar. (You are expected to review the scheduled content before it goes live.)
- We upload social media posts across connected channels.
As you can see, there’s no guesswork. You never have to worry about whether your team overlooked the publication of one or more pieces of content. (It happens more often than you might think, especially for teams without a consistent, documented editorial calendar.) Our blog management services ensure everything’s taken care of so your content can make it to Mile 26.2.
Are content management services right for every client? Not necessarily. To make us your relay-race partner, you’ll need to have both technical and operational capabilities in place. From a technical side, you’ll need WordPress, HubSpot, Pardot, or Marketo as a content management system. From an operational perspective, you’ll want to know that your team just doesn’t have the bandwidth to keep up with your editorial tracking, content management system uploads, and social platform posting.
Producing great content and waiting too long to release it — or never releasing it at all — is like training for a marathon and stopping with the finish line still in the distance. You deserve all the glory that comes with finishing what you started. “Final mile” content management services top off all your team’s hard work so you can achieve your most ambitious content marketing goals.
