What’s the role of bots (AI) in content creation? A growing one. From corporate earnings reports to election results coverage and even reports from the Olympics, high-profile media are using them, and brands are too.

Who do you need on your content marketing team to make it successful? Let’s take a step back and first look at what skill areas your content marketing team must cover – for the young, growing, or mature content marketing operations.

Are you tired of hearing the mantra, “Audience first.” We are too. But too many marketers aren’t putting the audience first (even though they say they do). Test your own audience-first mentality by answering these four questions.

Content marketing must provide more than one type of value to be worth the investment. It must provide value across multiple business areas. Are you ready for a new role in addition to the one you have? Enter the audience strategist.

Too many marketers fail to create content for the bottom of the funnel. But content for people who are on the verge of buying, who have just bought, and who are between purchases is essential. Learn how outdoor retailer REI does it.

If you work in a big, established company, a presentation on being a marketer on a small team may not seem to apply to you. But the wisdom extends to anyone who wants better flexibility and performance.

To be successful, marketers must add value to consumers’ lives. The fundamentals behind content marketing bring that relationship-building value. But don’t take our word. Let these nine statistics do the talking to persuade naysayers.

Do your presales and post-sales content teams coordinate efforts for maximum benefit? Or are you like most brands? Presales teams sell. Post-sales teams explain. Rarely the twain shall meet. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Too often brands don’t spend enough time thinking what their audience wants. Follow the 12 steps of the hero’s journey, reframed as an audience journey, to better align your content with the real needs and wants of your audience.

What’s the next best thing to having Google sit down next to you, gaze over its glasses at your screen, and tell you how to improve the visibility of your web pages? Listening to Searchmetrics founder Marcus Tober.

Think of a piece of content your team published recently. On a scale of 0 to 100, how would you rate it? And how would your rating help your company? Consider the method that Red Hat devised for scoring content performance.

As your content marketing team grows, you’ll want to bring in a developer to minimize your leaning on the IT department, make complex projects easier to take on, and better streamline your content production.