So your CEO approved the budget for you to launch a new content marketing plan. Whether you’ll be hiring an in-house editor, or working with a content management company, there’s a lot to do between now and three months of content from now. Here are 5 tips on how to get organized, because the sooner you get your editor up and running, the sooner you can get back to the 4,000 other marketing projects on your docket.

1-Find your voice and stick with it.

Chances are, your company already has a corporate voice, whether it’s whimsical/friendly (Jet Blue), sharp/modern (Glaceau) or serious/informative (Honeywell). Now it’s your job to ensure all of your collateral maintains that voice, from the corporate blog to the case studies to the cocktail napkins at your next big event. Nothing says “what they heck are they talking about?” like a funny newsletter linked to a dry corporate website.

2-Outline your content plan.

Will you publish four new articles on your site each month, or ten? Will your customers receive four magazines a year, or six? Does your email newsletter go out every Tuesday, or every other Thursday? We’re big on consistency, and so are consumers, so create some rules and stick to them. Even better, make sure everyone in the company receives a copy, so the next time your sales director wants to blast your entire email list about an upcoming trade show, you can hand him a copy of the content calendar and let him know the date of your next opening.

3-Decide who makes the decisions.

Now that you have your content plan, it’s time to start filling in the gaps. At first, everyone from biz dev to IT will want to have a say in the master story list. But by your second month, you may be pulling teeth to get any responses to the next batch of story ideas. Determine up front who needs to give story ideas the green light, and who needs to sign off on final content before you press “publish.”

4-Create or update your style guide.

If you do have one, update it. If you don’t have one, gather those with buy-in and jot down some notes. Are you going to use serial commas? Is the tone of the interviews going to be more conversational or corporate? Will you follow Chicago or AP style, or some combination of the two? Do web addresses get www or http://? What gets bolded and what gets italicized? And what is the naming convention for your various products and services? These may seem like nitpicky things, but when you are in the midst of landing a national account or being acquired, you don’t want to look like an amateur.

5-Build a process for the handling the nitty-gritty.

When it comes to figuring out which file is the one the proofreader approved vs. the one management signed off on, we can tell you that email doesn’t work—which is why we use the online project management system Basecamp. MS Word’s track changes feature is great, but only if you have a system for gathering everyone’s edits on one doc. During important meetings, use a digital recorder to capture all the details, and work with a transcription service to convert it to text. It’ll cost you about a dollar a minute, but will pick up all those little details various members of the team may have missed or forgotten. Create a process and a chain of command and give your editor or writers feedback all at once. Nothing frustrates them more (and risks missing deadlines) than edits from the same organization that go against one another.

BONUS. And finally, our own pet peeve: Just say no to distracting widgets.

Twitter, Utterz and Sphere—the list goes on and on. Put the clamp down on the umpteen Web 2.0 widgets cluttering your site (or at least take them off your homepage and put them onto your blog—tastefully). When widgets are scattered across your homepage, it looks much too “flavor-of-the-day” and distracts from the overall design of your site. Rarely have we seen it done well (although Liveperson might be an exception). Before downloading the latest “nizzer-keen” content generating widget, ask yourself how its features align with your original content plan and how much control you have over the content it pulls in—you may not want that news about Britney’s latest breakdown on your corporate homepage.

 

”Every contact with your customer is an opportunity to win or lose,” the ComCenter’s website reads. Based on the time this full-service shared office suite put into their collateral, they aren’t going to win too many.

A few simple pointers for businesses who are concerned about first impressions: Web, wall-art and otherwise.

1.— Website Design

Owner Angle:
Why should I pay $2,000 or $10,000 on a website when I can use a template from an online site and pay $79? My business doesn’t live or die on the web and I am not selling anything. It’s just a big digital business card.

Customer Angle:
A templated website tells customers your business isn’t any different from your competitors. The people who are most likely to research your company are already on the web and (see blog entry) and can spot a template from a million miles away. Sal’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn can’t keep a slice on the pizza tray despite having a take it or leave it attitude. An office building with a 50% vacancy rate probably can’t pull that off.

Take Away:
Don’ t use a template for your website—anyone with a modicum of taste can tell it is a template.

2a.— Bad Taste

Owner Angle:
Art in the lobby gives a sense of professionalism. But real art in the lobby is an investment I’m not willing to make.

Customer Angle:
Fair enough. Certainly, customers don’t expect Picassos to be hanging in the foyer, but there are corporate art firms for a reason. They know what colors, shapes and images work best in corporate settings—and that ten pieces of mismatched “art” on a single wall don’t add up to a peaceful work environment. They also know that chains hanging from the drop ceiling aren’t the best way to hang said “art.”

Take Away:
Hire a professional to select your art. Even those of us who have great taste realize our tastes aren’t everyone else’s taste. And remember that a blank wall has its place, too.

2b. — Bad Artists

Owner Angle:
An on-staff artist could generate some cache. Perhaps we cut him a break on rent, and he cuts us a deal on corporate art.

Customer Angle:
If I don’t smell fresh paint at the foot of the “artist’s” door, something’s fishy; and if I do smell paint when you are showing me a space across the hall, please don’t position it to me as a bonus that I am going to be close to the in-house talent.

Take Away:
Don’t hire an “on-staff artist” for your office building unless you have the cash to hire someone with a brand name or an amazing body of work.

2c. — Bad Art

Owner Angle:
Hey, I’m never here. Who cares what’s on the walls?

Customer Angle:
Good corporate art shouldn’t stand out. It should blend in and do all it can to not feel like a local group art show.

Take Away:
Don’t hire an artist whose art consists of digital prints on canvas with gesso smeared on them to look like brush strokes. This would be like piping Muzak through your office and saying that you had a composer hidden in a broom closet. Don’t do that, either.

3. — Content

Owner Angle:
Somebody internal can write all the copy. How hard could it be? Everyone has Word and spell-check on their computers. It’s just a brochure and some web copy.

Customer Angle:
The reason I am interested in your service is the appearance of professionalism. Why would I want you to answer the phone for me if your collateral is misleading, sloppy and downright incorrect?

Take Away:
Remove exclamation points from your toolset. Spend more time crafting your sentences and less time thinking that five of these!!!!! is going to hammer home your point. While you’re at it, don’ t use semi-colons. Try an em-dash instead. Finally, Don’t Capitalize words for no Reason just to make an Emphasis. OK? Professionalism has no boundaries and you never know what is going to turn off a potential customer. “Save thousands for a better purpose!” HUH?

4. — Construction

Owner Angle:
Business is business and the rent has to get paid.

Customer Angle:
Why would I want to move next door to a space that is going to have major renovation take place? The whole point for moving into your office suite is to enjoy a professional environment and not worry about interruptions during conference calls. A Sawzall buzzing away next door for three weeks kind of defeats the purpose.

Take Away:
Either offer your prospective tenants a break on rent through the construction phase or don’t rent the spaces out until the construction is complete.

5. — Blog to Nowhere

Owner Angle:
I have no idea what a blog is supposed to be used for, but can we put an advertisement on it?

Customer Angle:
When a customer visits a blog that is all marketing speak and sales pitch, they will most likely close the window and never visit again. A blog is for the customer to learn about you and your expertise or experience in the industry. If all you are going to give the customer is bluster, you may as well put pop-up ads on your site. “You’re the 1 millionth visitor – Click Here>” and revert to phishing scams.

Take Away:
New tools like blogs need to be implemented with a strategy. Simply tossing a blog button on your website doesn’t mean you have a blog. Also, blogs are not for hyping your services and acting as a storage space for your most recent ads.

6 — Overall Message

Owner Angle:
Rent out the units for as much money as I can. That’s my strategy, message and goal.

Customer Angle:
The concept of a ComCenter sounds great. Flexible terms, professional services and a low cost. The overall voice of the ComCenter, from website, to email, to in-person was abysmal. If you are going to deliver an all-in-one sales pitch, don’t tell customers that the lobbies, bathrooms and hallways are available to them at no additional cost. That’s your sales pitch? That’s what differentiates you from your competitors—free hallways?

The all-in-one aspect of the ComCenter feels like a nickel and dime outfit. The furniture that was advertised as included in the rent turned out to be an extra $140 a month, while faxes and printed pages were charged by the page. Internet access was an extra + $90, and the list went on and on. They were, however, going to give me a free email account, a perk that was printed bold red to let me know how important it was.

Take Away:

You are your message: In print, online and in-person.
Your customer transmits and repeats your message: In print, online and in-person, over and over and over.

Here’s an example of how to do the virtual office setup correctly: New York’s community workplace—In Good Company