Put SMEs in the right place in your content marketing system
/A while back, I was chatting with an executive who said he wasn’t happy with the quality of some of the content his group was producing. He also mentioned it was being written by SMEs—subject matter experts.
Many times, this is a problem.
Occasionally, it’s not.
I know this from experience.
Previously, I edited blog content written by counsellors—the SMEs of therapy, counselling and building stronger relationships. These counsellors were lovely, helpful, knowledgeable people. But one blog often took me hours to edit before it aligned to the requirements of the publication. Not because the content was bad (most of the time, it was good) but because it wasn’t presented in an audience-friendly way. Possibly because SMEs often must squeeze in the writing between their other tasks.
I edited many articles for this publication and they all required serious editing.
Except a couple written by one guy—M.
I said to him, “Hey M, great work on this blog, I only made a few minor changes.”
“Oh, I just sat down and wrote the first things that came to me,” M replied.
M is the SME writing unicorn.
The rare subject matter expert who can vomit out words on a page that end up flowing well and making sense. Most SMEs don’t do that. Truth is, most writers don’t even do that! [We agonize over each sentence.]
People assume that anyone with knowledge can write like M does.
This is a terrible assumption to make—unless you lucked into one of these SME writing unicorns.
But chances are … you didn’t.
Chances are subject matter expertise and writing capability are housed in two separate bodies.
Which is great news because you just have to get these two talking to each other.
Why a subject matter expert and a writer make a powerful team
Your SME knows everything about your product or service. Your writer knows about the marketing strategy, what you’re trying to accomplish with the marketing content and what comes before and after in the sales funnel.
SME-only content marketing can get bogged down in the details that SMEs think clients should care about but don’t.
Writer-only content marketing can end up being so fluffy it’s meaningless.
But put these two together and you get the best of both worlds: meaningful details and information that your clients and prospects want to know.
A marketing manager’s 5-step process for creating a writer-SME power team:
You brief your writer on the marketing objectives of the piece.
You choose your subject matter expert and invite him/her to share that specialized knowledge and expertise.
Your writer interviews your subject matter expert (prepping questions in advance, of course!)
Your subject matter expert gets a warm glow after sharing this knowledge.
Your writer writes the piece and hardly any revisions are required. [Because she takes the time up front to understand what you want.]
For marketing pieces that are usually credited, decide whether to make your SME the author (making the writer a ghostwriter) or to make note of the shared expertise. Something like, “Thanks to Jenny Penney, CPA, for her technical contributions to this article.”
If you’re using SMEs to write your content because it saves time or money (ha, does it?!)—and you’re not happy with the results—you may want to consider building some writer-SME power teams.
I'm Andrea Bassett, an executive ghostwriter and content marketing writer in Toronto and I’ve spent the last decade serving executives.
I write thought leadership content marketing for executives and/or their content marketing teams. My specializations are corporate wellness, benefits, employee assistance programs, leadership & coaching, encryption & cybersecurity and strength training for seniors.
To talk about a content marketing project, call me at 647-502-3187 or send a note to andrea@redsailwriters.com.
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