Content Collaboration: Why and How?

While insourcing content is a sure-fire method for keeping your company blog robust, content collaboration is one of the most impressive ways to mix things up and make your content more interesting. That’s because content collaboration requires the commingling of minds, opinions, and advice. If you have yet to partner up with another organization for successful content collaboration, consider the following.

Benefits of Content Collaboration

Relationship Building

Content collaboration is an opportunity to strengthen your current business relationships. If it’s been a while since you’ve been in touch with a source of previous referrals, collaborating on content with them gives you that chance to revive communications and relationships. The same can be said of previous or new clients, as well as vendors and technology partners. Your success is influenced greatly by the relationships you build and maintain. Content collaboration could be the boost you need to enhance them.

Reputation Building

You probably have already established a great reputation for yourself. That’s important. However, if you’re trying to attain new customers—people who have never heard of you before—it’s much easier to impress them when your brand name is associated with another, perhaps one that is more commonly known than yours.

The day we partnered up with Constant Contact for a content collaboration was an exciting day, indeed. You’d be surprised what a little name-dropping can do to build up your reputation. Oh sure, in social settings, name-dropping is frowned upon, but when it comes to content collaboration, name-dropping is a great benefit.

Backlinks

This isn’t shady at all. Your motivation for content collaboration should not simply be backlinks, but don’t discount that benefit. Backlinks drive traffic to your website and your collaborative content partner. This particular gain is a win for you both.

A New Point of View

Your opinion and know-how of a certain topics are limited to your specific experience. Bringing in another point of view, or lending yours if you’re the one providing the content, adds a fresh perspective. On the WebDevStudios blog, we had blogged about SEO on a few occasions, but when we brought in Pam Aungst, we had a whole new level of expertise to offer our readers, especially since Pam’s focus is primarily SEO. Presenting a new point of view on your company’s blog can be a real game changer.

It’s fun!

As WebDevStudios’ Marketing Strategist, it’s my job to coordinate our content collaborations. It’s so much fun. I get to meet new people, pitch ideas, and brainstorm. Plus, there’s so much enthusiasm that comes with that moment when our collaborative content is published, especially when social media sharing and tagging is involved. Every player in the collaboration walks away with a feeling of camaraderie.

Ideas for Content Collaboration

Guest Collaboration

Probably the easiest way to collaborate on content is by inviting a partner to be a guest author on your company blog. We love doing this at WebDevStudios, but remember, it can work the other way, too. You could reach out to a business partner and offer to write on their blog. However you decide to accomplish a guest collaboration, just know that it’s a win-win situation for both the guest author and the company blog.

Case Studies

A case study is one of the strongest ways to create a content collaboration. It’s like an in-depth article combined with a positive testimonial. Case studies take a lot of time, but the payoff is incredible. As is the case with guest collaboration, a case study can work both ways.

You could invite clients who have encountered success as a result of using your products and/or services to relay to you their story, which you can, in turn, develop into a case study; but you can also offer your account to one of your vendors or technology partners, who can create their own case study based on your success with their products/services. Case studies are often published and shared online, which means backlinks and exposure.

White Papers

Like case studies, white papers are in depth, take a lot of time, but provide ample reward. White papers are more informational without a sales angle, unlike a case study. However, they’re just as valuable. While you could easily develop content for a white paper on your own, collaborating with a partner just makes your content that much more impressive and trustworthy.

Testimonials

Testimonials are super easy. Simply provide your partners with a glowing statement about their products and/or services, using your company name. You could also have your clients do the same for you. Testimonials work much like a case study, but only take up about a quarter of the time. While it’s not lengthy in terms of text, testimonials still count as content collaboration.

 

Offer Yourself as an Expert Resource

Just like with testimonials, providing your expertise or opinion in the form of a quote for someone else’s blog post is easy content collaboration and takes very little time. Reach out to your partners and offer yourself as an expert resource for any upcoming content they have on their editorial calendars. A simple quote along with your name, job title, and brand can garner you some new interest, a backlink, and credit as a thought leader in your field.

Ready to get started on some content collaboration? You’ve got this! Begin by reviewing your partnerships and clients. Identify some viable options. Then, go over the different types of content collaborations listed above and think about which opportunities work best for your chosen partners and customers. Now, reach out! Start the conversations and move forward. Again, content collaborations benefit everyone involved. Keep that in mind as you approach your content collaborative partners, and if anyone needs any convincing, just send them a link to this blog post. Good luck!

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