Share the content load, Marketing and HR

Marketing and HR have more in common than you would expect at first glance. They seem like two different species. However, if there’s one department besides marketing that has to sell the company, it’s HR to attract and maintain talent, the employer branding. 

Check what you have in common content and what you mutually can learn. 

Why it matters

Here are a few reasons why this is an excellent idea:

• Share the costs by co-producing, get more content for the same budget, 
• Get new perspectives, 
• Most important, learn. 

I realize this is easier said than done. Here are a few tips to get started today. 

Share the content costs

Logically, if you share the (production) efforts, you share the costs. More content for the same or less budget. Quite a no-brainer. Besides co-producing, you can edit and reuse what’s already there. Some marketing campaigns have great assets that can be used by HR. And vice versa. 

If marketing is producing content for a big campaign, why not add some HR content assets to the production? 

HR is great at selling the brand and organization and usually has lots of content on the employees, values, and special vibe going on. Use that as evergreen content for marketing. 

New content perspectives and learn

Working together with people outside of your department, industry, and comfort zone brings you a new perspective. How HR and recruiters use, review and appreciate content is totally different from a marketeer.

• Marketers can learn how to emphasize the ‘why’, the mission, and the values of the brand. It’s not all about conversion and performance. Sometimes you simply have to tell the world who you are and why you do what you do.
• HR can learn how to set up a well-defined campaign with a balance between brand building and performance and how to optimize for social reach. 
• HR can also learn how to write a more compelling job description. Stepping out of their HR comfort zone and spicing up the usual predictable JD copy. Personal tip, start to mention the salary in euros instead of ‘market-compliant pay’. Manage the expectations after the click or application. 

Similarities and differences in content

Yes. There are lots of similarities and differences between both. It’s two separate departments for a reason. Each has its own heartbeat and rhythm, needs, and requirements. No need to drill down the obvious requirements and details here. 

As mentioned in the intro, both need to sell the brand, the products, and the organization. Why not share the load and costs and get some new learnings in the meantime?

Get started today

Joining forces between two different departments is a leap of faith and is not often done. With a few tips, you can get started today.

• Getting together and drinking some coffee is the first step. Noting beats real human connection to thrive in working together.
• Next, do a mutual content audit. What’s the others’ content, and is there anything you would love to use in your daily work?
• Also, share your content calendars. Knowing what campaigns are popping up facilitates co-production. If marketing is creating a big campaign with a new product launch, why not create some additional assets for HR to be used in their campaigns?

More strategic content-sharing approach

I get that it’s complicated. Bridging and bringing together two departments for content isn’t done overnight. 

Do you want to address this more strategically and embed this in your way of working? 

Don’t hesitate to drop me a mail, connect on LinkedIn, or give me a call.