Content Marketer onboarding plan
Content marketers depend on knowing the audience and finding subject-matter experts inside the company. Onboarding should connect them to people and voice early, with a first piece published quickly.
What good onboarding achieves
Publish content that matches the brand voice, serves the target audience and supports agreed goals such as search traffic or sales enablement.
Week one example
- Day 1: CMS and analytics access; meet marketing team and editor.
- Day 2: Brand voice and style guide; review best-performing content.
- Day 3: Audience and persona review; read customer interviews or calls.
- Day 4: Meet two internal subject-matter experts.
- Day 5: Outline a first piece and agree it with the editor.
30/60/90 progression
- Day 30: Has published first pieces through the editorial process.
- Day 60: Runs a content calendar for one goal or channel.
- Day 90: Reports on content performance and plans the next quarter.
People to meet (examples)
- Marketing manager or editor
- Product and sales subject-matter experts
- Designer
- SEO contact
Systems to learn (examples)
- CMS
- Web and search analytics
- Style guide
- Content calendar
Manager checkpoints
- Week 1: outline approved
- Week 2: first piece published
- Day 45: calendar review
- Day 90: performance review
Common mistakes
- No access to subject-matter experts
- No clear voice guidance
- Writing without knowing the goal of each piece
- Long approval chains for a first piece
Checklist
- CMS access
- Style guide read
- Top content reviewed
- Personas reviewed
- SMEs introduced
- First outline approved
- Publishing process explained
- Metrics agreed