One of the top priorities marketing leaders face in 2013 is producing a consistent stream of high value content.  Today’s B2B technology buyers are conducting 60% of their research online before they are even willing to speak to a sales representative.  As a result having killer content that engages users during this online research process is essential.  But generating strong content is not easy.

The easiest way to build a content library is to pay third parties to write white papers, e-books and blogs on your behalf.  But this gets expensive quickly.  The alternative is to have your in-house Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) generate content themselves.  But chances are that your SMEs are some of the busiest people in the company.  How do you get them to prioritize content generation above other activities?

The answer?  Make it competitive.  Make it fun.  Make it highly visible.  Apply the principles of gamification to your content generation efforts with a fantasy content league.  The approach is very similar to fantasy football or baseball leagues you might have participated in.  Each SME is a player who can earn points by generating content.  Participants build teams of players that are designed to generate the highest number of points.

Most business professionals are motivated by competition.  When the content marketing efforts of SMEs become highly visible through a weekly ranking process they will become more attentive to it.  And they will likely begin a more deliberate effort to create content, which is the desired outcome.

In my next post I will offer some specifics on how to create a fantasy content league.