Philipp:
Hi Elisabeth, I'm delighted to start by telling you that you've set a new record: your journey from Austria is the longest any content strategist has ever traveled to join us.
Eliabeth:
Haha, thanks for the invitation. I was very pleased.
Philipp:
The topic we would like to discuss today, or rather "your" topic, is very timely. About a year ago, you submitted your master's thesis. The title: Brand-driven content strategy in the change process for the recruiter epunkt. Could you briefly introduce epunkt to us?
Elisabeth:
Yes, very much so. Epunkt is Austria's largest recruiter with 200 employees spread across four locations. In short, our goal is to bring the best candidates together with the best companies.
Last year, we placed 1,650 applicants with clients. Since we earn our money in the field of recruiting, it is very important to us that we have a good work-life balance. For this reason, we rely on flexible working time models, which have enabled me, for example, to study and complete my master's degree.
Philipp:
In your master's thesis, you talk about how epunkt thrives on content marketing, especially storytelling. You also mention so-called discovery spaces. What exactly do you mean by that?
Elisabeth:
We see an explorer room as a kind of extended meeting room where we conduct job interviews with our candidates. Each room has its own theme. Sometimes it's Marie Curie, sometimes Indiana Jones, and other times Jacques Cousteau. The rooms are furnished in such detail that you feel like you're in a movie.
Fundamentally, the discovery rooms are designed to encourage applicants to tell their stories: Where do they come from, what have they done up to the point of applying, and what characteristics distinguish them? Such stories are much easier to tell when you are inspired by big names on all sides.
Philipp:
Exciting. Off the top of my head, I wouldn't know which room to choose. Indiana Jones, perhaps...
Elisabeth:
Unfortunately, you cannot choose, as the rooms are selected by the recruiter who interviews you. However, they usually choose the room they consider most suitable. Applicants can view all rooms once if they wish.
Philipp:
And how do the terms "brand-driven" and "change process" fit into this?
Elisabeth:
I chose brand-driven because we are a very marketing-oriented company and the epunkt brand plays a major role. Behind this is a brand message architecture based on Margot Plumsteen's approach.
The term "change process" has crept in because epunkt is currently undergoing a comprehensive change process: our company continues to grow. New colleagues and new structures are being added. Not to mention the new strategy.
Philipp:
International growth? Or limited to Austria?
Elisabeth:
Internationally. In addition to Germany, we are active in a total of 27 countries with our subsidiary brand Talenteers.
Philipp:
What should we expect from a degree program in content strategy?
Elisabeth:
It was completely different from a normal university. It was practically two different worlds. You were only physically present during the attendance weeks, when you met with the lecturer at a previously agreed location.
All other events, such as lectures, seminars, or exercises, were conducted via webinars and video conferences. This meant that everyone could log in from their PCs and chat live with the lecturers. This allowed large groups to discuss the content.
Philipp:
I can definitely see parallels with our Content Marketing Academy. There, you could trained as a content manager in six weeks. Everything was online and exclusively webinar-based.
Elisabeth:
I clearly see the future of studying in such concepts. You save yourself unnecessarily long journeys, and as long as the dialogue between student and lecturer is not neglected, I see no difference to a normal course of study at a fixed university location.
Philipp:
You were initially employed as a media consultant for SEA (search engine advertising). Only then did you become a content strategist. In your opinion, should one always rely on both channels?
Elisabeth:
Yes, definitely! Anyone who has ever worked with Instagram knows that you have to spend a certain amount of money to achieve a certain reach. Good content is always the basis of everything, and of course good content can also spread on its own. However, nothing works without additional funding these days.
Philipp:
On this point, you agree 100 percent with the Felix Beilharz . At the OMKB last April, we discussed exactly the same approach: good content is the basis, but if you want to remain visible, you inevitably have to spend money on advertising. He justified this by saying that Facebook in particular is increasingly limiting organic reach in order to increase its own advertising revenue.
Elisabeth:
And that's not the only problem: almost every company is currently jumping on the content marketing bandwagon and recognizing how important it is to produce good content. The result: a veritable flood of content that makes it necessary to fight for the attention of users.
Philipp:
In your master's thesis, you mention that content produced in companies is stored in individual departmental silos. That's why you call for a cross-departmental content strategy. Could you give us an ideal example of this?
Elisabeth:
At epunkt, I am currently putting my ideal vision into practice. The most important question is "What content do you need?" or "What content does each department need?" Every employee, whether in sales, support, or marketing, has specific expertise. In order to produce really good and, above all, helpful content, marketing and individual department employees must work with each other and not against each other.
In our case, a lot of this can still be represented through dialogue. For my thesis, for example, I worked with online questionnaires. In them, I asked people about their content needs. In addition, I organized Content World Cafes, where small groups could exchange ideas about content and content marketing in a relaxed atmosphere. The primary goal was to create awareness for content and position myself as the central hub for content.
Philipp:
Developing a content strategy therefore requires a 360-degree assessment. Do you think such a comprehensive measure on the part of companies is realistic? I think we would both find that great, but in reality, things often look very different.
Elisabeth:
It's no different in Austria: new cost centers are being identified, but the specific benefits/goals behind them are not. In the long term, I think it's entirely realistic, but it will take some time. Five years is a very optimistic estimate.
However, this lack of awareness about content was also the reason why I wanted to write my master's thesis on this topic. I'm sure I annoyed my colleagues internally with it, haha, but so far no one has complained. No matter how often I've told them about it. I'll just keep going, even if it's often a tough job to convert people.
Philipp:
It's good that there are people like you who start right there. In principle, we face the same challenge every day: evangelizing wherever we can. Whether it's through our blog, our sales department, or our academy.
Elisabeth:
At some point, awareness will be there. I am very confident about that!
Philipp:
"The definition of workflows and responsibilities are key elements in content strategy." What workflows and responsibilities do you mean specifically?
Elisabeth:
When it comes to workflows, for example, I am concerned with who reviews a piece of content at what point in time and, above all, how many people review it. If the content is important, the four- or six-eyes principle is recommended. If the content is less relevant, it is sufficient for one person to review it.
To avoid endless back-and-forth emails, I have introduced specially designated Joure Fix Meetings. These serve to ask questions and refresh the established process on a regular basis. Outside the department, however, the focus is more on workflows that enable content to be updated quickly. For example, having publicly visible employee profiles on our website adjusted by HR.
Philipp:
And what systems do you use for this?
Elisabeth:
We originally used our own recruiting software for this purpose. However, this subsidiary has since been sold. We still work with it, even though it is unfortunately rather unsuitable for content purposes.
If you are facing the same challenge as Elisabeth, you can here our brand-new content marketing software for free.
When it comes to content, we work with project management tools, Excel spreadsheets, and PDF forms as standard. We rarely communicate via email, as personal dialogue is our top priority. In these discussions, we try to address all questions together in order to save time in the long term.
Philipp:
epunkt's content strategy is somewhat unique because it addresses both B2B and B2C customers. What does a content strategy for B2B and B2C customers look like?
Elisabeth:
We handle this challenge by reserving certain social media channels for specific topics and thus personas. This sometimes leads to certain channels no longer being used, simply because no persona fits.
Philipp:
Different social media channels for different personas. Doesn't that quickly become very confusing? How do you solve this problem?
Elisabeth:
In fact, we discuss all of this in person. Once an article has been completed, we inform each other and refer to our editorial calendar. This calendar is valid for the entire year and is meticulously maintained by us.
Philipp:
How big is your team?
Elisabeth:
When it comes to content and content marketing, everything comes together with a colleague and me. The rest of our 11-person team is also involved in content activities from time to time, but they primarily deal with SEA, SEO, and PR.
Philipp:
Let's return to the Content World Cafes. How exactly did one of these work?
Elisabeth:
There are different tables, depending on the number of people attending. Paper and pens are provided at these tables. The moderator then asks up to three questions per World Cafe.
From the moment someone speaks, all thoughts expressed in the conversation are written down on the sheets of paper. None of these thoughts are evaluated. The sole purpose is to facilitate a free exchange of ideas and subsequent discussion of the results in the plenary session.
Philipp:
This is much more authentic and significantly more personal than any online questionnaire. When I think of a chat for brainstorming, the first thing that comes to mind is that we can simply take back what we have typed. For example, by deleting it and then typing something else.
Elisabeth:
Yes, and what's more, World Cafe visitors are not tied to a table. They can move freely around the room and discuss things. This always results in very exciting constellations.
Especially when hierarchies are virtually dissolved by direct confrontation between different departments. Pretty quickly, all the problems that may only be relevant to one department and that another department does not even see are discussed.
Philipp:
As a company, you are extremely well positioned with such an open culture of debate and content. When it comes to storytelling, we have already talked about discovery rooms. What does storytelling mean to you personally?
Elisabeth:
I see it more pragmatically and less romantically, haha. For me, storytelling means building suspense. I prefer stories that entertain me in my daily work because they generate the most attention.
Philipp:
How is storytelling practiced in everyday company life?
Elisabeth:
Every one of our employees does. For example, when the respective explorer, played by an employee, sits in the middle of the room during the job interview. My personal favorite is Jacques Cousteau, whom I have played myself once.
Philipp:
What content formats do you use at epunkt?
Elisabeth:
Text remains the most important format for us. However, images are a close second, followed closely by videos. Instagram in particular offers a large pool of image and video material through its Explore feature.
Philipp:
For the discovery room, the keyword Instagram immediately brings to mind a live tour: the camera films the discovery room and one of the employees plays Jacques Cousteau. In times of skilled labor shortages, this would certainly also be very well received by the younger target group.
Elisabeth:
Funny you should mention that. When we're at trade fairs, we often hear people say, "Oh, you're the ones with the discovery rooms, right?" Of course, we're flattered by that, because these rooms have obviously become our unique selling point, something people appreciate us for.
Philipp:
And that brings us back to the last question: What tips would you give our readers in the area of content marketing?
Elisabeth:
Tip 1: Added value must always be present, regardless of format and topic. The question every content producer should ask themselves is: Does my content justify users spending time consuming it?
Tip 2: Develop content guidelines for all work steps and check compliance with them in regular meetings. We are all only human and misunderstand many things that are only communicated to us verbally.
Philipp:
Thank you for talking to me.
Elisabeth:
You're welcome. Any time.
{{divider}}
Quote of the day from online marketing expert Elisabeth Hiesmayr
The most important question is "What content do you need?" or "What content does each department need?" Every employee, whether in sales, support, or marketing, has specific expertise. To produce truly good and, above all, helpful content, marketing and individual department employees must work with each other, not against each other.
To help you overcome this challenge more easily in the future, we offer you an all-in-one solution with our software. Here you can test it for free.
