Content Creation

6 ways to empower your frontline employees for maximum content creation

Papirfly
8 minutes read

Content creation is the lifeblood of modern marketing.

From a consistent cycle of blog posts, emails and social media posts, to powerful one-off videos, landing pages and billboards – great content campaigns are the key to connecting with your audiences worldwide.

With 97% of professionals saying they experience at least some level of success with content marketing, brands must keep up with growing consumer demands. But this is much easier said than done.

Maintaining a constant flow of content across multiple channels is a prevailing problem for marketing teams. Despite innovations in AI software and automation tools, the struggle persists, placing a lot of demand on creatives, designers and your head office to maintain pace with an ever-growing number of platforms – all in the face of ever-shrinking budgets.

If you’re reading this and you can relate to this familiar strain, your frontline staff – the people who interact with your customers, manage your outlets and take care of your day-to-day obligations – may be the key to scaling your output to new heights.

Here we’ll explain how, with the right tools, strategies and incentives, you can empower your frontline employees to become the beating heart of your content marketing efforts.

What do we mean by frontline employees?

First, we should clarify what we mean by “frontline employees”. As noted above, your frontline workers are the people who directly engage with your audiences and keep your operations running smoothly.

They’re the baristas serving customers in your cafe. The shop assistants stacking shelves in your supermarket or department stores. The customer service representatives answering people’s questions and concerns. Simply put, they’re the backbone of your organization.

The challenges impacting today’s content marketers

Now, what are the prevailing challenges today’s content marketers face, and which of these could be resolved by a helping hand from your frontline workforce?

Lack of trained personnel

First, there’s the simple problem of demand for content outstripping available resources. With 51% of companies saying they use over 8 channels, many marketing teams need additional personnel to produce and maintain a continuous flow of content on each of their active platforms – especially if they have visions of scaling up in future.

Personalisation and localisation

Beyond the number of channels, global companies also have to consider the pressing need to tailor content for specific audiences and regions. With personalized content now a growing expectation among consumers, this adds another layer of complexity for already burdened content marketers.

Maintaining brand consistency

Attempting to churn out content at pace can allow inconsistencies to creep in – mistakes which can subsequently damage your image in the eyes of your customers. Brand consistency is critical to a strong reputation and sustainable brand equity – when this falters, it can take a long time to fully recover.

Managing content and campaigns

With multiple marketing campaigns in motion across several locations, maintaining control and oversight of every asset is a time-consuming, painstaking burden. The more time your marketing team devotes to coordinating assets, the less time they can dedicate to evolving your content strategy.

Dependence on designers and agencies

To relieve the burden on the central marketing team, many organizations delegate content creation to freelance designers and specialist agencies. This can reduce the stress involved, but it comes at a cost – and not just a financial one.

Using professionals outside your organization places your content production schedule in their hands, adding complexity to the pipeline and concerns over their capacity to fulfill your needs.

How does empowering your frontline employees address these issues?

A lot of the fundamental issues affecting content marketers could be resolved if there were simply more people who could contribute to your content creation process. People who understand your business, your brand and your customers. So, what better than boosting your frontline employees into this role?

Now if it were as simple as that, every company in the world would already be doing it. If you’re keen to mobilize your frontline workers, there are several hurdles you have to clear first:

Tough obstacles that, with the right combination of tools and some top-line direction from your marketing leaders, can be overcome to make frontline content creation a very real possibility in your organization.

6 steps to enhance your employees’ involvement in your marketing

1. Utilize intelligent design templates

The biggest barriers between your employees and your content are a lack of design expertise and available time. Using on-brand design templates addresses both of these concerns and can instantly inspire your employees to share quality content.

Content creation solutions with this capability provide an intuitive framework for users, fixing all necessary brand elements in place so there is zero risk of inconsistency. From there, your employees then have the freedom to create and adapt materials to their requirements, without compromising your company’s identity.

This can have several practical benefits, such as:

  • Enabling anyone to produce high-performing assets, no matter their skill level
  • Cutting down asset creation times to a matter of minutes
  • Allowing users to tailor languages, imagery and wording to their audience or region
  • Permitting the production of content for multiple different channels in one location

By also incorporating safety measures, such as approval workflows and a library of professionally designed content templates, you lay the foundation for an employee-generated content revolution – one that can scale up your in-house marketing and reduce your reliance on freelancers and agencies.

2. Centralise brand guidelines and directives

Your content production tools shouldn’t stop at design templates. While these tools help lock down consistency while reducing production times and costs, it’s just as important that your frontline employees understand your brand inside and out before you allow them to start generating assets.

Your brand guidelines are the crux of this requirement, so it’s essential that they’re accessible to your entire workforce. You might think that this is a given, but while 85% of companies say they have documented guidelines, only 30% enforce them consistently.


Establishing a central, online destination for your brand guidelines and similar resources helps ensure that your frontline staff, wherever they’re based, can engage with and educate themselves on your identity. A brand portal can be a valuable tool in this process, storing this key information in one online place that your teams can access whenever required.

3. Provide education and training

Alongside these capacity-expanding tools, it’s beneficial to introduce designated training sessions with frontline workers who are interested in content creation. Hosted by members of your central marketing team or other executives, regular sessions with your team can help them understand what’s expected and feel more confident engaging in this process.

While on the surface it may seem like trading one time-consuming task for another, it’s all a matter of perspective. What is more time-costly: a monthly training session with your internal teams, or the hours you devote to creating, proofing, amending and distributing content to your outlets worldwide?

Plus, opportunities for learning and development are massive motivators for the latest generation of frontline workers. So not only can this scale up your content development – it may also enhance your overall employee experiences and job satisfaction. 

4. Incorporate content creation into your onboarding process

The employee onboarding stage sets the expectations for your new recruits, so they can fully understand your processes and their responsibilities. By introducing your content creation tools and brand management solutions at this early phase, you can help ensure that this is understood and embraced by your newest employees.

This means that by the time they have fully settled into their new role, your content creation process can already be second nature to them. Over time, this can create a culture of content production throughout your frontline workforce, rather than the sole responsibility of your central marketing teams.

5. Create a single source of truth for your content

If your entire frontline staff are engaged in content generation, assets can quickly become muddled, misplaced or lost altogether, adding to your workload instead of streamlining it. Preventing this requires a single, centralized repository for assets developed across your organization – a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system.

Investing in a DAM solution allows you to consolidate all your branded content, assets, imagery, videos and beyond into one combined library – accessible to your teams across the globe. With the ability to tag assets, set permissions and distribute these to your outlets worldwide in real time, a DAM can put you in total control over the consistency and frequency of your content.

If you want to learn more about DAM, check out our ultimate guide to Digital Asset Management.

6. Establish an employee recognition and rewards programme

Finally, encouraging your employees to play a more conscious role in your marketing operations through tangible incentives can help ensure that this is not an on-again, off-again occurrence, but a fixed, reliable approach. 

While each employee will have their own unique motivations to get involved in such a scheme, some examples to help inspire your staff include:

Reap the rewards of empowering your frontline workers

Empowering your frontline employees to be at the core of your content creation efforts is not straightforward. But by following the techniques above and investing in the tools and training required to execute this, you open the doors to a whole host of benefits:

Scaled-up content output: With more hands available, your teams can create more content than ever, with increased productivity and better cost-efficiency.

Greater consistency: As work is created in-house by professionals who know your brand, consistency can be locked down on every channel and location.

Extended reach: Scaling up your content generation means you can build a bigger presence on new and existing channels, and tailor content to specific regions and audiences.

Faster times to market: Turnaround times for content can be cut significantly, and employees are enabled to capitalize on fleeting opportunities to capture sales.

More engaged employees: By getting involved in your content generation, your employees can forge stronger, more meaningful bonds with your brand.

Capacity for strategic thinking: With the pressure of content generation eased, your marketing team will have more room to plan, reflect and evolve your brand.

Empowering your frontline employees to create collateral takes time to perfect, but with every piece of content your teams produce, the closer you come to a state of marketing self-sufficiency.

We hope this has given you the motivation to see where you can scale up your content creation in the long term, and harness your professionals at every level of your organization to make a positive impact on the future of your brand.

Table of contents:

  1. What do we mean by frontline employees?
  2. The challenges impacting today’s content marketers
  3. How does empowering your frontline employees address these issues?
  4. 6 steps to enhance your employees’ involvement in your marketing
  5. Reap the rewards of empowering your frontline workers

Employer brand

Localized employer branding: Your key to engaging with regional talent

Papirfly
7 minutes read

In today’s highly competitive job market, your employer brand is vital. It’s the key to attracting top talent, retaining your existing employees, and distinguishing yourself against a backdrop of ever-increasing competition.

And, while a compelling Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and an authentic, attractive culture are both important parts of a world-class employer brand – for global companies, few things are more crucial to connect with candidates than personalized, localized messaging. 

This means more than just writing job descriptions in relevant languages or using local imagery in your onboarding materials. For the best localized employer brand messaging, it’s important to tailor your marketing assets to the cultural sensitivities of local markets.

Imagine you were recruiting candidates in Japan. Because Japanese work culture tends to value collectivism, where a company is often viewed like a family, you would want to create content that centers around your team members and company culture. 

However, this ‘team-focused’ recruitment strategy likely wouldn’t spark the same interest with American job seekers. In this instance, you might speak to this region’s individualism by highlighting employee perks, learning and development opportunities, or flexible working options on your adverts.

Respecting a culture’s unique nuances is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. It shows them that your company values their specific requirements, rather than pushing ahead with a generic, one-size-fits-all message for your global workforce.

But what more does localized employer branding do for your company? And how do you actually implement this in your marketing? In this article, we’ll dive deeper into the topic of employer brand localization and show you how to get started. 

Why is region-specific employer branding so important?

According to recent figures, as many as 75% of global firms have found it hard to get the right talent through the door. If you’re one of the thousands of employers in this difficult position, you’ll know that long-term vacancies can cost your business dearly in time, money and productivity.

To give yourself an edge in local talent attraction, regional employer branding allows your roles to better resonate with job seekers right out the gate. By wrapping your collateral in imagery or elements that speak to their culture or surroundings, you already demonstrate that your brand aligns with them directly.

This can help you fill your positions up to 50% faster, and boost your chances of securing a quality hire by as much as three times. 

Plus, by engaging your existing employees with job materials that reflect their culture and location, you can improve retention internally by as much as 28%. Aside from easing the pressure on your recruitment and hiring processes, engaged workplaces can be 17% more productive and 21% more profitable. 

On top of this, localized employer brand content lays the foundation for a more positive global reputation. Even if your internal employees and job seekers aren’t the target audience for your corporate branding, giving these groups a positive experience sends a strong signal to customers, stakeholders and other audiences in these territories. 

How do you translate a global employer brand to local markets?

A localized employer brand strategy is a proven way of improving the speed and quality of your talent acquisition efforts. It can also empower your existing staff, enhance productivity and contribute to a trusted reputation.

But how do you unlock the full potential of this strategy? Like any employer branding initiative, the right approach is essential.

Understand your ideal candidates and existing staff

Before committing any time or resources to localized content creation, it’s important to understand exactly who your regional audiences are and what they stand for. 

Do you want to appeal to candidates in a brand-new market? Are you trying to counteract high churn in a particular regional office? 

Your objectives will dictate the look, feel and direction of your employer brand campaigns, so it’s important you have a clear picture of the employee personas you’re targeting from the very beginning. Without this, it can be impossible to know how to tailor job postings and employee engagement strategies to best resonate with the right people.

Plus, when you consider that every country has their own idea of work, culture, benefits and more, ensuring your adverts, onboarding materials and internal branding pieces are as impactful as possible relies on the insight you gain through these personas.

So, how do you create these crucial documents? At their core, your employee personas should ask:

  • What region is my audience located in? 
  • What goals and motivations do they have?
  • What are their key demographics?
  • What personality traits do they demonstrate?
  • What challenges do they face?
  • What do they want/expect from a workplace? 

Stay organized with robust Digital Asset Management software

Once you have a solid idea of exactly who you need to target, the next step involved in translating your employer brand worldwide is to prioritize organization.

The last thing you want is for an off-brand job advert to find its way into the hands of a potential candidate, or a new recruit to receive an outdated version of your onboarding package. Why? Because inconsistencies like this can shatter people’s trust, set false expectations, and undermine the good will your employer brand has worked so hard to build.

But, with potentially thousands of assets to organize across dozens of countries, keeping on top of everything can quickly become a full-time responsibility.

Here, a dedicated Digital Asset Management (DAM) system can be really helpful. Acting as a central, digital repository where every asset can be tagged, organized and easily accessed, getting the right materials in front of the right candidates becomes a simple, straightforward task.

Coupled with regional brand portals that house your local style guidelines, EVPs and exemplary assets, your provincial teams can get immediate access to the content relevant to their audience. This makes it faster and easier for your global departments to run effective recruitment campaigns, all while streamlining internal communications.

Invest in on-brand content creation tools

While giving your teams access to the right assets is an important part of delivering a locally-tuned employer brand, if you operate in multiple territories, chances are you’ll have a long list of different audiences to create collateral for – and the time, resources or capabilities to deliver only a fraction of it.

Coupled with the inconsistency that can arise when your decentralized teams begin adapting your core assets (or create their own materials altogether), it’s clear to see how content production is one of the greatest challenges for delivering a locally-relevant, globally spanning employer brand.

And with signs suggesting that the demand for collateral is only going up, how do you and your teams deliver employer branding at scale in the long term?

In our view, the right on-brand content creation tools are invaluable. By giving your central and frontline personnel the ability to swap out things like imagery, copy, colors and more in a matter of clicks, as the core facets of your brand guidelines remain fixed, smart templating technology can streamline production in a big way.

In practice, this means your central marketing departments can prepare core materials on budget for every region, all while your locally-based teams have the tools to create or tailor assets to their target markets without undermining the consistency of your brand.

Plus, with ease of use central to most content creation tools, anyone across your business can produce the materials they need, freeing up your marketers and creatives to focus on fleshing out your employer brand strategy.

Put simply, the right solution can revolutionize the way you deliver collateral to candidates and colleagues around the world.

Inspire your existing employees to become advocates

Another great way to translate your global employer brand to local communities is to use employee ambassadors.

It doesn’t matter if you’re conducting localized hiring drives or spreading awareness of your presence in a new market. The bottom line is, people trust employees significantly more than companies themselves. 

So, who better to offer first-hand insight into your workplace than your regional team members? Their unique access and authenticity can demonstrate specifically how your workplace reflects the cultural nuances of the area.

This can give talent a clear picture of life at your organization, form genuine connections with people in the area, and ultimately attract candidates to your career site.

Furthermore, by getting your staff to play a more active role in your employer brand and rewarding their efforts, you can encourage your teams to stick with you for the long term. 

Ready to realize the full potential of your employer brand?

As the competition for talent intensifies – and job seekers become increasingly discerning – successfully recruiting and retaining talent demands a local approach to employer branding. 

However, with each country having their own cultural traditions and expectations to honor, crafting and coordinating content that resonates with each of these audiences is no easy feat.

By putting the insights we’ve covered in this article into practice, we hope you’ll have everything you need to reshape your employer brand into one that connects with candidates and colleagues from one region to the next.

Table of contents:

  1. Why is region-specific employer branding so important?
  2. How do you translate a global employer brand to local markets?
  3. Ready to realize the full potential of your employer brand?

Content Creation

Storytelling and scalability: Finding the perfect balance in your content creation strategy

Papirfly
9 minutes read

Content production is the beating heart of modern marketing campaigns. The more you can create content that engages audiences, communicates your offering, and features on your most relevant channels, the more success your brand will experience in the long term.

And while there are many moving parts to the content creation process, the foundation for success can often boil down to two main factors:

The most effective content creation strategies understand how crucial both these components are to reaching and capturing the imagination of potential customers. Prioritising one over the other – or failing to fulfil either – limits your marketing strategy, making life more difficult for you and your colleagues.

So, how do you properly balance story and scale in content distribution? In this article, you’ll discover the importance of both pillars and uncover strategies to help you make the best of both worlds.

What is storytelling in marketing?

The world’s most successful brands have a story to tell:

  • For Apple, it’s a story of challenging the status quo through innovation and creativity
  • For Dove, it’s the idea that beauty is diverse and should be celebrated in all forms
  • For Patagonia, it’s making the world a better place through eco-friendly initiatives

These companies, and many more like them, invest a substantial amount of time and resources into crafting marketing narratives that go beyond facts, figures and features. Why? Because what truly captures the hearts and minds of consumers is a compelling story that explains who you are, what you do, and how you can help them.

In a world where you’re competing with dozens, if not hundreds, of companies for people’s attention and custom, your brand story must set you apart from the crowd. When done well, you foster more meaningful, emotional relationships than data can do on its own, speaking to audiences in a way that’s digestible, universal and inspiring.

Take TOMS as an example. Their “One for One” model is built around their founder Blake Mycoskie’s experience seeing children struggling without shoes in Argentina. They consistently publish content that emphasises this altruistic message, helping people understand the vision behind their business.

Why is brand storytelling so important for content creation?

Brand storytelling inspires and motivates people to act

Tapping into people’s emotions through a relatable, empathetic or compelling story helps people get behind your brand. If people understand the narrative behind your products, services and actions, they are more likely to buy into you as a business.

Brand storytelling simplifies complex messages and concepts

A huge part of modern audience engagement is keeping things simple. A well-crafted story makes it easier for people to understand who you are and what you can do for them, and also makes your offering more memorable in the long term.

Brand storytelling enhances people’s trust in your brand

Brands that use storytelling to strengthen their content strategies are instantly considered more credible and authoritative. A story helps to humanise your brand, which in turn creates more trust with customers than speaking to a faceless business.

Brand storytelling stops you from sounding salesy

Fundamentally, storytelling allows you to communicate authentically and empathetically with your audiences. Rather than simply tell them why they should use you, a story presents your offering in a fresh, compelling way that speaks to them on a deeper level.

What is content scalability?

If storytelling is the message at the core of your content, scalability is how you get this message to the masses.

As you might expect, content scalability (or content scaling) refers to how you distribute your content across the numerous channels and formats available to modern marketers.

Content production at scale – while simultaneously delivering high-quality output – is arguably the biggest problem today’s CMOs and marketing leaders face.

But as the range of content marketing channels grows, as well as customers’ expectations to receive content at multiple touchpoints, scalability is something that cannot be ignored.

Effective content scaling means identifying ways to produce content faster, simpler and more cost-effectively, without seeing any dip in the quality or relevance of your assets.

Why is scalable content marketing so important?

Scalable content marketing builds your brand awareness

Maintaining a constant flow of physical and digital content goes a long way to raising people’s awareness of your brand, your story and your offerings. The more you can appear on your audiences’ preferred channels, the more their understanding of your company grows.

Scalable content marketing improves your authority

Similarly, having a consistent and frequent presence on various marketing channels makes your brand appear more authoritative and a “leader” in your space. If you post infrequently or have a smaller presence, that can be a red flag.

Scalable content marketing drives more conversions

Simply put, the wider the spread of your content marketing campaigns, the more avenues there are for customers to engage with your brand. This can significantly boost your website traffic, direct purchases and other conversions you track.

The need to balance story and scale in content creation

As you can tell, storytelling and scalability are both fundamental pillars of success in today’s marketing landscape. However, simply being aware of their importance isn’t enough to achieve the best results – you must balance both in your content creation strategy to unleash your marketing’s full potential. 

To demonstrate why, let’s look at what problems can occur when you prioritise one over the other:

Too much story, not enough scale

The art of storytelling requires a great deal of attention and creativity to nail down. However, if you prioritise this over the scale of your content production, it can mean:

  • You limit the reach of your marketing campaigns, curbing your potential for growth
  • You miss opportunities to connect with potential customers on certain channels
  • You fail to convert customers due to a lack of engagement across touchpoints

Too much scale, not enough story

On the flip side, if you prioritise producing content for all channels at the expense of story and visuals:

  • You risk diluting the impact of your narrative and its emotional impact on audiences
  • You fragment your storytelling, creating a disconnect that alienates your customers
  • You produce content that lacks creativity and uniqueness, turning your marketing bland

In a nutshell, both story and scalability must be equally prioritised to make your content creation as effective as it can be. To make this ambition a reality, you need the right strategies behind your marketing efforts.

6 content creation strategies to balance storytelling and scalability

If you are keen to ensure your content marketing tells stories that capture people’s imagination, and that this can be produced efficiently and consistently to the largest possible audience, here are 6 good ideas to help you find the perfect balance.

1. Let your creatives craft the narrative for your campaign storytelling

While story and scale have equal weight in the content marketing spectrum, story must come before scale. As we highlighted earlier, there’s no benefit in creating a tonne of assets if the story behind them doesn’t connect as intended.

So, designate a creative team to nail down the story behind your brand, and the core visuals, copy and imagery that will best communicate that message. How you construct this team is up to you:

Partnering with a marketing agency can be a beneficial first step. Their ability to look at your company from an objective, outside perspective can help prevent any subjective bias from compromising the power of your brand storytelling.

By giving your most creative minds the freedom to create and mould your story, you lay the foundation for content to flow with the right intent.

2. Make your brand story accessible and understandable for all content creators

After you cement the story behind your campaign and establish the templates for conveying it in your content, you must share this with your teams around the world – not just your marketers.

A crucial key to content marketing at scale is giving more people the power to produce assets that reflect your overall brand story (we’ll discuss this further in tip #3). However, if you don’t make this story and its supporting visuals easily accessible, your creators may veer off course, affecting the consistency and strength of your message.

A printed brand guidelines booklet doesn’t cut it in today’s digital-first, globalised world. Instead, an online brand portal and Digital Asset Management (DAM) system can help your people understand the story behind your brand, and reflect it as intended for their own audiences.

A brand portal allows you to present the digital assets behind your campaign in the context of your brand story. This helps your teams engage with and understand your vision, so they can execute content with this direction in mind. 

Meanwhile, a well-structured DAM system does more than manage your content and distribute it across your teams. It gives your people a complete overview of your campaign assets and messages, so they can learn from and apply them in future.

Plus, if your DAM solution allows you to categorise assets according to their campaign, location and other parameters, your teams can find and reference these exact examples for their ongoing content creation efforts. 

Essentially, the combination of a brand portal and DAM system has the power to educate your entire workforce on your story, which then gives them the power to create content that evokes this message themselves.

3. Harness technology to publish great content at an even greater scale

Of course, not everyone is a skilled designer or evocative copywriter. But the right content creation tools can help anyone produce on-brand, studio-quality assets – and do so at an unprecedented scale.

Investing in template software that provides a safe framework for your users, with the wriggle room to get creative within these parameters, allows you to significantly speed up content production and open this avenue to frontline employees who lack the requisite design skills.

These smart templates do more than make the content creation process smoother and simpler:

  • Individual teams can personalise and localise content so it tells your story in a way that resonates with their specific audience
  • Multiple templates enable your marketers to adapt content to different formats seamlessly – video, digital banners, social media posts, posters, etc.
  • Content stays consistent on all channels through centralised brand governance

Explore the content creation software available and bestow your people with the ability to scale up production to another level, all without compromising the strength of your storytelling or the quality of your output.

4. Coordinate a content calendar that lets your story flow

No matter how strong the story behind your campaign is, or how many people have the tools to produce content at scale – a disorganised campaign is doomed to fail.

Plotting out a structured content or editorial calendar helps you publish content at the right time, on the right channels, to best deliver your campaign’s narrative. More than this, it also gives you an outline of how much content you’ll need for your campaign to guide your creators.

This stops over-scaling from diluting your messages. By spending time on a calendar or schedule for each campaign, you can coordinate your content requirements to deliver the maximum impact for your audiences worldwide.

5. Repurpose content for multiple marketing channels and formats

A smart first step to scaling up your content is through repurposing. This is when you take a central asset and adapt this to other formats and for other audiences. 

For example, you may have a 10-page brochure that breaks down your organisation’s mission, vision and purpose. That one brochure could then spin off into:

  • A series of animated videos for YouTube or TikTok
  • A collection of carousels for your social media channels
  • Several blog posts on your website
  • A group of banner ads with key messages from the booklet

By repurposing, you do more than extend the life of a more comprehensive piece of content. You ensure that everything that spawns from this central point shares the same story, visuals and values on your wider channels, so your brand consistency is never in jeopardy.

6. Prioritise brand consistency at every touchpoint of your marketing

Whatever story you want to tell, on however many channels you want to utilise – brand consistency is key.

Being authentic and constant in how you portray your content’s story is the foundation for building trust with your audience. If any stage in your customer journey breaks, it can make your story feel disingenuous, reducing its emotional pull.

Using content creation tools, such as intelligent design templates, helps ensure that you develop content fitting your brand guidelines and convey your unique creative vision, no matter how much you produce.

Marketing content in balance: Making both story and scale your priority

There is no questioning the value of brand storytelling in making your content as captivating and engaging as possible for your audiences. It’s just as true that without a scalable approach to content marketing, you won’t be able to get that message out at the speed and frequency it needs to succeed.

We hope this article has helped you consider the importance of storytelling and scalability in your content production, and whether you have found the right balance in your organisation.

By taking stock of our tips and strategies, you can take a significant step towards marketing that captures attention, sustains audience engagement, and delivers impact at every touchpoint.

Table of contents:

  1. What is storytelling in marketing?
  2. What is content scalability?
  3. The need to balance story and scale in content creation
  4. 6 content creation strategies to balance storytelling and scalability
  5. Marketing content in balance: Making both story and scale your priority

Technology

The future of MarTech: Embracing hyper-personalization and AI-driven content creation

Papirfly
4 minutes read

Papirfly was proud to sponsor ANFO’s MarTech Awards in Norway this November, where we celebrated industry innovation and took the stage to present the coveted Innovation of the Year Award. We were also thrilled to win gold in the B2B Category Award for our 12-year long strategic partnership with our client REMA 1000.

Frank Tommy and Eva-Lill presented a talk on the Future of MarTech, exploring three transformative trends reshaping how brands connect with their consumers. These trends—hyper-personalization, AI-driven content creation, and responsible marketing practices—are not just shaping the future of MarTech; they’re key to thriving in today’s competitive landscape.

Hyper-personalization through advanced data integration

Consumers today demand more than generic messages—they want experiences that feel tailor-made. This growing expectation is driving brands to adopt advanced data integration strategies, enabling deeper insights into customer preferences and behaviors.

Imagine crafting a message that resonates with someone on a personal level—whether it’s a highly relevant email, a perfectly targeted ad, or a unique landing page experience. This isn’t just about adding a name to a subject line; it’s about understanding a customer’s journey, addressing their pain points, and creating content that feels genuinely meaningful.

At Papirfly, we believe that effective Digital Asset Management (DAM) is crucial for achieving this level of personalization. A robust DAM system enables teams to efficiently manage vast volumes of customer data and creative assets, making it possible to create, distribute, and optimize personalized, on-brand content across channels.

Picture this: your campaigns are powered by real-time data, allowing you to adapt strategies on the fly. That’s the game-changing potential of hyper-personalization—a future where marketing connects deeply with individuals and fosters lasting loyalty.

The rise of AI-driven content creation and optimization

The second trend, AI-driven content creation, is no longer a concept of the future—it’s a present-day reality, transforming how brands approach content marketing. AI tools can analyze performance metrics, consumer interactions, and emerging market trends, generating insights that shape content strategies.

Think of the time we spend creating, editing, and optimizing content. AI can automate much of this work, freeing marketers to focus on storytelling and strategic decision-making. With AI, brands can achieve consistent messaging, adapt swiftly to changing market demands, and maximize the impact of their campaigns.At Papirfly, we’re excited by the possibilities AI brings to on-brand content creation. Its ability to process data at scale ensures your messaging remains relevant and impactful, helping brands stay ahead in a fast-moving digital world.

Personalization vs. privacy: Finding the balance

As exciting as hyper-personalization and AI-driven content creation are, they come with a clear responsibility: respecting customer privacy. Brands must tread carefully to balance the benefits of tailored experiences with the need to maintain trust and transparency.

At the awards, we tied these trends to the classic Norwegian folk tale Tre Bukkene Bruse (The Three Billy Goats Gruff) offering a fitting analogy. Each goat represents an aspect of MarTech innovation:

  • The youngest goat, eager and bold, embodies hyper-personalization, pushing the boundaries of how we connect with consumers.
  • The middle goat, resourceful and clever, reflects AI-driven content creation, which needs careful guidance to stay on the right path.
  • The wise eldest goat reminds us of our ultimate goal—building trust and integrity in all customer interactions.

But no bridge is without its challenges, and the troll lurking underneath symbolizes GDPR and other privacy regulations. While these rules might feel like an obstacle, they exist to ensure that data is handled ethically and responsibly. By respecting these safeguards, brands can cross the bridge to customer trust safely, avoiding the pitfalls of shortcuts and data misuse.

The lesson is clear: hyper-personalization and AI can help brands create incredible customer experiences, but only if these tools are used in ways that prioritize transparency, consent, and ethical practices.

Building a sustainable future in MarTech

The future of MarTech is as promising as the bridge in Tre Bukkene Bruse—a path to deeper connections, stronger loyalty, and more impactful marketing strategies. However, crossing that bridge requires brands to navigate the challenges responsibly, ensuring their methods align with consumer expectations and privacy regulations.

Hyper-personalization and AI-driven content creation are no longer optional—they’re critical for brands looking to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape. But these innovations must be paired with a commitment to ethical practices. Transparency, consent, and respect for personal data aren’t just compliance measures; they’re cornerstones of trust.

Just as the three goats succeed by balancing boldness with wisdom, brands can navigate the evolving MarTech landscape by embracing innovation while respecting their customers. When done right, the rewards are clear: personalized experiences, loyal audiences, and a sustainable, forward-looking strategy for growth.

With these principles in mind, the bridge to the future of MarTech isn’t just achievable—it’s an opportunity to create meaningful, lasting connections.

Table of contents:

  1. Hyper-personalization through advanced data integration
  2. The rise of AI-driven content creation and optimization
  3. Personalization vs. privacy: Finding the balance
  4. Building a sustainable future in MarTech

Retail Marketing

eTail Malmö 2024 wrap-up

Papirfly
4 minutes read

The recent eTail Nordic event in Malmo brought together leading brands and marketing professionals to explore the latest trends driving retail and e-commerce in the Nordics. For brands looking to stay competitive in the evolving retail landscape, here are the key trends that stood out for us as a sponsor.

1. The evolving role of customer experience (CX)

    In today’s competitive landscape, personalization and seamless omnichannel experiences have become essential. Nordic consumers expect brands to recognize their unique preferences across both digital and physical touchpoints, fostering loyalty through relevant, personalized experiences. As retailers scale their personalized marketing, however, maintaining brand consistency across all channels can become complex. The focus for brands now lies in refining how they present themselves, by showcasing relevant, on-brand content that connects with their audience instantly and effectively.

    2. Sustainability as a core value

      Sustainability is more than just a trend in the Nordics; it’s an expectation. Consumers are particularly invested in ethical sourcing and circular business models, rewarding brands that align with these values. As brands weave sustainability into their core strategy—not just their products—they are challenged to convey these values authentically. Effectively communicating sustainability efforts across markets, in a way that aligns with local values, is a critical step in building trust with consumers. Brands that manage to do this with clarity and consistency across channels have a distinct advantage in connecting with the eco-conscious Nordic consumer.

      3. AI and automation: Efficiency meets creativity

        AI is transforming retail by driving efficiency in operations while supporting creativity in customer engagement. From inventory management to automated marketing, AI enables brands to streamline processes while still delivering personalized, engaging content at scale. For many brands, the challenge lies in balancing automation with a genuine, creative touch that resonates with consumers. AI’s role should be about removing repetitive, manual tasks, allowing marketing teams to focus on what really matters: crafting unique, value-driven experiences for their customers that set them apart in a crowded market.

        4. Data privacy and trust

          With data privacy being a significant concern across the Nordics, brands must maintain transparency and comply with stringent privacy regulations. GDPR compliance isn’t optional; it’s a fundamental requirement for earning and retaining consumer trust. For brands leveraging data for personalization, this means developing processes that respect privacy while providing value to the customer. Those who prioritize clear, ethical data practices build credibility and loyalty, standing out as leaders in responsible data use—a vital differentiator in today’s privacy-conscious market.

          5. The growth of social commerce and influencer marketing

            Social commerce is booming, and influencer marketing remains an impactful strategy in the Nordics, where consumers are highly engaged on social media. This trend presents a unique opportunity for brands to integrate social commerce into their e-commerce strategy, creating a seamless customer journey from social platform to purchase. Brands that stay agile in adapting to these changes, whether by leveraging influencers or capitalizing on user-generated content, are better positioned to resonate with the highly connected Nordic consumer. The ability to maintain consistent messaging across these platforms, without sacrificing agility, is crucial.

            6. Hybrid retail models

              The blending of physical and digital retail experiences continues to reshape consumer expectations. Today’s shoppers want the freedom to interact with brands across in-store and online channels, expecting a seamless, unified journey. As hybrid retail gains traction, brands need to focus on delivering a cohesive experience that meets customers wherever they are, whether that’s through digital signage in-store or a streamlined e-commerce interface. Brands that excel in providing this flexibility create a smoother path to purchase, building stronger relationships with consumers by catering to their preferred shopping styles.

              7. Accelerated time to market as a competitive edge

                In an environment where trends evolve rapidly, speed matters. The ability to go from concept to execution quickly allows brands to stay relevant and respond to market shifts before competitors. Brands that leverage efficient workflows and adaptable structures are better equipped to bring campaigns and promotions to market swiftly and consistently. This agility not only enhances brand responsiveness but also fosters a deeper connection with consumers, who increasingly expect brands to be relevant, timely, and attuned to current trends.

                Future-proofing Nordic retail

                The future of retail in the Nordics is an exciting mix of technology, consumer expectations, and deeply rooted cultural values. Brands that can align with these evolving dynamics—particularly around sustainability, customer experience, and data privacy—are best positioned for success. By adopting a proactive approach to these trends and prioritizing authenticity and transparency, brands can navigate the future of retail with confidence. The landscape is dynamic, but with thoughtfulness and a focus on core values, Nordic brands can seize tomorrow’s opportunities and continue to lead in a constantly shifting market.

                Ready to see how your brand can stay ahead in the Nordic retail landscape? Learn how Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management & Content Creation suite can help you align with these trends and elevate your strategy.

                Table of contents:

                1. 1. The evolving role of customer experience (CX)
                2. 2. Sustainability as a core value
                3. 3. AI and automation: Efficiency meets creativity
                4. 4. Data privacy and trust
                5. 5. The growth of social commerce and influencer marketing
                6. 6. Hybrid retail models
                7. 7. Accelerated time to market as a competitive edge
                8. Future-proofing Nordic retail

                Digital Asset Management / DAM

                DAM New York 2024 wrap-up: key insights and innovations from Papirfly

                Papirfly
                2 minutes read

                DAM NY 2024 has come to a close, wrapping up two incredible days of insights and innovation on October 23-24 at the New York Hilton Midtown. The conference brought together industry professionals and thought leaders to explore the transformative power of Digital Asset Management (DAM) and its central role in modern marketing.

                As an exhibitor and speaker, Papirfly was proud to connect with attendees seeking to elevate their content management strategies. A highlight of the event was The Great DAM Bake-Off, where our Head of Product Enablement presented an engaging demo alongside Frontify, Bynder, and Acquia. We were thrilled by the audience’s overwhelming support and especially honored to be recognized by the judges as having the best-looking DAM interface. Winning the audience’s hearts was not only rewarding but also reinforced the value of our innovative approach and user-focused design.

                The conference sessions offered a wealth of insights into the latest trends and technological advancements in DAM. Notably, the increasing role of AI emerged as a focal point. AI-driven asset management is transforming workflows with enhanced efficiency, personalization, and targeted content distribution. Companies like Steg AI demonstrated how AI can streamline workflows, while CI Hub showcased advanced integration capabilities that boost platform productivity. Across these discussions, quality data stood out as a crucial foundation for effective marketing, reinforcing that good data drives better decision-making in the DAM space.

                Streamlined workflows for greater collaboration

                A recurring theme throughout the conference was the demand for more streamlined workflows and increased visibility across content management processes. Attendees noted challenges like decentralized processes, version control issues, and siloed workflows—roadblocks that can hinder collaboration and delay time-to-market. Revlon’s on-stage discussions underscored the need for a synchronized, transparent content supply chain to overcome these obstacles.

                DAM: central to digital transformation

                The event reaffirmed that DAM is more than a standalone solution; it’s a vital component in the modern marketing tech stack. For organizations navigating digital transformation, DAM plays a crucial role in aligning content management with overarching brand and business strategies.

                For those eager to explore the essentials of DAM further, check out our pre-event article, Serving assets on a silver platter, where we delve into:

                • The importance of intuitive design for end-user engagement
                • Techniques to optimize DAM systems for navigation, accessibility, and content delivery
                • The benefits of integrating DAM systems with other business applications for enhanced productivity

                Reflecting on DAM NY 2024

                As we reflect on this inspiring event, Papirfly remains committed to helping organizations streamline content creation and management, ensuring on-brand consistency at scale. Thank you to everyone who joined us at DAM NY 2024—we’re excited to continue these conversations and push the boundaries of innovation in the DAM space!

                Table of contents:

                1. Event highlights and key trends
                2. Streamlined workflows for greater collaboration
                3. DAM: central to digital transformation
                4. Reflecting on DAM NY 2024

                Brand consistency

                Achieving brand consistency across borders: Your guide to marketing localisation

                Papirfly
                8 minutes read

                As a business operating in multiple countries, you must do everything possible to tailor brand content to individual global audiences.

                Why? Adapting content around the cultural nuances of different regions does more than help customers understand who you are and what you offer; it builds trust—an increasingly precious commodity in a world where misinformation runs rife.

                Yet, despite the immense value localised collateral can provide, actually creating it can make maintaining brand consistency a headache. 

                Whether that’s because new colour palettes are needed to respect the traditions of a specific country, or fresh straplines are required to suit different languages – brand localisation can quickly deviate from your pre-established guidelines.
                If you want to reap the benefits of localised content while upholding worldwide consistency, this article will help you reshape your global brand strategy. Discover valuable strategies, and learn how Rabobank – a multinational cooperative based in the Netherlands – achieves unity in over 35 countries.

                3 tips for achieving global consistency in localised content

                When international customers are easier to reach than ever, and expectations for personalised content are on the rise, adapting your content to local cultures is a must. To execute this strategy while staying on-brand, the right approach is essential.

                1. Build flexibility into your brand guidelines

                When you first laid out the guidelines that govern how your brand presents itself, chances are you nailed everything down, from the colours you use to the position of your logo. 

                Detailed style guides are a huge help for people in and outside your company, giving them the direction they need to stay on message. However, they can also become an obstacle to consistency when adapting your brand content to new markets.

                That’s because stringent guidelines may offer little freedom over how you uphold your brand image. When new messaging, colourways, layouts and more are needed to resonate with specific communities, this can become a problem, forcing team members to think on their feet, which can then undermine your identity.

                How do you maintain brand consistency while still honouring your target audience’s traditions? It all starts by introducing a layer of flexibility into your brand guidelines. Exactly how you do this will depend on the specifics of your brand, but as a general rule of thumb, consider:

                • Building in variable elements to your documents, such as unique colour palettes and straplines for different scenarios
                • Developing guidance on how regional teams can adapt brand content to individual regions and communities
                • Including checklists that local departments can follow to avoid causing upset or offence in certain countries 

                These steps can give your teams either working in or responsible for certain regions complete clarity over how your brand should be showcased there. This in turn empowers them to create and adapt your messages with confidence that they aren’t overstepping your overall identity.

                Furthermore, if you use an online brand hub to house your brand guidelines and other hallmarks of your identity, you could establish different versions for your international teams, written in their own language. Again, this extra layer gives your local teams the confidence to produce in line with their altered guidelines.

                2. Empower local marketing teams to create

                Another way to deliver content that aligns with cultural expectations – as well as your overarching brand identity – is to empower your regional marketing departments to get creative.

                Your local team members play a crucial role in adapting your brand’s messaging to fit the needs of specific markets. Without the right tools to develop, translate and localise your marketing materials, your people might have to create new versions of this media from scratch.

                This does more than simply slow their output. It can make it hard for regional teams to deliver personalised content to the quality and scale needed, limiting the efficiency and feasibility of your global brand strategy, and creating inconsistencies that deviate from your overall brand image.

                To achieve a more coherent, self-sufficient approach to marketing, a Digital Asset Management (DAM) and content creation suite can be a wise investment. 

                This equips your digital marketers with smart templates they can use to hit the ground running with on-brand asset creation. With the right tool, you can tailor these templates to suit location-specific imagery, colour schemes, languages and more, ensuring regional team members can generate content in line with your agreed-upon identity. In practice, that means great content can be produced quickly, with no margin for inconsistency.

                As well as this, an attached DAM system houses all of your latest local and global assets in one place. From here, you can tag or categorise assets in accordance with their relevant location for fast, easy identification, or even manage visibility so people in a particular region can only see the items they need. Again, this means the right, on-brand content is only shared with the right audience.

                Some brand management toolkits even incorporate approval workflows, so your central teams (or other leaders) can have final sign-off on any adapted assets before they go to market – a powerful way of unleashing your digital marketers’ creativity while retaining that all-important brand unity.

                3. Establish clear avenues for internal communication

                Finally, coordinating campaigns across multiple continents is tricky business. With so much scope for consistency-breaking mistakes and cultural oversights to rear their head, strong internal communication is a necessity for several reasons:

                • It gets everyone on the same page before committing time and resources to local content creation
                • It helps ensure content is released on the right channels at the right time for the right audience
                • It keeps the flow of assets from team to team seamless and straightforward

                Fundamentally, good internal communication maximises the efficiency of your global marketing operations and prevents major brand discrepancies from country to country.

                Having a clear line of communication from central headquarters to every regional office also ensures that changes, like new brand positioning and marketing messaging, are reflected as soon as they come into effect.

                It also lays the foundation for collaboration between central and local marketers. This can raise creativity and confirm that every localised campaign meets the expectations of regional audiences, as well as your brand’s overarching goals.

                All this is to say internal communication is at the heart of any globally consistent, locally relevant brand. To make it stick:

                Again, a dedicated brand portal and DAM solution can unlock stronger communication between your worldwide teams. As a “single source of truth” for everything – both locally and globally – it can act as a key point of collaboration and education for every content creator.

                For more on internal communication and tips to improve yours, check out our practical guide.

                The advantages of globally consistent, locally-tuned content

                Establishes deeper levels of trust

                If you operate in multiple territories, taking a one-size-fits-all approach and publishing the same off-brand collateral in each region drastically limits the ability of your marketing materials to resonate.

                Different countries and cultures have different beliefs, speak different languages, and value different things. By reflecting these nuances in a way that respects their traditions, while also preserving your core identity, you can lay a strong foundation to build that all-important trust with your audiences.

                Improves global brand recognition

                Creating content attuned to the communities you’re targeting is vital. But if every piece you publish varies in style from post to post, prospects may not realise they’re engaging with the same brand.

                By taking an approach that balances local demands with your overarching brand image, you can ensure the key elements that define your business appear on every social post, banner ad, brochure and beyond in every location. A clear through-line that honours your individual audiences, yet makes it obvious who they’re interacting with.

                Not only does this global recognition help you stand out among a sea of competition – it inspires confidence in your products and services.

                Enhances customer loyalty

                Going all-in on either brand consistency or localisation when reaching a global audience can spell disaster for customer loyalty.

                Establishing a healthy balance of both – and delivering on-brand, localised marketing campaigns in the territories you operate in – shows potential customers you care about their experience as much as the sanctity of your branding. 

                This is acknowledged by the right consumers, helping you convert them into loyal patrons.

                Boosts conversion rates

                Few things dampen the effectiveness of your campaigns like marketing materials that fall short of local expectations, content that strays from your localised guidelines, or assets that fail on both counts.

                When you implement the strategies we’ve outlined above and craft content that balances the parameters of your brand and the demands of regional communities, your campaigns are in the best place to convert prospects.

                Whether it’s translated landing pages for a product or job listings that reflect the country you’re recruiting in, treating different localities as any other marketing segment can be the foundation for superior marketing performance and increased sales.

                How Rabobank adapts content consistently to international markets

                To illustrate the real-world value of balancing global brand consistency and localisation, let’s round off by taking a look at Rabobank – a multinational cooperative bank based in the Netherlands, who transformed how they adapt content to local markets to achieve a new standard of consistency.

                Rabobank was originally established by Dutch farmers in the late 19th century as a small cooperative. Today, the corporation is home to more than 40,000 employees, who operate in more than 35 different countries.

                Serving a broad range of different customers, from civilians in the Netherlands to large wholesale clients in Australia, the company was finding it difficult to manage their brand consistently. With dozens of disparate sub-brands and products under their belt, they knew they needed to make a change.

                This non-hierarchical structure was core to Rabobank’s cooperative nature and was what drew customers to their company. However, it was also clear this was their greatest problem, confusing other patrons and eroding trust in their global identity.

                Rabobank needed a flexible framework to develop culturally relevant content for their international customers, all while retaining a thread of consistency throughout. An approach that used a brand hub as a one-stop shop for everything involving their brand.

                From immersing staff in guidelines and streamlining Digital Asset Management, to empowering local teams to create and approve content. With the right solution in place, Rabobank transformed how it maintained cultural relevance in marketing, all while bringing its identity in line across every region.

                By securing the buy-in of stakeholders from across the organisation, and listening to their thoughts and feedback, Rabobank continues to evolve with this technology at their core.

                In doing so, it has seen widespread adoption internally and improved the unity of their global image. It also resulted in the production of over 23,000 assets in 2023 alone, a figure which has helped them improve brand reach and resonate with regional communities, all while avoiding costs.

                Elevate your global marketing strategy to new heights

                To unleash the full potential of your promotional material in target markets around the globe, you need to deliver collateral that acknowledges the local nuances of every region.

                Whether that means updating messaging to work in new languages or swapping out imagery for something that reflects the communities you’re targeting, adapting to the expectations of different countries can make it hard to maintain the global consistency you need to succeed.

                We hope the tips, tricks and technology we’ve introduced in this article – and the real-world case study of Rabobank – give you what you need to strike the perfect balance between regional flexibility and global brand consistency. A balance that enables you to speak to your local audiences directly and personally, while maintaining a rock-solid reputation at a worldwide level.

                Table of contents:

                1. 3 tips for achieving global consistency in localised content
                2. The advantages of globally consistent, locally-tuned content
                3. How Rabobank adapts content consistently to international markets
                4. Elevate your global marketing strategy to new heights

                Employer brand

                7 elements every world-class employer brand should have

                Papirfly
                8 minutes read

                Employer branding is crucial for any organisation. Executed well, it can position your company as a compelling place to work, help attract and retain top talent, and enable you to stand out in an ever-expanding sea of competition.

                In fact, in a recent survey, 1 in 6 UK workers said they would accept a new role without a rise in pay, if it led to better job security and development opportunities.

                However, get it wrong, and you could risk falling short of candidates’ and employees’ expectations – a poorly maintained employer brand that can lead to greater employee churn, sluggish hiring processes, lower morale and engagement, and potentially hurt your brand’s reputation beyond the talent pool.

                So, how do you build a great employer brand? It all starts by understanding exactly what makes some of the world’s greatest so successful. Organisations such as Google, Salesforce, HubSpot and Bain & Company are consistently ranked as tremendous places to work, and a large part of that is their commitment to strengthening their distinct employer brands.

                With all this in mind, in this article, we’ll be diving into research and drawing from our decades of experience to bring you the standout characteristics of effective, well-rounded employer branding.

                7 hallmarks of world-class employer brands

                1. A clearly defined employer brand strategy

                Like most successful elements in marketing, a world-class employer brand starts with a well-conceived strategy.

                Without an overarching idea of how your employer brand is perceived, who your ideal candidates are, where prospective recruits spend their time, and the messages you must share both internally and externally – your efforts can quickly become inconsistent, unstructured and unsuccessful. 

                You don’t have to look far to see the correlations between solid strategizing and employer branding success. Take energy drink giant Red Bull, for example. They wanted to seek out the most promising candidates from their expansive talent pool – all while providing a memorable recruitment journey.

                To do this, the company devised a strategy that centred around the creation of a new tool, Wingfinder. This started by working together to identify the core traits, skills and experience of their ideal hires, which were then programmed into Wingfinder. This made it faster to find prospects that fit Red Bull’s hiring criteria, while providing unsuccessful applicants with helpful career development advice.

                This has allowed Red Bull to improve the quality of its hires and the public standing of its overall business. And while Wingfinder is the tool at the heart of this, it would not be nearly as effective without the well-considered strategy behind it.

                With all this in mind, how can you formulate a successful strategy for your employer brand? Here are some top-line tips for you to mull over:

                For more insight on composing a top-tier plan, check out our in-depth article: How to develop and deliver an effective employer brand strategy.

                2. A receptive attitude to listening

                An employer brand, while a formidable recruitment tool, really centres around delivering an experience that resonates with your existing talent. 

                Placing your full focus on attracting new job seekers, and consequently leaving your teams on the ground feeling undervalued or ignored, only hurts your ability to recruit, retain and engage staff in the long-term.

                This is all to say that it’s important to listen to your staff. The insights they provide can pave the way toward a future where your brand and your people are closely aligned, empowered and engaged. 

                And this is exactly what L’Oreal – world leader in beauty products and globally regarded place to work – did when it came time to craft a new Employer Value Proposition (EVP). By soliciting input from its staff, the organisation established a compelling EVP that authentically represented the company.

                So, how do you gain the information you need to make changes for the better? One way is to simply ask, sending out an internal survey with questions like:

                • How would you describe the company culture to a friend?
                • What made you decide to join our organisation?
                • What aspects of our workplace do you find most and least motivating?
                • If you could change one thing, what would it be and why?

                3. An authentic company culture

                Another core tenet of any successful employer brand is authenticity; your ability to ‘make good’ on your promises and incorporate them into your everyday company culture.

                Is your business rooted in tradition, or are you laser-focused on the future and globalisation? Is your corporate structure formal and hierarchical, or do you take a more free-flowing approach to employee participation?

                There’s no right or wrong answer here. The important thing is that you genuinely reflect these values in the day-to-day environment at work. If you don’t, you could risk alienating your new and existing talent.

                For example, imagine you’re a candidate who joins an organisation because it’s positioned as a forward-thinking company and a global leader in its field. But, when you get there, you’re greeted by dated equipment, a stringent dress code, and a restrictive management structure. You’d probably feel misled and disconnected from the get-go.

                What can you do to ensure your company culture more closely aligns with your employer brand and values? Consider the following:

                4. A localised approach to communication

                The world’s best employer brands are great communicators. It doesn’t matter if they’re speaking to employees in Europe or appealing to candidates in Asia, global leaders in this sphere all nail one thing – localisation.

                Whether you’re a national corporation or an international conglomerate, the last thing you want to do is take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to messaging. Doing so could exclude individuals who ‘fall outside your central narrative’ and damage your reputation within certain groups and cultures. 

                You only have to look at when the Jolly Green Giant became the ‘Intimidating Green Ogre’ in Arabic, to see what can happen when localisation goes wrong.

                With that in mind, what does success look like here? For multinational software company SAP, adapting content to local audiences meant they could present an entirely consistent brand – one capable of empowering employees, supporting talent acquisition, and maintaining a vast talent pool of over 150 nationalities.

                Despite the immense benefits of localisation, adapting your employer branding to different markets is hard work, especially if you operate in multiple territories. That’s why some of the largest enterprises, like SAP, rely on dedicated content creation solutions to expedite this long and involved task.

                While different content production tools will vary in their capabilities, giving anyone on your team the power to quickly change elements like colours, imagery and messaging – instead of having to build each new version from scratch – unlocks the speed and flexibility essential to achieve effective localisation.

                In addition, harnessing a capable Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool alongside this can allow your teams to categorise social media graphics, recruitment ads and more based on location and audience segments. This greatly reduces the risk of inappropriate or ill-fitting content reaching the wrong market, cutting down inconsistencies that threaten your communications.

                5. A forward-thinking commitment to DEIB

                DEIB stands for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging – four concepts at the heart of any leading employer brand.

                Without them, you run the risk of excluding talent. Not just by limiting who you directly consider for your roles, but also by alienating anyone who places real value in working at a company that honours diversity and inclusivity. 

                So, how do you embrace and establish a more equitable culture in your organisation? For global payment service Mastercard, they made a commitment to equal pay, and invested in establishing Business Resource Groups (BRGs) to represent communities across 47 countries. These are impressive milestones that feature prominently on their career pages.

                That doesn’t mean you need to champion these exact initiatives or invest in developing your own career page to succeed. As we’ve mentioned above, taking your employer brand to the next level is all about listening to your people and what matters most to them. So for you, that could mean:

                • Establishing diversity & inclusivity champions internally
                • Fostering a culture of greater transparency
                • Setting up inclusive recruitment processes
                • Using AI to sense-check recruitment materials for inclusive language

                For more industry-leading insight into crafting an equitable employer brand, don’t miss our in-depth guide: DEIB in the workplace: Top trends to activate an inclusive employer brand.

                6. A consistent employer brand

                Maintaining a consistent brand is important – not just for your paying customers, but also for your prospective and high-performing talent.

                Why? Because all of the hard work that goes into creating your employer brand strategy, refining your EVP and building a culture of authenticity can all be undone when you deviate from your playbook and defy brand consistency. 

                It doesn’t matter if it’s slightly off-brand colours in a social graphic, a mismatched tone of voice in an employee handbook, or an outdated logo on an offer letter. Inconsistency breeds distrust, confusion and disengagement, sinking your reputation as an employer.

                That’s why leading employer brands like Rolls Royce and Google place immense value in consistency, never deviating from their brand guidelines regardless of the channel they’re using or the region they’re in.

                But how do these pioneering brands achieve unbreakable unity? While approaches will undoubtedly vary, in our experience it’s essential to:

                • Create a robust set of employer brand guidelines your teams can follow
                • Set up a digital brand hub to centralise every aspect of your brand identity
                • Use content creation tools like design templates to minimise human error
                • Recycle assets to remain on brand economically

                7. A proactive drive for employee advocacy 

                Now more than ever, trust and transparency are at the forefront of many professionals’ minds. 

                To tap into this emerging trend and craft an identity that meets this criteria, many of the globe’s leading brands leverage their employees as ambassadors, showing others what life is really like at a company from the perspective of a team member.

                It’s why Adobe’s channels regularly feature employee stories, and the thinking behind Nokia’s investment into employee generated content (EGC).

                The way this strategy works is simple. By nominating people who personally embody your employer brand’s values and genuinely love working for you, you can inspire these frontline employees to create a positive, honest window into your working environment – insight that helps top talent picture themselves in your organisation.

                For these programmes to work best, the right approach is key:

                Discover how to encourage employees to advocate for your employer brand. Read our insightful article: 6 steps to turn your employees into true brand ambassadors.

                Ready to take your employer brand to new heights?

                In such a highly competitive landscape, properly managing your employer brand has never been more important. To ensure you’re getting it right, you don’t just need to implement the right strategies; you need to understand what separates good employer brands from the greatest – and these seven elements are the starting point.

                By analysing some of the best identities out there, and employing our years of unique experience in this area, we hope the information we’ve compiled in this article acts as a helpful benchmark to guide your identity to greater success. 

                Coupled with a powerful end-to-end branding solution, you can revolutionise your ability to attract and retain top-quality talent, stand out in an increasingly crowded market, and drive your company to further success with the right people behind it.

                Table of contents:

                1. 7 hallmarks of world-class employer brands
                2. Ready to take your employer brand to new heights?

                Digital Asset Management

                Serving assets on a silver platter

                Christer Lorichs
                4 minutes read

                No matter how many features and how big a capacity a DAM system has, the only really relevant question is: How good is it at making effective use of the assets?

                Procuring a DAM system usually begins with drawing up a list of requirements. Sometimes this is laid out in the form of a number of use cases about what is expected in different situations. A “Request for information” is then sent out to a number of possible suppliers for an initial selection.

                The obvious goal of a central DAM solution is that it should constitute a “single source of truth”. But that requirement is only a declaration of intent that can be solved with technical functionality. It says nothing about ease of use, complexity in the configuration of the technology, etc.

                From my own experience with over 20 years as a consultant and supplier of DAM solutions, the majority of the requested information has focused on functions and technology that are mainly aimed at the work to be performed by those, often rather few, who shall manage and maintain the system, the DAM editors or librarians. This is work done in what most call ”our DAM”. I say that this is just one part of the DAM, the backend.

                Pretty much all leading systems today have a good “backend” in the form of an interface for uploading and maintaining assets. The variations between different systems are mostly about details and some special functionality. 

                But a DAM’s most important function is to make the content available to anyone who shall see and consume the material.

                A DAM project should therefore have the overall goal of finding the system that is easiest to use and most efficient in supporting the needs of mainly the end users.

                The DAM editors must of course have a strong tool for their work, but regardless of which solution is chosen, they will learn their new tool. For the backend you naturally must ensure that all important basic requirements are met in order to manage assets throughout their entire life cycle.

                But for the end users, the requirements are completely different. Most are infrequent users. They have different wishes at different times. They want to get hold of the right material from different units and in different contexts.

                Therefore, it must be possible to make the navigation simple, obvious and inviting. A goal for the DAM project can e.g. be defined as the possibility to… 

                “Serving assets on a silver platter”

                By that I mean that it should be super clear and obvious to find the relevant assets. And it should be possible to communicate and present how the assets can and should be used for best results.  Also there shall be ways to present assets in different views, with logical filtered groupings, very visual and clear navigation, tailor made to suit each organization’s needs.

                A similar requirement could be to find a system that enables a relevant selection of assets to never be further than two or three clicks away. 

                “Assets always within reach, 2-3 clicks away”

                I’ve seen great examples made by clients where instead of having the user do searches and try to find the right stuff, the DAM editors have presented all materials belonging to e.g. a specific campaign, on one long page. 

                To communicate the campaign, a link is sent, one click and the end user has all needed information and ready to use assets on the screen.

                And it should be just a few clicks away for the editors to achieve this, without needing to hard code anything. 

                DAM center portal

                A very difficult question to handle is where to find what you need. All companies have lots of different system solutions. A new DAM system is another one to keep track of and could be lost in the wind.

                Therefore, the DAM project should aim to establish a place for all the DAM assets of the business, that is easy to remember. The most important way to achieve this is by making the portal really useful and inspiring to navigate. But also, just by naming the portal smartly, could have a huge impact on remembering where to go. 

                All leading DAM systems have some form of end user portal aimed at regular users. For this you have to set high demands and test:

                • What are the possibilities to create a solution exactly the way you want it?
                •  Is it easy to modify and maintain?
                •  Is it consultant-intensive?
                •  Can it facilitate communication around assets?
                •  Can it facilitate searching, sharing and downloading?
                •  Can you add on functionality afterwards?

                DAM access from applications

                If you are to fulfill “Assets always within reach, 2-3 clicks away”, you also need to give end users direct access from the applications they use.

                Connect the DAM to Powerpoint, Word, Google Docs, etc. This is where the absolute largest number of users will get a better everyday life by having direct DAM access. Just by installing a connector.

                For a smaller group, the Adobe connection is important. Make sure it supports Indesign image links. Explore the possibility of creating a creative process with agencies.

                Other users who also benefit from simple DAM access are web creators who work with Figma and web editors should have direct DAM access from the CMS.

                DAM access via API

                For PIM systems and web shops, a connection to DAM is a big advantage. Investigate if it can be solved with connector or direct DAM linking via API.

                Conclusion

                By focusing on the delivery of assets to end users in the most comfortable way possible, you will ensure that a new DAM solution will not be just another system but an essential tool for, especially, all in marketing and sales. But it will reach further into other parts of the organization as well. 

                In almost all parts of an organization there are assets waiting for a better home.

                So to get the most out of the huge investment and effort put into creating brand and marketing assets, they really should be… served on a silver platter.

                Learn more at DAM NY

                At Papirfly, we are dedicated to revolutionizing digital asset management with innovative solutions that streamline content creation and management. We’re thrilled to be participating in the DAM NY event, where we’ll dive into the latest trends and advancements in the DAM landscape.

                Visit our booth to discover how Papirfly’s solutions can enhance your asset management and support your content creation needs. We look forward to engaging with you at the event and exploring the future of DAM together.

                For more information about how Papirfly is driving the evolution of digital asset management, click here.

                Table of contents:

                1. Serving assets on a silver platter
                2. Assets always within reach, 2-3 clicks away
                3. DAM center portal
                4. DAM access from applications
                5. DAM access via API
                6. Conclusion
                7. Learn more at DAM NY

                Content Creation

                Build self-sufficient marketing teams by empowering everyone to create content

                Papirfly
                9 minutes read

                Planning out a marketing strategy is no easy feat. But turning these concepts into content is where the biggest challenge lies for 44% of marketing teams. 

                It doesn’t matter if you’re a startup trying to get a foothold in your industry, or a long-established name with an extensive marketing department – even the best-laid plans can fall apart if you can’t keep up with content creation.

                To meet the rapidly growing demand for high-quality, on-brand assets, a recent study revealed that 69% of digital marketing departments rely on one or more third-party agencies to create the content they need to build trust, attract leads and drive success.

                While the relationship between an agency and an internal promotional team can often reap wonderful results, utilising these specialist skills for day-to-day content creation can come with a high cost. At a time when marketing budgets continue to fall across the board, this is a burden that is far from sustainable.

                Even those blessed with the privilege of in-house design and development teams find it difficult to maintain pace with the rising call for marketing content. When creatives are pulled away for vital tasks and projects, their focus on the day-to-day churn of content can slip, leading to broken campaigns or drops in quality and consistency.

                With all this in mind, how do you empower your marketing teams to deliver the masses of branded collateral you need to reach new and existing customers, aid lead generation, and achieve the long-term goals laid out by your leadership teams? 

                It all starts with self-sufficiency. Below we explore what this means, the challenges involved, the practical steps you can take to promote independence in your company, and the benefits associated with this approach.

                What is a self-sufficient marketing team?

                A self-sufficient marketing team operates independently, efficiently managing all aspects of campaigns without relying on frequent support from outside the business. 

                This means that, with the right skills, tools and resources, independent marketing teams can meet the increased demand for content throughout your organisation, creating collateral, executing campaigns and adapting to changes to drive positive results.

                However, self-sufficiency doesn’t necessarily mean zero involvement from design agencies or external partners. Instead, it’s about reducing the dependence on these groups for the daily demands that drive campaigns and keep marketing content rolling at a consistent pace.

                The greatest barriers to self-sufficient marketing

                Thanks to rising customer expectations, the prominence of personalisation and a growing fight for audience attention, the burdens on marketing communication teams are heavier than ever.

                Even if these challenges aren’t hampering the capacity and capabilities of your content supply chain right now, two-thirds of marketing professionals expect the demand for promotional materials to grow between 5 and 20 times in the coming years.

                To make sure your marketers are prepared for this future, they need to be independent and equipped to handle content creation themselves. However, making this a reality is easier said than done.

                Quality content is in high demand

                When you consider how multichannel marketing has become the standard for the majority of brands, and that more than 50% of companies use at least 8 channels to interact with their customers, you can start to see how insufficient capacity is such a prevalent problem for professionals in this space.

                Coupled with the predictions for even higher levels of collateral being required to make an impact, and it’s immediately obvious the sheer scale of this challenge.

                Put simply, your team needs a lot of content going out to make an impression. Content that not only covers multiple touchpoints, but is also completely consistent and able to deliver genuine value to your audiences.

                With each platform having its own additional specifications, such as file formats, aspect ratios and sizes, creating the various types of content your marketing teams need to get campaigns off the ground is one of the biggest hurdles to self-sufficiency.

                Production processes can get crowded

                It’s rare for a single person to be responsible for the end-to-end creation of an asset; this presents a key problem for true marketing independence.

                Whether a piece of collateral first requires strategic input from the department head or the assistance of copywriters and graphic designers along the way – being reliant on so many individuals from start to finish leaves room for mistakes, oversights and inconsistencies.

                Organising these moving parts is essential to mastering the art of marketing self-sufficiency. Getting it wrong can delay projects, strain resources and impact your business’s bottom line. Furthermore, crowded content supply chains tend to be slow and cumbersome, making it harder for your brand to tap into timely marketing opportunities. 

                To independently produce the pieces of content that guide your brand to long-term success, it’s crucial to streamline the important parts of your content creation ecosystem.

                Localisation can weigh down operations

                If you have a presence in multiple territories, you know your identity must be more than consistently presented. Resonating with regional audiences demands content that is localised to specific markets.

                In practice, that could mean updating imagery to respect the cultural sensitivities of a certain group or producing collateral in the local language of your audiences. 

                These added layers of complexity go beyond extensive research and adaptation. In some cases, localising collateral means crafting entirely new designs, which can further strain the finite time and resources available to your self-sufficient marketers.

                If you want to establish independence throughout your marketing department, your team must have the tools to tackle the immense burden that localisation brings to their day-to-day operations.

                6 tools and techniques to unlock true marketing self-sufficiency

                Despite the challenges involved, taking a more independent approach to marketing throughout your organisation can lead to meaningful long-term cost savings, greater brand consistency and true marketing scalability. 

                But how do you enter this era of self-sufficiency? We’ve rounded up 6 essential solutions and strategies to get you there.

                1. Rely on template libraries

                Template libraries are an integral part of any self-sufficient communication department, giving marketing management and support teams the ability to produce high-quality content rapidly.

                This means there’s no need to build materials like social media posts, infographics and email campaigns from scratch over and over again. With a library of digital design templates by your side, this technology helps solve the problem of speed and consistency in your content production pipeline. 

                Templates can also democratise the design and delivery process, meaning your colleagues no longer need to rely on the costly services of an agency, or wait for a gap in your designers’ schedules to get creative. Couple this with easy on-brand asset creation tools, and you’re well on your way to building a truly autonomous marketing department.

                2. Develop clear brand and style guidelines

                Few things can disrupt the independence of your marketing operations as unclear brand guidelines can.

                With no clarity on what elements should and should not be incorporated across your collateral, the job of content creation becomes increasingly difficult, forcing your marketing department to bring on outside help or rely on rounds of amends from higher-ups – outcomes that can slow production to a crawl and undermine your team’s self-sufficiency.

                Solving this problem requires comprehensive digital style guidelines; a foundation from which your marketers can produce consistent, on-brand marketing materials across any channel, enabling them to take full ownership of this important task.

                3. Establish a centralised brand portal

                Another essential piece of technology to inspire self-sufficiency in your marketing is a brand hub or brand portal.

                These platforms act as a single, central ‘home’ for all of your brand’s key building blocks, from style guides and colour charts, to tones of voice examples, exemplar assets and more. Everything your marketing professionals need to understand and represent your brand accurately in one destination.

                But the advantages don’t end there. By placing all this information in one, easy-to-reach digital place, a brand portal can help ensure your people are spending less time finding the information they need, and more time managing your brand in-house, helping your campaigns go to market faster.

                4. Implement robust marketing automation tools

                Carrying out the entire content production and marketing pipeline in-house involves a lot of work, especially if this is something you currently rely on third parties for at the moment. 

                Marketing automation platforms can streamline many of the more menial tasks to ease the pressure on your teams’ workload. Be it aggregating customer interactions, posting on social or coordinating email marketing campaigns – the more you can automate, the more self-sufficient you become.

                This does more than free up the capacity of your marketing creatives. It allows them to focus on higher-impact activities that demand strategic thinking, so they can deliver greater long-term value.

                With automated workflows to reduce the strain of your routine operations, your team can function with greater autonomy, better adapt to market trends, and become a more self-sufficient unit.

                5. Use AI-powered content production tools

                As we mentioned earlier, the call for content isn’t just becoming greater; audience expectations are also rising. Meeting the pace and quality today’s customers are looking for demands agile, intelligent technology, and marketing AI can be a game-changing addition to your content production workflows. 

                Whether that means employing AI writing tools like GrammarlyGO to help you proof content and produce long-form blog posts, or ideation-focused software such as ContentShake AI to generate data-driven ideas for your content plan – this technology can turn your marketers into fast, multidisciplinary creators.

                With the ability to do more themselves, your marketers can deliver a steady flow of content without completely depending on in-house creatives or third-party agencies, enhancing their overall self-sufficiency and productivity.

                However, while AI can be a powerful tool, it’s important to remember that it works best as a complement to your marketing professionals rather than a replacement for them. Prompts still need human input and oversight to achieve the human-centred quality key to long-term success.

                6. Commit to regular training and upskilling

                Finally, when you invest in regular training for your marketing teams, you equip them with the skills to handle more tasks in-house. 

                Be that mastering new tools or honing creative traits, enabling your professionals to become better at what they do reduces their reliance on external resources. 

                Plus, upskilling your employees allows them to stay sharp in the rapidly-evolving landscape of digital marketing; knowledge they can draw from to enhance the overall performance of their ongoing campaigns.

                After all, it helps if your marketing team not only understands how to accomplish their role, but also has the confidence to innovate and tackle the challenges that stand in their way.

                What are the benefits of self-sufficient marketing?

                When you empower your marketing teams to become increasingly self-sufficient, you unlock the ability to produce content, reach target audiences, build trust and achieve objectives without relying solely on outside assistance.

                As you can imagine, reducing the costs associated with outsourcing marketing can be a great way to maximise your promotions’ bang for their buck, and allocate resources that can be used to drive your business toward greater success. 

                Handling content creation in-house also opens the door to increased marketing agility. In practice, that means your marketers can react to timely opportunities and data-driven feedback much quicker.

                Plus, with consistency the foundation of brand trust, another advantage self-sufficient marketing can bring to the table is wall-to-wall brand alignment. With everything handled internally, there are fewer opportunities for errors and inconsistencies to sneak into a customer’s journey.

                Involving fewer external stakeholders in the marketing pipeline can also lead to effective communication. This promotes inter-department collaboration and allows proposed strategies to take flight far quicker.

                Perhaps most importantly, self-sufficiency gives your team members a strong foundation from which to scale their operations. As well as priming your brand for the content-rich future ahead, this approach allows your departments to more readily adapt to your ever-evolving business needs.

                Successful, sustainable marketing begins with a self-sufficient approach

                Content is the lifeblood of every campaign. It’s what reaches your target audiences and entices them to become repeat customers.

                But keeping up with the ever-growing demand for collateral is hard. Many teams rely on the assistance of third parties to deliver the quality and scale required, even as marketing budgets continue to decline – an unsustainable combination for even the most well-prepared brands.

                As you’ve discovered, self-sufficiency gives you a competitive advantage in your ongoing efforts to engage, inspire and delight your consumers. By harnessing the tips and tricks we’ve showcased in this article, you can unlock the shackles on your staff and make content creation a seamless, swift and structured process across your departments.

                By striving towards self-sufficiency, you free your company from unwanted bottlenecks and breakdowns in communication and guide it towards a future of sustained, effective performance.

                Unleash your clients’ brand consistently on every channel. Empower your partners with the Papirfly Digital Asset Management and Content Creation suite

                Table of contents:

                1. What is a self-sufficient marketing team?
                2. The greatest barriers to self-sufficient marketing
                3. 6 tools and techniques to unlock true marketing self-sufficiency
                4. What are the benefits of self-sufficient marketing?
                5. Successful, sustainable marketing begins with a self-sufficient approach