If you are waiting for someone to step up and volunteer to write next week’s blog post, stop. Your job isn’t to wait for volunteers, it’s to empower and enable your colleagues to become the great content contributors you know they can be.

Of course, we know this is sometimes more easily said than done. There is certainly no shortage of excuses available to your teammates when they don’t want to be involved. Christine Warner recently provided some great tips on how to coax internal experts into participating in content marketing. Now, we are back with tips and insights to help you deal with a few more common obstacles and objections.

Fashion icon Coco Chanel nailed it when it comes to avoiding the perils of over-accessorizing: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” While she may have been referring to exuding understated elegance, I’ve learned to take this wisdom to heart when evaluating my style of writing.

I could wax poetic when it comes to a subject I’m particularly passionate about, but I have to keep the best interests of my audience in mind. After all, it only takes a few seconds for a reader to determine they’re not interested and move on to another article. Almost always, there’s something that can be removed without detracting from your main point; if anything, that excess is what will end up diluting your reasoning.

Although monitoring your site’s analytics, such as bounce rate and time spent on site, can be key indicators of audience engagement, have you considered that your writing style could be a make-or-break factor when it comes to your audience sharing, and ultimately continuing to revisit, your content?

Content marketers sometimes feel like they're on an island. Maybe they’re a one-woman band singlehandedly helming a dozen social networks. Or maybe they’re swaddled in their noise-canceling headphones, cranking out an e-book in silence. Whatever the case, it’s all too easy for us to limit our output — and creativity — because we struggle to collaborate with team members, co-workers from other departments, freelancers, the press, or all of the above.

That’s why, when Boston Content needed a topic for its Q2 event, “collaboration” was an obvious choice. Everyone knows that the best content marketers not only maximize their individual production, but amplify it with help from any number of additional sources. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.

The event, “How to Collaborate Better as a Marketer,” was designed to help content marketers take this general advice — play well with others! — and break it down into actionable takeaways.