All of a sudden, marketers are expected to be lean, mean content marketing machines, churning out content strategy and copywriting articles like Anna Wintour from Vogue. You've got this! Chunk it down to a step-by-step process.
Content marketing in New Zealand and Australia continues to grow juggernaut-like. Across the region, more than 54% of businesses plan to increase content marketing spending this year. Roles like content manager remain some of the most in-demand in marketing teams, with 74% of companies now operating with a documented content strategy. So, where do you start?
A strong website audit and content strategy are the foundation of your hub.
An audit looks at all the existing content, SEO analytics, the various platforms and the stakeholders. Often an audit will flush out duplication, missing links, and silos of ad hoc content. It also helps uncover what’s performing, what’s outdated, and what needs to be reworked or retired.
The content strategy then defines your objectives, whether that's increasing traffic, generating leads, or building brand trust. The plan also identifies your target audience, establishes content pillars, does a deep dive into content and SEO analysis, and defines the Tone of Voice guidelines.
A good strategy also outlines a content governance model—who owns what, approval workflows, and how often content should be reviewed. It includes clear performance metrics and KPIs to track the impact of your content over time.
Every strategy evolves differently. For example, the Powering Change Hub was a thought-leadership hub, representing New Zealand's major power and gas companies. But the Westpac Business Base was customer-led, initiated by a gap in the SME market for practical business growth advice.
Once your strategy is agreed, the next step is to brainstorm topic ideas.
Here, don't just let SEO analysis dictate the ideation process; go with your writer's gut feeling, too. A good journalistic writer will bring fresh ideas and insightful ways to spin topics.
Involve your client. They bring firsthand knowledge of company priorities, product positioning, regulatory requirements, and real customer pain points.
And let's not forget your product experts. They are your authenticity. We once had a brainstorming session with scientists. To get inside their PhD brains, we mocked up a newspaper layout and gave them Post-It notes to add ideas. It unlocked brilliant case stories and ‘aha’ topics that would’ve been otherwise missed.
Bonus tip: Start a running master list of ideas—keep it visible, editable, and regularly revisited. Good ideas often come in bursts, and you want a place to catch them all.
All too often, companies roll out content in an ad hoc fashion. DON'T DO IT. You’re making life harder than it needs to be. A content calendar will save you time, reduce stress, and help you stay the course.
Set up a content calendar for the next 3 to 6 months. In its simplest form, it’s a schedule of what you’ll post and when you’ll post it. But a good calendar is more than dates; it’s a planning tool that helps you balance priorities, avoid content gaps, and keep pace with deadlines.
Here’s what your calendar should cover:
Bonus tip: Colour-code your calendar by theme or audience segment to quickly spot gaps or over-saturation.
Choosing the right tools can make or break your content process. Ask what the client already uses. You might love Asana, but if the client prefers good old Excel, guess what you’re using.
First tip: The bottleneck is rarely at the writing end. It’s the approvals, such as Product, Legal, Brand, and Digital, that can stall things. So whatever tool you propose, it needs to work within their existing systems and governance. And if you want them to adopt something new, they’ll need to get their IT and compliance teams on board.
There are plenty of great options for content calendars and daily planning, such as Asana, HubSpot, StoryChief, Notion, and Trello. They are all solid for managing publishing pipelines. We also love Miro for brainstorming.
But if your client resists external, cloud-based tools, embrace their tool of choice, Microsoft. With Microsoft Co-Pilot rolling out, even more features are coming into play.
Try Microsoft Whiteboard instead of Miro for digital brainstorming and Planner for project management—they are like Trello but live in their environment.
And we've got to say it, Excel or SharePoint are still the go-to for many content calendars, editorial schedules, and checklists. Don't shoot the messenger!
Eight years ago, we kicked off the Westpac RedNews Content Hub using Excel. Hundreds of stories later, it's still going strong!
Content has many moving parts, and your project manager is the glue. You want someone incredibly process-driven, the kind of person who starts the day with a list and is genuinely gutted if they don’t get to tick it all off by the end of the play!
Set clear roles, deadlines, and feedback loops at each stage. For long-term content production, we recommend working in six-week cycles:
Sounds achievable, right? It would be if you were running a newsroom. But in a corporate environment, those timelines can easily blow out. I
That’s why getting stakeholder buy-in early is critical. Bring Legal, Product, and Marketing into the process up front. Get them familiar with the workflow and the expectations.
To keep momentum, run multiple stories in parallel. Even with the best project manager in the world, things will stall: interview delays, feedback loops, final sign-offs.
Set your writers up for success with clear SEO and article briefs. Each brief should outline SEO targets, product or service context, content goals, word count, and deadlines. And that's just for starters.
We are pretty obsessive about getting this part right. A well-structured brief helps writers focus on what matters, ensuring that every article is optimised for search and real human engagement, and there are fewer revisions.
Hint: Once the brief has been written, always get the writer and client to review it and insert any comments up front.
For some clients, we will also write Style Guidelines. For example, with Genesis Energy, the hub was about Climate Change in the energy sector. This was very niche. So we created tight guidelines to brief around 10 energy writers across the globe, covering everything from the thought-leadership tone of the articles, to a tight definition of what stories fit within the niche of 'Climate change in the energy sector', to incorporating local content, types of photos and more.
Your hub is only as good as your writers, and so this is where you need to do your homework.
Look for an SEO writer or a Content Writer and read their portfolio of work. Do you enjoy reading their work? Across their work is it close to your brand's tone? Do they understand your industry? Can they tell a good yarn?
Look for someone who has a journalistic background or loads of content writing experience, but they must also have commercial nous. They must be prolific at brainstorming ideas, finding compelling angles, writing for SEO, interviewing, and conducting research.
As for the structure, lead with headlines that hook your audience, then follow through with engaging, well-structured copy that’s easy to navigate. Use subheadings, imagery, and multimedia to keep content visually dynamic. A clean, mobile-optimised layout is critical. For example, Fonterra’s Dairy Nutrition Hub layered science-led insights with infographics and video for better engagement.
Integrate SEO keywords naturally throughout. Content writing should be optimised for both search engines and humans. Google rewards readability, so avoid stuffing and aim for genuine relevance.
Once your content is live, extend its reach through brilliant repurposing.
Turn cornerstone articles into video snippets, infographics, carousels, or social copy. Promote via email, LinkedIn, or even in sales collateral. Cross-channel promotion significantly increases reach.
The Genesis Climate Change hub used newsletters to drive loyalty. They were getting an average of 50% open rate for newsletters and 36% click-through, well above the norm. The top-performing article had an average 26-minute read on the website, making 56% of customers feel more positive about Genesis.
By creating once and publishing widely, you multiply your return on effort and keep your brand top-of-mind across multiple touchpoints.
Analytics turn your content strategy from guesswork into a growth engine. Use tools like Google Analytics, GA4, or HubSpot to track performance across key metrics—page views, time on page, bounce rates, keyword rankings, and lead conversions.
A great example of this is Westpac Australia. They have the luxury of a crack analyst team, so they get drop-dead gorgeous results.
The takeaway? Content hubs are never truly finished—they evolve. Make data-led refinements a core part of your ongoing content analysis.
Building and running a high-performing content hub takes time, strategy, and consistency. If your team’s already at capacity, a partner like Big On Writing can help. We specialise in content strategy, content writing, and workflow management for complex, multi-channel ecosystems. Whether you're launching from scratch or optimising what you already have, we can help you create a content hub that delivers real business results.
