Written by
Dorina Anton
, Marketing Specialist
As a marketer, you’re (most probably) constantly balancing creativity with efficiency, juggling multiple projects, campaigns, and assets all while staying aligned with brand consistency. But without a knowledge base for your marketing team to manage all this information, you might find yourself frantically searching through emails, Slack messages, and dozens of tools, trying to find that one critical piece of information.
Sound familiar?
Let’s face it: managing scattered information across multiple platforms not only slows your team down but also adds mental exhaustion. Missing a critical asset, or losing tacit knowledge when someone leaves are quite the challenges when you operate in a timely manner. Add in the need to onboard new people on top of an already busy schedule, and you have the perfect recipe for chaos.
So, how do you ensure your team operates at its best?
- You need a centralized knowledge base
- What kind of information do marketing teams need a knowledge base for?
- What you should take into account when structuring your knowledge base
- What are the steps for creating that long-dreamed-of knowledge base in XWiki?
- In lieu of conclusions
You need a centralized knowledge base
A centralized knowledge base brings all your marketing assets, campaigns, strategies, and historical data together. Imagine having instant access to product information, brand guidelines, campaign details, and customer insights — all in one place. With everything at your fingertips, your team can work faster, smarter, and more collaboratively.
And if you get this right? You can take your knowledge base to the next level by integrating it with tools like CRM systems or project management tools. The possibilities are endless!
What kind of information do marketing teams need a knowledge base for?
Here’s an overview of the knowledge base components essential for marketing teams:
By having all these in one place, your team can search and have easy access to resources without wasting time digging through emails or project management tools.
What you should take into account when structuring your knowledge base
To manage your marketing team's diverse needs effectively, it’s essential to establish clear conventions for different areas of work, such as branding, content creation, social media, advertising, community management, events, and PR. Each of these areas comes with its own processes, requirements, and types of information.
Additionally, you'll need to organize other essential components like legal documents, HR onboarding materials, and editable designs. Properly managing all these elements ensures a smooth workflow and prevents the frustration of searching for scattered assets.
Here are key factors to consider when organizing your knowledge base:
Invest in an appropriate tool for knowledge management
Keeping your information from multiple marketing functions together can make finding assets and various information much faster and easier. Before picking out a tool, ask your team:
- What kind of information and assets do you use weekly?
- What is missing right now tools-wise so that you can work more efficiently?
- Where do you frequently encounter bottlenecks in your work?
A few great open-source knowledge base options that are so, so worth it to explore are XWiki, CryptPad, NextCloud, and Collabora.
XWiki is an ideal knowledge management and collaboration solution for marketing teams thanks to its ability to manage structured data, import and export office documents, and offer a granular permission management system. Whether you need a single source of truth for your marketing team that promotes collaboration and structure inside your organization, XWiki checks all the boxes. Furthermore, you can use any of the over 900 community extensions or ask for customizations that fit your workflows.
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Overarching folder structure
Regardless of your team's type and the work you do, you will generally work with a hierarchical structure of folders. Usually there are minimum 3:
- Top level: Your main dashboard or high-level categories like "Clients" or "Projects"
- 2nd level: Categories by type of work, such as "Campaigns", "Content", "Email Automation", or "Design"
- 3rd level: Subcategories based on specific projects, assets, or campaigns
- Deeper levels (optional): Organized by dates, asset versions, or campaign stages
The types of activities a marketing team do can grow complex pretty fast. So, you can end up with a structure that looks like this:
- Top level: Your main folder or dashboard will be the broadest and most inclusive category. This is from where you usually start the search.
- 2nd level: Specific categories for teams, type of work, or projects
- 3rd level: Further detailed subcategories, if required
- 4th level: Folders organized by creation date, such as month or year
- 5th level: A potentially intermediary folder, sometimes even split between "New versions" and "Old versions"
- 6th level: The individual file you specifically need, in all its ready-to-use and editable versions
Here's also an example of how we structure campaigns in XWiki, starting from the top folder:
- Structure your main dashboard
- To contain a campaign's main folder for example
- This folder has a campaign for showing how awesome marketing teams are. The folder contains under it:
- Brief
- Main messages
- Timeline and deliverables
- Social media posts proposal
- Deliverables
- Deliverables 1
- Deliverables 2
- Deliverables 3
- Website pages improvements
- Ads
- Content for Google & LinkedIn
- Design proposals
- This folder has a campaign for showing how awesome marketing teams are. The folder contains under it:
- To contain a campaign's main folder for example
Seeing how many levels you can have, the following tips and conventions will help you find information and assets fast and predictably.
The most important aspect: the structure needs to fit your team, type of work you do, the stakeholders you share it with, and your workflows.
For small in-house teams that manage multiple products
If you have a small marketing team that also needs to manage all marketing activities for at least 2 products, this is one way on how your internal knowledge base could look like:
For marketing agencies with multiple clients
A marketing team inside an agency though requires a different organization for their knowledge base:
For large in-house marketing teams
If you have multiple squads in one marketing department, the internal knowledge base could look something like below:
Consistent naming
The goal is to make assets easy for someone to find and to be predictable. Pick 1 or 2 structures that fit your work and stay consistent with it across teams and assets.
You could use naming structures that explain the format of the asset, like “Blog Post: Blogging Tips” or “Image: CEO Headshot”.
- For product: ProductName_AssetType_Campaign_Date_Version
- Example:
- For client: ClientName_ProjectType_Description_Date
- Example:
- For campaign: CampaignName_AssetType_Date_Version
- Example:
- For event: example: EventName_AssetType_Date_Version
- Example:
- For content type: TypeOfContent_ProjectName_Date_Version
- Example:
Process for version control
I'm willing to bet that at least once in your marketer life you had a folder with these kinds of names:
- Brief_FinalVersion
- Brief_FinalVersion2
- Brief_FinalVersion2FINAL
… and maybe a few more versions.
Effective version control is your secret weapon to transform chaos into order! By establishing a solid naming convention and a structured versioning system, you’ll be the master of your marketing turf.
An option for a smooth version control is to use CampaignBrief_SpringLaunch_2024_V1.0 for the initial version and update it to CampaignBrief_SpringLaunch_2024_V1.1 after minor revisions. For major changes, you could use CampaignBrief_SpringLaunch_2024_V2.0 to indicate a significant overhaul.
Now, there is additional feature that might come very, very in handy when wanting to check earlier versions of documents, namely the History feature. In XWiki, everything is historized and saved under Version Control (as you can see below).
Use tags or labels for easier grouping
Tags make it easy to group similar assets or campaigns. Use them for quick searches and filtering, especially for frequently used assets like logos or design templates. In XWiki, you have the option to tag and then filter pages by that specific tag.
Add links if you store visual assets someplace else
Now that your assets are perfectly organized — with unique names, specific folders, and tags for usability — you've achieved the marketer’s dream.
But what happens in a fast-paced meeting when your manager asks for a list of marketing assets for an upcoming campaign?
Instead of wasting time digging through folders, you can streamline the process by providing easy access through links. Knowledge base tools, like XWiki, offer shareable links for internal use, making collaboration even smoother.
In XWiki, for example, you can quickly send the relevant page where assets are centralized by categories or simply attach the assets directly to the page for immediate access.
Take your idea for a spin
Maybe you're not 100% how granular you need to go with your structure. Hash it out on a paper and try it out with a few people from your team. Ask them to find a piece of information and see if the structure you came up with fits.
- Did they find the specific asset?
- Did they find it faster than they usually do?
- Would they improve it differently to be easier to find?
What are the steps for creating that long-dreamed-of knowledge base in XWiki?
Building a knowledge base may seem like a daunting task, but by breaking it down into a few key steps, you can create a highly organized and efficient system tailored to your marketing team’s needs. Here’s a quick guide to get started:
- Gather requirements & review current processes: Talk to your team to identify the information they use regularly and pinpoint gaps in your current systems. Understanding these needs will help you set up a knowledge base that addresses pain points from the start.
- Plan a structure with macro components: Organize your knowledge base into broad sections like branding, content, campaigns, and legal compliance. This structure will make it easier to expand over time while keeping information easy to locate.
- Structure your main dashboard: Create a central hub where users can access key areas such as marketing assets, campaigns, and training resources. Make sure the dashboard is intuitive, with clear links and categories for quick navigation.
- Maintain your wiki regularly: Assign specific team members to keep the knowledge base updated or allow everyone to contribute. Schedule regular reviews to clean up outdated information and ensure all processes are accurate.
- Set up backups & archiving: Establish a system to back up your knowledge base regularly to prevent data loss. Archive outdated materials to maintain a clutter-free workspace while preserving useful historical data for future reference.
- Adapt the tool to your team’s workflow: Gather ongoing feedback from your team to adjust the knowledge base as needed. Ensure the tool fits seamlessly into your team’s workflow and evolves as your business grows.
In lieu of conclusions
Marketing teams make the world spin with the countless assets they create and manage. In order for organizing to not become overwhelming fast, remember to start small! Pick one area, like campaign assets or brand guidelines, and begin organizing it in XWiki. Gradually expand as you see the benefits unfold.
To make your job easier, our AI-assistant aids you in brainstorming, translating, and formatting for brand compliance from the get-go.
Imagine the time you’ll save and the boost in productivity your team will experience! Plus, with XWiki’s customizable features, you can tailor your knowledge base to fit your exact needs.
Write to us at marketing@xwiki.com with any questions or for a personalized demo. Our team is here to help you every step of the way.
