If you're the person everyone pings for “that latest deck” or “the right case study,” you know how messy content management can get. Highspot promises to fix that. This guide is for folks who want real steps—not just buzzwords—on getting your content into Highspot, organizing it so people actually use it, and keeping the chaos at bay.
Let's get your stuff sorted.
Step 1: Prep Your Content Before You Upload
Don't just dump everything into Highspot and hope for the best. Before even logging in, spend 30 minutes getting your content ready.
Do this:
- Audit your files: What do you actually need? Ditch old drafts, outdated logos, and anything nobody's touched in a year.
- Standardize names: Rename files so they're obvious at a glance (2024-Q2-Product-Overview.pdf beats Finalv3(2).pdf every time).
- Use folders: Group related stuff together. If you’ve got a bunch of one-pagers, put them in a single folder.
Pro tip: If you're inheriting a mess, don’t try to fix it all at once. Start with what the team needs this quarter and expand from there.
Step 2: Upload Content to Highspot
Highspot has a few ways to get your stuff in—don’t overthink it.
The Basics
- Log in and go to the “Content” tab.
- Click “Upload.”
- Choose your files (drag and drop works, too).
- Pick the right spot—you’ll be asked to pick a Spot (Highspot’s term for “folder” or “workspace”).
What Works
- Bulk upload: Works fine for documents, but uploading a giant folder tree at once can get messy. If you have tons of files, upload in batches so you can catch errors or duplicates.
- Supported file types: Docs, PDFs, PPTs, videos, images. If it’s something weird (.pages, .psd…), convert it first. Highspot doesn’t handle every file type.
What to Ignore
- Don’t upload links to Google Docs as files. Use Highspot’s “Web Content” feature instead, or you’ll just frustrate people with broken links.
Step 3: Organize with Spots and Spot Groups
Highspot uses “Spots” and “Spot Groups” instead of traditional folders. It sounds fancy, but it’s just their way of letting you group content for different teams or purposes.
Setting Up Spots
- Create a Spot: Click “New Spot.” Name it something obvious (“Sales Decks – EMEA Q2” not just “Decks”).
- Add a description: Tell people what lives here and who it’s for.
- Assign owners: Make one or two people responsible. If everyone owns it, nobody owns it.
Spot Groups
- Bundle related Spots: For example, bundle all your product marketing Spots into a “Product Marketing” Spot Group.
Honest take: Over-organizing is as bad as under-organizing. Don’t create 50 Spots for every minor topic. Start broad, go granular as you get feedback from real users.
Step 4: Tag and Categorize Like You Mean It
Tags and categories make search work. If you skip this, people will just email you for stuff anyway.
Tagging
- Add tags for: Product lines, regions, sales stages, industries, or anything your team actually searches for.
- Be consistent: Pick one version (“Healthcare” not “health care” or “healthcare industry”).
- Limit yourself: 3–5 tags per item is usually plenty.
Categories
- Set up categories: Think of these as “main topics” (e.g., “Case Studies,” “Battlecards,” “One-Pagers”).
- Don’t overdo it: Too many categories = confusion.
Pro tip: Make a quick cheat sheet for your team with common tags and categories. It’ll save you a ton of cleanup later.
Step 5: Set Permissions (But Don’t Go Overboard)
You can lock stuff down by user, role, or group. This is helpful if you have sensitive content, but it’s easy to go too far.
Best practices: - Default to open: Only restrict when you have a good reason (e.g., legal, competitive intel). - Review permissions quarterly: People change roles, and old restrictions pile up fast. - Test as a regular user: Make sure folks can find what they need—don’t assume your admin view matches theirs.
What to ignore: Don’t waste time crafting elaborate permission schemes for every Spot. Most sales content isn’t top secret.
Step 6: Use Pages for Context, Not Just Files
Spots can have “Pages”—think landing pages with context, not just a file dump.
Why Use Pages?
- Guide your team: Add a short intro, link to key resources, or spell out when to use what.
- Reduce confusion: People love clarity. A quick “Start Here” goes a long way.
How to Build a Page
- Click into your Spot, choose “Page,” and use the simple editor.
- Add sections for “Top Resources,” FAQs, or “What’s New.”
- Don’t write a novel—short, useful, and updated beats perfect.
Honest take: Not everyone reads these, but the folks who do will thank you.
Step 7: Test Your Setup Like a New Hire
Before telling everyone “it’s live,” do a dry run.
Checklist: - Search for common terms. Can you find the right file in 2–3 clicks? - Browse as a user (not admin). Anything you can’t access? - Check links and embedded docs. Nothing broken? - Ask a coworker to find something without instructions. Watch where they get lost.
If something’s off: Fix it now. Otherwise, you’ll spend the next month answering Slack messages about “where’s the latest deck?”
Step 8: Train Your Team (Without Overwhelming Them)
Rollout doesn’t need to be a big production.
Keep it simple: - Record a 5-minute screen-share video of you uploading and finding a file. - Share your cheat sheet of tags, categories, and where to find “the good stuff.” - Give people one place to ask questions (Slack channel, email, whatever you use).
What to ignore: Don’t force everyone through a 2-hour training. Most people just want to know “where do I find X?”
Step 9: Maintain Your Highspot Like a Garden (Not a Junk Drawer)
Content gets stale. If you treat Highspot as a “set and forget,” it’ll turn into another mess in six months.
Easy ways to stay tidy: - Quarterly review: Archive or delete what’s old. - Spotlight what’s new: Use Spot Pages or tags to flag new content. - Ask for feedback: What’s hard to find? What’s missing? Fix the top pain points.
Pro tip: Assign someone (maybe you, sorry) to own cleanup. If it’s everyone’s job, it’s nobody’s job.
Quick Real-World Tips
- Don’t chase perfection. Good enough and updated beats perfect and abandoned.
- Get input early. Ask your actual users (sales, marketing, whoever) if they can find what they need.
- Automate where you can. Highspot has integrations with Google Drive, Salesforce, etc.—worth looking into if you’re drowning in manual uploads.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Getting content organized in Highspot is less about fancy features and more about discipline and clarity. Don’t get caught up making a digital palace nobody uses. Start with what your team needs, clean as you go, and tweak things based on real feedback.
Remember: the best system is the one people actually use.