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The Deadline Struggle Is Real. Try These 5 Tips to Manage It

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Do you remember when you realized a content marketing deadline was more like a strong suggestion than a hard date?

I grew up in the journalism world, where a missed deadline kept dozens of people waiting to do their jobs to finish the product and get it delivered to subscribers. I took the newspaper’s daily 5 p.m. deadline seriously. My commitment to deadlines started in college when I would meet professors’ deadlines even when I didn’t even start writing until the day before it was due.

In my first 9-to-5 job in content marketing, I realized the deadlines were fuzzy. Usually, no one was waiting in the wings for me to finish. Since then, I’ve managed deadlines differently – and missed them more often than I ever did as a reporter.

I sometimes long for the days of inflexible deadlines. At least then, I couldn’t agonize over my words or wait for inspiration to strike.

To figure out how I could better set and meet deadlines, I did a little research and learned a few lessons that will help me – and your content marketing team, too.

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1. Resist the urge to drop the deadline

If you’re tempted to solve a deadline-stress problem by abolishing deadlines, don’t. It probably won’t have the desired effect.

The National Science Foundation abolished deadlines for grant proposals in favor of an anytime submission process. As reported in Science, the NSF saw grant proposals decrease by 59% across four grant programs. In the end, they went back to submission deadlines.

Lesson: If people don’t have a deadline, the task often doesn’t get done.

You can’t solve a deadline problem by removing the deadline. Work won’t get done without one, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. #ContentMarketing Click To Tweet

2. Set aside time to complete important (but not time-sensitive) tasks

In marketing, some content assets are more time-sensitive than others. Think about the article for your blog that publishes daily (urgent) versus the e-book to generate leads that should publish sometime (important).

Research published in Harvard Business Review finds people focus on what must get done, pushing aside important but not timely tasks for later. (And sometimes, later never comes.)

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To remedy that, the authors tested a proactive time (or pro-time) experiment. They split the employees at their employer – a U.S.-based marketing services and customer experience research company – into a control group and a pro-time group. They told the control group to keep doing what they had been doing. They told the other group to schedule a recurring 30-minute weekly planning session on their calendars. During that time, they listed their most important and urgent work tasks, then scheduled two-hour pro-time calendar blocks every day to address their important but not urgent tasks.

Six weeks later, the pro-time group reported they were 12% more likely to accomplish more, meet critical deadlines, and get important tasks done more quickly. They also were 14% more effective with their time and 9% less overwhelmed by the workload.

Most importantly, both groups were equally responsive to clients’ requests. “Pro-time did not come at the cost of good customer service,” the authors wrote. And 84% of the pro-time group recommended the organization use the method throughout the company.

Lesson: Give important content creation tasks the attention they deserve by putting them on your calendar and working on them every day.

Schedule time every day to work on important #Content projects that otherwise get pushed down the list by urgent work says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

3. Set progressive deadlines or check-ins

Establishing a deadline and scheduling time to do the work isn’t enough. As detailed in this BBC article, a social psychologist conducted an experiment with students at Tel Aviv University.

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The students had to complete thousands of computer-based menial tasks separated into blocks over 90 minutes. Half the group received constant feedback on their progress, letting them know how many more they had left to do. The other group received no such updates.

The students who knew how much more they had to do were faster and more accurate. According to the research, they also reported less fatigue and took shorter breaks between the blocks.

Why? The more successful students consistently knew how much farther the finish line was. They had a better mental picture and plan to complete the tasks. The other students had to save some of their energy because they never knew when they would be done.

Lesson: Outline the tasks necessary to complete the piece of content. Establish milestone deadlines or regular check-ins to ensure you stay on track.

Set regular check-ins with your team or manager to make sure your #Content projects stay on track, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

4. Don’t go it alone

Content creators can’t do it all by themselves – managers play a critical role in predicting deadline success.

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MIT psychologists conducted an experiment to understand the effect of self-imposed deadlines. As reported in Psychological Science, they hired a group of students to proofread three passages. They gave some weekly deadlines, others a final deadline, and let another segment choose their deadlines. Students received 10 cents for every error they detected and a $1 penalty for every day they were late.

The self-determined deadline group did worse than the weekly deadline group in finding errors, finishing near deadlines, and earning rewards. However, both the self-determined and weekly deadline groups did better than those with a single final deadline. The researchers concluded that while self-imposed deadlines can be an OK strategy to mitigate procrastination, they are “not always as effective as some external deadlines in boosting task performance.”

Lesson: Content marketing managers must set frequent deadlines to help their team complete content creation tasks on time.

5. Set up a process for extensions

Not every content creator can meet every deadline. Life intervenes, additional responsibilities get added, and sometimes creating just takes longer than expected. Yet, too often, creators meet that missed deadline with silence or turn in sloppy work. They don’t ask for an extension.

Why? People place a high personal cost on asking for an extension – they are concerned about what a supervisor would think, and they don’t want to appear incompetent, according to the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Of course, that perception often isn’t reality. Other research has shown people do not respond negatively to deadline requests. And often, formal extension-request policies can mitigate the requester’s concerns.

Lesson: Establish a deadline extension request process, so creators are more likely to understand it’s an acceptable practice on your content marketing team.

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Deadlines done right can work well

Establishing due dates for all your content marketing – urgent and important – is a smart strategy. But the key to long-term success is realizing a single final deadline isn’t enough. Creators do better when they have a voice other than their own checking in with them.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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