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Communication Beats Creativity for Long-Term Content Success

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Communication Beats Creativity for Long-Term Content Success

I recently thought of this old joke.

Two hikers walk around a bend in the trail and come face to face with an angry bear. One hiker drops to his knee, fetches his running shoes from his backpack, and laces them up. The other hiker says, “There is no way you’ll outrun that bear.” The kneeling hiker stands up: “I don’t have to be faster than the bear. I only have to be faster than you.”

I’ve noticed a fascinating trend where marketing teams lace up their running shoes to out-innovate their peers within their companies. But in the long run, they don’t outrun the bear.

Five years ago, we worked with a Fortune 500 financial services company. This year, we are working with the same company on a new content strategy project. As I relayed our previous project’s activities – and how successful that team had been – to the marketing director, she was confused and asked who was on the team. She laughed when I shared the names and said, “I remember them. They were a fast-moving team. Most of them are gone now, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard the details of that project.”

Can one marketing team succeed if no one else in the company hears about their innovative project, asks @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

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But that’s not the first time I’ve heard that scenario.

Are you outrunning yourselves?

I frequently encounter people from large companies where the innovation gap between marketing teams is wide. I hear things like, “Oh, yes, that team is innovative in its approach to [fill in the blank with some marketing approach]. But the rest of our marketing is still antiquated.”

It fascinates me. When you read case studies or hear at a conference about some company’s innovation of a new content platform or cool marketing strategy, you believe the whole company leans into that strategy. You assume they integrated that innovation throughout the company. You picture the CMO kicking their heels and nodding with satisfaction, “Yes, I approved of that strategy.”

But the truth is, most of these organizations fail to integrate the innovative approach across marketing, and the rest of the organization doesn’t even know it exists. As the “bear” of evolving strategies chases the business, one part of marketing may simply be outrunning its “friends” – the other parts of marketing and the business.

That speed doesn’t last. The bear inevitably catches all of them.

Speed can reduce communication

No doubt the need for content strategy moves fast today. Marketers increasingly shift content creation and management from agencies to in-house studios. As a result, you must adapt to an always-on content strategy. This transition demands greater flexibility and a more coordinated, cross-functional, data-infused decision-making process.

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Yet, when brands infuse interesting, innovative approaches into their overall content strategy, the teams become so focused on development and implementation that they forget to bring the rest of the organization. And some who do think about internal communication dismiss the idea, saying, “We don’t involve them because that will just slow us down.”

This approach can provide short-term agility and speed, but it also leaves you alone in the long run. At a company I worked with recently, the content marketing team had been so heads-down on their “cool, innovative new customer-facing digital publication” that they failed to notice the rest of the organization pivoted to a new account-based marketing strategy. They spent months trying to get retroactive buy-in from the larger team and pivot their platform to support the new goals. It didn’t work; ultimately, the digital publication was turned off.

Many, many times, I find myself saying – as I told the new/old financial services client: “Ninety percent of a modern content strategy has nothing to do with the content. It’s all about ongoing communication.”

90% of a modern #ContentStrategy has nothing to do with content. It’s about ongoing communication, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Fast, innovative change in a silo rarely sticks – even in the silo where it was made.

Treat communication as a process, not a project

Any innovative content strategy requires proactive communication and activation. What does that look like? At a high level, start with these four steps – with the last step as the real key.

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1. Identify the stakeholders and the WIFM (what’s in it for me)

As you roll out a new innovative change, identify all the stakeholders. Include not just the ones directly affected by the change but the ones whose lack of direct knowledge about it could affect its success. Then, segment these stakeholders by their role in the organization and level of involvement in the innovation.

2. Craft a clear message

Develop a clear and concise message that explains the change, how it will work, the impact on the organization, and, most importantly, the impact on them.

3. Create a two-way dialogue

Encourage feedback and questions from people throughout the organization. Use that to inform your communication plan so the new project integrates with their plans or needs.

4. Monitor progress and, most importantly, keep it up for the long haul

Continuously monitor the effectiveness of your communication and collaboration plan. Adjust it as needed. Use metrics, such as employee engagement survey results, feedback from change champions, and adoption rates, to assess the success of the communication plan. Finally, and most importantly, build that internal communication work into the content strategy process rather than evaluate it only at the end of the project.

Regularly assess the effectiveness of your communication and collaboration plan and evolve your internal communication accordingly, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

At this point, you might think, “Hey, wait a minute. If this is the recommended approach you took with your financial services client five years ago, why didn’t it stick? Why were the other teams unaware of the successful content strategy?”

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Great question.

When no news isn’t good news

Ironically, long-term content strategies can go too well in the early days. Teams, like the one at the financial services company, often stop thinking about the endurance of communicating the change. It’s how most businesses view “communicating change.” You only create internal communications when you need to get buy-in or relay new tasks that somebody probably doesn’t want to do.

So, when things are going well, you assume that everybody knows.

After more than 20 years of seeing large marketing teams siloed from one another, I know “de-siloing” teams is not terribly realistic. Thus, your ability to keep teams from outpacing each other when creating new innovative processes is limited.

But a great communication process can help bridge those silos. Ensuring you bring along the organization – even if it slows you down a bit – can contribute significantly to long-term success.

If you outpace other parts of your organization, you may find yourself ahead of the bear. But you also risk getting so far in front that you never realize the other teams “met” and tamed the bear, and moved on, leaving you running alone.

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It’s your story. Tell it well.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute



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MARKETING

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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More promotions and more layoffs

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More promotions and more layoffs

For martech professionals salaries are good and promotions are coming faster, unfortunately, layoffs are coming faster, too. That’s according to the just-released 2024 Martech Salary and Career Survey. Another very unfortunate finding: The median salary of women below the C-suite level is 35% less than what men earn.

The last year saw many different economic trends, some at odds with each other. Although unemployment remained very low overall and the economy grew, some businesses — especially those in technology and media — cut both jobs and spending. Reasons cited for the cuts include during the early years of the pandemic, higher interest rates and corporate greed.

Dig deeper: How to overcome marketing budget cuts and hiring freezes

Be that as it may, for the employed it remains a good time to be a martech professional. Salaries remain lucrative compared to many other professions, with an overall median salary of $128,643. 

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Here are the median salaries by role:

  • Senior management $199,653
  • Director $157,776
  • Manager $99,510
  • Staff $89,126

Senior managers make more than twice what staff make. Directors and up had a $163,395 median salary compared to manager/staff roles, where the median was $94,818.

One-third of those surveyed said they were promoted in the last 12 months, a finding that was nearly equal among director+ (32%) and managers and staff (30%). 

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Extend the time frame to two years, and nearly three-quarters of director+ respondents say they received a promotion, while the same can be said for two-thirds of manager and staff respondents.

Dig deeper: Skills-based hiring for modern marketing teams

Employee turnover 

In 2023, we asked survey respondents if they noticed an increase in employee churn and whether they would classify that churn as a “moderate” or “significant” increase. For 2024, given the attention on cost reductions and layoffs, we asked if the churn they witnessed was “voluntary” (e.g., people leaving for another role) or “involuntary” (e.g., a layoff or dismissal). More than half of the marketing technology professionals said churn increased in the last year. Nearly one-third classified most of the churn as “involuntary.”

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Men and Women

Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540

This year, instead of using average salary figures, we used the median figures to lessen the impact of outliers in the salary data. As a result, the gap between salaries for men and women is even more glaring than it was previously.

In last year’s report, men earned an average of 24% more than women. This year the median salary of men is 35% more than the median salary of women. That is until you get to the upper echelons. Women at director and up earned 5% more than men.

Methodology

The 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey is a joint project of MarTech.org and chiefmartec.com. We surveyed 305 marketers between December 2023 and February 2024; 297 of those provided salary information. Nearly 63% (191) of respondents live in North America; 16% (50) live in Western Europe. The conclusions in this report are limited to responses from those individuals only. Other regions were excluded due to the limited number of respondents. 

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Download your copy of the 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey here. No registration is required.

Get MarTech! Daily. Free. In your inbox.

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