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Look Through These 4 Windows To Right Your Content Marketing Ship

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Look Through These 4 Windows To Right Your Content Marketing Ship

“This ship is just so hard to turn.”

That phrase might sound familiar. I often hear it from clients, usually regarding some suggested change to existing processes. People lament the difficulty of doing something new because it requires changing or stopping something old.

Institutional momentum resists stopping (or changing). That’s true even when the answer to the question “Why not just stop doing the old thing?” is “I don’t know.”

Sometimes, you don’t know that you know.

Want an example? I worked with a B2B healthcare client who shared the balance of their content output by type for the last three years.

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Bar chart showing total content assets by type.

Each colored line represents the number of assets produced by content type – blog posts, analyst research, case studies, brochures, content hub, infographics, webinars, podcasts, how-to videos, and white papers – each year from 2017 to 2021.

The dramatic growth in webinars stands out. In 2017, the team produced less than 10. In 2018, the company got webinar fever and never looked back. The number of webinars grew substantially each year, while nearly all other content types declined. Webinars made up almost 60% of their total content output in 2021.

Your first reaction might be, “Webinars must really work for them.”

Nope. In fact, each year following 2018, webinars contributed less to lead generation (the primary goal) than the average contributed by all other content types.

Why did they continue to focus on webinars? Because. That’s why.

A B2B brand escalated its webinar count year after year even though the results were worse than other content types. Why? Just because, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. #ContentStrategy Click To Tweet

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In 2018, the team got good at producing them. In 2019, a new content person joined and got the message to focus on webinars, so she doubled down.

In 2020, the team saw webinars as a safe way to continue their content program during the pandemic shutdowns. And, in 2021, they wanted to get back to the basics of what they had done for so many years. You guessed it: webinars.

They didn’t know what they knew.

Which window are you looking through?

A Johari window is a model for self-awareness and communication development based on two simple ideas: You learn by revealing information you know to be true and comparing that to the information you seek outside of yourself.

You can look through four windows:

  1. Things you know you know
  2. Things you know you don’t know
  3. Things you don’t know you don’t know
  4. Things you don’t know that you know

The fourth window probably represents the most insidious risk to success. It is the unknown known. Or, as it’s called in the Johari window, the façade.

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek categorized the unknown known as when people “intentionally refuse to acknowledge that we know.” In companies, you see this all the time. You all know the ship is moving in the wrong direction, but no one says it out loud.

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But why?

Myriad business reasons explain why someone might not acknowledge something they know or believe. One researcher found the cause can be as simple as a team’s blind faith that a project could still have a chance at success.

In many cases, business leaders know they continue to do things with institutional momentum even though the programs aren’t productive or useful.

I worked with one team whose email newsletter subscriptions dropped from 10,000 to fewer than 100 over 18 months. Yet, they still spent thousands of dollars to develop the content and send that newsletter every quarter.

Stopping it, they thought, could signal to the C-suite that investment in that enterprise email system wasn’t worth funding.

Institutional momentum propels businesses to do things they know aren’t productive or useful, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. #ContentStrategy Click To Tweet

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My healthcare client had a gut feeling that they produced sub-optimal webinars to the detriment of other types of content. But acknowledging the imbalance would mean addressing the fact that they had no strategy.

In other words, acknowledging the need to course-correct would imply that the team knew how many webinars they should produce and how to rebalance the mix of content types.

Look through all the windows

It’s tempting to look at the performance of content and campaigns and let the data inform how much to produce for any part of the journey, persona type, or format.

But let’s be honest, rebalancing any content or marketing strategy is never that simple.

First, you may not have easy access to all that information. Second, you may not agree on what those numbers mean, or you may not have developed common definitions across the company or even the team.

How does a video differ from a webinar? How does an e-book differ from a white paper? Do you know?

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What new things haven’t you tried because you’re pressed for time? Where have you stuck with old patterns and habits because you believe your ship just won’t turn?

Do you know what you don’t know?

I find this version of a Johari window exercise a great place to start when reviewing a content and marketing strategy:

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1. What old things are you confident you should continue doing? (You know what you know)

Pull together all that information and see what truly works.

At the healthcare company, white papers performed extraordinarily well for lead generation. Repurposing some webinars into white papers and integrating white papers into webinars helped a lot.

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2. What new things should you add or change? (You know what you don’t know)

Can you identify new activities you should do but don’t because you lack skills, technology, content, or other capabilities?

The healthcare company tried launching a branded content hub but lacked the skills to do it properly. Instead, they identified a useful topic and devised a plan to execute it in a realistic time frame with outsourced resources.

3. What areas should you explore? (You don’t know what you don’t know)

You may have heard about or seen opportunities or options that would create efficiencies. If you feel you don’t understand much about those areas, consider how you can explore them.

The healthcare company heard its competitors had gained tremendous traction with a print magazine for healthcare providers. But no one on the existing team had experience with print. So they committed to exploring the intricacies and costs of setting it up and created a business case for it.

4. What things should you acknowledge that you know need to stop or change? (You don’t know what you know)

This window may be the most important for exploring your strategy.

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Everyone on the healthcare company’s team acknowledged they produced too many webinars and didn’t get the results they wanted. Once they admitted this, they could rebalance their content strategy. They also committed to codifying a production measurement strategy to track how much they produced of any one kind of asset.

In sum, they turned the ship effectively.

Turning a strategy takes confidence

Setting a new course in content and marketing requires belief. Every winning approach succeeds partly because of a collective belief that it will succeed.

Your challenge is to make sure your can-do attitude doesn’t turn into a can’t-undo culture.

Make sure that can-do attitude doesn’t turn into a can’t-undo culture, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. #ContentStrategy Click To Tweet

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Get Robert’s take on content marketing industry news in just three minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries
 
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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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