Although I am working on a flu redux, last night I decided to throw caution to the wind and have a glass of wine with dinner. I opted for a Malbec with a screw cap; that low barrier to entry calling my name. Remember when screw caps used to signify poor quality wine? Boone’s Farm. Ripple. Although screw caps started trending years ago, people are still resistant: wine makers seemed to not want to be the first and the public couldn’t let go of old perceptions.
But here we are today and many in the know think that screw caps outperform cork and their use is on the rise. Since I am not known (yet) for blogging about wine, what is this all about?
It’s about change. How hard it is to see clearly that change is needed. To embrace that any change is even needed. How easy it is to do the same thing just a little differently, perhaps better, and feel that we are being innovative, we’re improving. And sometimes there is an idea that change is needed, but you might be making assumptions like ‘the cork is not an issue to reconsider.’
This made me think about content marketing, how the ever-growing content glut demands measurable performance. Simply, if it performs, then it works. Whether it is “good” by any other standard is irrelevant if it doesn’t perform.
Your association produces content and has been for many decades. You know content production from editorial to educational and programming. You can proudly profess that when corporations were still plunking down tons on advertising, you understood the potential of delivering helpful, useful information to your audience to affect the bottom line.
Corporations now understand it too. And so they bring their culture of accountability to their content marketing. ROI is determined for every content asset. Every single one. Content that can’t be connected to goals just doesn’t happen.
Can you say the same? Have your processes, team and technologies evolved to deliver results in this content-glutted world? Or are you hangin’ on to ‘corks,’ not willing to look and see if you need to review the basics?
Humans struggle with change. I tell you that what we are seeing most in content marketing teams is the need to evolve so that the marketing performs better. Evolve is just a more palatable way of saying change. Maybe you’re the exception, and, if so, kudos. But it never hurts to wonder, what do we not know? How can we amplify our reach? What can we change to create and deliver information that moves our audiences to take action, even those we haven’t met yet?
To evolve starts with being brave enough to admit there’s always a way to do something better. So, what are the questions you should be asking of yourself and your team?
Malbec with a screw cap: Portillo, Estate Edition 2012, Malbec, Mendoza Argentina
By Monica Bussolati
Dear Monica,
Fascinating subject. Can’t wait to see your ideas on how to measure the effectiveness of content marketing.
It occurred to me that associations have used editorial features to market their organizations for decades….their association magazines and journals are precursors to what we now call content marketing.
best,
Mitch Mohanna
Hey Mitch. Measuring content marketing is quite easy and we have lots of ideas on the subject. Simply, if every content asset has a specific goal then you can measure how well the goal was achieved. The problem of course that arises is content is being produced without measurable goals: a sure fire way to not achieve with your content. Well not you of course, you’d never do that!