I just lately considered this previous joke.
Two hikers stroll round a bend within the path and are available head to head with an offended bear. One hiker drops to his knee, fetches his trainers from his backpack, and laces them up. The different 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 seen an enchanting development the place advertising and marketing groups lace up their trainers to out-innovate their friends inside their firms. But in the long term, they don’t outrun the bear.
Five years in the past, we labored with a Fortune 500 monetary providers firm. This yr, we’re working with the identical firm on a brand new content material technique undertaking. As I relayed our earlier undertaking’s actions – and the way profitable that group had been – to the advertising and marketing director, she was confused and requested who was on the group. She laughed once I shared the names and stated, “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
But that’s not the primary time I’ve heard that situation.
Are you outrunning yourselves?
I regularly encounter individuals from massive firms the place the innovation hole between advertising and marketing groups is broad. I hear issues 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 learn case research or hear at a convention about some firm’s innovation of a brand new content material platform or cool advertising and marketing technique, you imagine the entire firm leans into that technique. You assume they built-in that innovation all through the corporate. You image the CMO kicking their heels and nodding with satisfaction, “Yes, I approved of that strategy.”
But the reality is, most of those organizations fail to combine the revolutionary strategy throughout advertising and marketing, and the remainder of the group doesn’t even realize it exists. As the “bear” of evolving methods chases the enterprise, one a part of advertising and marketing could merely be outrunning its “friends” – the opposite components of selling and the enterprise.
That velocity doesn’t final. The bear inevitably catches all of them.
Speed can scale back communication
No doubt the necessity for content material technique strikes quick in the present day. Marketers more and more shift content material creation and administration from businesses to in-house studios. As a outcome, you should adapt to an always-on content material technique. This transition calls for higher flexibility and a extra coordinated, cross-functional, data-infused decision-making course of.
Yet, when manufacturers infuse attention-grabbing, revolutionary approaches into their total content material technique, the groups change into so centered on growth and implementation that they overlook to carry the remainder of the group. And some who do take into consideration inner communication dismiss the concept, saying, “We don’t involve them because that will just slow us down.”
This strategy can present short-term agility and velocity, nevertheless it additionally leaves you alone in the long term. At an organization I labored with just lately, the content material advertising and marketing group had been so heads-down on their “cool, innovative new customer-facing digital publication” that they failed to note the remainder of the group pivoted to a brand new account-based advertising and marketing technique. They spent months attempting to get retroactive buy-in from the bigger group and pivot their platform to help the brand new objectives. It didn’t work; finally, the digital publication was turned off.
Many, many occasions, I discover myself saying – as I advised the brand new/previous monetary providers shopper: “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, revolutionary change in a silo hardly ever sticks – even within the silo the place it was made.
Treat communication as a course of, not a undertaking
Any revolutionary content material technique requires proactive communication and activation. What does that appear like? At a excessive degree, begin with these 4 steps – with the final step as the true key.
1. Identify the stakeholders and the WIFM (what’s in it for me)
As you roll out a brand new revolutionary change, establish all of the stakeholders. Include not simply those instantly affected by the change however the ones whose lack of direct data about it might have an effect on its success. Then, phase these stakeholders by their function within the group and degree of involvement within the innovation.
2. Craft a transparent message
Develop a transparent and concise message that explains the change, the way it will work, the affect on the group, and, most significantly, the affect on them.
3. Create a two-way dialogue
Encourage suggestions and questions from individuals all through the group. Use that to tell your communication plan so the brand new undertaking integrates with their plans or wants.
4. Monitor progress and, most significantly, stick with it for the lengthy haul
Continuously monitor the effectiveness of your communication and collaboration plan. Adjust it as wanted. Use metrics, similar to worker engagement survey outcomes, suggestions from change champions, and adoption charges, to evaluate the success of the communication plan. Finally, and most significantly, construct that inner communication work into the content material technique course of fairly than consider it solely on the finish of the undertaking.
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 level, you may suppose, “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?”
Great query.
When no information isn’t excellent news
Ironically, long-term content material methods can go too properly within the early days. Teams, just like the one on the monetary providers firm, typically cease excited about the endurance of speaking the change. It’s how most companies view “communicating change.” You solely create inner communications when you want to get buy-in or relay new duties that someone in all probability doesn’t wish to do.
So, when issues are going properly, you assume that everyone is aware of.
After greater than 20 years of seeing massive advertising and marketing groups siloed from each other, I do know “de-siloing” groups will not be terribly lifelike. Thus, your skill to maintain groups from outpacing one another when creating new revolutionary processes is proscribed.
But an excellent communication course of might help bridge these silos. Ensuring you carry alongside the group – even when it slows you down a bit – can contribute considerably to long-term success.
If you outpace different components of your group, it’s possible you’ll end up forward of the bear. But you additionally threat getting to date in entrance that you simply by no means understand the opposite groups “met” and tamed the bear, and moved on, leaving you working alone.
It’s your story. Tell it properly.
Cover picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute