You know that feeling when you’re watching a movie, and a character suddenly starts explaining things in so much detail you find yourself pulled entirely out of the story?

You experienced an “info dump.” And I bet you didn’t like it.

The most familiar movie info dumps usually involve the villain explaining their entire plan to the story’s hero, laying it out in (sometimes) excruciating detail that delays the action.Continue Reading

Is every company now a media company?

Though the answer has yet to be written definitively, I know how most content marketers would respond.

Every successful company’s marketing strategy includes a functioning media management operation.

Put simply, today, you may not be a media company, but you definitely are starting to operate like one.Continue Reading

Do marketers dream of magical tools? (I couldn’t resist that Blade Runner reference).

As we enter the fourth quarter (for many), it’s time for planning. Budgets are due. Plans are being formed. Leftover money must be spent before the year’s end.Continue Reading

Do you know your own strength? What about your weaknesses?

One business management and leadership theory suggests that people and teams will achieve more success by building on their strengths than by trying to fix their weaknesses.

The theory doesn’t mean you should ignore weaknesses. Instead, it suggests you should invest deeply in talents and strengths and minimize the effects of any weaknesses. (You can read more about it in the book Strengths Based Leadership, based on the Gallup organization’s 30-year research project.

I’m all in on this idea. I’ve seen this idea work for content teams that achieve success over the long term. But the choice isn’t always clear.Continue Reading

What should we talk about in our content?

This question plagues many content marketing teams. The brand message might be crystal clear. The products have clear value propositions and differentiators. The marketing team understands its paid media schedule, the agency is working out the creative elements, and the PR team is readying news around new hires, products, and partnerships.

The content team, however, struggles with topics.

Content marketers often approach this by getting a meeting together to brainstorm.Continue Reading

I see one mistake derailing great content marketing strategy again and again in my consulting practice.

Businesses set up their content teams as internal agencies to serve internal ‘customers’ in other departments.

Why is that a problem?

Sometimes this approach incorporates some priority planning. Usually, this planning involves internal “stakeholders” who decide the significant themes or the priority for tackling content requests.Continue Reading

One of my favorite quotes comes from Henry Miller’s Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, a memoir about his time in the California location he loved.

“If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored,” he wrote. “One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.”

For eleven of the last twelve years, content marketing practitioners have gathered in Cleveland, Ohio, to inspire, debate, educate, and celebrate how brands create innovative marketing strategies with content at their core.Continue Reading

I don’t do golf. But one thing intrigues me about the game: The entire goal is to play the least.

Think about it. The winner is the person who swings their clubs the fewest times.

A smart content marketing approach should work in a similar way.

My clients often tell me they feel the content marketing team creates too much content. They say things like: “Everyone wants more content, but so much of what we create is wasted.”

At first, that seems counterintuitive. If they’re wasting content, why don’t they just produce less?Continue Reading