Weekly Alert: Road Maker or Road Taker?

Be sure to check out Robert's new podcast series, The Weekly Wrap [View Message](2e5a5/ct0_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG) in Browser / [Add Us](2e5a5/ct1_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG) to Safe Sender List [] 2e5a5/ct2_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG [] [Forward to a Friend](2e5a5/ct3_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG) This Week in Content Marketing 1.11.19 Connect with CMI 2e5a5/ct4_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG 2e5a5/ct5_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG 2e5a5/ct6_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG 2e5a5/ct7_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG 2e5a5/ct8_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG [] Opportunities for AI in Content Marketing Easily Explained [] 2e5a5/ct9_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG If all you know about artificial intelligence is that it powers your martech stack, you’ll want to read these easy-to-understand explanations and tangible examples. (You’ll also discover how text mining revealed a breadstick problem.) [Read more](2e5a5/ct9_1/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG)by Dennis Shiao [High-Level Strategy] Some more of this week's best stuff: - [3 Tools to Optimize Your Old Content to Build More Organic Search Traffic](2e5a5/ct10_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG) by Ann Smarty [Distribution and Promotion] - [These 7 Visual Tactics Can Boost Landing Page Conversions](2e5a5/ct11_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG) by Sara McGuire [Content Creation] - [Rock Your Content With These 7 Songwriting Secrets](2e5a5/ct12_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG) by Ahava Leibtag [Content Creation] - [How to Use Scrum for Content Marketing](2e5a5/ct13_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG) by Jug Babic [Editorial Process and Teams] [] [] A Note From Robert Rose Road Maker or Road Taker? What are your big ideas for 2019? Or, are you fresh out? Does that sound strange? Can we really be out of big ideas? When you think about all the technological advances that seem to emerge every day, innovations in business, medicine, robotics, and artificial intelligence seem to be at a fever pitch. R&D budgets in corporations have flourished in recent years. Yet, we’re not producing a ton of new big ideas. Back in 2016, [an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal](2e5a5/ct14_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG) (you’ll need a subscription to read the full piece) argued that we’ve stagnated according to what economists call “total factor productivity,” which captures an innovation score. We peaked at 3.4% in the 1950s when electricity, aviation, and antibiotics reached full acceptance. And we’ve slowly declined to a measly 0.5% for the last decade. Put simply, we’re just not making many new roads. Outside of iPhones, Google, and automated cars that take out other robots on the road ([which might be a PR stunt](2e5a5/ct15_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG)) – exponential improvements to our everyday life have been fairly flat. Cars are still about what they were a decade or more ago. Airplanes still fly like they did in 1960. None of the 20 most prescribed drugs in the United States came to market in the last 10 years. And what we see in marketing departments may be even more stark. The willingness to take chances, to bet on unproven ideas is becoming increasingly rarer. We spend our days following incremental numbers on social media. We sweat over optimizing conversion rates on email, increasing traffic or “engagement” on our web content. We work diligently to do small, incremental things to “move the needle” instead of bending the needle perpendicular to change the game and do something new. There are exceptions, of course. Some big ideas in content are being tried. [Arrow Electronics purchased 51 magazines](2e5a5/ct16_0/1?sid=TV2%3A9Sxk1DdSG) and became the biggest media company for electronics engineers, for example. But here’s the thing I notice: In every case, the Road Makers – those at the source of the innovations – are willing to make something wrong. They are willing to make a wrong road on the way to finding the right path forward. They default to “Yes, what we’re doing might fail. It might fail spectacularly. But if it works….” Now, there’s nothing wrong with simply being a Road Taker. The Road Maker needs traffic – or else the road is useless. The Road Taker is a key piece of keeping the Road Makers confident that they’re making the right roads. But it’s worth asking, which one will you be for different aspects of your business? We know these innovations are fraught with obstacles and frustrations. We know it’s not easy to get a work published, or push a big idea through to our boss, or a suggest a weird investment that (on paper) has no chance. We face scathing reviews, negativity from colleagues, skepticism from our family and friends. But our willingness to make the wrong road is what defines the Road Maker. Not everyone is up to it. And, not everyone is up to it all the time. Road Makers are just as often Road Takers. It just depends on where we want to go. We’re NOT out of big ideas in content and marketing. At least I don’t think we are. I believe that we’re facing so much pressure to perform in ever shorter time frames that we stifle our ideas. We follow the road already paved or jump into someone else’s passing car instead of making new ones. But if we want to go somewhere different – if we want to go somewhere no one else is going – we must be willing to try. Even if it means we make mistakes in producing our new map. Are you ready for a road trip? Let’s go make a map together. It’s your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute This article from Robert is available only in this newsletter for you, the newsletter subscriber. 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