Bad-content fixes

Tips for saving (nearly) unsalvageable content [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( WEEKLY NEWS 3.22.24 WEEKLY NEWS 3.22.24  FEATURED [‘Bad’ Content: How To Handle Major Rewrites (and Prevent Them in the Future)]( By Ann Gynn The draft is in — and the writer didn’t understand the assignment. Or an executive writes a story and expects you to publish their work, but it’s just not good. When a standard edit isn’t enough, try one of these two approaches to save bad content. [Read more](  READ OR LISTEN TO MORE STORIES FROM THIS WEEK: [Is TikTok's Clock Ticking? 7 Answers Questions About the Proposed ‘Ban’]( by Content Marketing Institute Headlines sound the alarm on TikTok legislation working its way through Congress. Robert Rose looks beyond the noise to find answers to seven questions about the bill and its impact on marketing. [How To Find and Include More Underrepresented Voices in Your Content]( by Penny Gralewski People often reflexively quote famous men in presentations and overrepresent men in their industry quotes. It’s time to elevate the voices of women and other underrepresented communities in your content. Here’s a helpful approach to raising awareness and finding notable quotables beyond the usual suspects. [Manage Your Content Budgets With ‘Bottle’ Episodes]( by Robert Rose The producers of the mega-hit Friends adopted a behind-the-scenes strategy that balanced the budget and delivered some of the best episodes. Consider a similar approach for your budget-impacted content plan. [I]( Crack the LinkedIn Code With Advice From Marketers Who Did It]( by Ann Gynn LinkedIn surpassed 1 billion users, throwing growth forecasts in a tailspin. Marketers are the benefactors if you know how to crack the code. Your peers share how they succeeded on the most popular B2B social platform.  A NOTE FROM ROBERT ROSE Budget Friends-ly content When marketing budgets get tighter, it’s easy to fall into the trap of creating long-term content plans. I’ve seen it: The budget gods come down early in the year and proclaim that X amount will just have to do. Now, the “X” is often well short of what the team requested. But that number isn’t going to change. Well, until it does change (and goes lower). When this happens, many teams take a hatchet to their plans. They may even give up creating an extraordinary experience because they can’t figure out how to budget for the right amount of creativity. For example, I recently worked with a global healthcare company on planning a new digital magazine to create brand awareness and affinity. The original plan called for 12 issues a year. But, when budget cuts came along, they opted for a bimonthly approach, cutting six issues. Was that the best way forward? Probably not. Last week’s Academy Awards underlined this approach to planning. In Cord Jefferson’s acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay for American Fiction, he pleaded with the studios for more, smaller films. “Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making 20 $10 million movies or 50 $4 million movies,” he said. But I think you can adopt a different way to budget your overall content plan, which takes a page from the sitcom Friends, which turns 30 this September and remains popular today. In 2023, viewers [streamed 25 billion minutes]( of the show, almost double the 14 billion minutes streamed in 2022. Friends was one of the most expensive television shows in history. In the first season, each of the six [actors earned]( approximately $22,500 per episode. By the last two seasons, they each received more than $1 million per episode. At the 2021 reunion, co-creator Marta Kauffman told a fascinating story about how they planned “bottle episodes” every single season to better manage their budget for the stories they wanted to tell. The term “bottle episode” comes from early television production. In a bottle episode, everything is shot on one stage or location. It contains no guest stars or anything that would increase the budget. In other words, showrunners purposely design these episodes to save budget for more extravagant ones during the rest of the season. Taking a similar seems intuitive in marketing, but it’s not. Too often, marketing silos, internal politics, or a lack of strategic planning leads the budget knife to cut in equal chunks. And many companies still operate their marketing budgets based on an annual or quarterly budget divided equally for each month. That math continues to the asset-creation level. In Rose-Colored Glasses this week, I explain how to apply the bottle-episode approach to your content strategy. I hope you’ll give it a read and [let me know what you think](. In the meantime, remember: It’s your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Would any of your colleagues or friends benefit from Robert's weekly updates? Please invite them to [subscribe]( here.  A WORD FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS Now On Demand What does it take to break free from traditional strategies and outdated tech stacks? NetLine is exploring the answer in its on-demand digital event, Beyond Limits: The Power of Content and Insights. In this collection of webinars with marketing leaders, including CMI’s own Stephanie Stahl, you’ll learn how to craft compelling narratives, build revenue-generating strategies, and accelerate your buyer's journey to advance growth in 2024. [Register now »](  MORE FROM CMI Deadline Extended: Call for Speakers Calling all content marketing thought leaders, brand practitioners, and creative storytellers! There’s still time to showcase your expertise on a global stage and inspire your peers at Content Marketing World 2024 this October in San Diego. We want to hear your unique insights and practical advice that will arm attendees with the latest tools and innovations to advance their content marketing and grow their business. [Submit your proposal by April 12 »](  Livestream Playback: The Uh-Ohs of SEO Is this the end of SEO as we know it? Catch up on this month’s episode of Live With CMI, where hosts Amanda Subler and JK Kalinowski sat down with Mike King of iPullRank to discuss the major trends that are shaking up SEO. They also chatted with Andy Crestodina about Gartner’s prediction for a 25% drop in search volume due to AI (and why he’s not worried). 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