Faster isn’t always better

Don’t let the speed of change make you cynical. [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( WEEKLY NEWS 8.18.23 WEEKLY NEWS 11.3.23  FEATURED [How One Content Leader Launched a 150-Year-Old Brand Into the Modern Era]( By Dawn Papandrea R. Ethan Braden revamped Purdue University's old-fashioned comms team to enchant audiences with captivating content – and doubled the school's commitment to marketing. Here's a look at his content approach – and why he's the 2023 B2C Content Marketer of the Year. [Read more](  MORE OF THE WEEK'S BEST STORIES [Is Social Media Even Worth It Anymore?]( by Jodi Harris With engagement and website traffic from social platforms dwindling, many marketers question whether to continue spending time, budget, and energy on social media content. Take stock of what you want from social media participation – and how to get it – with these tips. [Is Speed, Not AI Technology, the Real Enemy in Marketing?]( by Robert Rose Marketers are due for an epiphany. Speed is the name of the tech game. But what won’t you delegate to technology in the name of successful marketing? [Why CEO-CMO Alignment Isn’t Enough for Business Growth]( Content Marketing Institute Team New McKinsey research says business growth is more likely to occur if CEOs and CMOs agree on marketing’s role. That makes sense, but that conclusion stops short of identifying what marketing really needs to do. [ICYMI: How To Master Your Hashtags on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram]( Ashley Baker Love them or hate them, hashtags have a place in your social content. But to attract an audience who loves them, stop using them willy-nilly. Follow this advice for Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.  A NOTE FROM ROBERT ROSE Faster isn’t always better More than 25 years ago, I managed one of the most innovative types of companies on the planet – a website development agency (yes, really). Remember, this was 1996. We weren’t redesigning websites. We were introducing websites to businesses. We blew marketing executives’ minds that they could publish interactive content and change it every day if they wanted. In our downtime, a brilliant programmer at the agency taught me some basics of programming and writing code. Though it didn’t stick, his philosophy did: Computer technology is a simple concept because it only reads and writes data. “Anything interesting that happens between those two things is all on me,” he said. Today, you rely more and more on technology – generative AI, content automation, digital asset management, performance tools, etc. – to execute and measure better content efforts. You are now encouraged (warned, really) to get good at technology or else. But what does “get good” at technology even mean? Faster? Better? Many value propositions of technology solutions seem to be about “empowerment.” You often see vendors pitch it as the primary benefit: “Our solution will empower marketers to _____________.” They fill in the blank with the marketing activity for which you are responsible. But whatever the activity, “empower” almost always means “do it faster than before.” The drive for speed and automation takes a toll. Recent [research]( finds marketers increasingly cynical about their ability to do anything other than deal with the fundamental changes in media and marketing technologies. Scott Brinker, author of the annual MarTech Landscape, reports more than 11,000 marketing software solutions exist today. All are designed to empower you to move faster. Looking into 2024, I am struck by the notion that marketers are due for an epiphany. In the name of speed, what work won’t you delegate to technology? If you ask, technology can tell you what concepts to focus on. It can automate the prioritization of those concepts and turn them into information. Technology can suggest words, images, and narratives to express experiences for specific audiences. At some point, you must ask yourself if any gaps in your creative process shouldn’t be filled by technology. Let me give you an example. I recently worked with a financial services company and talked with the vice president of marketing about a challenge she had with new employees. Twenty years ago, when she started at the company as an intern, she manually researched and wrote the job descriptions for the business’s sales, marketing, and public relations areas. It was menial. It was a slog. However, she said, it was also the best way to understand the business. Doing that job helped her understand the nuanced roles, processes, and everything that allowed the business to communicate more effectively. Today, however, the immediate reaction is to delegate those tasks to a generative AI content tool. It can accomplish in 30 minutes what it would take a human days or weeks to do. But at what cost? Does the business lose because it doesn’t instill that knowledge and wisdom into a human? I realize that example might not illustrate the most critically needed piece of knowledge, but it raises an important question for many scenarios. As the marketing executive asked me, “How will we replace that learning for the human?” This trend reflects a commonly accepted assumption by more and more businesses: Faster is always better. In [Rose-Colored Glasses]( this week, I explain why that assumption is wrong. I’d love to hear whether you agree. [Share your thoughts with me here.](mailto:Robert@contentadvisory.net?subject=Weekly%20Alert%20–%20faster%20isnt%20better) 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.  SPONSORED CONTENT 5 Stages to Becoming a DX Superhero Your digital experience needs an upgrade, but you don’t know where to start? Use our Digital Evolution Model to discover where you are today – and start driving impact tomorrow. [Find out where you fall on the Digital Evolution Model](  Informa Tech Trust in Marketing Index Reveals the State of Trust Between Marketers and Senior Tech Decision Makers Senior decision. makers are engaging with content regularly. Are they happy with what they see? Do they trust it? The Index uncovers their preferences, giving marketers essential insights into how to elevate trust with the most desirable audience. [Download the “2023 Trust in Marketing Index: How B2B Marketers can fill the trust gap?” for free today](  MORE FROM CMI All New! Content Marketing Certification Have you heard? The Content Marketing Institute has partnered with the American Marketing Association to offer Professional Certified Marketer credentials. Packed with the latest in content marketing expertise, the 15-hour course (developed and taught by Robert Rose) will help you advance your content marketing skills and pass the exam to earn a PCM® certificate. In celebration of our program launch, the first 50 enrollees will receive a copy of Robert’s latest book, Content Marketing Strategy! [Learn more »](  Livestream Playback: Exceed Your Customers' Need for Speed One area where faster may be better is customer responsiveness. Speed has always been an important part of the customer experience. But research suggests it’s now THE single most important component. In the latest episode of our Ask the #CMWorld Community livestream, CMI host Amanda Subler sat down with Jay Baer to discuss his new book, The Time to Win, and explore the relationship between responsiveness and revenue. 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