Just stop

If only it were that easy … [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( WEEKLY NEWS 12.8.23 WEEKLY NEWS 12.8.23  [Together with ClearVoice]  FEATURED [Key Trends in Content Marketing 2024: 67 Predictions]( By Stephanie Stahl What’s ahead in content and marketing for 2024? AI gets a lot of attention in these predictions but in surprising ways. Plus, these experts forecast the impact of social media and world turmoil — and offer a healthy dose of hope. [Read more](  SPONSORED CONTENT 🧗 Scale YOUR Content Mountain by ClearVoice OK, marketers, it’s intervention time. Your brand’s content is lost in the wilderness. Your content team: talented? Sure. Inspired? Debatable. Your inbound demand gen? Lagging. The remedy? I.C.R.A – [click here]( to optimize your content journey.  MORE OF THE WEEK'S BEST STORIES [How This FORTUNE Brand Studio Exec Built a Content Business on Brainstorming, Budget Constraints, and White Glove Service]( by Ann Gynn Megan Gilbert launched FORTUNE Brand Studio as its editorial director. Four years later, she's the vice president and has helped grow it to $16 million in revenue. Learn how she leads the agency and why she's a Content Marketer of the Year finalist. [The Rise of Retail Media Networks in 2024: Why Marketers Should Care]( by Robert Rose To some surprise, digital advertising spending will jump in 2024. But the unexpected news for most is the rise in spending on retail media networks. Learn why B2C – and B2B – marketers should pay attention to them. [Before You Start an AI Strategy, Make the Case To Stop]( by Robert Rose Generative AI’s integration in your marketing usually doesn’t save your team time. It just adds new items to the workload. So, if you truly want to succeed, you must identify what you’ll stop doing so you can start doing new things. [ICYMI: 39+ Content Marketing Statistics To Help You Succeed in 2024]( by Lisa Murton Beets Now is a great time to reflect on the year behind and anticipate the year ahead. Use these statistics and related resources to make a case for the budget and other resources you need, document a winning content strategy, and decide how big a role video will play in your 2024 plans.  A NOTE FROM ROBERT ROSE Just stop Helping clients prepare to integrate generative AI, I’ve noticed something interesting. Generative AI doesn’t reduce their need for resources. Instead, AI more likely adds new capabilities to the team – things the team usually doesn’t have time to do because they spend so much effort on content creation. For example, generative AI can assemble useful topic maps and structured taxonomies for an existing corpus of content. These maps work extraordinarily well for auto-tagging future content and [spotting holes in existing content categories](. Since the team typically hasn’t made such a map, AI’s integration doesn’t make their existing work more efficient. It just makes a new task possible. Integrating generative AI requires a new time commitment, making the initial challenge different. Given adding new resources is an exceedingly rare option, the real question to answer is: “What are you going to stop doing to start doing the other thing?” If you want to prove to your boss that marketing is the hardest thing to do in business, tell them it’s the only function built on the ability to change into unknown things. Imagine if the finance group’s operational strategy changed from quarter to quarter. One quarter, they use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) standards to recognize revenue. For the next 90 days, they switch to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The quarter after that, they must switch to a newly invented standard. How might their ability to change be measured? Marketing and content are functions built on a foundation of change. The activities have been – and always will be – fluid. Marketing success can’t follow the “right” path. It must come from the new best direction as the old paths end. Those intersections are the most exciting parts of marketing. A funny thing happens at the end of almost every advisory session – after the group has spent the day talking about a new marketing initiative or mapping generative AI’s integration into the workflow. Someone says: “Um, we should probably align our expectations with reality.” The room becomes quiet. Heads nod. The realization sets in: This is going to be hard. Real people will have to do all this stuff. As the heads nod, the inevitable objections arise: - “We still have to support the sales team with the materials they need.” - “We still have to publish those four newsletters every week.” - “We still have to update the customer resource website.” - “We still have to launch that new product website next quarter.” Having watched these arcs of realization over and over, I now start these sessions by asking about all the things the content team does. Then, I ask why they do each thing. Near the end of the day, when the heads nod about expectations and reality, I trot out their list and ask, “Which of these things can you stop doing?” People look at each other. Uncomfortable laughter ensues as someone says, “None of it. Senior management will want us to keep doing it all.” The business case you must build isn’t why you should do the new thing. It’s why you should stop doing the old thing. Business professor Michael Porter famously says, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” Your new marketing initiative – integrating AI, a new content hub, a resource center, a customer help publication – probably won’t succeed unless you address what you’ll stop doing. In [Rose-Colored Glasses]( this week, I share the questions you should ask to justify stopping something old so you can start something new. [I’d love to hear what you’re starting or stopping in the next year.]( 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 Maximizing CMS for Omnichannel Experiences Learn what it takes to choose a content management system (CMS) that future-proofs your business. Get real-life examples and insights from industry experts. [Download the report »]( How Bynder Is Simplifying Digital Asset Management In this case study, Bynder invites life science client Cell Signaling Technology to showcase the collaborative journey of how they established a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system and eventually a whole ecosystem across other technologies. [Watch the video on Streamly now! »](  Unleashing Creativity: Scaling High-Quality Video Content With AI Video Editing Tools Learn how AI video editing tools are revolutionizing a new era of engaging content by enhancing creativity and productivity. Get recommendations on tools used throughout all aspects of video production. [Get insights »](  MORE FROM CMI Free Webinar Next Wednesday: It’s Time for Your Content to Grow Up If your team is struggling to hit their stride and mature their content strategy and operations, start off the new year with a plan to fast-track your content maturity. Join us next Wednesday, December 13, at 2 p.m. ET to learn how to measure content strategy maturity and improve your organization’s results. You’ll hear from Marissa Tranchina, director of content strategy at Hackensack Meridian Health, whose team’s work won Best Content Marketing Program in Healthcare in CMI’s 2023 Content Marketing Awards. [Register for free »](  Free Webinar Next Thursday: SEO Memorial Service Will your 2024 SEO strategy embrace this year’s changes in search or attempt to resurrect tactics that should be left to rest in peace? Join us Thursday, December 14 at 1 p.m. ET for this respectful and life-affirming service – erm, session – as Ryan Brock, chief solution officer at DemandJump and author of Pillar-Based Marketing: A Data-Driven Methodology for SEO and Content That Actually Works, lays out the evidence for the legacy SEO metrics and tactics we should put to rest. 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