What’s the word?

Imagine if a single word could inspire you all year. [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( WEEKLY NEWS 1.5.24 WEEKLY NEWS 1.5.24   FEATURED [How Content Helped ServiceNow Grow From Startup to Global Brand]( By Ann Gynn Take that, doubters. Six years after Richard Murphy created a thought leadership strategy for ServiceNow, the brand has grown to over $8 billion in revenue. Here’s how the 2023 Content Marketer of the Year and his team helped the brand reach that number. [Read more](  SPONSORED CONTENT Seven in 10 B2B buyers worry about unethical AI. We asked 14,300 consumers and B2B buyers about trust, AI, and the other factors that make them embrace or abandon brands. Find out what they say in our new report. [Get the free report »](  MORE OF THE WEEK'S BEST STORIES [6 Ways To Elevate the Text-to-Audio Experience for Your Content]( by Lisa Dougherty Don’t think you can just plug and play an AI audio tool to convert your text into audio. It requires you to up your game — and learn some new tricks. Follow these tips to add a new delivery channel for your audience. [Forget Likes and Downloads: This Is 2024’s Ultimate Marketing Metric]( by Content Marketing Institute Team The debut episode of CMI’s series What’s New features an old marketing metric that's back in a new way for 2024. Robert Rose explains why it’s hot once again — and how you can start tracking it. [Beyond Resolutions: What’s Your Word for 2024?]( by Robert Rose Selecting a word for 2024 can work better than making resolutions. The word becomes a theme or intention rather than a set of rules you will likely break. Here’s an option for marketers in 2024. [ICYMI: 7 Generative AI Prompts To Help Your Content Marketing Workflows]( by Connie Smart and Alli Berry AI tools generated a nauseating amount of attention this year. But now’s not the time to get sick of it. Instead, consider these seven helpful prompts to make generative AI work for your content and marketing.  A NOTE FROM ROBERT ROSE What’s the word? Happy New Year. Yup, it’s time to open your favorite journaling book and write down your resolutions. Maybe you’ll dust off the gym membership card (and try to remember where the gym is). Or you start relearning the implications of all the diets — keto, Mediterranean, South Beach, paleo, raw food, macrobiotic — and conclude not one includes the kind of food you want to eat. Or maybe, like me, you bypass resolutions and choose a word for the year instead. I prefer choosing a word for the year over making resolutions because it serves as a theme or intention rather than a set of rules I’ll likely break. It also sets a foundation for the goals set for the year. My word for 2024: Imagination. I have a specific lens through which I’m looking at that word. One of my favorite songs is Pure Imagination from the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. As a musician, I could write a thesis on why this song might be the most beautiful ever written. The way the song incorporates seventh chords and changes in Lydian scale is masterful. But I digress. The lyrics in the chorus perfectly capture what imagination means to me for 2024: “If you want to view paradise Simply look around and view it Anything you want to, do it. Want to change the world? There’s nothing to it.” People often define being imaginative as coming up with something inventive or original. You’re being imaginative if you “think outside the box” or conjure an original story, song, or new product. In this regard, imagination implies an activity, something you do when you need to create something. The activity involves imagining that output. But the Willy Wonka song assigns imagination a different — and deeper — meaning. It sees a world that is your creation. It encourages you to go there and see the world around you as you want to see it. If you can do that, well, there’s nothing you can’t change to make it real. Some years end with what seems like quality work and perhaps a full bank account to show for it. But to get there, you constantly reacted, pushed, forced, and tried to balance against what best practices told you to do. You sweated your way to that destination. You became the living embodiment of a mantra I hate: “No pain, no gain.” That lets the world see you instead of you seeing the world. In [Rose-Colored Glasses]( this week, I share more about imagination, including someone who lived that word — and what it allowed him to accomplish. Give it a read, then [let me know]( your word or intentions for the year. And remember: It’s your story. Imagine 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. MORE FROM CMI Watch Now: Content Marketing Predictions for the New Year AI tools exploding on the market. Social media upheaval. Now that 2023 is in the rearview mirror, what road is ahead for marketers in 2024? Watch as content marketing experts share their forecasts for the future — what’s coming, what’s not, and how to steer towards success in 2024. Then tune in to the free Ask the #CMWorld Community livestream this Monday, January 8, at 12 p.m. ET to hear more from the CMI community and cast your own predictions. [Watch the videos »]( [Attend the livestream »](  Elevate Your Content Marketing Strategy in 2024 Your goals for 2024 may be set, but how airtight is your strategy to achieve them? Set yourself up for ultimate success by diving deep into content operations, audience development, measurement strategy, and more. CMI’s new content marketing certification program, in partnership with the American Marketing Association, gives you the foundational building blocks to reach your 2024 goals. Enrolling gives you 12 months of access to the course and exam to earn a Professional Certified Marketer® credential. [Learn more »](  To change your email preferences or unsubscribe, visit our [subscription center.]( Copyright © 2024 Informa Connect, All rights reserved Content Marketing Institute, an Informa Connect brand 605 3rd Ave | New York | NY 10158 [Terms of Service]( | [Privacy Statement]( [informa tech]