Weekly Alert: Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads

mlns='> CMI Consulting Services can help you! [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( Weekly News 11.20.20 Connect with CMI [Manufacturing Content Marketers Shift Gears in a COVID World [New Research]]( Manufacturing content marketers have done the big things to adapt in a COVID world. Learn from CMI’s latest research what they’re doing differently, what’s kept pace, and what’s growing as you wrap up 2020 and prepare for 2021. [Read more]( By Lisa Murton Beets [Trends and Research] Some more of this week's best stuff: - [How to Make the Google Algorithm Work for You]( [Jodi Harris]( and Promotion] - [How to Use Live Chat Data to Drive New Content Marketing Ideas]( Aaron Agius [Editorial Process and Teams] - [Lackluster Blog? How This Tech Company Turned Theirs Into a Lead-Generation Engine]( by Klaus-M. Schremser [Distribution and Promotion] - [Turkey and Green Beans Gone Viral (and a Virtual Visit to a Museum) [The Weekly Wrap]]( by Content Marketing Institute Team [Trends and Research] Join Our Weekly Wrap News Crew Have you come across an exciting content idea, unique example, or puzzling trend this week? Help us share it with your fellow Content Marketing Institute readers by completing [this form](. If we include your submission in an upcoming Weekly Wrap, we’ll credit you as the source of the inspiration.  A Note From Robert Rose Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” How often have you heard that old proverb? How often have you stopped to think about what it means? The most common interpretation: It means people don’t meet their goals because they fail to act, even though they intend to. In this interpretation, intentions are meaningless unless they’re acted on. The second version is that bad (or even evil) outcomes are the result of actions taken with good intentions. (Think: “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”) Regardless of the good intentions, the action caused an unintended consequence. It’s hard to reconcile these interpretations without concluding that intentions don’t matter – when trying to achieve a specific outcome (a goal), you’ll fail or succeed despite your intentions. But is that true? And what’s the difference between a goal and an intention anyway? Looking at the definitions of the two words, they seem interchangeable. [A goal]( according to Merriam-Webster, is “the end toward which an effort is directed.” [An intention]( says the same dictionary, is “what one intends to do or bring about.” On second look, those two definitions explain the difference well. A goal is a specific end. An intention is the effort we desire to make toward that end. That’s the difference in the way people treat these two ideas. A goal is a future destination or achievement. Put simply – a goal is a thing we want to do, and an intention is the feeling (or drive) that may help us get there. In the business world, strategy often is created without regard to intention. That’s why the aphorism “strategy without execution gets you nowhere” is so popular. Following this approach leads to planning sessions that focus only on actionable, measurable, future-based outcomes – but ignore intentions. When it comes to content strategy, this is an extremely limiting way to operate. If you start planning for content creation with the objective that it should attract three leads, rank for SEO against this keyword, and produce this return on its investment, then you’ve established a win/lose scenario. Those are worthy goals. But without intention, you lose out on the richness of what you can achieve as you stretch to meet those goals and more. What if, before setting any goals, you set the intention to “deliver extraordinary value to our audience with this content.” For example, if this piece of content produced no leads but did create passionate converts to your ideas or taught an invaluable lesson to your customers, did it fail or succeed? If you start and operate with only outcomes, then it’s clear the content failed. In strategy and planning exercises, I find it useful to first set intentions based on the team’s shared values and agreement on what matters most. The goals – aligned with those intentions – come next. Intentions keep teams aligned and focused on the value of the steps along the way. Setting intentions ensures that everyone understands how to get value out of the journey, as much as the destination. E.L. Doctorow once wrote, “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Or as put by that classic song by The Animals, “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good. Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” 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. If you have friends that would see value in Robert's weekly updates, please have them [subscribe](.  A Word from One of Our Content VIPs: The Complete Guide to Marketing Orchestration What are the most successful brands in the world doing to become more agile, effectively demonstrate ROI, accelerate campaign execution, and ultimately, better align strategy to budgeting, planning and execution? 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