Thinking Bigger Only Gets You So Far

mlns='> [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( Weekly News 3.26.21 Connect with CMI [A Swing and a Hit: 5 Storytelling Ideas to Steal From Sports Writers]( They make it look easy, but sports writers face the same challenge content marketers do – including how to tell the same basic story in fresh and exciting ways. These go-to sports storytelling techniques can help you find the agony and the ecstasy in your brand stories. [Read more]( By Ann Gynn [Content Creation] Some more of this week's best stuff: - [5 Fixes to Help Avoid Content Bottlenecks]( [by]( [Fi Shailes]( Process and Teams] - [Reach a Wider Audience, Step Up Your Content Distribution Strategy]( by Tom Whatley [Distribution and Promotion] - [Know the Basics of Link-Building to Boost Your SEO]( by Holly Rollins [Distribution and Promotion] - [3 Happy Little Content Marketing Examples (Feat. Bob Ross)]( by Content Marketing Institute Team [Trends and Research] - [Video and Visual Content Marketing Resources]( Join Our Weekly Wrap News Crew Did 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 Thinking Bigger Only Gets You So Far It’s all possible. Dream big. Start small, aim high. Bad advice? Perhaps. I’m the first to say goals should be big. They should stretch the boundaries of our imaginations. They should take us outside our comfort zone and challenge what we think is possible. But if you’re going to dream big, make sure you understand what you want to achieve. Too often, simplistic “think bigger” advice stops where it starts. People hear encouragement to “aim higher,” and they simply double their original goal. Advice such as “aim higher,” “be fearless,” or “ignore limitations” can get people pumped up. But what if they get all excited – only to start down the wrong path? In [The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People]( Stephen Covey wrote, “If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.” A conversation I had with a marketing leader at a healthcare company recently illustrates this idea. He told me the company planned to reorganize the marketing team because it was seen as “too big and unwieldy” to be as effective as it once had been. But five years ago, ironically, his boss had given him a “think bigger” goal to scale his seven-person group to a team of 25. The marketing leader had dutifully broken that goal down into smaller steps and ultimately achieved it. He’d fearlessly taken on every kind of work requested. He worked tirelessly to ensure the team performed at a high level. Yet, in the process, he’d created a team with too broad a focus that was seen as ripe for reorganization. Now, you might say the goal, itself, was wrong. It wasn’t the “aim higher” advice that was misguided but the goal of expanding the team. But we are hardwired to think this way for just about any “bigger thinking” goal. For example, one of the more common “aim higher” goals marketers encounter is to double the business’ lead volume (or increase it by whatever percentage). So the team refocuses to achieve exactly that. Sometime later, they find out they’ve doubled the lead volume – but halved the quality (or spent twice as much for the result). The business ends up in no better place than where it started. I encourage people to think bigger about thinking bigger. Embrace a focus on essence over form. What does that big goal represent? List out the things that would be true if you met the essence of the goal. Doubling leads might be the right approach to achieve the essence of the stated goal (presumably a more profitable quarter). But you might also be able to achieve that essence by generating the same number of leads but converting them to customers at twice the rate. Or, you might achieve it by generating fewer leads – but ones that are easily cross-sold to other products. On the surface, the healthcare marketing leader’s “think bigger” goal was to grow his team to 25. But the essence of the goal wasn’t to grow the size of the team. It was to establish content strategy as an invaluable process that’s as core to the company as any other discipline. If my contact had worked toward that even bigger idea, he might have realized he needed a team of 30 (or 17 or 23) to realize the goal. He also might have considered other paths to meeting the essence of the goal – and, in doing so, ended up building a team that the company wouldn’t want to break up. Make your big ideas big enough to encompass the essence of what you’re trying to achieve. You may find your big ideas easier to realize – and that they bring you more happiness once you achieve them. 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](.  Content Marketing Job Listings Currently on a job search? Thinking about switching gears with your career? Please check out our job listings below. Available Positions: - Consumer Content Strategy Advisor, TransUnion, Chicago, IL - [Learn More]( Interested in posting a job here? Please see our [CMI Careers page]( for more info.   More from CMI ENDS TODAY! CMWorld Super Early Bird pricing Super Early Bird pricing for Content Marketing World 2021 ends TODAY! Register to secure your spot. 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