Don’t Fall in Love (With Your Content)

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[Read more]( By Ann Gynn [Distribution and Promotion] More of this week's best stuff: - [30+ Link-Building Tips, Tools, and Examples for SEO and Website Traffic]( by Mike Murray [Distribution and Promotion] - [7 Tips to Write a Great Blog Post Introduction]( by George Drennan [Content Creation] - [Is Google AMP Worth It for Your Email Marketing?]( by Kevin George [High-Level Strategy] - [3 Content Examples Serve Up Inspiration, Entertainment, and Revenue Streams]( [by Content Marketing Institute Team]( [Content Creation]( Love It or Hate It – Send It Our Way Have you seen an exciting, unique, puzzling, or eyebrow-raising content example, idea, or trend this week? Fill out [this short form]( to share it (and your opinion about it) with your fellow Content Marketing Institute readers. We’ll credit you as the source (and include your commentary) if we include your submission in an upcoming Friday article.  A Note From Robert Rose Don’t Fall in Love (With Your Content) My colleagues and I trade this advice all the time: “Don’t get too close to the content.” We have to because when we’re deeply involved in a client’s content and marketing strategy process, we risk romanticizing their brand, inspiration, or point of view. But our job as strategy advisors is to analyze (dispassionately) how the content flows and performs and evaluate the strategy behind it. Content creators are the most susceptible to falling in love with their content. When I was a screenwriter, my coach pointed out that my heroes always had the perfect line. They never stared too long at the opposite sex, told an awkward joke, or made a stupid mistake. Whatever flaws these characters had were an unintended result of their heroic efforts. They were the literary equivalent of answering this job interview exchange: Interviewer: “What is your biggest flaw?” Candidate: “Sometimes I just care too much.” Everyone: “Yeah, sure.” Audiences see right through that – and the whole story is less believable because of it. In content marketing, the challenge isn’t usually creating a flawless character. More often, it’s romanticizing the brand’s point of view. It’s easy to become so enamored with one view, voice, or approach that you never check to see if your audience cares about it. It happened to me when I was CMO of an enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) company in the early 2000s. As I like to say, “We were in the cloud before being in the cloud was cool.” One of the primary thought leadership initiatives we built focused on the idea that our software was “true SaaS” (designed and built for the cloud), and other software was “fake SaaS” (on-premises software served from a hosted location). We loved that story. It had bite. We gave our character all the best lines. Compared with “fake SaaS,” our software performed better (in specific areas), operated faster (under a few conditions), and cost less (most of the time). We wrote carefully crafted thought leadership, education, inspiration content around that story. There was only one problem. Nobody cared. We were undeterred. We were passionate. We doubled down on the story. I can’t count how many meetings we had (usually with a beer or two) where we complained, “Why don’t customers care about this? It’s so important!” Spoiler alert: We wasted time. Our audience never cared. The lesson? When you’re involved in content creation, remember that your stories (and the characters in them) aren’t perfect. And they shouldn’t be. If you over-romanticize and try to make them perfect, you’ll remove believability and depth. And you’ll find it harder to recognize if they fail to resonate with audiences. As you create your stories, watch out for signs you’re falling in love. If you do, you’ll try to make things perfect that shouldn’t be. Once you’re in love, you might not see those attempts at perfection – and you’ll end up avoiding the changes that need to be made. It’s your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute You're getting this exclusive article from Robert Rose as a perk of your newsletter subscription. Do you have colleagues or friends who would benefit from Robert's weekly updates? If so, please invite them to [subscribe]( here.   A Word from One of Our Content VIPs The #1 Virtual Event Platform Watch our virtual event product tour and see why leading brands such as Alibaba and Red Hat trust us for their events. Maximize ROI, create unique experiences and connect with global audiences. 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Available positions: Creative Content Specialist, Great Dane, Savannah, GA - [Learn More]( Interested in posting a job here? Please see our [CMI Careers page]( for more info.    2021 is the first year of the new decade. Go ahead and breathe a sigh of relief. Take a moment to look at your content marketing approach, take stock of where you are, and take your approach to your content marketing practice to the next level in the decade ahead. CMI and The Content Advisory's Robert Rose shares how in his CMWorld 2020 session. [Watch Now »]( [Content Optimization Resources]( Events [Content Marketing World]( [ContentTECH Summit]( [Master Classes]( [Content Marketing Awards]( Resources [Research]( [White Paper/eBook Library]( [Content VIPs]( [CMI Business Directory]( Education [Content Marketing University]( [Chief Content Officer]( [Webinars]( [Career Center]( Interested in advertising with CMI? 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