After an Epic Fail

mlns='> When the outcome hurts, shift focus to your output [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( Weekly News 9.17.21 Connect With CMI [How To Make Content Strategy, Content Marketing, and Marketing Content Work Together]( Getting these three related practices to work together can be like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Robert Rose explains how they all fit together. [Read more]( By Robert Rose More of this week's best stuff: - [PPC and Content Marketing: The Perfect Combo for Immediate ROI]( by Aaron Agius - [These 4 Content Marketing Fails Are Totally Fixable: Here’s How]( by Jodi Harris - [Why These Post-Pandemic Content Marketing Tips Are the Worst]( by Ann Gynn - [3 Hot Takes: LEGO and JPMorgan Chase Sizzle, Doritos Fizzles]( by Content Marketing Institute Team Want To Be Featured on the CMI Blog? Fill out [this short form]( to share your opinion about any exciting, unique, puzzling, or eyebrow-raising content example, idea, or trend you’ve seen this week (including pieces you’ve created). We’ll credit you as the source (and include your commentary) if we include your submission in an upcoming Friday article.  After an Epic Fail I had an interesting conversation this week about whether to focus on outputs or outcomes. Conventional wisdom holds that great strategy starts with outcomes as a core focus. But outputs directly affect the outcome – and outcomes direct the output – so it can seem like a “chicken and egg” discussion. Still, conventional wisdom holds that great strategy starts with outcomes as a core focus. In content strategy, many businesses measure content outputs (how many blog posts, white papers, e-books, videos, and so on) rather than content outcomes (the impact the content has). But what happens when you fail to produce the intended outcome? I don’t mean the warm-and-fuzzy type of failure like the content didn’t produce the quota of leads or the SEO bump you expected. I mean those trip and crack your skull type failures. I mean The Last Airbender movie level of failure. I mean Richard Nixon thinking a tape recorder in his office is a good idea kind of fail. This is the kind of failure I discussed with a content marketer last week. They told me they’d recently put together a thought leadership campaign to drive awareness of the company’s ideas and brand. The project failed spectacularly. Without going into too much detail, let’s say there were memes of their #Fail going around in their industry. The campaign turned into a joke. The outputs had definitely not created the outcomes they desired. My friend felt defeated and lost. When failure rears its head, some people feel hopeless and start to withdraw. Some get angry and blame others. Some disassociate from whatever comes next. “It’s not my problem,” they say. “I didn’t do this. Somebody else made it happen. I’m ignoring it.” And they withdraw and stop creating outputs altogether. But you must do the opposite. Keep moving. Take steps. Put one foot after the other. In content and marketing, we often talk about beginning with the outcomes in mind. We envision success and then work backward, creating a grand map to achieve it. We plot the outputs. We know that this process works. In the face of disempowering failure, this process can seem beyond reach. If you can’t imagine what the outcome will look like, how can you plot the steps to get there? Try this instead. Simply ask, “Now what?” Then do something. There’s always something you can try, even something seemingly inconsequential. Make a phone call. Write a note. Create something and share it. Whatever action calls to you, do that. Then ask again: “Now what?” The answer may be tentative: “Well, we could take this step.” Give that a go. In other words, focus on outputs. Then ask again: “And now what?” Another step will suggest itself. Keep going. At first, you may find asking “now what?” results in nothing but hoping for the best. While hope may be, as Andy Dufresne said in Shawshank Redemption, “the best of things,” hope alone won’t give you firm footing. But keep moving. Eventually, a path appears (to borrow the title of a book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn). When failure to achieve the outcome you desired has you paralyzed, your first step back is to focus on output. Do the next thing. Then the next. Keep asking, “And now what?” until a new outcome that you desire appears. Then, begin again. It’s your story. Tell it well. (And [tell us your thoughts](mailto:cmi_info@informa.com?subject=Feedback) about Robert’s note.) 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