This Week in Content Marketing

mlns='> 5 stories about content, including Robert Rose on learning to direct [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( Weekly News 2.4.22 Connect With CMI [You're Not Ready for a DAM (Unless You Do This First)]( Marketers spend a lot of time on repeated and low-level tasks. A digital asset management system can help minimize that. But don't shop for a DAM solution before you do this exercise. [Read more]( By Jodi Harris More of the week's best stuff: - [21 YouTube SEO Tools To Boost Your Video Rankings]( by Aleh Barysevich - [How To Get More From Existing Content With Historical Optimization]( by Tony Patrick - [Steer Clear of Overused Stock Photos With These Planning Tips and Resources]( by Ann Gynn - [Want to Scale Your Content Strategy? Hiring Isn't the Answer [Rose-Colored Glasses]]( by Robert Rose  Why You Can Never Create Enough Content If you ask an actor or screenwriter about their career goals, they'll almost all say, "But what I really want to do is direct." Or so goes the Hollywood trope. Ironically, the director participates the least in the creative work. A director's role isn't to write, act, play music, edit, or even point a camera. The director's job is to direct the individual artists' contributions to the film product. Yes, some directors do double duty by writing or acting in their films or shows. But the director's function remains clear: guide, enable, and manage a team of storytellers to produce powerfully engaging work efficiently. This idea of the director role came to me as I talked with the head of content at a B2B technology company recently. She told me that her content studio had earned enough respect within the business that they're considered the go-to team for getting something written or designed well. But she's frustrated that most people considered them just the team that produces "good words and pictures." She wants the team to play a more important role. So, she asked me, "How do we become more strategic to the business without adding more headcount? How can we take on more content?" Without a doubt, scalability is the biggest challenge I see among businesses trying to succeed with content marketing. The ability to "create enough content" gets mentioned as one of the top challenges in our content marketing research year after year. Somehow, adding more writers, designers, podcasters, and other skilled staff never seems to solve that challenge. Here's the thing: The ability to grow doesn't lie in the capability to produce enough content. One of the biggest strategy mistakes I see is to equate establishing a content strategy with building a content studio filled with talented writers, designers, and multimedia specialists. Spoiler alert: This approach rarely works. Why? Because businesses can't get ahead of the content need. Call this Robert's Law of Content: The need for content expands in direct proportion to the number of resources allotted to it. An intelligent content strategy in modern business isn't about creating a siloed group of individual content contributors. Instead, it's about creating a team whose role is that of a director. Everyone on the team should be focused on helping create, guide, and enable the entire organization to tell a consistent story. They should guide, shape, and develop the sales professional's ability to deliver the best story regardless of who creates it. Occasionally, that might be someone on the content strategy team. But an integrated, enterprise content strategy must work like a film project – it's is a director's medium. The only way to truly scale is to shape, guide, and, yes, direct everyone in the business to do their part in telling the brand's stories in one voice. My advice to any content leader looking to scale a team and become more strategic is to buy every team member a shirt that says, "[But what I really want to do is direct.]( Then, start coaching the team to stop acting as an internal content production studio and start directing all enterprise content regardless of who creates it. In this week's [Rose-Colored Glasses]( column, I share the five primary responsibilities of a strategic enterprise content strategy team. Let me know (in the article's comments section or [by email](mailto:cmi_info@informa.com)) if you're struggling to create enough content and whether this director model might work for your team. In the meantime, remember: 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.   Sponsored Content Marketing Playbook for Content Creation Content fuels the customer experience. And when it comes to marketing, it powers conversions, whether that’s through email and landing page copy, brochures, e-books, website content, or social media posts. Download the playbook for content creation on how to make your content more successful. [Get the Guide »](  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: - Global Director of Content and Integrated Marketing, Avison Young – Chicago OR New York City OR Washington, D.C., OR Toronto - [Learn More]( - Content Strategist, Room 214 – Remote - [Learn More]( Interested in posting a job here? Please see our [CMI Careers page]( for more info.  More From CMI The February Issue of Chief Content Officer Magazine Is Now Available! Let's be honest. Strategic planning is always time consuming, usually challenging, and sometimes less than fun. And, given the events of the past two years, it can feel futile. Something always comes along to knock your plan off course. In the February issue of CCO Magazine, Robert Rose walks you through five steps for building a strategic planning process that will help you make better content decisions throughout the year, no matter what twists and turns arise. [Preview the issue and subscribe free for full access »](  ContentTECH Short Takes: CX Obsession “I thought we were listening to our customers…and then we got our customer satisfaction score and realized that we missed the mark somewhere.” Sound familiar? Watch this ContentTECH 2021 Short Take to learn how MasterCard overcame this challenge and started obsessing about customer experience. Then join us at ContentTECH 2022, March 22-24 in San Diego, for more strategies to transform the content experiences you deliver to customers. 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