Avoid another chicken-and-egg argument

mlns='> Clear the content + campaign confusion [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( Weekly News 3.3.23 Connect With CMI  [5 Misunderstood Best Practices in Content Marketing]( Everybody loves a good best practice. But too many equate “best” with “infallible” or “in every circumstance.” Have you ever fallen into one of these five best practice traps in content marketing? [Read more]( By Ann Gynn More of the week's best stuff: - [CMI News: The FTC Focuses on Claims of AI]( by Robert Rose - [6 Steps To Help Content Marketers Thrive in a World With AI Content Tools]( Travis Taborek - [Start With Content To Deliver a Successful Integrated Marketing Strategy [Rose-Colored Glasses]]( by Robert Rose - [ICYMI: How To Help the Perfectionist on Your Content Team, Even If It's You]( by Tyler Tafelsky  Avoid another chicken-and-egg argument Are your content and marketing integrated? No one can deny content marketing is an increasingly important part of marketing. Content teams routinely take more and more responsibility. You take on thought leadership and the many assets necessary to support marketing and communications. But what doesn’t come along as quickly is the integration to make a more strategic approach. In our consulting work, I see increasing confusion across marketing teams (well, it may have been there all the time, but awareness is on the rise now). They wonder what should come first, the content or the campaign. In other words, when defining a campaign, do you build the promotion around the content assets to be created? Or do you design the promotion and then assemble a bill of content assets to support it? Wait a minute. Does it matter which comes first? It does, actually, but I’ll come back to that. The more pressing challenge arises from a fundamental lack of process or definition about campaigns and content – how they are used and whether content leads or follows the strategy. Put simply: No integrated marketing communication exists. We work with an enterprise consulting firm where the content team struggles to keep up with the work, and measurement is almost impossible to gauge. The product managers for the various services design multichannel promotional marketing campaigns that need content assets. The challenge comes when product managers change the campaign plans – submitted at the beginning of the fiscal year – four or five times in the months before the launch. Even if the content team knew (and they don’t) on Jan. 1 all the content assets required for the year, they can’t create them until they are needed because they know the requirements will change, and much of any early efforts would be wasted. Likewise, outside of those product promotional campaign contributions, the content team builds strategic thought leadership, such as e-books, white papers, and webinars. They work (or attempt to) with other teams to design thought leadership campaigns that give these assets proper distribution and promotion. While these campaigns change less because they only focus on one asset, they are often siloed or launched in a way that conflicts with another major promotion. Therefore, these thought leadership pieces don’t get nearly the traction or share of attention that the content team wants. The result: The organization sees high-quality (and expensive) e-books and white papers as distractions from product marketing campaigns. It just doesn’t see the return. And the content team often rushes through the assets to support the product team’s marketing campaigns based on thinking, “what can we do in time to meet the deadline” vs. “what should be done.” As a result, product marketing campaigns often are of lower quality but get a lot of promotion. Nobody is happy. In [Rose-Colored Glasses]( this week, I explain why marketers need to integrate their content and campaign planning process so it can begin at one shared point, rather than in service to one team or the other. Doing so can give both teams greater agility and help unify your brand’s storytelling. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this approach. [Send me an email](mailto:cmi_info@informa.com) or [post a comment]( on the article. In the meantime, remember: It's your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Do you have colleagues or friends who would benefit from Robert's weekly updates? If so, please invite them to [subscribe]( here.   More From CMI Deadline Approaching: Lead the Conversation at Content Marketing World Calling all content marketing thought leaders, brand practitioners, and creative storytellers! There’s still time to showcase your expertise on a global stage and inspire your peers at Content Marketing World 2023, September 26-29 in an all-new location of Washington, D.C. We want to hear your unique insights and practical advice that will arm attendees with the latest tools and innovations to advance their content marketing and grow their business. [Submit your proposal by March 19 »](  AI: Exciting or Overwhelming? Does all of this talk about the future of AI have your head spinning – or have you explored the tools that can help you right now? In this week’s edition of our Ask the #CMWorld Community livestream, Amanda discussed a variety of available AI tools with Mike Kaput, the chief content officer at Marketing AI Institute. They talked about what the threat of AI is and isn’t, how the future of marketing will work with AI, and the three tools that will change your work for the better. 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