I recently had two interesting conversations with marketing leaders. Both were about the same question: “Where do we start?”
One told me that she had planned a completely new content operation for her marketing department. She had gotten the green light from leadership, but everyone was so busy with other work that they weren’t sure how to proceed.
The second leader told me that they were rethinking a project plan that a large consulting firm had submitted. It seemed logical and straightforward when the company first recommended it. But now that it’s time to add people’s names to the project plan, everything seems overwhelming.
How did they do that?
Absorbing planned changes can be incredibly difficult. You know it makes more sense to fix your (figuratively speaking) leaky pipes, but it’s much easier to just keep watering the lawn – even if it costs more.
A common reaction is to look at how other content and marketing teams handle similar situations. But looking through someone else’s lens rarely produces impressive results.
I’ve noticed that people ask, “Can we do what they did?” They usually get one of these three answers:
1. If they did it, we certainly can.
This reaction is often accompanied by a hint of jealousy. It dismisses the person or team but applauds the card. I recently visited the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. While I stood in front of a painting by Roy Lichtenstein consisting of a Series of rectanglesI heard a man behind me say, “I could do that – I should be a millionaire.”
Could he have done it? Perhaps. But here’s the thing. He didn’t. Lichtenstein did it – and became famous for it. That’s the lesson. Assuming you can do what someone else did (and get the same results) is the surest path to failure.
That brings me to the second typical answer.
2. Give me the map to your content program and I will be just as successful.
I call this answer the template model. People look for prototypical case studies, templates, or “proven” best practices to follow. And they expect to achieve the same results.
I have rarely seen teams taking this approach achieve results that match or exceed the original template or case study. The map never exactly matches its destination.
Why? Because it doesn’t take into account your team’s unique skills (or lack thereof), goals, or context. I recently interviewed the person who designed one of the most successful content marketing projects of 2014. Today it is considered one of the cornerstones of content marketing strategy. But he told me there was no way he could repeat what they did 10 years ago. “It’s just a different time,” he said.
You must adapt each template or card to your circumstances.
That brings me to the third (and most useful) answer.
3. Does something like what I want to achieve already exist?
The most helpful answer is to look for guidance on projects that reflect the core of what you want to achieve.
You might find it helpful to look outside your industry and examine what made these efforts successful.
Looking beyond the familiar pushes you to interpret the idea through your creative lens. Rather than duplicating the exact form of the projects you examine, make sure they inspire innovation.
One of the executives I spoke with last week benefited from this approach as she reflected on the challenges of managing new people, creating new workflows, and producing new deliverables to support a new content strategy.
I advised her to look for current projects that involve a disruptive change in a company that is very different than where she works. She examined how a product designer implemented an internal design team for a financial services company.
The details were different, but the example inspired them to discover new approaches.
Why the first step isn’t the best
OK, so you’ve decided on the plan. That’s the first step. But how do you overcome the difficulties of getting started?
Do you know what tightrope walkers say is the most difficult step?
Most people think it’s the first step on the rope. But that’s not the case, says the tightrope walker who tells one of the short stories in the collection “Vigilantes of Love”:
“The hardest step was the first one. This is where you gained or lost your balance. That’s where it becomes a walk or a fall. After the second step, there is no turning back.”
It is crucial to take this first step so that we are sure about the essential thing we want to achieve. But it’s not the hardest thing. When implementing a new content project, the second step is the most difficult.
The second step is to commit to the vision. This is when you walk or fall. Then there is no going back. And when you are the leader, there is no one but yourself to attribute success or failure to.
This three-step process will help you prepare whenever you need to make significant changes to your content strategy:
Step 1: Make the map your own
Start with your vision of what the success of your new strategy will look like. Use the inspiration model you identified as an example. Then ask yourself, “What would have to be true to be successful?”
Write everything down. It sounds overwhelming, but you’ll be surprised at how calming it feels to create your visionary to-do list.
Explore the emotions you feel around the uncertainties surrounding it. List all the things that scare you or could go wrong. List the things that could be going well and that bring you joy. Recognize that you can’t control how these things make you feel, but you can control how you react to them.
Then of course plan and map. Review all the things that need to be true for the program to be successful, then identify any “stones” that might be standing in your way. Which ones need to be clarified first? Second?
You’ve just penetrated the plan your Vision. You are ready for the second step.
Step 2: Embark on the walk
The first step was a challenge. But the hardest part will be saying “yes” to the adventure you’ve designed.
Something happens in almost every client consulting assignment I’ve ever had. Once we finalize the approved business case and plan, I congratulate the client. Then comes a sigh and the inevitable words: “Yes, but now we have to do it.”
This is step two. Commit.
You commit to walking. They are embarking on this first significant initiative. You go all out. You don’t follow someone else’s template. You didn’t dismiss those who came before you because you felt they could do just as well or better. You developed your own recipe instead of trying to improve someone else’s.
The steps become easier
In the book I mentioned, the tightrope walker talks about more than just the first two steps. He says: “The third step is the beginning. It is the complete evolution of a new course.”
Completing that first initiative or tackling your first challenge is the beginning. Then you start to realize that things are working the way you imagined. It’s much more satisfying than looking at the next step in a templated map.
From there the book says: “The fourth step is an affirmation. And after the fifth step, it’s all there is to it.”
You’re on your way.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But this extremely challenging second step gives you the confidence to keep moving forward.
Updated from a March 2022 article.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute