Well hello Chatterbox, I mean conversationalist, I mean content marketer.

Do you consider yourself a content marketer? Because you are, kinda . . . even if you’re not a “Content Marketer.”

Many people think content marketing is a thing that happens in the marketing department. (I disagree. More on that below).

Maybe it’s because “Content Marketing” used to be someone's specific job. And the job description was pretty straightforward.

• Write some SEO optimized blog posts (but don’t hold your breath for traffic. That TAKES TIME!)
• Recycle your blog post into social posts, and share them from your company page on all the socials. Woohoo if you get a few Likes! (But don’t expect any inquiries from this, because this is just you signaling to the world that your company exists).
• Send a newsletter to your list and let them know about that awesome blog post you wrote 👆. Yippee if you got a few replies and a little more web traffic! (But ignore all of the unsubscribes. They are Philistines! They don’t ‘get it.’)
• If you were really ambitious, you’d do a white paper or two and stick them on your website (gated of course!). Woot, you can replace some of those unsubscribes with new subscribers. Whatever it takes to keep the subscriber trend line going UP!

I know. Because I've done all those things. For me. For clients. And truth be told, it used to work well enough.

These days though. Eesh (or híjole as I used to hear in my childhood). Now content marketing is more like the wild wild west. There’s just too damned much to do!

Now you need a team. Because you’re expected to . . . write articles, create videos, and shorts!, create case studies, and infographics (LinkedIn loves infographics this week), get your C-suite sharing thought leadership posts (oh, and the product crew too), launch a survey, create a research report, start a podcast, build a webinar, host an event, launch a user conference.

I’m breathless just thinking about it all. It’s almost impossible to do all this stuff. And if you’re expecting your marketing department (and your content team) to carry the entire load  . . .

You’re crazy, I say! Crazy!

Which brings me to my point.

Everyone is a content marketer!

That’s right. The CEO is a content marketer. And the CMO is a content marketer. And the CRO is a content marketer. But so is the CHRO, the CISO, the . . . well you get it.  All the O’s! And all the interns. And everyone in between.

Which means you, and you, and you too are a content marketer.

But, there’s a problem.

Not everyone knows what it means, much less how to do it, or worst of all . . . what to say. And that means that everyone is basically singing their tune, and making up the words along the way.

That’s not bueno for a company trying to be known for something.

(BTW, all my Spanish references are because I finally checked out Guelaguetza last night. The mole was great. The Ranchera band that was parked right in front of our table . . . well, my mom said if you can’t say something nice . . . They weren’t making up words along the way, but they were all singing while gazing into their iphones. I assume they were looking at the lyrics. So maybe they didn’t have a messaging problem as much as they had a singing in tune problem).

Anyway, the trouble with becoming known (aka building a brand) in the first place is that there’s an inherent tension when it comes to communicating about or on behalf of a company.

To become known for something, you basically have to say the same thing over and over and over again. But doing that is actually pretty hard when you have to communicate constantly. And it’s even harder if you segment your audience, have different service lines, etc. The logistics are mind-boggling.

Here’s what the Content Marketing Institute says we struggle with when it comes to content:

1. 57% of us struggle to create the right content for the right audience
2. 54% struggle to create content consistently
3. 54% struggle to differentiate our content
4. 44% struggle to create quality content
5. 34% struggle to create enough content

And all of this is complicated even further by team challenges, such as

1. 58% - lack of resources
2. 48% - trouble aligning content to the buyer’s journey
3. 45% - trouble aligning content across sales and marketing
4. 41% - trouble with workflow issues and content approvals processes

Bottom line, getting the message out is getting more and more complicated. I can see why my feed is filled with people looking to outsource their content. WHICH I HAPPEN TO THINK IS A TERRIBLE IDEA!

If you feel like you need to outsource your content it means (I think) at least three things:

1. You already know content is important. Which is good, because communication (which is what content is) is really the only way people know you exist, what you stand for, where you deserve to win, etc.
2. That you need to communicate more than you do currently. This is a content volume issue.
3. That your communications need to be more consistent in differentiating you from your competitors. This is a content quality issue.

Instead of hiring someone who will use AI to create generic messaging for you, what you really need is a playbook that simplifies creating content for the people you already have. You know, the team that already works for you!

Can you tell I’m an evangelist about this??

That’s why we designed a Messaging Workshop to kick off the process of building your own Actionable Messaging Playbook™. (Yep, we’re trademarking that thang.)

A messaging playbook enables everyone on your team to participate in communicating your value proposition, in everything they do . . . from marketing and advertising, to sales, to product development, to hiring, etc.

It’s the missing piece that activates your Mission/Vision/Values and your Brand Guidelines.

What’s kinda funny about this whole messaging playbook thing is that it was hiding in plain sight for us.

We’ve been building messaging playbooks for our clients so we can do the stuff we need to do for them for years now. We’d use them to build content, email sequences, landing pages, town halls, keynotes, investment decks, you name it.

Then one time, we had a client that just would not stick to the script! (So frustrating.)

In a moment of exasperation I showed him the playbook. And he was like, “Oh, why didn’t you share that with me in the first place?”

So we printed copies and sent them to him and his team. And he loved it. He shared it with his board. They loved it. He’d even say we needed to align things to the playbook as we moved on to other projects.

I’m telling you. I felt kinda stupid. I’d been selling the product, and what people really need is the process. Especially when it comes to communications.

Sure, if you’ve got a multi-billion dollar company you still need agencies, etc. for the product too. But the playbook cannot be fully outsourced. Build the playbook first, then give it to your agency, PR team, etc.

You must own and drive your message. Both internally and externally.

The playbooks have been so successful for us that I started writing a book about how to build your own. I’m writing it in public, on LinkedIn. Go find my LinkedIn Newsletter and you can see where it is so far. If you subscribe, each new chapter will be sent to your inbox.

And if you can’t wait for the book to be finished, or need an Actionable Messaging Playbook™ yesterday (or in este momento), then just hit reply and we’ll discuss. I’ll tell you everything you need to know to decide if it’s a good idea for you and your company (and I’m not shy about saying it’s not a good fit when it isn’t). [Disclaimer: I’ve got a handful of travel engagements over the next few months, so if this is urgent (and it should be unless you don’t have any of those problems I outlined) reach out ASAP to see if we can align our calendars].

As always, thanks for reading to the end! I appreciate you. Have thoughts to share? Just hit reply!

And if you don’t know what Ranchera is, here you go! (It ain’t mariachi music.) You’re welcome.

‍