A
Note from Joe
Pulizzi
There
Is No Risk in
Planning
As
some of you
may know, my
personal goal
is to read at
least one
“non-business-related"
book per
month. A few
weeks ago, I
started The
Hit, by
David Baldacci
(it's good so
far... I'm
still
reading). As I
reached the
middle of the
book, I ran
across a few
passages that
seemed quite
relevant,
including this
one:
“Planning
something
never seems
risky. It’s in
the execution
where all the
risk comes.”
Let’s
make this
relevant to
content
marketing:
A
few weeks
back, I led a
workshop for a
group of
marketers who
worked for
manufacturing
companies.
They were all
creating
content in
some form or
another:
mostly blog
posts and
white papers,
though a few
were creating
e-books, and
one was
working on a
video series.
Yet,
none of them
had formally
developed a
strategy for
any of their
efforts. Each
of the
programs had
been designed
to generate
demand or
drive
conversions of
some kind...
mostly related
to sales
calls. It was
predictable,
sadly; I see
this happening
all the time.
So
let’s talk
about risk.
All these very
smart people
are risking so
much with
their
executions;
yet they all
skipped over
the part of
the process
where there's
no risk
involved
whatsoever:
creating a
plan. I see a
similar
pattern
happening with
stock market
investors:
After
receiving a
tip or reading
an article, an
investor will
roll the dice
and execute a
trade –
without the
hint of a plan
for doing so.
I
get it...
plans are
boring. All
the fun is in
execution. But
of course,
that's also
where all the
risk lies,
too.
So
how do we
mitigate that
risk? With a
sensible plan
that includes
a strong
business case
and a list of
achievable
goals.
Creating such
a plan means
starting with
one target
audience,
focusing on
one content
destination,
and using it
to build and
grow that
audience, over
time. That’s
how every (and
I mean every)
successful
media company
and content
marketing
example has
gotten
started.
We
know this...
yet no one is
doing it.
Instead, we
look for quick
solutions and
end up wasting
time on
content that
will make
little or no
impact on the
world.
If
you don’t have
a plan, create
one now. If
you do have
one, take the
time to review
it. There’s no
additional
risk involved
in taking a
little extra
time to plan.
On the other
hand,
execution
without a
proper plan to
support it can
cost you just
about
everything as
a marketer.
The good news
is it's an
easy error to
fix.
Good
luck!
Yours
in content,
Joe
Pulizzi
Founder
Content
Marketing
Institute
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