Process Before Goals in Content Marketing

by Andrew Schulkind

It might sound odd coming from someone in a metrics-driven field like digital marketing, but sometimes goals – like tracking KPIs and other metrics – can get in the way of real progress.

I’m not suggesting that you abandon metrics entirely, over even mostly. What I am suggesting is there’s great value in balancing the goals that go along with metrics with the processes that can help you reach those goals.

It’s not the metrics that are the problem, really. It’s the goals.

Think about being an investor in the stock market for a moment. Yes, we all want to know what the Dow did today. And some of us might even be on the phone to our brokers if things get dicey. But the saner among us – us being regular retail investors, not pros – do better by focusing on performance over the longer term and sticking to a process that keeps you pointed in the right direction.

What does this mean for content marketers? It means setting aside day-to-day tallying of your subscriber base or your web traffic. It means focusing on the things you need to do to reach the growth results you’re after. How many case studies do you need to create? How many webinars do you need to broadcast? How frequently do you need to speak at trade shows?

Answering these questions and focusing on doing the necessary work is the best way to arrive at reasonable and realistic goals. As you begin doing webinars, you may have a goal of winning one new project for every 50 webinar attendees you can attract. If it becomes apparent that you need to do one webinar a month to reach that goal, great. That’s reasonable. If you need to do a webinar every day, that’s probably more of a resource commitment than is likely to provide a positive ROI.

A focus on process keeps you focused on the big picture. It’s easy to think that one article that goes unpublished won’t really impact your bottom line. That’s almost certainly true. And yet, adopting the mindset that the details matter, that being thoughtful in defining your process, and understanding that results will only accrue over time, will make success much more likely to occur.

In sports, you’ll hear fans, coaches and players talk about “the will to win,” which is kind of silly when you think about it. I mean, who doesn’t want to win? What they’re really talking about is the will to do the work that will prepare you to win. You can want to win with every fiber in your being. But if you didn’t train properly and you’re not as fit as your opponent, you simply won’t be capable of performing your best.

That’s how content marketing works. You can want to hit your metrics, but if you aren’t focused on doing the work every single day, you’re not going to see the results you want.

So focus on creating the conditions under which lead generation can improve, under which revenue can grow, under which you can achieve your goals. Devise a plan to make those conditions consistent, and stick with it. Not unthinkingly – you should always be open to adjustments and improvements – but don’t flit from idea to idea if positive results aren’t immediate. Stay the course, stick to the plan, and trust that it will either work or provide you with insights to improve the plan.

Because without a plan, even if you do succeed, you won’t know why, and you won’t be able to repeat your success. True for marketing, true for life.

--- Strategy, Research & Planning ---

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