A top-notch content strategy doesn’t only apply to what a business, brand or company is going to say. It is also able to shape and mould what they’ve stated before as well.
According to Dan Sullivan, acquiring new capabilities (part of the 4 C’s of marketing) is a must. He further stated that a new capability puts confidence ahead of it and rearranges everything behind it. Moreover, any jump in a capability automatically terraforms both the past and the future.
Such an idea about new capabilities giving content marketers new insights into the way they acquired their existing capabilities is really good. In honesty, he meant to explain that new perspectives can help us change the past. Meaning, that these perspectives help content marketers give the story of origins a reboot, and can modify other stories they tell.
For instance, there are marketers who have improved their abilities to take visionary yet complicated ideas and help individuals make them workable and pragmatic through worthwhile marketing plans. Those who have improved that capability have also improved their understanding of the past. As a result, they can reevaluate and rewrite the stories of what they’ve done so far.
Applying these new perspectives to the past is much easier than projecting the future. Research exhibits that people feel disassociated from who they believe they might become in the future. They might even disregard their existing capabilities when looking through the eyesight of their future selves. It is like the way everyone sees their future selves as other people.
One of the most productive things a content marketer can do for their brand is to review the content their brand. As they acquire new capabilities in content, they can advance the story and change their viewpoints. This way, they can naturally transform what their brand will say. They should also take the opportunity to change what they have already stated as well.
Does it sound like a suggestion for conducting a content audit? Well, it probably looks that way. Unfortunately, whenever a professional suggests conducting an audit in the content or marketing team, hardly anyone would step forward to do so.
Is it a bad thing to do? In all honesty, a content audit requires a manual review of a truckload of content and other relevant assets to look for content which is ROTted (meaning redundant, outdated or trivial).
Someone from the content team should decide which assets are worth keeping, which one needs amendments and which one should be removed. Concerns over factors like content replication, duplication, SEO, outdated branding and outdated designs can drive such decisions.
It may not be particularly inspiring, but reviewing past content with the aid of these newfound capabilities can make such a task a lot more interesting.
When reinvigorating the outdated white paper, content marketers can reimagine it knowing what they now know, thanks to their newfound capabilities. The amazing articles that were written once and were unable to gain traction can be given a new template, rewritten with new information and promoted with ease. Webinars can be deleted if they are outdated. In simple words, the insights they have changed the way they see the content they have made. Apart from reshaping the future, the past’s context can be changed too.
Experienced content marketers recall having the privilege of talking with exceptionally talented professionals who handle a wide array of tactics, aspects and strategies for various brands, especially a lady who manages investment tactics for consumer and entertainment media brands.
She had once shared something which the head of Marvel Studios told her about balancing stories of origins with the need to reboot popular hero characters. A key example is how the Spiderman origin story has been told, ranging from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield to Tom Holland.
Marvel Studios sees these new origin stories as a core factor in helping keep the story alive and relevant to new and various target audiences. At times, these audiences translate these new stories as playing to the cultural zeitgeist. Black Panther and Ms Marvel also come to mind.
However, Marvel’s team does not think of these stories that way or design them in that manner. Instead, the company considers rebooting origin stories as a way of co-creation with its fans. The company looks at them and solicits feedback, when possible, from their passionate audiences to understand how and when a reboot is needed, and that too in a timely manner.
The success of such is visible from the success of the Spiderman trilogy under Tom Holland.
Before content marketers attempt content audits, they must look toward their fans to help them understand how they can reshape their brand story. Next, they should think about who will co-create with them.
They should find their passionate fans. Who knows their mythology and journey? So that they would know when, how, and where a reboot would be much suited. They should look for the people who see the equivalent of that detail from their brand stories.
They should gather with them and listen to them. Though not everything requires action, they are still part of the brand’s stories, after all. Yet, these very fans can help companies reboot their stories at the right time.
In the past, content which was old would not be able to survive. The physical space needed to store it, and the time and effort needed to print them, shoot them, or remake them indicated that most old content was either destroyed or was no longer accessible.
Digital content has now changed all this. It is now possible to keep everything. At times it is more expensive to address it. This is the reason websites are bloated; blogs can go back decades, and repositories often remain disorganized. This does not necessarily mean it should be that way.
Content marketers are making artefacts of their future each day. They should treat them with a lot of respect. At the same time, they should also not forget to seize chances to reshape past stories.
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