Content marketing teams can easily become order takers if they are unable to push back on content requests. It can feel scary to say “no,” but it’s often necessary to protect your team resources and stay on course with your content strategy.
In this #ContentChat recap, Erika joins Amy Higgins (@AmyWHiggins), a strategic content marketing leader who specializes in B2B marketing, to discuss the power of saying “no” in content marketing and share real stories of how they’ve professionally rejected a content request—and what to do if you’re told to “just do it.”
Read through a few highlights from the conversation below, and listen to the full recording here.
Q1: Company executives and clients often have strong feelings about what the content marketing team should be doing. What are some common obstacles that content marketers face when trying to set expectations or push back on asks?
“That’s how we’ve always done it” thinking can hold your team back from improving your results.
A1: My least favorite obstacle that we face as content marketers is overcoming “that’s how we’ve always done it. #ContentChat
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) April 3, 2023
A1b: For example, the obstacle of how to overcome the dreaded BOM…meaning the Bill Of Materials. Just because product markers love a good launch BOM, doesn’t always mean our audience will as well #ContentChat
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) April 3, 2023
A1A: Agree with this. Also part of overcoming the objections is uncovering how much input the stakeholders really want in the project.
Hint: they aren’t always wanting to be as hands-off as they claim!#ContentChat
— Sweepsify 🎈 (@Sweepsify_) April 3, 2023
Amy says to fight off “big shiny object syndrome” by asking whether that big shiny object aligns with your business KPIs.
A1c: Big Shiny Object syndrome is an obstacle many marketers may face when setting expectations. Ask yourself first, will this big shiny object align to the biz KPIs? #ContentChat
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) April 3, 2023
Too often, individual teams try to use content to push product benefits and sales messages (which often don’t make for engaging content).
A1: People who don’t understand content marketing and just want to push product benefits and sales messages. #ContentChat
— Andi Robinson (@hijinxmarketing) April 3, 2023
And some companies deprive their content team of their necessary ability to execute against the content mission.
A1a: Some companies view content creators as being part of a virtual agency. And as such, they view those in the business as the clients—and expect to own the strategy. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketer | Writer (@SFerika) April 3, 2023
A1b: But the best content teams have a content mission and tilt that need to be reflected in their work. Otherwise, it’s just random acts of content. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketer | Writer (@SFerika) April 3, 2023