Marketers claim to know what makes content successful.
However, most marketers are not implementing these strategies and are unsure of the reasons behind it.
Isn’t that surprising?
Opal and Forrester Research conducted a study on marketing operations.
TL;DR takeaway: Marketing operations are not aligned within companies.
Shocked? We weren’t either. Marketing operations, content workflow, planning, and execution are not well-understood.
So what should you do with this knowledge?
Watch CMI’s chief strategy advisor Robert Rose explain, or continue reading his thoughts:
Opal, a provider of marketing planning and creation software, and Forrester, an industry analyst and consulting firm, released a study (registration required) on marketing’s operational alignment, specifically related to content and collaboration.
The study presents key takeaways from interviews with over 500 marketers this summer. Only 1% of marketers believe their organization’s content planning is seamless. However, 89% recognize the importance of planning, creating, and calendaring for content success.
Marketers don’t understand the real reason for misalignment
What causes the gap between marketers knowing what needs to be done and actually doing it?
Well, 77% of marketers attribute organizational silos as the main obstacle to aligning on a strategy.
What’s the solution?
Consider this finding while being aware that it was presented by Opal. Eighty-seven percent of marketers believe their organizations need better hardware and software to achieve alignment – new collaborative technology featuring content planning, calendaring, visualization, omnichannel content publishing and distribution, AI capabilities, and customizable workflows.
TL;DR takeaway: Marketers require effective operations.
Robert agrees with the findings of the Opal-Forrester study. “If you ask marketers what they need, most will say they need new tools to help,” he says.
However, based on his experience with clients, Robert believes that no technology can solve the absence of a process. “Selecting a tool before understanding what you’re trying to scale and optimize is like my grandpa saying, ‘Selecting a brand of chainsaw to fix a flat tire,'” he explains.
To its credit, the research also reveals that 77% of marketers find it difficult to align on one content strategy due to too many subgroups within marketing.
Misalignment is not the right word
And when asked about their biggest challenge resulting from the lack of visibility between content planning and content execution, the number one response is that customer experience, marketing channels, and touchpoints cannot align in a cohesive strategy.
This is a problem. The renowned business thinker W. Edwards Deming once said, “If you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
But here’s the thing. He didn’t mean that individuals don’t know what they’re doing. He meant that institutions don’t know what they’re doing.
If you want to create customer experiences as an integrated strategy, you need to collaborate as a team or even multiple teams. So, having a process for planning, prioritizing, and strategically creating is crucial.
While Robert agrees with these observations, he disagrees with the research’s conclusion. “I believe it uses ‘alignment’ too casually,” he says. “Many businesses talk about needing alignment in their operations or being misaligned in their marketing.
“My response is, ‘Aligned or misaligned to what? What do you disagree on? What isn’t represented as a straight line?'” Robert explains.
He prefers the term “orchestration” over “alignment.”
A marketing team leader in a siloed organization can align perfectly with their counterpart in sales, demand gen, or even the C-suite. However, they may not agree on what content should be planned and prioritized. They are aligned on that disagreement.
But the better scenario involves orchestrating (or coordinating, designing, governing – whichever verb you prefer). If you don’t work together in a cohesive way, the music won’t work. With so many people contributing across a content planning and prioritization process, you must orchestrate it. To create great music – great content – you must define the parts to be played before anyone picks up an instrument.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
