ACTION STEPS If the answer is yes, then the strategic value is in your ability to Content strategy = different activities that fit together evolve and coordinate all the activities to repeatedly create those valuable experiences. It is not the content itself or where you One of the first signs of trouble in any content marketing distribute it. The content team’s job is not to be good at content; approach is if the first question is, “How do we get more efficient their job is to enable the business to be good at content. at content?” Realizing this strategic value presents a to-do list: Getting to efficiency assumes there is a working, standard operation that is providing value. The goal is to change that ▶Businesses must increasingly stop organizing and scaling new process to remove the friction. But when there’s no repeatable marketing teams based on platforms, technologies, or inside- standard operation, focusing on efficiency means trying to looking-out views of the customer journey. The successful produce the same or more content with the same resources. business becomes skilled and integrated at operating and managing all manners of content-driven experiences. The format That rarely works out to be better for the business. and placement of those experiences on multiple channels will always be temporal. The more difficult task is to determine the different activities the business will undertake to create or augment the existing ▶Businesses must stop looking at content from a container-first processes, or which activities the business will undertake perspective – solely designed to support marketing tactics or differently. initiatives. Instead, businesses must identify content operations as a function supporting the fluid use of content to fuel better Your business’s content capabilities reflect its ability to customer experiences. communicate. And your ability to evolve the activities that impact communication is the only thing that creates any ▶Businesses will win with content marketing when they can competitive advantage. constantly reconfigure their activities and manage portfolios of content-driven experiences. When one experience is no The content you create will provide you with no sustainable longer advantageous to the business, they do not say, “That’s competitive advantage. But a strategic content operation just the way we’ve always done it.” Instead, they healthily might. disengage and dismantle these experiences. 45