Weekly Alert: What Is Your Most Expensive Opportunity?

Submit your best work in the CMAwards! [View Message](54648/ct0_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) in Browser / [Add Us](54648/ct1_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) to Safe Sender List [] 54648/ct2_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV [] [Forward to a Friend](54648/ct3_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) Weekly News 4.19.19 Connect with CMI 54648/ct4_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV 54648/ct5_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV 54648/ct6_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV 54648/ct7_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV [] Content + Tech: How to Create Better Audience Experiences [] 54648/ct8_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV Better is a simple word. But the path to better isn’t simple. At ContentTECH Summit, experts united to help content pros figure out the processes and technology to provide audiences with better experiences. Here’s how to get better. [Read more](54648/ct8_1/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV)by Stephanie Stahl [Editorial Process and Teams] Some more of this week's best stuff: - [Could A Study About 912 Million Blog Posts Be Wrong? We Put It to the Test](54648/ct9_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) by Kim Moutsos [Editorial Process and Teams] - [How to Create Content in a World With Bots](54648/ct10_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) by Clare McDermott [Content Creation] - [Make Your Blog More Attractive With These 12 Visuals](54648/ct11_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) by Robert Katai [Content Creation] - [How to Use the 4 Most Helpful Reports in Google Analytics](54648/ct12_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) by Michele Linn [Measurement and Reporting] [] [] A Note From Robert Rose 54648/ct13_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuVListen to the Weekly Wrap, presented by Mission.org When you choose one content marketing opportunity over another, what might it cost you? Robert Rose does the math and offers his thoughts on making wise decisions about where to invest your time and budget. Next, he provides some color commentary on [Publicis Group’s multi-billion dollar Epsilon acquisition](54648/ct14_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) and what the data grab it represents might mean for marketers. Speaking of data, Robert also explores an analysis of [the role research stats should play](54648/ct9_1/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) in setting best practices for your content. Get your 10 minute fix of the week’s big answers – along with some important follow-up questions to ask – [right here](54648/ct13_1/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) or subscribe below. [Subscribe on iTunes](54648/ct15_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) or [subscribe on Stitcher](54648/ct16_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) What Is Your Most Expensive Opportunity? Is your meter running? How much is reading this costing you? You could be sleeping, watching Game of Thrones, calling a friend, practicing piano, or spending time with your kids. But you chose to invest in this opportunity. First of all, thank you. I’m honored by your investment. When we have a finite resource (like time or money), we must figure out how to spend it in an optimal way. Taking advantage of one opportunity means we won’t have enough resources to pursue another. And that’s known as the “opportunity cost.” Economists will tell you that opportunity costs represent the benefit an investor or a business misses out on when choosing one option over another. A formula for it might look like this: opportunity cost = return on best foregone option – return on chosen option. Measuring opportunity cost is a tricky affair. In most cases there’s some future unknowable or undefinable benefit to be factored in. Will we enjoy it more? Will it help our career more? Some benefits are incalculable. And all are only fully clear in hindsight. We spend a huge amount of our lives as actuaries of opportunity cost. There are big choices. If I spend two years pursuing a master’s degree in business, I won’t have time to dedicate to becoming a world-class Ultimate Fighting Champion. There are also smaller choices: If I decide on pizza for lunch, I won’t get to have the poke bowl. Then, of course, some opportunities are chosen for us (or at least we rationalize them that way). In marketing and content teams, we’re often assigned opportunities based on someone else’s calculus of their costs – and with little or no regard to our own. The twenty hundredth article or white paper on why a disruption in our industry should be solved with our product or service represents a negligible opportunity cost for the sales or demand-gen team requesting it. For us, as with everything else in our finite opportunity budget, it can be the budget breaker. That one seemingly small thing means that any big opportunity we want to pursue just keeps being pushed further and further out. This is one reason why so many businesses have a blindness to their content strategy and why “content marketing” can feel so mushy when it comes to measurement. It’s difficult to define the opportunity cost in a big, expensive initiative, and so we continually try to find and preserve all of our opportunities. Never deciding seems safer than choosing wrong. Opportunities are neither valuable nor expensive until they’re chosen. Until we choose to pursue them, opportunities are simply options. So, we often make a hundred little expenditures, instead of 10 big ones. Over time this decision fails to move us forward. The curse of marketing is failing with our options wide open. To succeed with content, marketing leaders must both take control of and accept the responsibility for choosing (or declining) bigger opportunities with more risk. This acceptance will free us to invest in more profitable opportunities. Here’s the secret: It’s much easier to break big opportunities into smaller ones than it is to try to smash small opportunities together into something bigger and more meaningful. A wonderful quote by Francis Bacon says, “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” I find the most expensive opportunities are the ones we find, while the most profitable are the ones we choose. It’s your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute This article from Robert is available only in this newsletter for you, the newsletter subscriber. If you have friends that would see value in Robert's weekly updates, please have them [subscribe](54648/ct17_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV). [] [] Sponsored Content What Marketers Need to Know About Sponsoring Podcasts Mission.org creates custom podcasts and sponsorships for enterprises that drive results, leads, and ROI. Two of their podcasts were recently selected by Apple as “Best of 2018” and companies like Salesforce trust them to produce results. Their team has recently released an exclusive report on Enterprise Podcast Sponsorships and Advertising. [Download free report](54648/ct18_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) 54648/ct18_1/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV [] CMI Video 54648/ct19_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV You care about word of mouth for your business but you almost assuredly do not have an actual plan to create chatter. At CMWorld 2018, Jay Baer, the president of Convince & Convert, explains why it's important to have a strategy for creating killer content that sparks conversation and clones customers. [Watch a quick clip!](54648/ct19_1/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [] [] More From CMI The Content Marketing Awards are now accepting entries! Covering everything from strategy to execution, from design to analysis, there's a category for the epic content marketing that you did in 2018. Your boss and clients were thrilled, so show the rest of the world what you've done. It's great for personal professional growth, and great for new business to showcase your work. Review our 85 categories and find the best one for you! [Entries due 4/26](54648/ct20_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) 54648/ct20_1/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV [] [] Events [Content Marketing World](54648/ct21_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [ContentTECH Summit](54648/ct22_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [Master Classes](54648/ct23_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [Content Marketing Awards](54648/ct24_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [] Resources [Research](54648/ct25_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [White Paper/eBook Library](54648/ct26_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [Content VIPs](54648/ct27_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [CMI Business Directory](54648/ct28_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [] Education [Content Marketing University](54648/ct29_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [Chief Content Officer](54648/ct30_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [Webinars](54648/ct31_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [Career Center](54648/ct32_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [] Interested in advertising with CMI? [Learn more](54648/ct33_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV). [Manage your email preferences or unsubscribe.](54648/ct34_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) Copyright © 2019 UBM, All rights reserved CMI, a UBM Company 2 Penn Plaza, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10121, United States [Terms of Service](54648/ct35_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) | [Privacy Statement](54648/ct36_0/1?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV) [UBM] [Link](54648/q-1fe17/zout?sid=TV2%3Ap6y3RiiuV)