Once more, with (new) feeling

Those who revisit the past can reinvent it. [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( WEEKLY NEWS 7.19.24 WEEKLY NEWS 7.19.24   FEATURED [Experts Reveal the Worst (and Best) Advice on Using Generative AI in Content Marketing]( By Ann Gynn To some, generative AI is the sun around which the content industry should revolve. To others, it’s a meteor heading for Earth that should be avoided. Over 20 experts share the worst advice they’ve heard and give better advice to follow. [Read more](  READ OR LISTEN TO MORE OF THE WEEK'S BEST STORIES: [How To Reboot Your Old Content (and Create Future Treasures)]( by Robert Rose The most ingenious content strategies reshape what you’ve said in the past — and give you new perspectives for the future. Yes, that means you need a content audit. But it should also bring you closer to your biggest fans. [How To Catch Audiences With Extraordinary Hooks]( by Dennis Shiao If you can’t capture your audience immediately, they won’t keep watching, listening, or reading. Learn how to develop strong hooks that transform the ordinary into extraordinary, and watch your audience grow. [The Best New Marketing Metric Since SEO Came Along]( by Content Marketing Institute Team Learn about the latest marketing metric to make headlines — share of model. It’s got nothing to do with runways or stocks. It’s got everything to do with generative AI’s large language models and your brand. [ICYMI: Fix Outdated Content To Boost Your SEO Results]( by Lee Li Feng Old, inaccurate, and irrelevant content can drag your site down in Google’s (and your audience’s) eyes. Invest the time to find those pieces, delete what doesn’t work, and update what could work again. You may just spin your content chaff into SEO gold.  A NOTE FROM ROBERT ROSE Once more, with (new) feeling Don’t you sometimes wish you could redo all that content created years ago? I go back to things I wrote half a dozen years ago and think, “Sheesh, that didn’t age well.” But that’s learning on the record, right? For brands, this problem is relatively new. Before the web and search, a cringy marketing campaign or problematic CEO-penned article could quickly fade away. Most people just evaluated what the brand said at a given moment. Our collective memory was short — and finding older content took much more effort than typing a few characters. However, you can create a content strategy that applies not only to what the brand says today and tomorrow but also reshapes what we’ve said in the past. “How’s that possible?” you ask. Here’s what I mean. In The 4 C’s Formula: Your Building Blocks of Growth, entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan talks about acquiring new capabilities (one of the titular 4 C’s). He writes that “a new capability creates confidence ahead of it, but it also rearranges everything behind it,” and any jump in capability “automatically transforms both the past and the future.” Said more simply: When you acquire some new capability — like the ability to do content marketing well — you feel more confident about developing new content marketing projects. But that new ability also lets you reinterpret your past because it shows how your capabilities developed. Your new perspectives let you — and other people — see your past in a better light. The great content you create tomorrow increases the value of the old content you put out yesterday. When I reread my cringy post from 2013, I see how forward-thinking some of the ideas were. I see the links I was trying to make — however poorly they’ve aged in a decade. The right content strategy lets you continually reboot (or retcon, as sci-fi geeks might say) your origin story and gives you more confidence about the future stories you’ll tell. One of the most productive things you can do is to review the content your brand leaves in its wake. As you acquire new content capabilities, advance your story, and change your points of view, you’ll naturally evolve what your brand will say. Take the opportunity to evolve what it’s already said, too. Does it sound like I’m suggesting you need a content audit? Well, you probably do. Whenever I suggest an audit to a content or marketing team, exactly zero people volunteer to take it on. “Yay, let’s do another content audit!” said no one ever. That’s understandable. A content audit requires a manual review of hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of assets to find [ROTted (redundant, outdated, or trivial) content](. Someone (or some team) must decide which assets to keep, which to change, and which to delete. Concerns over duplication, SEO, and old branding or outdated designs drive the decisions. Inspiring? Not particularly. But reviewing past content through the lens of your new capabilities can make this tedious task much more enjoyable. That outdated white paper? How might you reimagine it knowing what you know now? You might find a great metaphor you haven’t used in years. And it may be applicable today if you give it a more modern context. What about those amazing articles someone created years ago that were never promoted, so they never got traction? Why not reproduce them in your new template and promote them? That series of webinars you did with a partner that later became a competitor? Feel free to delete them all. One of the often-forgotten tenets of the whole magical thing called the world wide web is, “We can change it.” Yes, the internet never forgets, but it stops caring quickly. So, when you have ideas worth caring about, change them to suit the current context. I explain more in this week’s [Rose-Colored Glasses](. Have you successfully “retconned” past content? [I’d love to hear your (new) stories.](mailto:robert@contentadvisory.net?subject=reinventing%20the%20past&elqTrackId=E593C562C89D08CDF7EBFB4B4DB3BF91) Remember, it’s your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Would any of your colleagues or friends benefit from Robert's weekly updates? Please invite them to [subscribe]( here.  A WORD FROM ONE OF OUR SPONSORS [catch + release]( 5 Steps to High-Performance Campaigns With Visuals From the Internet Find out how to take visual content from the internet and use it in your digital marketing campaigns. Get the guide now. [Download the e-book »](  Master Performance Writing: Dive Into Our Free Video + Guide Elevate your marketing with AI-powered analytics and data-driven strategies. Learn to craft high-performing content across all channels. Unlock the secrets of Performance Writing to boost your marketing results today. [Get your free performance writing guide now »]( MORE FROM CMI [M2M]( Next Wednesday: The State of Marketing to Marketers 2024 Are you a B2B marketer targeting other marketers? Your audience’s ability to see through typical marketing tactics makes your work uniquely challenging. How do today’s marketers evaluate and choose the products and services that meet their needs? CMI conducted research to uncover these insights, and we’re excited to share the findings with you. Join us for our State of Marketing to Marketers webinar on Wednesday, July 24, at 2 p.m. ET, where we’ll explore best practices and insights on what truly works in today’s marketing landscape. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and improve your strategies for marketing to marketers. [Register for free »](  Next Thursday: How Marketing Leaders Become CEOs How can you evaluate your SEO like a CEO? Join us for a free webinar on Thursday, July 25, at 1 p.m. ET, where we’ll speak with Ryan Brock, chief solution officer at DemandJump, about how pillar-based marketing can transform your SEO approach, build your authority, and play a role in your go-to-market strategy. Sign up to watch live or on demand when you have time. [Register for free »](  Was this email forwarded to you? Please [subscribe here.]( To change your email preferences or unsubscribe, visit our [preference center.]( Copyright © 2024 Informa Connect, All rights reserved Content Marketing Institute, an Informa Connect brand 605 3rd Ave | New York | NY 10158 [Terms of Service]( | [Privacy Statement]( [informa tech]